I guess the lesson of the moment is that using public domain music doesn’t get you sued, and dead musicians don’t flame you on social media. Sadly it’s been a crazy week for Dandadan, as what should have been a triumphal march off Episode 6’s musical epic into another today instead devolved into controversy and ugliness. Beethoven isn’t going to be protesting this week’s episode, at least. Unfortunately X Japan founder Yoshiki dragged last week’s into the mire, and in the process got himself muddied worst of all.
If you’re not following, Yoshiki’s full name is Hayashi Yoshiki – though he hasn’t used it since he became a professional musician. Dandafans loved “Hayashi’s” performance of “Hunting Soul”. If you saw it as a loving homage to X Japan and visual kei you’re not alone – I certainly did. Unfortunately Yoshiki took to twitter to vent his spleen, talking of suing and generally dissing the anime staff for ripping him off. Part of the problem, it seems, is that he saw the choice of “Hayashi” as the band name as a nod to him (correctly I think), and he dislikes the name because he associates it with a family tragedy involving his father. I don’t think anyone can blame him for that.
I think Yoshiki was rather taken aback by the overwhelmingly negative response his carping received – as witness his shift into defensive mode. He tried to justify his criticisms and eventually started walking them back but the damage was done. And you know he’s aware he fucked up because he ended up deleting all his tweets on the matter (which unfortunately for him doesn’t make them disappear). Eventually the studio was forced to issue an apology to Yoshiki, which is ridiculous in my view and if anything turned public opinion even harder against the musician. It’s a shame an honest attempt to honor an artist has been turned into a needless controversy, but I think Yoshiki has taken a lot more damage then Dandadan. And while I don’t entirely blame him for the kerfuffle (they could have talked to him first), that’s as it should be.
I hate to spend three paragraphs on that nonsense when we have another killer ep to discuss, but it’s a pretty big deal at the moment. I will note that the studio didn’t remove the callbacks to “Hunting Soul” (including snippets of the original animated performance) from this episode (it would have been nigh impossible to do so and still have the narrative work). As we left off last week, things were just starting to get crazy in the music room. And make no mistake, Turbobaba knew exactly what she was doing here. It was like tossing her babies into the pool to force them to swim.
The truth is, this was one of those episodes that doesn’t lend itself to all that much analysis anyway. It was mostly just another killer action sequence, continuing a truly impressive run for a studio with a very checkered track-record (including on this show). Science SARU is pulling out all the stops in the big moments, and these were some big moments. And public domain or no, it’s hard to trump Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as a backdrop for some GAR sakuga-driven fight scenes. Watch out for those rests…
Turbo Granny is a phenomenal character, no question about it. But she’s been a bit underutilized in this extended arc, so it was nice to see her really grab the spotlight. We haven’t seen much of Aira and Acrobatic Silky either, and even if they weren’t part of Granny’s plans she wasn’t going to spare them from the lessons. It’s all about rhythm, she tells Turd Nugget – who unfortunately doesn’t know doodlesquat about music. He can’t even think of a song when challenged by Turbobaba in fact – that is, until a certain head-banger pops into his… head. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I don’t need to expound on the whole 18-minute fight sequence – it was tremendous. It builds to Okarun putting Granny’s lesson to use in finally taking out the composers (all it takes is one tinkle on the keyboard at 2 A.M. to bring them back though). Back home, Manjiro has taken the bit in his teeth and called in Hayashi again, and declares that the time for exorcism has come. He’s overstepping but Seiko clearly feels she has no grounds on which to dispute his assertions. But the newly emboldened Turbo Ken has other ideas – he arrives home and declares that he’s going to kick Evil Eye’s ass.
Whether it’s really badass – or just foolhardy – for the gang to go to such lengths for E.E. is debatable. But it promises to be another hell of a fight. And that’s not all we have to look forward to next episode either, as another iconic character is set to make their debut. Hopefully that’s all we’ll have to talk about next week, with none of the extracurricular stuff intruding on what should be a celebration of Dandadan’s truly excellent season so far.
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