Sparks of Tomorrow ‒ Episode 13
This episode begins with Yosuke trying to sacrifice Kihachi (who's drugged and in a wedding gown because Yosuke can't be framed as a predacious gay more than a single goddamn second) to improve his Robo-Seiroku. When Inako arrives on the scene, she manages to stop Yosuke and his plan by…just kind of stopping Yosuke and his plan. She pulls on some wires and drags Kihachi out of what would have been his glass coffin before the walking plot device that is Kengo shows up and effortlessly drags them out of that situation. In this scene, it really feels like Yosuke never had a plan for what to do if anyone ever tried to stop him from doing crimes in order to revive Seiroku, and that makes him feel even weaker as a villain.
The failing of the electric nishiki creates a massive sinkhole in the middle of the city, though, and Kihachi and Inako use the electric plane invented a few episodes before to save Yosuke. Why they do this is anyone's guess, as he literally tried to kill Kihachi twenty minutes ago, but whatever. The animation during this flight scene is pretty impressive, as is a sequence where a massive updraft essentially creates a zero-gravity sequence. The episode ends with much of the main cast having a meal together and Saki pointing out that Inako's first brew is amazing, as Yosuke (who should be in jail) travels, and Kihachi and Inako tentatively express their romantic feelings to each other. In this finale there is not follow up on Kate and Suzu's babyqueer romance, if Inako's family's business is saved from insolvency, or an indication that electrical technology is being more broadly adopted.
While I could profess endlessly about the sophomoric writing in Sparks of Tomorrow and how it misunderstands the era and innovative spirit at the heart of this work, this episode actually contains a perfect crystallization of these problems! While on their way to Inako's home, in both the sub and the dub, Kihachi remarks that he found it odd that the lush Saki told him about the first batch of Inako's brew being made into an offering for Inako's late mother, as he is “not able to drink yet.” The problem with this statement, though, is that there was no legally enforced drinking age in Japan until 1922, and that this story explicitly takes place after the Russo-Japanese War and before the end of the Meiji era, so between 1905 and 1912. This is to say that Kihachi CAN drink and that Sparks of Tomorrow would so casually elevate an anachronism that I could disprove with five minutes of research demonstrates how little it cares about the culture and history at the center of its premise.
Sparks of Tomorrow routinely failed to spark any kind of joy or inspiration within me, and I am so glad to be done with this lazy, ahistorical piece of animation.
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Lucas DeRuyter finds sparks of inspiration in all parts of his life, which would explain why his portfolio features such a broad array of interests and writing formats! To read what he's ruminating on more regularly, you can keep up with his regular contributions to ANN's This Week in Anime column.Sparks of Tomorrow is currently streaming on Netflix.
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