Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring ‒ Episode 5

©Kana Akatsuki, Suoh/Straight Edge, KADOKAWA/Agency of the Four Seasons

Last week, for the ANN After Show podcast (which you should all definitely subscribe and tune in to every week!), we covered A Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA, and I couldn't help but compare the show as emotionally affecting cocktail of angst and ennui that Agents of the Four Seasons is often attempting to be with all of its melodramatic monologues and whatnot. Obviously, the two series have very different aims, since Awajima isn't also trying to be a thrilling action-adventure fable with a supernatural twist, but maybe it's that very ambition to meld so many genres and tones that is getting in Agents of the Four Seasons' way.

In my last review for the series' first four episodes, I noted how the series improved as it finally got the ball rolling on developing its characters and teasing out what this show is even really about, but I've still got plenty of reservations left as we dig into Episode 5. The biggest hurdle Agents still needs to overcome is its incredibly wishy-washy approach to developing conflict. The most distracting element of those earlier episodes was how, despite introducing these seasonal avatars and all of the magical mores that would impact society every day, the story can barely be bothered to explain what its central antagonistic force even is.

We have all of this trauma burdening practically every single Agent on account of the paramilitary forces that are apparently just constantly making attempts on the lives of these poor teenagers…or, maybe they're trying to kidnap the Agents and manipulate their seasonal powers like villains from a James Bond knockoff? The fact that even their basic motivations remain so ambiguous is enough of an issue, but the strangely vague nature of the show's world-building makes it impossible to really figure out why any of these action scenes matter in the bigger picture. Are these the forces of rival world governments, independent mercenary organizations, grassroots terrorist organizations, or what? If the Agent powers and roles are immediately transferred to other people upon the death of their predecessors, what is even to be gained from attacking them? I can think of many possible answers to these questions, but this isn't the kind of mystery-box driven show where tantalizing possibilities matter more than concrete details. It'd be like if the original Avatar cartoon went through half of its first season without even explaining what the different Nations were, or who the Fire Lord was, and so on.

All of this is to say that this latest episode started at a disadvantage with Rōsei and Itechō remaining completely disconnected from the other narrative threads while they drop all sorts of exposition about Hinagiku's background that really does not feel like it matters. I'm sure that all of the lore about the Spring Village's politics and so on could be important down the line, but there are much larger narrative details about the insurgents and the Agency that are being tossed out like meager breadcrumbs. Is it possible that I will be singing a completely different tune by the time we get through the rest of the series' revelations and twists? Sure, but I've been doing the job for long enough to figure a snipe-hunt from a genuine mystery, and we're already nearly halfway through the season.

At the very least, Sakura and Hinagiku's side of the story is about as entertaining as it has been. I've warmed up to Sakura over the last few episodes, which makes the scenes that consist mostly of banter easier to enjoy. As for Hinagiku…I'm sorry, but no. Her insufferably twee brand of traumatic regression is just too saccharine by half. I think Agents of the Four Seasons would generally be a much stronger show if it weren't so determined to write one of its central characters like this was a cheesy soap opera from decades ago.

This is especially true because she was already balancing on the knife's edge of try-hard cuteness overload in the flashbacks we see of her younger days. If this was the Hinagiku we had to deal with every week, it would be tolerable. A silly anime cliche, yes, but familiar enough for me to tune out as white noise. The extra few degrees of affected mannerisms and speech just go too far.

I do have to give Agents of the Four Seasons for exploiting the body-horror angle of its Agents' awakenings more in the flashback scenes. I'm biased towards anything spooky-ooky, to be sure, but I also genuinely think that it's easier to relate to these characters when we're focusing on the emotions and reactions that seem believable and human. At this point, I honestly feel like this story would have benefited from dropping all of the Insurgents vs. Agency nonsense and focusing on the creepy, unknowable designs of these seasonal forces that literally steal the lives of all these Agents from generation to generation. That is plenty of conflict enough, methinks.

When Agents of the Four Seasons isn't trying so hard to cram all of this international espionage and fantasy action into its plot, its dramatic beats can land surprisingly well. When we see little Hinagiku and Sakura embrace at the end of the episode, we really feel their bond in a way that is so much more authentic than whatever that first episode was trying to do. I don't know if it will be enough to save this series from being a bit of a hot mess, but there will hopefully be enough bright spots throughout the upcoming episodes to make it a hot mess worth experiencing all the same.

Episode Rating:

Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.