Passion and dedication are certainly expressed on an individual scale quite often, but these days it can be hard to see that manifest with a larger scope. While No Longer Allowed In Another World episode 7 is not incredibly different from prior episodes in terms of quality, the expression of passion with the episode (evidenced by the lack of opening or ending visuals) is quite plain to see. A lot of effort has been placed in making Tama’s story a successful one, and one that they’ve spent a great deal more on than I had originally expected. It’s played out quite well, looks surprisingly good, and hides more than just a few secrets that I’d love to talk about some more.
One of the most interesting bits here is how… effectively Pontdarc is managing their staff. Yes, Shigeki Kawai does appear as a storyboarder on this episode, but more interesting is Kenichi Kawamura making another appearance. Having Sensei’s powers coincide with Kawamura’s episodes, as well as combat being Iwahata’s territory is surprisingly interesting to see from a studio like this, but overall an undeniably great idea. Not only does stylistic consistency remain, it really just speaks to “right person, right job” from a creative perspective. One interesting piece though is that you can very much tell which shots are Kawamura’s- namely any with strong perspective, or the close ups on characters like Kaibara. It’s a very strong style that feels well placed against the backdrop of a dramatic story.
Similarly, it feels important to (again) give credit to the outstanding work done with character models in the episode. in the credits for No Longer Allowed In Another World episode 7, there’s only about 20-something individual credits provided. Of course, the episode really doesn’t try very hard to move, but just with the quality of the models alone, it feels like a reasonably impressive feat for the studio- especially when you consider the volume of cuts that each individual would handle in an episode like this.
Additionally there’s continual great work from staff like color designer Izumi Sakamoto and director of photography Gaku Hirooka, but I feel the need to talk about the music in this episode as I really haven’t addressed it elsewhere yet. It’s really quite good? Not that it’s all that massive of a surprise necessarily, but once again the level of effort feels truly commendable. The tracks during combat were especially outstanding, leaning heavily on its orchestra to provide an emotional track that’s able to mesh wonderfully with the moments that it covers. A subtle track building into a crescendo, an explosion of rage or drama, or the moment that everything changes- in a silly word, it’s epic. It plays great against Sensei’s musical style and strongly establishes the moment as Tama’s.
Making an incredibly fluid and not at all forced transition, No Longer Allowed In Another World episode 7 is an impressively well-rounded experience; alongside the quality of all the visual execution, its narrative finds room to grow and explore itself here as well (though mostly in the way of Sensei’s power). So, let’s lay out a few rules for Sensei’s power. Primarily, Sensei needs to have an interest in a character to write their story. Secondly, the story must be a tragedy that Sensei rectifies. And speaking vaguely, the third requirement is it needs to be executed in a place of value to that story. Tama’s story only happens at the castle, Suzuki’s at the church that he was summoned to, and so on and so forth. If you extend that logic, you could say that Sensei couldn’t have returned Kaibara to his world, but it’s a moot point considering that Sensei held no interest in them in the first place.
The more interesting example is with Waldelia’s appearance. Despite Sensei’s desire to write about her story, he is unable to because he’s 1) not in a place of significance to Waldelia, and 2) lacks enough information to create a story that can change the course of her life. While it’s not necessarily the end goal of the work, it puts into perspective the importance of Sensei “fixing” things from his own personal perspective, rather than from the idea of a greater good. Considering how much those two pieces overlap, it feels like an important message to effectively convey (which it does). Oh, and there’s also the point about things such as the Divine Beast Seal, but much of that is left hanging in the air currently as things that are purely interesting.
Either way, every Tuesday I feel like I say much of the same- I am surprised with how good Atelier Pontdarc is managing this series. Though No Longer Allowed In Another World episode 7 isn’t entirely different from its predecessors, it expresses more than enough versatility and freedom to explain that Kawai and the studio have a considerable degree of passion and dedication to this work. It lets this modest parody of a series find a proper emotional and narrative thread and really express itself to a group of people that might not have given the manga a chance previously, and isn’t that the purpose of an adaptation?
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