Written by edsamac
Judge. I have no idea what's going on in this show. I am utterly confused.
Tes. You have all the right to be confused. Just sit back and enjoy.
If you're still as lost as I am after watching the
first five episodes of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, then don't worry - it's not just you. The series shows no mercy into shuttling the viewer into its eclectic world of historical altercations that it leaves you wondering what in the world is REALLY going on. And perhaps this is the very charm of the series, in itself.
For starters,
Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere focuses on a future world where Man has risen to greatness, akin to the Gods. Due to war and dispute, however, Mankind ended up losing much of its greatness, and was forced to return back to their Earth -
an Earth that had grown hostile and close to uninhabitable. In order to regain their greatness, they began to recreate their history by following
a historical source known as the Testament. At one point, the world was split into two parallel worlds to mimic the period in Japanese history called the Nanboku-Chou period, otherwise known as the period of the North and South Imperial Courts. Due to some "mistakes" in their re-enactment of history, the two worlds came crashing down upon one another, and the result was a world where different parts of these two worlds were scattered amongst one another, leading to exploitation by neighboring feudal lords. This marked the beginning of the
Warring States Period (Sengoku), and is the current plot setting of the show.
A couple things were rather interesting, at this point. In Horizon,
what appears to be the "northern court" (The harmonic state) was the world that came crashing down and eventually got almost totally destroyed - but in history, it was this same court that represented the militaristic Ashikaga shogunate, which eventually dominated the southern court and succeeding in pushing the country into what would eventually be regarded as the Tokugawa Era. Strangely enough, a character named
Matsudaira Motonobu, who probably represents a monikered version of Matsudaira Motoyasu (otherwise known as Tokugawa Ieyasu) does the complete OPPOSITE of what history would say he would do… He sacrifices himself for the sake of some "apocalypse", to which the characters are "forced" to enact.
Yes, I'm thoroughly confused.
If the show is trying to get cookie points for trying to bend history as we know it, then it's doing so in spades. Perhaps these "mistakes" are the very point to which the story's plot is trying to emphasize - but dwelling on these plot specifics tends to cumbersome to be of any worth.
Where the show DOES prove promising is in its showcase of action. The first episode is full of it - and does so throwing out all the anime stereotypes you can imagine. You name it: pettanko, oppai, megane-musume, tsundere, ojou-sama, mecha-musume, heterochromia… there are just too many to count. And this is the first episode we're talking about. In addition, the sheer number of characters is beyond nauseating - it's downright insane. It almost pains me to think of the amount of character development needed in order to make sense in such an obscene number.
But as to who the main character is, and whatever role they're supposed to play, I'm still not sure. It's easy to point out
Aoi Toori as the main protagonist, but he plays a good-for-nothing, dense, eroge-maniac hero, who turns out to be more enigmatic than he's worth. Then there's the fact that these characters are structured in such a way that they make a "student council" of sorts, but each has its own "militaristic" ranking or something like that - I won't even bother trying to explain it because I'm just plain confused as to the point of it all.
So what IS the point of this show, really? Is it supposed to be a modern iteration of history with a creative license that is biting off way more than it's supposed to chew? I don't know, really…
But one thing is for sure - I'm curious to know what's going on. It's a frustrating curiosity that glues me to the show and forces me to figure out everything going until everything is crystal clear. It's easy to call off the show as ridiculous, but there's a certain appeal in its mystique and uncertainty that makes me want to know more and more. You can say that this is a double-edged sword on that regard - for if in fact it turns out to be quite the dud, then I'd most certainly be disappointed.
Hopefully, that won't be the case for this show.
But for what it's worth, there's a lot of potential for this show and whatever the heck it's trying to put forth.
As a smorgasbord of anime stereotypes, historical references, and comedic banter, it's quite the animated abstract if you were to ask me. In fact, it is only after five episodes that the story begins to unravel its secrets, slowly opening up a world that tickles your brain and kicks you hard whenever you know it's doing something it shouldn't - like messing with history. This was a sensitive theme to exploit, if you were to ask me, but creative licenses ARE meant to go so far. And I'm willing to see just how far it's going to take me.
