occa is hardly a standout among his fellow high-school students; he's failed a crucial test, and his parents have been forced to bribe his school principal to make sure he passes next time. In spite of his technical mastery of the bow, his archery teacher publicly mocks him for not playing along with the accepted class line that arrows and technique are useless but make-believe soul-arrows can slam through iron walls. Bocca keeps his feelings on soul-arrows to himself, but he stands up to his flirty classmate Elle when she insists he should celebrate his parents' arrangement with the principal because now he doesn't have to work but still can't fail. She also thinks he should avoid friendly eccentric mechanic Old Man Tsunagi.
But unlike Elle, Bocca is fixated on rumors of monsters, warriors and human sacrifices, and when he visits Tsunagi and witnesses a battle between a demonic fiend and a "warrior of Melos," he sees proof that the rumors are true. Like that warrior, Kurofune, Bocca has visions of a beautiful, sad-looking girl known only as "Melody of Oblivion." Also like Kurofune, Bocca has a strange, tattoolike mark on his arm that glows and imparts mystical powers to his arrows when he voices the battle cry "Ring out! My Melos!" And thanks to Tsunagi, Bocca receives another mark of a warrior—an "Aibar machine," a high-tech motorbike-like device that responds to his verbal commands. Having failed to defeat his enemy, Kurofune departs with a few cryptic hints about Bocca's duties and goals, and Bocca sets out to track him down and learn where and who Melody of Oblivion truly is.
The first two episodes of The Melody of Oblivion also introduce Sayoko, a hugely endowed loudmouth whose magical chains point the way to Kurofune, whom she's fallen in love with. As Bocca grimly sets out to fight monsters and become a more adept warrior, Sayoko tags along, alternately flaunting her body at him and calling him a lech who's victimizing her. Together, they arrive at a sunless tourist town where monsters operate openly, the townsfolk cooperatively offer sacrifices, and the mysteries run deep.
A future made by monsters
The Melody of Oblivion takes place in the 21st century, following a war against monsters that led to "bloodshed so violent that no words could ever explain." Given some of the monster powers on display, that doesn't come as much surprise; their abilities range widely, though they tend toward the creepy, inexplicable and unnatural. Further, humanity seems bent on either forgetting that monsters exist or trying to gain personal power by serving them. The result is a fascinatingly odd world where everyone is a potential enemy and there's no telling what a given antagonist might do: turn people into clattering wooden puppets, manifest a head made out of snakes, call up a bus with bull legs and horns or send out a minion in a giant robot. No matter what methods they use, the series' monsters are eerie and otherworldly in a way that keeps Melody endlessly fresh.
That's in spite of the fairly typical and dull dynamic between Bocca and Sayoko; so far, the latter mostly seems to be around so she can waltz through every third scene in increasingly unlikely and skimpy outfits and pick on Bocca in the usual anime battle-of-the-sexes dynamic. Bocca himself is an interesting fellow, though—his easy adaptation to his new lifestyle manifests in ways that are as unpredictable as the monsters he fights. Far from the usual whiny anime hero-designate, he seems cool and capable, even though he's far from having all the answers.
Melody's heavy designs and lush, radical color shifts—things tend to go red when the monsters manifest, for instance—recall visually extreme series like Pet Shop of Horrors more than anything else, though some of the archery combat design leans closer to Arjuna without being up to the same visual level. The animation isn't exceptional, and the character designs are breast-obsessed to a distracting degree. Still, like so many series, Melody really livens up when the action starts. For fans of creepy horror, it's worth tuning in for the monster battles alone.
I haven't seen any of this series apart from what's on this disc, so I'm really hoping the continuation of the storyline eventually explains what's up with the image of all the giant babies heading in an endless line into the hotel.
— Tasha
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