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Kamitsubaki City Under Construction Anime: My Thoughts (Episode 0, 1, 2)

so tired of the negativity so I'm making a post about my own thoughts about why this anime is Good Actually. I'll add onto this as we get more episodes.

For context I've been a long-time VWP/Kamitsubaki fan since 2022. I've read Emergence, familiar with Narrative, played Ensemble, also still in the middle of playing Regenerate but I have positive thoughts on all of them so far.

Overall: Incredible, heart-rending apocalyptic setting, focus on music as the expression of the heart and a way to save people

The unique worldbuilding is definitely what sets Kamitsubaki City apart from other music multimedia projects, as well as the focus of what purpose music serves in-universe, and Kamitsubaki Studio's philosophy when it comes to music overall.

It's truly a different experience seeing the story of Kamitsubaki City be portrayed through an animation. It's always been such an important project to me in how it has affected my relationship with music, especially as a musician myself.

The thing with Kamitsubaki City is that it might be trying to do "too much." Depending on who you are, this is either a good or bad thing. From the aesthetics, music direction, worldbuilding, premise, etc -- those certainly are what make Kamitsubaki really niche and lacks a more universal appeal.

Personally? I really, really love it.

There's a specific plot point/plot twist later on that occurs in all KamiCity media that I think will really elevate the anime and cement its identity/how "good" it actually can be and dramatically raises the emotional stakes, but obviously we're not there yet. But it is exciting to see how they will execute it in the anime. I say it's something to look forward to.

The voice acting is also a point of contention -- the main girls are not professional VAs, they're professional singers though. But I am really a fan of the VAing too, even from Regenerate, and here too. I like the softer and more raw approach to voice acting than in the rest of the industry, I think it really works in Kamitsubaki's favor, especially because the characters/personas are modeled after the girls' personalities and vibes themselves. It adds a layer of authenticity. Though they're placed in this apocalyptic, crazy, scifi fantasy world, they're still pretty down-to-earth and real in the way they speak. The soft delivery has a sense of intimacy and I think it suits the tone of the anime pretty well. I think it adds another dimension to the emotional moments, that there is something tangible about the emotions at hand.

Character designs! Character designs are also very unique and refreshing. Each girl has such a distinctive look and vibe. I am absolutely in love with their character designs, both as VTubers/VSingers and in KamiCity as fictional characters. Also another thing that makes Kamitsubaki niche too, though. The designs of their familiars, too, are also cool. Each familiar complements each girl and they are all also very distinctive from each other. I don't know, I just really like them.

Music, is of course, the main highlight of this anime through insert songs and the OP/EDs. The main goal of the anime is to get new viewers into listening to VWP and their individual artists - KAF, RIM, Harusaruhi, Isekaijoucho, and Koko. They're really really amazing singers. The music Kamitsubaki creates is really compelling and I'm really glad they're interweaving it into this anime to get more fans, and to add more emotional significance to the songs by tying it to a narrative. The world of KamiCity is also expressed in VWP's music videos, so although seemingly more abstract in that way, I think what their music videos have to offer is really cool too for engaging with what KamiCity as a world is like, and the relationship the Witchlings have with it. It's what made me fall in love with VWP at first, after all.

Episode 0 (spoilers from here on out)

This episode covers Kafu Morisaki's origins as a Witching -- the Blackout, the violent and tragic loss of her parents and her big sister Erika, her pact with Laplace, a few of her songs and how her singing has a special power, the threat of the Tesseractors and how they plague the world and transform humans into monsters... And Kafu's shifting outlook on reality as she's become a Witchling.

Admittedly, the pacing is a bit difficult to follow especially for first-time newcomers to Kamitsubaki. And the 12/13-episode format of anime nowadays doesn't leave a lot of room to create a detailed narrative -- only very few anime nowadays can create something truly satisfying in those limitations. But given this -- I don't think this episode or this anime will be any worse or better than a lot of other anime in the same position. Once again, Kamitsubaki City is a really grand project, and there's countless other anime just like it that would've benefitted from longer animes... But we can't have them all. So, I don't necessarily particularly hold this against Kamitsubaki City as a unique problem to itself, I think it's just a shame the anime industry is like this recently.

