From Far Away ‒ Episode 4
There's a weird-looking horse in the room, and it is the increasing concern that the animation is not able to keep up with the story. While the first three episodes had their moments (looking at you, vertical slide down the cliff), character animation in episode four is markedly worse. It's still not Red River levels, and yes, that will continue to be my benchmark for disappointing shoujo adaptations. But it also has more awkward walking, noticeable action shortcuts, and simplified character designs. It's not a great sign, although I take heart from the fact that Noriko and Izark's relationship is still just one of the focuses. This is a fantasy, not a romantasy.
It's also an inherently political story about the control of one young woman. Noriko, as Izark notes, has no idea that she's The Awakening, but the rest of the world certainly is. While we still don't know precisely why Rachef wants to control both her and the Sky Demon, power hunger is almost certainly a factor – and we can see what that does to people. Apart from one scene where Rachef gets his spiritual hands dirty by borrowing Gorya's power to save Keimos, we mostly see how power corrupts on a smaller scale. The bandit leader is a distillation of the idea: he's used the chimo to gain the power of teleportation in order to carry out his work, and when he loses that, he becomes desperate. His words and demeanor are less those of a man who has lost one ability and more those of an addict desperate for his next fix. He has become addicted to the power the chimo gave him, unable to function without it. And while Keimos helps with his downfall by casually giving Izark information, the conclusion was foregone – because the bandit chief became so dependent on the chimo, he has already lost.
That feels like a pointed statement about those who want Noriko (or rather, The Awakening) for themselves. Like the chimo is less an animal than a catalyst to the bandit, Noriko isn't a person to Rachef and the other political leaders. Izark alone has come to see her as the scared human girl that she is, to understand that she's a whole person, full stop, and to reckon with what that means. (Would Keimos and Rachef care if they knew? Doubtful.) After only three days with her, he's basically abandoned the idea of killing her; instead, he's focused on finding her a way to live in her new world. He's not sure what that looks like, of course, but he recognizes that killing her really isn't an option for him anymore.
In no small part, that's because she also treats him like a human. We know his mother rebuffed him after his power was revealed, and there's a strong implication that he's kept himself aloof from other people out of fear of having that repeat itself. He's touched but wary that Noriko fetched the doctor when he was sick because he's afraid that when he recovers, she'll no longer see him as Izark, but as a monster. That goes double for when she drags him back to the doctor after the fight this week; he knows his wound will have healed already, and he's terrified that when she sees it, she'll be either afraid or disgusted. But she's not – Noriko is simply relieved that he's okay. The doctor may be aghast that this unmarried young woman is throwing herself against a man's bare chest, but Izark is stunned for a different reason: Noriko still sees him as human. She still cares.
At its heart, that's really what this episode is about, thematically speaking. Even though Izark knows Noriko is The Awakening and even though Noriko has observed his abnormal traits firsthand, they both see each other as people first. To Izark, that's the fantasy and the dream, what he's been hoping for for years. Maybe, to him, this is a romantasy after all.
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From Far Away is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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