Anime Pilgrimage RTT

The Snow Queen – episode 3

September 11, 2005 on 1:23 pm | In The Snow Queen | Comments Off on The Snow Queen – episode 3

“Fragments of the mirror”

At last, The Snow Queen shows its literary roots.

The Snow Queen’s mirror shatters and a fragment finds its way into Kay’s eye. Historically, the fragments of the mirror corrupt the world, making those that they touch see everything as ugly and evil. As a result, Kay becomes something of a bastard.

Lamentably, The Snow Queen anime gives no context for the mirror, despite featuring both a narrator and a snow queen who could explain it. This will be made clear to the audience in the fullness of time, I should hope.

The Snow Queen is a sufficiently interesting character, represented here for the first time in an extended capacity. My personal Hans Christian Andersen collection credits the character as “the wicked Snow Queen”, so it is nice to see her portrayed as someone who is trying, despite her heart of ice, to do something right. The fact that she ends up doing it entirely wrong is immaterial.
It will be good to see just how the Snow Queen and Kay interact over the coming episodes.

The sometimes dodgy quality of the animation makes very little sense considering the cinematic techniques that Dezaki frequently and gleefully applies. Moving scenery, zooming, animated establishing shots and frequent use of metaphorical perspective make for an interesting program, almost experimental considering the 7:30 AM time slot that it boasts. If only they could be more seamlessly executed.

The preview for the next episode looks quite good: the journey of Gerda, the very basis of The Snow Queen, is about to begin. Now, if only I could understand the talking statuary, I’d be set.