So putting that aside -- the highlight for me, is how fragile, precious, yet resilient and endearing Kafu is as a protagonist -- and her singing voice. There's a softness and fragility about her regarding her trauma, and yet her song makes her special and helps her stay strong throughout it all. Kafu's singing perfectly complements these things about her character, and the singing will definitely be a highlight of the anime all throughout because VWP are such amazing and emotional vocalists, which will help drive home the emotional beats more. There's a certain way music is incorporated into the storytelling format of an anime that really hits different for me. And I think it's exceptionally nice in KamiCity.

It's so cute how she also sings throughout her daily life and how she has a life as a normal schoolgirl, and yet also she's taken to this responsibility as a Witchling.

The other highlight is the bond between Kafu and Laplace, which is a new plot point to the anime and a unique distinction from other KamiCity media. It's pretty exciting to see how their relationship with develop, Laplace has always been an enigmatic character so it feels like we get to see more of him.

The main thing that confused me is how Kafu immediately started rooming with Rime Tanioki, which is another problem attributed to pacing + limitations, but I feel like it's easily understandable as a timeskip so it's forgivable to me. It helps establish Kafu is in a different time of her life now that Erika is gone. Even though she is a Witchling now, she's still living life like an ordinary girl and has that sort of charm about her, I think that duality is really important.

Episode 1

Here might be another limitation/narrative issue because we timeskip immediately to when the Witchlings are working as a team with their familiars, so lack of introduction to the extended cast, but overall this episode is hype and introduces some crazy narrative plot points right off the bat. We get to see them in action in battle, and honestly this episode feels more like the familiars' chance to shine, LOL.

Would it be nice to have that exposition of the Witchlings first starting to meet each other? Absolutely. (Apparently this is covered in Novelized, which I haven't read yet, to be fair it is also only in Japanese officially.) But, yeah, given how high the stakes are in JUST EPISODE 1, it's probably some sort of storytelling limitation and sets the scene for something crazy and grand to happen throughout the 12-13 episode run. Some more context about Episode 0 & 1 is that I feel they are really meant to be watched together, and they were edited from the same material as the theatrical pre-showing director's cut in Japan (conveying the same information, but different pacing and cuts...)

I was honestly surprised Koko Rinne already showed up in this episode, usually she is introduced much later than the others. Also, we see bits of her silly personality even amidst the seriousness, which is honestly so cute.

What I love about this episode, is that it's establishing how the Witchlings work together and the dynamics are really great as well as the action and fighting. I don't know what else to say about it, their dynamics are really good and such a treat to see in action. It's even more interesting that their familiars are at play here, too -- the relationship between the Witchlings and familiars is really different from Regenerate where the familiars first debuted, and that in and of itself is really good to see. I think it's really good they have the familiars to play off of.

The first part subplot regarding the first Tesseractor they fought, a man who lost his wife and son in the Blackout, and succumbed to madness was really well-executed in my opinion. We see a man who experienced such similar despair and loss as Kafu, and she really shows a lot of sympathy for the Tesseractors -- for the humans who despaired just like her. It affects her so much she's even stunned and forgets to dodge...

White Bouquet has been my favorite KAF song lately, so having it be tied to the anime context in this way just breaks me so much. It's so personal and heartfelt to Kafu as a character and the trauma she's faced, and how she sings it as a song to save the man who experienced profound loss just like her. I think it's also extremely significant how she also says she felt like she wanted to die, just like that man's wishes and desires.

The sheer magnitude of the Tesseractor invasion really does feel like such a crazy threat. The sound effects, the crazy amount if fish, the sinister way they all act together and endlessly pour in -- it really feels so crazy, they did a good job portraying that.

Towards the end we get the plot point of VALIS, the energy source being destroyed by a Tesseractor, and seemingly there was a human inside of there. I was also surprised this plot point showed up so early in the anime too!! This is a plot point in Regenerate and it is a really harrowing one... Which we'll see in Episode 2.

We also see a glimpse of the antagonist (?) who is presumably controlling all the Tesseractors. I think this antagonist is unique to the anime too, so I don't know where this is quite going but it is interesting, and what their goal could possibly be.

Episode 2

Here we get a better sense of where the anime is going: this is a focus episode on Sekai Yorukawa, so we can also assume the following episodes will focus on different Witchlings in a similarly satisfying way too.

