MAO

Episode 13

Is there a word for that thing, where the previous episode ends on something of a cliffhanger, and the next episode picks up well after it's already happened? And then, we only learn what happened if our protagonist has a flashback of it? Whatever you want to call that, I hate it. It's annoying in the best of times, and kills the momentum in the worst. And this was one of those times where it absolutely killed the momentum.

Of course, there's a pretty big asterisk by the word momentum. As I said last week, up until the end of the episode, it was a pretty slow episode—moreover, it was a mostly slow episode coming off what's become something of a string of slower episodes. Takahashi makes a point of making sure all her series start off really fast-paced, and this one stayed in that zone longer than most, but at this point, I think it's safe to say it's back to the slower pacing that a lot of us (myself certainly included) tend to associate with her series. We barely heard Shiranui's name at all in this episode—which is baffling to believe, considering last week's episode and the current goings-on in the series. If I'm being honest, I think is a massive shame. I thought we were in for something that was going to maintain this faster pacing for the whole series, and I was curious how that would be—and certainly at a glimpse it seemed exciting. But, alas.

To recap: At the end of last week's episode, Nanoka has an encounter with the Byoki in her world. Then, this week's episode picks up with her already well past it, and we learn in flashback that the Byoki tells her it has no intention of harming her, and that Mao will need him eventually. Later in the episode, the Byoki also tells her that she can simply call on him, and he will appear. I guess the first question I have is how that first encounter they had ended? Did the Byoki just walk away, rather than finishing its thought (that he later came by to say)? Even if it doesn't mean to physically harm her, that's still kind of a weird way to leave things. The whole interaction ends up coming off as forced drama because of that wonkiness. And to emphasize: This is an interaction between one of our protagonists, and another character who's been framed as this big bad villain. Under no circumstances should this clash feel like forced drama, and yet against all odds, here we are anyways.

And like I already mentioned, the momentum has died with this whole thing. Last week ended on a pretty exciting note, but after seeing how things played out, it's only made me feel distrustful toward any other ending cliffhangers. I wouldn't say this episode, for example, ended on a cliffhanger per se, but it did end on the interesting note of Nanoka thinking to herself that she forgot to tell Mao about her second encounter with the Byoki. Normally, this might be a more promising way to end the episode, but after the one-two-punch of these last two episodes, now all I can think to myself is, “How much do I want to bet that next week's episode is going to wriggle its way out of doing anything substantial with this, too?”

In case you haven't picked up on it, I didn't exactly care for this week's episode. Up until now I've been willing to look past some of the cracks on the wall (literally and figuratively) for this series because it at least had a cool mystery going on in the background. But this is the first week I think its flaws have superseded that aspect of it. I say that not just because it really is that annoying as a story-telling method, but also, because it muddies the water on whether or not we can trust Takahashi to give us some meaningful payoff to the mystery. Granted, this is Takahashi we're talking about: I'm sure we'll get something eventually. But the key word is eventually. I'm starting to worry we're going to have even more slower episodes yet, before we get any kind of update with regards to what happened between the Byoki, Mao, Sana, etc.

Rating:

MAO is currently streaming on Hulu.