Super Chuuni Robot and psychological trauma.
We start off this episode getting something of the explanation for Atri’s return. The sketchy lady from episode 1 ditched her in order to make a motorcycle jump and escape a pack of debt collectors. I somehow suspect this will be something of an “Exit, pursued by a bear” scenario. In any case, Atri felt her “go with the lady” order was complete, and thus returned home.
Part of that is it gives our lead a reason to not to sell Atri off right away. While his friend does say he’s probably sweet on the little robot, she makes enough of a nuisance of herself (jumping him into the water, messing up her general environs, and even starting a small fire on his boat/home in her attempt to cook) that his threats to get rid of her don’t sound totally hollow… but since the deal was to split the funds, he can’t exactly sell without his partner in not-exactly-crime.
There is also one scene early on, when Atri returns home from a day learning things with the childhood friend character. She comes in late at night, when our lead is having a nighmare, and he acts very clingy and childish after she wakes him up from that horrible experience. Of course, when morning rolls around, he’s mortified by embarrassment, which becomes something of a fight when Atri seems intent to lord his behavior over him, or at least bring it up when being asked to not bring it up.
We also learn why, aside from the day-to-day practicality that a highly physically capable (if klutzy) robot girl could really help with, our main is fixated on getting a new prosthetic. It turns out he actually had a very bright future, getting into a nebulous academy and even being lined up for a space launch, dreaming of saving the sinking world… but his disability barred him from going to space and the mission was and is indefinitely postponed, sapping his motivation for anything in the world.
I don’t know if there were fewer flagrantly bizarre shots this episode, or if I’ve just gotten used to the cinematography picking curious angles from time to time, but either way I think I failed to mention last week that this show is rather beautiful. It’s desolate, but I’ll save the subgenre talk for a point where I have less to say.
Rather, there’s one point where Atri and her master are headed home after he actually took her to school (much to childhood friend’s happiness). It’s late, sunset really, and they’re talking about the decline of the local town. Our lead points out the windmills, now mostly submerged and unable to provide power, overgrown white on a field of blue… and Atri comments that she finds it beautiful. And the art supports this, seeing the sunset colors and the oddly appealing overgrowth, it’s both conventionally pretty and curiously charming.
And I know this writeup has been less linear than most that I do, but when you talk in terms of stuff happening, this episode is not much: Atri comes home, they talk, she talks with the childhood friend, she comes home again and we do the nightmare scene, she makes a nuisance of herself in the morning, She and the lead and the childhood friend all talk, She goes scavenging with the lead and they talk, then they talk some more. It’s important, but more in terms of the emotional palette than in terms of literal actions or order of operations, like the lead showing his soft side when he asks Atri to leave chips behind while the pick through a ruined supermarket, with the reason that there will be kids who come through and they’d miss having a treat like that. The one really important fact we learn is the lead’s motivation. From an unspoiled perspective, that seems to be it.
And this isn’t a bad thing. I can appreciate slower shows. The various talks are at least engaging, and Atri is so far a fun character since you know she means well even if she is a high-strung and overly energetic brat. There’s a child-like innocence to her, but also a child-like myopia.
So, for now, let it best be known that Atri (the show) appears to be a bright and colorful portrait of melancholy and dreams deferred or denied. We’ll see how that evolves.