Kimi to Sekai ga Owaru Hi ni: Season 3 (2022)

Un eternel recommencement

/!\ à lire que si vous avez fini en vie la saison 1 et 2.

Quelle joie de revoir ses vieux camarades de classe à chaque réunion d'anciens élèves. C'est l'effet que m'a procuré la vision des premières minutes de la 3e saison de Kimi to Sekai ga Owari Hi. Et cela 2 ans après la fin de la saison 2. Mais comme toute réunion décénale, tout a changé, sans que les choses changent vraiment. Alors même si ça fait plaisir de revoir Hibiki, Kurumi et les autres, avons-nous encore quelque choses à nous dire ?

Lieu clos, dans une Abbaye <=> Holiday Center, gourou <=> chef de communauté, clans en costumes blancs contre noirs, recherche de Kurumi, etc... Même si la saison se passe 9 mois, et pour cause, après la deuxième, il semblerait que les scénaristes ont été remplacés par Chat gpt. Aucune originalité, ne ressort de ces pourtant que 6 épisodes. On a l'impression de revivre un copier-coller des évènements de l'an passé. OK, faire du Zombie sur la durée, amène forcément à des redites, mais nos chères bêtes de compagnie ne sont quasiment pas présentes à l'écran cette saison, alors arrêter de leur rejeter la faute. Un des gros problème, c'est que Kurumi s'est transformée en veuve noire qui ne s'assume pas. Alors que Hibiki est toujours aussi fleure bleue, voir mièvre. La paternité ne la vraiment pas fait murir.

Pour une bouffée d'air frais, il faudra plutôt voir du côté des seconds rôles. Même si pour moi, la jeune Yokomizo Naho est devenu un vrai premier rôle depuis la saison 2 et fait déjà preuve de beaucoup de charisme à seulement 13 ans, ici. Elle se révèle une très bonne actrice, notamment dans les scènes ou la violence ne devrait pas être permise, de surcroit, à cet âge. Tout comme étonnamment, Sakurai Hinako, qui fait son apparition dans cette saison et montre des aptitudes au combat insoupçonnées tent on est habitué à ses rôles de nunuches un peu grossières dans les school drama du goûter de 16h00. Elle castagne comme personne.

La bagarre et les flingues, justement, c'est la grosse mise en avant de ses 6h de drama sous tension. L'action est omniprésente ce qui pourra plaire sans doute aux occidentaux formatés par les spin off de walking dead. Mais où est passée la romance, deuxième pilier et véritable intérêt des deux premières saisons. Incarné tout de même par le couple glamour Kasamatsu Sho x Iitoyo Marie ou le béguin de Yokomizo Naho pour son Hibiki, elle ne serait être insuffisante, car complètment gâchée par cette sempiternelle quête du sensationnel, qui prend le pas sur tout,dans cette saison. Et que dire des insert song complètement passés à la trape. La bande son reste tout de même excellente et elle a même atteint un niveau de qualité exceptionnel avec pas moins de 3 compositeurs internationaux. Mais ils manquent ces moments de flashback qui ont fait le charme de la première saison, ces compleintes de tube J-pop qui donnait des moments de calme dans la tension. Les réalisateurs aurait pourtant du apprendre à l'école de cinéma, les principes de la vague et du climax heureuse retrouvés dans les 20 dernières minutes. Pour le reste, on a l'impression ici d'être dans un couloir avec la lumière au bout et en se contentant d'avancer.

De bonnes idées toutefois, ont émergé. Et il y avait de quoi faire 10 épisodes avec les histoires parallèles. On pouvait y mettre autant de tension, mais surtout plus d'émotion. Il est clair que le succès imprévu de la première saison, plus la période corona virus n'ont pas facilité la réflexion et la prise de temps pour produire celle-ci. Et c'est bien dommage. Le pognon a pourtant coulé à flot et ça se voit à l'écran. Les acteurs principaux ont du demander un cachet mirobolant. C'est peut-être pour cela qu'il y en a tant qui meurent (je ne dirai pas lesquels évidement, mais c'est la loi du genre). Mais l'argent dépensée s'apprécie essentiellement dans l'esthétique de cette saison.

Déjà en germe dans les deux premières, on a droit à une exposition de tableaux de maîtres dans les couleurs ocre, rouilles ou grises industrielles de décors et de prises de vues extérieurs. Cette magnificence de l'image prend son climax avec ses vues du Mont Fuji, dont on ne se lasse pas. La seule interrogation, c'est toute cette neige, d'où vient-elle, à l'heure du réchauffement climatique ?

