2012-01-03
The one bad moment in Sora no Woto
About a year ago I wrote that Sora no Woto had one moment that made me unable to unreservedly recommend it. I've kind of owed my readers (or at least Author) an explanation of that moment ever since then, so here it is. This is a spoiler in that knowing this may detract from your enjoyment of the series, which is a pity because it's (otherwise) an excellent series, full of the kind of things that I like.
The one bad moment comes at the end of episode 8 (here is a brief full summary of the episode). In the episode, the garrison is expecting an important call that has to be answered and Kanata (the main protagonist) volunteers to watch the phone. After drinking refreshments with visitors, she's stuck alone and her sense of duty glues her to the phone even as her need to use the toilet grows increasingly urgent. Finally someone else shows up and Kanata bolts for a bathroom in desperation.
So far this is only moderately crass and it actually is important for the plot that Kanata has a reason to dump the phone duties on the first person to show up. But it leads to the bad moment: the ending of the episode strongly implies (but does not state outright) that Kanata does not make it to the bathroom in time and ends up peeing herself.
This implied ending is noxious, crass, unnecessary, pointless pandering. There is no need for it, it doesn't even vaguely serve some plot (or character) point, and it's never mentioned in future episodes. The episode would have been just as well served (better served, really) if it had ended with, say, Kanata diving into a bathroom and slamming the door. And it's not as if Sora no Woto had any other moments like this; as far as I can remember, it doesn't even have any fanservice.
I still like Sora no Woto a lot. But I like it despite this bad moment and the existence of this bad moment makes me think very grumpy things about the people behind the show.
(To be clear about something: I dislike the moment but I'm not utterly horrified by it. What really annoys me is that it exists at all.)