In which the clones make their appearance and Phryne’s father molests children.

On the positive side, the frequency of the “Clain is a pervert” jokes seem to be decreasing, although there were still a few too many in this episode. I do have to admit that I laughed when Clain appeared out of the grate under Phryne’s skirt.

The scene with Phryne’s father helps to explain a bit why she was running away and her reaction to her attacker in the last episode. But I’m not really able to take him seriously as a villain because of how he’s been presented in the earlier episodes as not entirely competent. His very appearance screams “comic-relief character”. So now when he does these very disturbing things, it’s a bit hard to buy. The same thing is true of Enri and the rest of Lost Millennium suddenly starting a massacre. It’s just… where exactly did this come from?

Some shows have a similar contrast being seriousness and playfulness, such as Narutaru and Higurashi, but I feel that these are much better executed. Even though everything is bright on the surface of these shows, the creators make it so you can sense that there is an undercurrent of darkness behind the facade. Fractale completely lacks the feeling that it’s hiding things or that anything is deeper than it seems.

The show has a similar problem with the setting – it’s just jumping around all over the place, but there is no hinting of more to the world than what they’ve shown. Everyone lives in mobile homes? A ruined town which is off the grid? Oh, now they live in dopple cities? How about some shepherds?A secret based with some clones? The creators seem to be trying to create a large, diverse world, but they’ve neglected the parts that tie the world together. The characters just tend to show up at locations almost by accident, and are surprised by what they find there. Shouldn’t they know something about the world they live in, as should the viewer over the course of the show? But the various locations are almost entirely disconnected, without a sense of a larger world that ties them together. (case in point: the priesthood didn’t seem to have much if any influence in the city)

Bandage-Phryne was sad though. 🙁  Even if it was completely predictable what would happen. Bandages make everything better.