En conclusion, vous n'aurez que peu de surprises dans cette partie de l'histoire. Des déceptions, un peu d'émotion, quelques trahisons, un petit sourir gêné pour le ridicule du voile de Kurumi, ... mais surtout une belle admiration pour le visuel, la musique et un denouement qui rattrape tout . Plaçant la série dans l'esthétique des meilleurs jeux vidéo Silent Hill et Résident Evil, influences majeures ici. Dommage, qu'on y perd l'influence de Kimi wa petto. Si, si, réfléchissez bien...

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Slightly better than season 2. A darker season but, sadly predictable.

WARNING: If you all thought season 1 and 2 had their number of gruesome scenes and erm... wtf moments, - well you better hold onto to your seats, - because this one will leave you on edge, with an "ewww" expression on your face and feeling mostly pissed off for the character's poorly decisions and the cruelty of the screenwriter to play with our hearts and then crush us so hard that will leave us frustrated, pained and in tears.

- Might contain SPOILERS. -

First things first, I'll do a Pro and Con list:

PROS:
Starts with Todoroki and Kanae.
Yuzuki is grown and stronger here.
Have I mentioned Kanae and Todoroki?
Kurumi has less screen time in this season.
The level of cinematography and production is better.
"Bromance" between Hibiki and Todoroki. Loyalty on point...
At least they tried to unveil the mysteries season 2 failed to do.

CONS:
HIBIKI. with capital letters.
If in season 2 Kurumi got me annoyed. In season 3, it's Hibiki.
Religion. Cults to be precise. Acting holy when they're sinners.
Kurumi is always the main point, even causing sacrifices indirectly.
The X gang and their shady origins. If it was like that why kill civilians?
Character's stupidity that costs everything, and could be solved or avoided.
Kanae and Todoroki arch. Not precisely bad, it's really good. But they deserved the world
Sadly, the world did not deserve them. Love you as the world ends, should be about them...

By now we can all assume Hibiki's character is kind of like Liam Neeson's character in Taken.

Only there's no working phones here in Kimi to Sekai and Hibiki doesn't exactly say the line, "I'll find you and I'll kill you" as many times as he probably should. Still, there's always guns and ammunition in hand. Which is weird given food is scarce, but weaponry exists by the dozens huh. I would presume handcrafted weapons would exist at this point, - you know those pointy sticks, - like those Buffy always used to save the world and it worked just fine back in the good old days.

They've made 6 pointless episodes in season two, with that ending... To skip 10 months in the story, in this one.

Shoot! What have we missed?

Well first things first, in those 10 mysterious months ever since having left the House of Hope, Hibiki finally dyed his blonde roots to become a brunette. I know right? Priorities... Dude spent 2 seasons blonde, but now he went dark in a flash.

Speaking of dark. This season has definitely it's darkest moments.

However, it's either predictable or I've had my fair share of criminal dramas and plot twists that I've developed a keen sense. It wasn't hard to figure it out the intentions of the characters, the ones that were most mysterious were the X gang though.

They tried their plot twists here and there. Like for example, with Min-Jun's lookalike. It went along with the realistic explanation that there was a twin brother, Yoo-Jun, and revealed his existence and what happened to him in a flash linked to Ji-An the older sister. Even so, it seemed to be made above the knee and rushed, if you ask me. They could've made a hint in season one when Min-Jun and Ji-An met... but no mention of them having another sibling was ever implied, at least from what I can vaguely remember. (I might check it again, just to be sure.)

I actually liked the fact that they made his character hold a sense of loss despite the brutal environment in which he was raised ever since kidnapped. He still retained that memory of making flower crowns to place on the dead to honor their souls. It was Ji-An that had taught him that when young, and he continued doing over the years so it seems. It was symbolic.

The gruesome events are cruel and macabre to say the very least.
If in season 2 they presented us with the House of Hope, which ironically had no hope at all, nor it was a safe haven. And where the residents firmly believed in division of status and classes among the survivors. In this season they present us with faith and religion as holy place for a cult. In crazy times of need, people believe in anything they want to believe. This is an example of it.

It's a deranged utopia consisting of delusional believers, a fraud keeping the farce of a God, and the most messed up meals... It's implied that the food is indeed scarcer there, that they have turned to the point of producing meat from dubious sources.

It's really messed up and utterly disgusting.

