Fantasista Doll Episode 4
What They Say:
Although she does not remember him well, Shimeji knows her previous master was kind and sweet, but for some reason she was abandoned by him. Uzume brings Shimeji out on the town to cheer her up after noticing she’s kind of down.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having expanded the cast a touch and drawn in others for Uzume to be friends with that know about the dolls, the cards and the fighting going on, there’s at least a little more social aspect for the show that works. If it had stuck to just Uzume and the various dolls she gets to spend time with, it’d be a pretty grim series overall since so many of them have mediocre at best personalities. And as we’ve seen, they’re not all exactly friendly types with Uzume either as they have their issues. Of course, having multiple people with cards that can interact with each other just ups the ante in how many people are running around and that gets to be a bit draining right from the start, which made last episode a bit of a chore to get through since there were just so many people moving through the story.
And frankly, a lot of the girls are pretty bratty, as we see at the start here where they’re just insistent about the way that snacks are a necessity and demand them as their due. That’s been a sticking point since early on as we’ve gotten to know the girls and it just grows over the first half of the episode here, with a slight detour for Shimeji to get her bath materials that involves a flashback to a previous master. What we get for a lot of this though is that these girls are all very pushy and taking advantage of Uzume with what they feel is due, and though I have hopes that things will ease off some as it progresses, a lot of what they do here just makes them – and the show – unlikable.
The episode takes a strong focus on Shimeji as she spends some time with Uzume, but there’s also a position made clear by her that having been tossed away by a master before, she’s not wanting to go down that path again and that explains some of her attitude. Which naturally gives both Shimeji and Uzume a chance to prove their worthiness to each other, and to make some stronger bonds among all of them. That all happens amid an attack by the current male enemy that’s going after them with his own set of cards and dolls, which has its own bit of fanaticism about it. There are some decent moments that come up with the fight, but the big reinforcement here to try and change things that have been building up with the issues is that friendship matters most, and being kind to each other. It’s not a bad message by any stretch, but it’s just so forced and amateurish here that it leaves you shaking your head.
In Summary:
Fantasista Doll is proving to be a rather frustrating show in some ways because of what it’s doing and the approach of it. With four episodes done so far, we’re only just now starting to get to a point where I’m finding some of the characters a bit more palatable. Mostly, they’ve been simplistic pieces moving around like Uzume who just don’t know or understand how to handle the situation or the various dolls with chips on their shoulders and serious attitude that are taking advantage of things based on past history that’s been lightly alluded to. The result is a group of characters that walks all over the lead who is just trying to be nice while grappling with something she got thrown into without truly understanding it. And sadly, the events haven’t been all that interesting so far either. Considering some of the talents involved, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop where this suddenly becomes interesting, but I’m starting to suspect that won’t happen.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.