16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Episode 13

16bit Sensation: Another Layer has spent its last couple of episodes going off on the stagnance of creativity in the face of advancements. The show has had some strong, salient things to say about AI-fueled automation and widespread corporatization as they affect art, particularly the bishoujo game variety. These are important declarations, but it's key to remember where all this passion originates from. Another Layer has always been, at its heart, a story about the joy of creation. So, after several episodes despairing about the potentially bad future of visual novel craft, the anime chooses to go out on the sort of earnest, encouraging note it began on.

Dispensing with the corporate goons bearing down on Konoha and Mamoru is easy enough. Predictably, the UFO that showed up at the end of the last episode is occupied by the Echoes, who help our heroes out of their jam. Their reason for coming all this way might not be as predictable as it should have been. Another Layer has long been steeped in fandom, after all, so Echo simply wanting the autograph of Konoha Akisato, the famous game developer, makes sense in the story's roundabout way. Konoha and Mamoru were ultimately saved by the impact of their creation, which has done so much for so many others in this media-making multiverse.

Even before witnessing Konoha reuniting with her Alcohol Soft compatriots and triumphantly completing development on the game, this is where Another Layer's ultimate truth of art and creation is laid bare. As Echo thoroughly explains, imagination is a trait passed down through all humans, inherent to their being and existential community. Artistic ability may be trained and developed in a person as much as it grows and adapts through generational, technical leaps. However, the ability to imagine is not unique to any specific person. It's the purest, ultimate rejection of the promises of AI "art" that the series has been so soundly criticized for this last arc: Art and creation do not need to be "democratized" by aggregate, imagination-less technology. Everyone has imagination and should feel free to put their personally crafted expressions into the world.

For that reason, Comic Party gets to be the final game opened by Konoha, returning her to where she was always trying to get to. Comic Party wasn't a seismic shock to the medium or a cultural meteor like Doukyuusei or Kanon. It was "just" a fun, cute-girl-filled adventure worked on by Misato Mitsumi and Tatsuki Amazuyu, inspired by earlier fun times they had creating other art. It's articulated in the scene shown of Konoha's new game, affectionately titled "The Things I Hold Dear." Here, a welcoming, pretty anime girl imparts that a story like this one need not be a sweeping epic; it simply needs to be a story one wants to tell. It's enough to hope that someone will enjoy it.

I knew I liked what 16bit Sensation was doing, and I was familiar with how earnest the series was. But this ending still resonated a bit harder than I think I expected it to. It is appreciable to have a series that approaches otaku media, especially a corner of it so consistently clowned on by those unfamiliar as "lesser" like bishoujo visual novels, without prioritizing that sense of persecution. Love always wins, they say, after all, and Konoha's story embodies the belief in the inevitability of that energy. This final Another Layer episode is presented relatively simply. Still, through effectively shot composition and some well-timed voice and music cues, it becomes this ode to fandom as an inspiration. Is that not in the spirit of visual novels, which have told generation-affecting stories through naught but static character sprites and text boxes? For all its layers, Another Layer might not be that powerful. But as genuine as its beliefs are and embodied by Konoha, it feels real enough to me.

Rating:

Bonus Bits:

• Dejiko of Di Gi Charat shows up for one final appearance, delivering her trademark "Nyo" from a giant holographic version of the Akihabara welcoming billboard. I do find it just a little bit funny that other than this, the only specific indicator of otaku culture returning to Akihabara is Konoha glimpsing the "MILF Cafe" her former boss opened up. Full circle!
• It would seem that Mamoru managed to make his dreams a reality at the same time he was helping Konoha. A billboard in the reformed modern Akihabara advertises the "PC98ZX"—presumably the latest iteration of the not-dead PC98 line. As the tagline declares, "It's the standard."
• In celebration of the series wrapping, Aniplex put out a "TRUE END PV", sort of an official anime music video recounting Konoha's journey. It's a fitting capstone for this brilliant love letter to fandom and all the creations that come out of it.

16bit Sensation: Another Layer is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris mostly knows many of these VN game characters from the fighting games they popped up in. You can catch him meditating on any amount of game, anime, and manga subjects over on his blog, as well as posting too many screencaps of them as long as Twitter allows.