Hey! They killed Strawberry Shortcake!!! That’s awful.
I would love to read the section in the show’s bible that stresses how all female robots in the world of the Ruin must have pink hair. I don’t know if it’s necessarily a bold creative choice on the director’s part, but woooooo, is it a noticeable and oft-confusing one. If this show ever amasses its own cult audience, I imagine that’d be a giggle-inducing in-joke for “Cass-a-fanatics” or “Cass-hards” or whatever you’d call the fans.
On a weightier note, I was just recently talking to a friend about the deeper themes of the criminally-underrated A.I., and the discussion nicely relates to the plot of this episode. As you might’ve gathered from when I've slagged on pseudo-intellectual shows like TEXHNOLYZE and GITS: THE MOVIE, when it comes to robot stories, I find questions like “Can a machine feel?” or “What is identity in virtual reality?” to be exhausted-unto-trite. I’m far more stimulated by stories, like this and A.I., which use robots as metaphorical creatures of purpose.
In A.I., the notion that lil’ David is a robo-child designed to love his parents opened up a whole slew of questions about the conditions of love. Does David’s “mother” have an obligation to love him in return? Can that maternal love endure, even after David “breaks” and ceases functioning the way he’s supposed to? Those are interesting thematic questions.
Likewise, we have this little girl with the sort of innocence that’d seem Pollyannaish even if she weren’t playing with dolls in a post-Apocalyptic wasteland. It’s tough to present that kind of naivete without it turning into eye-rolling cheese. However, the note here about how her impossibly-cheery demeanor is due to malfunctioning makes it seem far more tragic. You could then attribute all the rumor-fueled belief in the survival of Luna or the panacea of Casshern’s flesh to be a kind of malfunctioning in reason, as well - - and it’s pretty easy to extend that metaphor to human behavior, of course.
So yeah, I’m totally beasting on all the allegory here, man.
Watch this episode, "The Flower That Blooms in the Valley of Ruin” here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
