Farewell, Atri.
So this final episode is about what you’d expect. Though they leave to take advantage of Atri having three days left, it ultimately turns into a happy-sad going away party as Atri decides that, for her own sake, she wants to fulfill her purpose.
Thus, with many tears, Atri is rendered into the administrator of Eden, which restores power to the whole of the island, lighting it up and in the process saving Natsuki from his despair one last time with a little message.
Then, we finish with a 70-year time skip. In that time, more than 100 copies of the Eden system have been booted up, seemingly saving the world. Everybody has grandkids (the show declines to answer with whom) and Humanoids have become accepted members of society with rights and status like unto that of humans, this thanks in large part to Natsuki’s own work.
After 70 years, though, the very first Eden has reached the end of its life cycle and is being retired. It’s powered down, at which point we reveal our final little moment: Natsuki, unable to rescue Atri from the pod, has instead arranged for her consciousness to be transferred to a digital realm for what time she has left, interacting with him and whatever else she can dream of for a lingering final day. And the first thing she wants to do is visit Natsuki’s mom (presumably, her digital ghost) on the hill that was so important to the people in the show. The (bittersweet) end.
So, if you’ll pardon the quick recap of the final episode, it’s time to really break down the show.
Atri treads in material that’s certainly been addressed before. I’ve approached these sorts of ideas on the blog in shows from Beatless, to Gene of AI, to Metallic Rouge. And why not? It’s an interesting topic. And I’m sure there are more anime offerings that will allow me to comment on these same sorts of themes again in the future. The question is what makes Atri unique?
Well, for one, I feel like Atri is meant to be a much more intimate experience – for better or worse. In Beatless, though Lacia is the primary subject of questions regarding the nature of AI, we are somewhat more concerned about the generic, and the implications for the world. In Atri, anything about the world takes a back seat – hence why it can be glossed over in a brief glimpse of a post-time-skip world. We aren’t really concerned about whether or not robots can have feelings except where the answer to that question is implied by the answer to the question of whether or not Atri can have authentic feelings, and what those feelings are.
Similarly, we’re concerned about fixing up a small town, and even really focused on a school therein with about half a dozen students, even though there is sort of a “save or destroy the world” thing going on with the sea level rise and steady-seeming collapse of society that Edens are able to fix.
This carries through to the writing being more about effective characters that reach the audience on an emotional level, rather than a coherent plot that the audience engages with on an intellectual level. Most of Atri’s “competitors” want you to think, while Atri wants you to feel.
In that way, Atri can come off as somewhat manipulative. It’s not as though you don’t feel with Beatless or Gene of AI so there are a few moments where Atri demanding a response feels a little out of place. However, to the show’s credit, it’s all done in a fairly natural manner, so any disruption is rare and mild. I’m normally pretty sensitive to deliberate manipulation – in that I’ll call a show on it and reject it – so the fact that any amount of that in Atri is excusable in my book should mean something.
To an extent, understanding that focus also makes me feel a little bad for calling out the science in previous episode write-ups. Because, again, that’s not what matters. It’s a vehicle to explore the relationships between Natsuki and Atri and between Atri and the world.
The flip side would be that with a premise like that of Atri… I want to think. Atri isn’t quite going to scratch the itch that its pitch-similarity to a bunch of other intellectual science fiction pieces seems to promise to scratch. When you get down to it, it’s mostly just a reskin of the “main girl (secretly) has a terminal disease so here’s her touching everybody’s lives before she goes” pattern. Which I’m just now realizing is oddly specific as a pattern, but that’s media isn’t it? Point being, by not engaging with the broader scope, Atri defines itself in a way that’s a little skew to the answer to the question “why would I want to watch this show in particular?”
That said, I do think Atri is, on the whole, a quite good show. The animation is gorgeous, the characters are solid, the story serves all its needs. I’m not sure it could have become stronger without losing something in exchange, so credit for hitting its ceiling even if that’s not the absolute highest ceiling of anything in its subgenres. My final grade would be a B+.