Koko pulls a Deus Ex Machina which is honestly extremely hype but also so interesting? (I haven't gotten to her part in Regenerate yet so I'm not sure of what her powers are in-verse yet in that regard.) Koko has always been the mystery one out of the bunch, so it was so extremely cool to see her powers at play. The vision she has though, of everyone dying is very significant -- and good to remember for how that will likely play into the story later on. I think it also further drives up the stakes -- if the Witchlings are all dead, what will become of this world? How would they all die? Would that vision come true? Good questions to ask and good tidbit to put in there to keep intrigue.

I think it's also cute she doesn't really know how her power works, either, and she was so surprised at it. Classic Koko... So cute...

The focus on Sekai this episode was definitely appreciated. We see how she was taken in by the Church and yet also used by them, creating her loneliness. She's the type of person to save others without a second thought, because that's how she was raised. Even if she left the Church she can't leave them for dead... I think it's very nice Anemos is a balance for her, he's very refined and put-together to contrast her recklessness and naivety. And it does seem Anemos was born to be by Sekai's side, so she's not so lonely anymore. I really liked her insert songs, too -- Isekai no Housekitan to purify and save the Church, her pure devotion and passion in singing as the main focus -- it's really nice.

Also we get more banter between the Witchlings and the familiars (Kugel being a bit of a dipshit 😭)

Rime Tanioki also mentions her father -- he's been mentioned briefly in all 3 episodes so far, he's a key scientist at the RD, and the depths of what his research is about is on display here -- the Fragments that KamiCity uses to operate are human sacrifices... Absolutely crazy.

Then comes the horrifying part of the VALIS plot point -- in order to restore the barrier that was destroyed by the Tesseractors, a human life has to be sacrificed. When the Witchlings witnessed this unfold, they cannot accept it.. The tension between Kafu and Sekai arguing over who will go in Makana's place, until Makana accepts her fate and sacrifices herself as the power source -- it honestly really got to me, and even moreso when "Heart of Sirius" insert song started playing, a song of mourning and yearning. "To you who has become light" is a really fitting lyric for Makana who becomes light to purify Area 3. Haru Asanushi demands answers from Blue Bird/Reconstruction Division but they just remain silent...

I think it's also evident how unfortunate the Church's circumstances are with how it affects Sekai and Makana... How they are both so willing to sacrifice themselves or throw away their lives. Makana is just a character we know for one episode, but in her, we see Sekai's traits reflected as a result of the messed up upbringing of the Church. It's kinda sad to me too, that extra dimension there.

God, I just love how heartwrenchingly serious and desperate this anime gets, it's entirely what I expected of VWP. Episode 2 ends on the note of a moral dilemma which calls back to the end of Episode 0 -- what Kafu says about "what we're doing, is it right?" GOD this is just so damn good. The disillusionment with the RD is incoming!!! The conflict is just amping up so much so early on in the anime, plot points that were midgame to lategame in Emergence and Regenerate, so it does mean they have something crazy planned for the anime that makes me look forward to it more and more.

I am entirely sold this is peak and the anime will be really really good with the story it has to tell. There's a lot of little seeds of foreshadowing and conflict here and there that I am fully expecting to come to a super crazy fruition. Koko's vision of everyone dying... What each Witchling's special powers are... The disillusionment with the RD's ethics... Lines like from Laplace's Episode 0 "I sense in [the witchling's song] the power to overwrite our very existence... Overwrite?" Which. I am definitely thinking will be a plot point later on. The storytelling is really good for the limitations of the medium they're working with.

Special ED song with Isekaijoucho solo is such a treat too, and the animation for it was so cool! They really are going all-out for the EDs which is so cool and awesome.

Yeah. I have a lot of positive thoughts about KamiCity anime, only positive thoughts now. The negative thoughts are so easily forgivable and not problems exclusive to KamiCity. I hate that so many people found it underwhelming, confusing, or subpar -- maybe I'm just more emotionally attached to these girls and the charm they have, which is fair, but I don't know... The way the story pulls at my heart only 3 episodes in is so crazy. I don't know. Maybe you can call me delusional or crazy for feeling so deeply or thinking the writing and presentation is good. But, that's just how I feel, and I know I'm often wrong or in the minority about how I perceive stories like this. Which honestly makes me feel bad that it's been such a consistent problem for me I'm self-conscious about...

All I want is to enjoy things, and I don't know, this anime gives me more reasons to enjoy it than to criticize it. Like. I don't know!!!! Whatever. This is peak. That's the only thing I know.

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