V-Shaped Recovery

Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Girl's part: Cute couple

The question of in what order should you watch Tokyo Marble Chocolate is one that I let lexical ordering decide. That's a fancy way of saying that I let Windows sort the directory by name, and I picked the one at the top of the list.

But this turned out to be good, because I watched the girl's perspective first. You say that it doesn't matter, or maybe you say that it does but watch the boy's part first, but someone wants you to watch the girl's perspective first, and it's not Microsoft, or me.

The girl's part, apparently, was broadcast first. It is ordered as such on AniDB and ANN. Even the DVD product codes have the girl's part first.

On the other hand, order isn't enforced by rolling both perspectives into a single episode. Maybe you don't need anyone to tell you how to consume your media, thank you very much. And it's not like you can unwatch and attempt to compare order anyway (although I'm going to try).

Order can be structure, it can be process, or it can be both. The end result could be the same, but the intermediate factors may not. In the case of Tokyo Marble Chocolate, your viewing experience will be different depending on whose perspective you watch first.

It just so happens that the experience had when watching the girl's part first is better.

Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Girl's part: Evil is abstract

Where am I coming from when I say that? I guess you might say that I subscribe to the appeal of salvation/redemption. And for someone to be saved, they have to hit a low note first.

The titles give a hint. The girl's title is inconclusive; the boy's title heroic. Chizuru wants to end the relationship; Yuudai wants to cement it.

Going a bit further, Chizuru's perspective is dominated by consequence: stuff just happens to her, stuff that she is more or less unable to do anything about. Despair is left to build, and the real turning point does not happen until the end, and even then the ED lyrics bear a negative sentiment.

Unfortunate things happen to Yuudai as well, but he puts on a brave face and deals with them. He helps, willingly or otherwise, two people that Chizuru encounters first, and one person that she encounters last. Every challenge is promptly overcome; the ED is unequivocally defiant.

Should you watch Yuudai's perspective first, what would you be left with as a closer? The pitiable elements only serve to weigh down any high you may have experienced, and you may feel like re-watching Yuudai's part again just to regain it.

Either perspective, watched second, will serve to unwind the prior one, but it's more satisfying to gradually unwind the stack of despair that has accumulated over the course of Chizuru's part.

Appendix

If you watched the boy's part first, here are some of the thoughts that may occur to you:

  1. Not great running form
  2. The guy is cowardly, afraid of heights, and indecisive, in that order
  3. The guy should pay more attention to what's in front of him
  4. The girl is either omniscient, or stalker-ish
  5. The guy really shot himself in the foot this time around
  6. But even so, he makes amends, even if it means hand-washing someone else's clothes
  7. He helps people out even if it's none of his business
  8. Call her home phone. Seriously.
  9. The seemingly obsessive girl made space for the player who found her cellphone
  10. Girl gets the wrong idea? Well serves her right. Tell it like it is, brotha!
  11. It was all a misunderstanding! All is forgiven!
  12. Security is really lax for such a tall, exposed structure
  13. That mini-donkey is dumb-heroic
  14. The guy is reluctant-heroic
  15. The girl is simply dumb
  16. And then she leaves?
  17. Oh I remember seeing this scene before
  18. And they lived happily ever after

If you watched the girl's part first:

  1. Tragic overtones
  2. The girl is clumsy, unlucky, and a lightweight, in that order
  3. Sense of fatalism, check
  4. The guy should pay more attention to what's in front of him
  5. She's kind of stalker-ish
  6. Her conversation with the guy isn't helping the above point
  7. That is some present
  8. That is some present!
  9. Your cell falls out of your bag, in plain view, before your eyes. How do you miss that?
  10. A series of unfortunate events! Please don't sue me
  11. Mal-formed e-mail address for the win
  12. No free web-based text messaging? Not exactly in the 21st century are we
  13. So you had a bad day
  14. Creepy player guy, noted
  15. Shadowy figure in the window, noted
  16. Vengeful boyfriend, noted
  17. It was all a misunderstanding! All is forgiven!
  18. We already have two heroes on this tower. Don't be a third
  19. I suppose it was inevitable
  20. How honourable, leaving the scene while the guy is passed out
  21. Oh I remember seeing this scene before
  22. And they lived happily ever after