Now, I wouldn't dare to say it's the survival of the fittest, but more like survival and madness walk hand in hand here. As if serving Golem meal's wasn't enough... (that's right, the excuse is a trial for immunity to whoever consumes the product, which is weird because so far there is no one who has it at 100% nor there is a vaccine or cure) To have volunteers for the "Marris" ritual (which so happens to be a public execution), only to be used as a source of food for the children is utterly immoral and quite DISTURBING to know. Cannibalisms at the end of the world... and they have the boldness to call it high in protein...

It's in times like this that I am glad I don't eat meat xD
Oh Holy salad, as I off a Golem with a fork. Lettuce pray. Amen.

The irony of creating a safety haven in one season and then throwing the characters right at the holy sinners is a duality.

Hibiki's arch as always been about finding Kurumi, but after a couple of times and different directions of having the same goal, it's a bit tiring to see what could be love becomes a sick obsession. If it was to find her in the end and finally sink in that there's no other way to help her because unfortunately there's still no cure, then this story would most likely ended in season 1.

It sure would've avoided many headaches, heartbreaks, deaths and well a hand... if you get what I mean.

WARNING: Episodes 4 and 5 will ruin you all, mark my words. The events are beautiful, symbolic and tragic.
To the point of leaving us aching for those we've been rooting from season 1, to be robbed so soon.

They never had a chance, never got to the point of properly addressing their feelings, confessing in bold words what they meant towards one another after all they've been through. Still, their actions spoke louder than 1000 words. Their sense of loyalty, of paying debts, and having each other's backs was the most genuine among two characters there. And their storyline was the most worth it of all ever since season 1. To see how they developed, and how much they cared, loved, protected and respected each other's was beautiful and endearing. They provided us more insight of them, and then robbed us all.

Even so, Todoroki's character development was one of the best. And so was Kanae's.
They went from stubborn and weak characters. To caring, honest, independent and strong characters.
Their keen sense of justice, right from wrong, prevailed unaverred amidst the craziness that surrounded them.
While other's like Hibiki were easily persuaded. Todoroki and Kanae, held their grounds in every single situation.

Todoroki's and Hibiki's have always clashed in season 1, they both had different views and perceptions of the world and their situation. And were keen on leadership of the group of survivors they were a part of, ever since then no matter how apart they got, whenever they managed to find themselves in circumstances, the bond between them lost their initial rift, and gained mutual respect. Maybe on Todoroki's side it was Kanae's influence that made him improve himself. His loyalty and integrity never changed though, to the point of owing Hibiki and helping him out 'till the every end.

What did change in him?
The reckless imprudence of placing himself in danger because he did not fear death.

To have him confess that now he does fear it, really speaks volumes of how much he started to feel for Kanae to the point of finding a reason to keep on living, and not merely existing in a dying world.

"You really don't call me by my name, do you?" - Kanae
"You can only call a woman by her first name if she's family." - Todoroki

This moment between them was like the hidden confession, as they harbored feelings for each other.

The meaningful and symbolic value of his hand gesture, in those different scenes, with only her in his mind...
The first time calls her by her first name and she never hears it. Worse Hibiki never tells her... and that pissed me off.

"He don't have to call me by my name. He don't have to love me.
Just... if that person is alive, that's all that matters. So please, come back safe, Hiro." - Kanae

Yuzuki's finding her purpose and sense of leadership was gratifying. She had to grow up fast from season 1 to 3. In order to survive and adapt she learned to make sacrifices and be brave. The only inconsistency in her character is probably the asthma, she suffered severely from it in season 1, in season 2 it's mentioned and we can see the inhalers. But in here? Don't recall.

Could this be the only holy miracle of this deranged season events? Perhaps.

Too many shady characters, and backgrounds in this season. X could've been partially resolved in season 2 though.
Iori and Shinji were characters that screamed suspicious from the very start. Hence my suspicion of a season 4 turning out to be right by the end of this chaotic last episode. They need to add drama and angst, and of course another rescue plot mission for Hibiki, this time for his missing child. Future is dark and gloomy, because Mirai (means future in Japanese) has vanished.

The cinematography and production values in this season are far better than the previous seasons.
Oddly enough the song , - Not the End by Rei Yasuda - that accompanied the other seasons was not presented in this one.

After binge watching these 6 episodes, frustrating my poor little braincells on another rollercoaster ride of disturbing scenarios, not so happy meals, pent-up emotions, pure rage towards stupid characters, and having my heart broken in the end.

I'm left unsure about being sadist enough to even watch a season 4...

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