I put up with terrible media for suits and queerbaiting isn't actually news

[spindizzy]

Have you ever done that thing where you get two mouthfuls into a meal and suddenly realise it's absolutely terrible, but you keep eating it because eating something else involves making decisions and you're pretty sure that nothing's gonna taste good now anyway?

So yeah, I watched the first series of High Rise Invasion, and it's not good. [CW: suicide, sexual harrassment, male gaze related grossness] I picked it because I needed something to occupy my brain while I was knitting, and mistook it for a horror thing about escaping a place that's trying to kill you! And it TECHNICALLY is that – a bunch of people are kidnapped and stashed on top of skyscrapers that are connected by rope bridges, with no way down. The buildings are patrolled by people wearing masks that mind control them, whose goal is to drive anyone not wearing a mask into jumping off the buildings. Oh, and anyone can put ON a mask, but they can't take them off afterwards without dying! Yuri, our protagonist, starts out trying to find her brother, who is also trapped in this hellscape, and does the classic "... Well, better assemble an army and fix this entire world!" arc. BUT it's got way less horror and way more gore than I really wanted.

I'm pretty confident in saying that this isn't just the depression sucking joy out of everything, I'm pretty sure High Rise Invasion is actually bad. It's got this miasma of gross male gaze bullshit to wade through for any of the stuff that I like; if there's the option for the camera angle to be upskirting, it is, and both of the main characters get their clothes ripped in the first few episodes so that their underwear is permanently on show. Oh, and the way they establish "Nah, people are trash even without the masks" is some guy threatening the protagonist until she strips for him. And most of the secondary characters are completely interchangeable – I assume in the manga/light novel/whatever this is based off, they have actual personalities, but sithe has assured me the manga is terrible too, so I'm not that hopeful.

BUT it turns out that I will put up with a lot more grossness and bad writing for scraps of things I do like. Female protagonist who is going to change the world by making friends AND kicking people? Yes! Best friend/love interest who is a very protective murderer with issues and a knife? Yes! Bait and switch on who a character is, with bonus memory fuckery? Yes! Gaining phenomenal cosmic power to protect your favourite human? Yes! ... Seriously, I'm so mad because the Yuri/Nise relationship is exactly my sort of messed up nonsense! They are both ready to discard their humanity and put themselves through hell to protect the other one! And then the show realises that there's a sweet relationship moment going on and throws in a joke about underwear or grinding just so you don't get too relaxed.

(Look, I'm really annoyed about it because Sniper Mask and Rika get to have action scenes while fully clothed, so the show CAN do it! Just not if you're a female character!)

... Also there's some bullshit cosmology stuff about creating god in there and honestly I don't care! Because most of the characters competing to become god have no personality! Like, I'd be more interested in the ethical questions that come with ostensible good guys gaining control of the Masks, despite having the ability to free them from the original mask-based mind-control. Like. It is canon that people are aware of their actions while controlled by masks, and instead of an arc about recruiting Masks willingly, the focus is about the protagonist getting the ability to mind-control people herself...? Please, I'm begging you, acknowledge that this is a problem that needs to be addressed, give me something here.

(You remember Fido? The film about 50s suburbia but with zombies, the one with Zombie Billy Connolly? There's a relationship in here that's basically the next-door neighbour and his way too young zombie girlfriend/pet, with none of the awareness that it's creepy. Gah.)

... Also I have questions about the characters' lives before they got dumped into this hellpit. Like. I know the masks are allocated roles based on their preferences/costumes, but that means we officially know more about the monster of the week characters than we do about pretty much anyone else. Shout out to Kamen Rider Kamen for having the coolest and silliest name though!

I'm very impatient for the payoff of the Sniper Mask and Rika thing, by the way. Sniper Mask is TOO COOL, and everyone is far too adamant that he's hot and friends with Rika. I am very suspicious of every show that seems to be playing a thing straight! It usually means that I've missed something! But until then, I guess I'm going to enjoy Sniper Mask being cool and the drama of Rika's final scene. (... Sniper Mask vs White Feather was simultaneously cool and silly, so I'm into it.) While also going "No, my ship is canon, you can't take it away from me" about Yuri and Nise.

WHAT I'M SAYING is that it's not a good show. BUT, as something that required zero processing power on my part while I knitted forty rows of blanket: it did the job I wanted it for!