Summary

Amazing Stranger surprises with a meaningful theme embedded in its absurd premise, which involves the dolls finding new dreams beyond their assigned roles. Haruto helps his dolls grow beyond their 2D characters, instilling irony and maturity as they strive to achieve dreams rooted in the real world. The series innovates storytelling by using the dolls' limited knowledge to create a unique exploration of character development and mystery.

Sometimes a romance anime is just intentionally absurd for the sake of absurdity, but there are also some rare cases when such series actually have a deeper theme or message hidden somewhere. there in that absurdity. These qualities are sometimes difficult to recognize, simply because there is often a lot to overcome to achieve them. I discovered this firsthand when I watched this movie Wonderful stranger on Crunchyroll.

It wasn't immediately clear that there was going to be something much deeper until later in the 12-episode series, especially since each part is only about 12 minutes long. As someone who is passionate about romance anime and watches as many of them as I can every year, I was initially drawn to Amazing Stranger for its ridiculous premise and for the change of pace from the most notoriously good romance anime. of the season.

Apparently, those who initially decided to watch a story involving 2-D animated anime dolls in the home of an otaku who liked them more than so-called 3-D girls were looking for something very specific and rarely in-depth. meaningful plot or underlined theme. But when that actually starts happening in Amazing Stranger, it was a pleasant surprise that made the show even more enjoyable.

Marvelous Strangers gives a ludicrous premise a deeper meaning

Based on Öyster's Over Drive Girl 1/6 manga, the anime is produced by Studio A-Cat

Each doll that Haruto exposes to his otaku lifestyle realizes that there is more to life than being a hero or fulfilling their assigned role in their respective series.

This change begins to become apparent when the aforementioned otaku named Haruto Bouida begins interacting with more than just his most important doll, Nona, who, of course, awakens first. . From that point on, a pattern is established in which every doll that Haruto comes into contact with in his otaku lifestyle realizes that There's more to life than being a hero or fulfilling your assigned role in their respective chains. From there, they finally identify a new dream beyond their personalities, rooted in the real world.

While it's a strong theme on its own, it's incredibly ironic and shows Haruto's incredible growth since he became effective. helped his dolls become less like the 2-D characters they were based on and into 3-D girls, he vehemently refused. Amazing Stranger also expands on the implied understanding that an accurate or period-correct modeling of a given character at a particular time will translate into that character's limited thinking if it becomes lively.

Uses a powerful literary device to renew the mystery

Just like a doll created after a certain point will not come with weapons or wear certain outfits that the character only gets later in the story, that doll will not have ants. awareness of something that only her character can have. Find out later in this series. In other words, a doll created after a character does not necessarily become the true embodiment of what they are based on by acquiring accumulated knowledge about that real person, for example, if they came back to life.

Even more impressively, Amazing Stranger uses this to completely revolutionize the overused storytelling method that so many anime series rely on. In most cases, a character's past is withheld to create an atmosphere of mystery, but the reason or means by which this information is kept unclear often feels forced or too convenient. . The real Nona doll does not know because she is not equipped with this knowledge, so she can accurately represent a certain moment, forcing her to “experience” the truth in real time with the character she is based on.

So while Wonderful stranger As ridiculous and as much of a guilty pleasure as its premise promises, it also makes a lot more sense as the deliciously ironic theme persists throughout and it reimagines how the how effectively the phenomenon can take place based on understood reality.