English Dub Review: Insomniacs After School “The First Stars of Dawn -The Pleiades Star Cluster-“

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Ganta finally opens up to Isaki about his insomnia.

OUR TAKE

I’ve made it no secret that my interest in this series has been waning with each successive episode. While it is quite adorable to see Ganta and Isaki grow closer to each other over time and do cute not quite couple stuff while also exploring their interest in Astronomy, it loses its novelty over time when it there’s not a lot of actual character development happening. Kind of like a substantive meal turning into empty calories. Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely been steps forward for each of them and I can definitely say they are more developed characters since the series began, but it really seems like the show is leaning more on the cute couple stuff and high school hijinks than the plotting. Which is fine and all if you’re just a regular viewer and don’t need to think about this stuff too hard, but not so much when you have to write hundreds of words about each episode every single week. Yeah that’s right, I’m whining about having to review cartoons for money again, but I really think this is more of a chill with the vibes kind of show than it is one that lends itself to much critical analysis. Frankly it would’ve been better if they released the season all at once.

Anyway, I bring this up because those were my feelings regarding the past few episodes. Thankfully, we finally have a big enough push forward that I can kind of feel myself getting a little bit more excited. First off, we have a cold open going further into the detail revealed last time that Ganta’s mother walked out on him and his dad in the middle of the night, leaving Ganta to find out she had left the following morning. We don’t touch on that again for the rest of the episode, at least not directly, but Ganta does reveal to Isaki that his insomnia stems from him wanting to delay the next day by staying up throughout the night (which I can’t possibly relate to at all, I say while writing this at 3:50 AM). Whether he thinks this is because of his mother leaving or he’s just repressed it so much that he doesn’t put it together is currently unclear. Oh yeah, and also Ganta and Isaki finally kissed! Hooray! Two episodes to go, still no clue where this is leading, but I guess we’ll see how it goes next week.