Sora no Otoshimono: Tokeijikake no Angeloid [Movie Review]

SnO Movie! Panties! Ikaros! This isn’t actually anything separate from the main storyline but in fact a direct sequel to Forte (and prequel to the 3rd season) so I guess I’ll treat it as more of an impressions post rather than a mostly-spoiler free movie review. Anyway – Sora no Otoshimono: The Angeloid of Clockwork!

Summary

After admiring Tomoki for a long time, a girl named Kazane Hiyori submits an application to join the New World Discovery Club, and starts hanging out with the group, getting to know them better. However Sugata notices the resemblance between Hiyori and an Angeloid in one of the capsules from the Synapse, but Daedalus refuses to tell him anything about it. When Hiyori dies after being hit by a truck, her body disappears, causing everyone’s memories of her to disappear as well, apart from Tomoki’s who still has her bell hair accessory with him. It is revealed that the real Hiyori is in fact the Angeloid of Clockwork, Zeta, that projects a fake existence onto Earth for her to live out her “dream”.

The Master sends a modified Zeta down to Earth to kill Tomoki, and Zeta battles Ikaros, Nymph and Astraea, who end up disabling her space-time abilities but have to deal with an aftershock that will take out the surrounding area. After helping her regain her senses, Tomoki manages to return Hiyori’s bells to her, who kisses him and forces them out of Ikaros’ Aegis field and takes the blast of her own aftershock, dying in the process. As he looks up at the sky, Tomoki promises to never forget Kazane Hiyori, the first girl who ever confessed to him.

Impressions

Sohara vs the Giant Chicken

Yeah. Welcome to Sora no Otoshimono at its finest, complete with panties, Ikaros’ cards and Tomoki ending up flying off in some random direction after getting beaten up by Sohara. Seriously, no other movie would dare to start in such a retarded way, but this is exactly how SnO gets its appeal, and it actually works! Why this shit is so addicting I have no idea, but it’s great entertainment either way. Wait…why did they even start the movie like this?

Seasons 1 and 2 Recap

“The girl’s locker room is in front of you. What do you do?”
*salutes* “I would…take a peek.”
*falls down into manure pit* 

Surprisingly, I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would have. While I did feel that too much of the movie was wasted on just a recap of the series in Hiyori’s point of view, there was a lot of care taken to show just the most perverted and entertaining scenes, or generally just bits with unlimited crack in them.

And here I had almost forgotten about the flying panties, Astraea being a complete ditz, or that time where Tomoki started prancing about on stage singing a song about tingling nipples. Not to mention all those incidents using Ikaros’ cards to transform into other forms, like Tomoko or the water in the pool. Then he threw Nymph out because she was flat, LMAO xD Ahh, good times…

Kazane Hiyori

I felt a bit Tsukishima’d when I saw all these snaps of Hiyori hanging out with Tomoki and everyone else as if they’ve been friends for ages – I know it’s hard to do it any other way since this is a movie, but something immediately felt off underneath all the ecchi and “initiation tests”, which was just a roundabout way of making Hiyori feel part of the group. Then we have her more-than-suspicious bell accessory on her hair ringing at various points, which was more than foreshadowing for later events.

While I never got the chance to say this during Seasons 1 and 2, I’ve always admired Sugata for being both extremely retarded and perceptive at the same time. His spiel about the “New World” ended up coming true in the form of the Synapse, and he was the first one to learn more about it and meet Daedalus through the Dive Game with Nymph. I’m also pretty sure he knows things he’s not telling Tomoki, for one reason or another.

Anyway, Hiyori goes out to meet Tomoki for his reply to her confession, and- OH MY GOD SHE GOT HIT BY A TRUCK O_O Sorry, I had to stop for a minute for the sudden genre change after all that ecchi, since it usually happens in between episodes. I don’t think any of us non-manga readers would have guessed her exact situation – an Angeloid who falsifies her existence onto Sorami City, with everyone’s memories of her erased by the Synapse whenever she dies…that’s a really sad existence to live in. Taking a leaf from Nisemonogatari’s book, the student Hiyori is just a fake, and the sadist Master enjoys watching her being so close, yet so far from Tomoki, who has ironically been the source of all the Master’s problems so far in the series.

What was slightly confusing was all the boundary and reality plot devices they used – my guess is that since Tomoki had Hiyori’s bell accessory, he was able to remember at least part of her existence until Nymph told him outright that she wasn’t real. He really needs to  imprint more of these Angeloids though.

VS Zeta, Angeloid of Clockwork

I find myself thinking back to the battle against Chaos (you know, that creepy creepy girl) where suddenly, you see a whole different side to SnO. No retarded scenes, minimal ecchi and lots of emphasis on Angeloid torture. Yeah, I didn’t appreciate Nymph getting counter-hacked, since I felt enough pain from her physical abuse in Season 2. Anyway, Zeta looked absolutely stunning, with the entire battle-Angeloid outfit as well as that huge clockwork timepiece behind her.

Her appearance felt a bit sudden, and I think  a bit of her backstory as an Angeloid would have been more useful than the amount of recap material they put in. Seeing as this was a movie, I knew Hiyori would have to leave the main cast sooner or later, but I guess I set my hopes too high when I thought she’d be hanging around, since I know it ends differently in the manga. Better her than the creepy Chaos loli anyway.

Overall Impression

I still cannot get the parallels with Bleach’s Tsukishima out of my head, with the creepy sudden appearances and disappearances from group photos and Hiyori forging her existence into people’s pasts (like with a child Tomoki by the scenic hilltop) then having everyone forget her after she “dies”. Nevertheless, it was a pretty interesting movie given the limited amount of actual plot – with yet more Angeloid concepts that are still difficult to get around. Bring on Season 3!

9/10