I didn’t think the projection scene would turn out even half as good as it did, but I’ll be damned that was absolutely breathtaking.
Now that I’ve collected my thoughts, I’d like to just illustrate some of the ways this particular episode masterfully uses the visual medium to the fullest extent to deliver the narrative in an expressive way.
A few observations I wanted to gush over;
In the kinetic novel, we as readers experienced Yumemi’s projection through the eyes of the Junker, in a somewhat “self-insert” fashion. In that we read a bunch of expository dialogue and as readers were encouraged heavily to use our own imagination to build up our own interpretation of “Mankind Spreading It’s Wings” as Yumemi spoke to us as readers
However anime is all about narratives delivered through visual story telling. The projection in and of itself is much shorter in this episode in favour of expressive imagery. Not only this, but we’re not strictly interpreting the projection from having putting ourselves in the Junker’s shoes, instead we’re seeing the projection as he see’s it, a character, through the character’s imagination, not ours. (strictly speaking at least)
For example;
Yumemi speaks of cavemen and their discovery of the night sky, but since we’re watching as if this were all in the Junker’s interpretation, he sees himself waking up in a cave and escaping to discover the night sky. This is a brilliant parallel of his own character having infiltrated the town and discovering the planetarium itself to discover the “stars”. We know this it’s been years since he has seen the night sky because of the Rain and how the image of stars appears alien to him. This was wonderfully foreshadowed in episode 1
He wipes the surface of the dust covered snow globe to uncover the image of the night sky, to which he looks briefly bemused before stepping on a cup by his foot.
The importance of all this delivers stellar characterisation, as well as the strong narrative purpose. This hopeful notion of how humanity seemingly has this innate desire to reach towards the stars. The night sky appears to be a symbol of both humanity’s legacy and a silver lining of hope, despite the reality of the setting being one which represents loss, in more ways than one.
“When you are lost in the dark and can no longer see the stars in the sky. Please remember what you have seen here today. This… is my little reverie.”
Simply. Amazing.