Summer Time Rendering Episode 2: An Immersive Slowburn

Summer TIme Rendering Episode 2 is more of a slow burn of thinking and correlating facts to arrive at a conclusion. One of my favorite things about mystery seinen is how they incorporate suspense into them. From Paranoia Agent to Babylon, the best kinds of seinen have that lingering ambiance of dread. Summer Time Rendering understood the assignment, and it’s so captivating because of it. 

The Immersive Ambiance of Summer Time Rendering

This episode flew by so fast that I didn’t even know it had ended. In the past two episodes, it feels like not much has happened when looking at it from the outside. However, while watching it, you’re so immersed that it feels like everything is happening at once. It’s an incredible experience to have so much so that when it’s over, you feel lost somewhat. Summer Time Rendering gives me that, and I kept wondering why. What was the reason for this immersion into this particular story? I watch a lot of anime from funny comedies to action shounens, but what makes this one stand out this year to me. It has little to no action, and it has almost no comedy.

Source: Disney+

Why Summer Time Rendering Works

The first reason is that it knows what it strives for and succeeds at it. Summer Time Rendering is not trying to make you laugh; it’s trying to make you think. The bare minimum for any show to be a success is to have an identity and succeed at being what it wants to be. Summer Time Rendering excels at that as it’s not trying to be shocking for shock value sake, nor is it trying to be overly stylistic. It has style but it’s contained within its genre and used in the best moments, which makes these moments matter more.

The second reason why Summer Time Rendering is such an immersive show is its protagonist. The way Shinpei behaves when he comes back from the dead is so logical and intelligent that it surprised me. I’d been so used to loud, inept protagonists that get through adversity via hard work and never giving up. Not saying I don’t appreciate those kinds of protagonists because I do. Naruto is one of my favorite anime protagonists of all time. That being said, I’m sure we can all agree that the type of protagonist is over-saturated in today’s anime society. Shinpei is just different and, for once, sensible. The way he thinks of using his camera to record the shadow. Him thinking of using an external charger. Even putting his phone on Airplane mode. Genius.

Shocking Scenes In a Slower Episode

Source: Disney+

The big moment of the Summer Time Rendering Episode 2 is when he comes back and sees that Shadows are real. He witnesses the gruesome death of the only law enforcer in the small town. Before Shinpei’s eyes, we need to learn the nature of Shadows in Summer Time Rendering. They use ‘snaps’ to copy the physical appearance of the people they wish to kill. They also can copy their memories via touch to the head, turning the person into a shadow. Shinpei’s phone rings and in a flash, the Shadow stabs him like there’s no tomorrow. The quickness with which he got nailed kind of amused me, but mostly scared me. These Shadows aren’t here to play. After he dies, he’s talked to by Ushio in the afterlife and told to protect Mio.

So, despite this being a calmer episode of Summer Time Rendering than the first one, we’re given a great deal of information. The story has moved forward due to Shinpei’s new influx of info on how Shadows work. With the episode ending with Mio now being in the loop, the story can only get more exciting from here.