When you come right down to it, the failures of Agents of the Four Seasons can be boiled down to good old-fashioned Aristotelian Poetics. A little over 2,300 years ago, our boy Aristotle codified some pretty influential ideas about the fundamental nature and power of dramatic storytelling, with the concept of “catharsis” being particularly significant. To make a very complex point as simple as possible, the dramatic element of catharsis is that all-important but difficult-to-define sensation of cleansing and renewal that comes from experiencing the suffering of characters in a classical work of capital-T Tragedy. In short, all you need to know for this review is the simple fact that a successful work of drama is meant to use the trauma endured by its characters as a tool for creating an emotional response in its audience. Critically, this response is meant to be a fundamentally positive and constructive one. We do not wallow in misery for misery’s sake. We must empathize with characters that we care about as they endure terrible pain and suffering so that we can ultimately use those experiences to reach a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world.

As of this writing, I’ve just returned from an extended vacation to Japan, and my earnest hope was that Agents of the Four Seasons would actually benefit from having a few episodes to power through all at once upon my return. When we last left off, after all, the titular Agents and their Guardians were all finally teaming up to launch a rescue mission for poor Nadeshiko. The show is not at all subtle about the thematic significance of Hinagiku and the others confronting the same Insurgents who caused them so much pain and heartache all those years ago. Throughout these three episodes, characters like Sakura, Itecho, and even Hinagiku herself eschew any pretense of subtext and just flat-out tell each other and the audience that this is their chance to overcome the trauma they endured and finally move on. Emotional cleansing in the face of overwhelming tragedy is literally the end goal for the characters within the universe of the story, never mind the broader goal of the show itself. After all these weeks of painfully meticulous setup, though, why is it that Agents of the Four Seasons still falls so short of providing any meaningful catharsis?

For starters, the story is just not good enough to justify all of its navel-gazing misery fetishization on even a surface level of basic entertainment. Even if we look past the inconsistent and often sloppy direction and animation that make all of the action beats in the episodes feel fairly underwhelming, the world-building and character writing continue to crumble under scrutiny. You’d think that getting so much information about the different Insurgent factions and leaders like Misuzu Henderson would finally satisfy me after weeks of complaining about vague and uninteresting villains, but Agents of the Four Seasons can’t even pretend to give a damn about writing a halfway-decent conflict between these different parties. Its understanding of the insurgents’ motivations never goes any deeper than the half-formed ramblings of kids smashing their action figures together on the playground.

For goodness’ sake, at one point we get a flashback where Rindo tells Nadeshiko that the Insurgents may talk a big game about having nuanced and complex motivations rooted in the fundamental iniquities caused by the foibles of human society, but all of that is just an excuse to do terrorism. Misuzu gets the usual token backstory filled with discrimination and sexual abuse, but it only serves as a juvenile attempt to justify her frankly insane and cartoonishly evil behavior. Agents of the Four Seasons has the gall to straight-up tell us that its villains’ motivations are inexcusably simple and stupid, and then it continues to waste our time on melodramatic flashbacks in an attempt to convince us that trauma is the real antagonist.

It’s as if the show is gripping us by our collective skulls and insisting, “Sure, the deranged super-terrorist arms dealer drops intercontinental missiles on seven-year-olds and attempts to use her kidnapping victims as sex slaves, but don’t you get that hurt people hurt people? It’s, like, a cycle of violence, man!” This tasteless, shotgun-blast approach to exploiting trauma is what makes Agents of the Four Seasons so trashy, despite its prestige drama ambitions. It’s no wonder that catharsis has effectively become impossible for both its cast and its audience. No matter how much lip service the script might pay to Hinagiku’s growth or the other characters finally moving on, the show has time and again refused to stop writing around in the mud-pits of suffering and finally have something to say. It doesn’t actually want to experience catharsis. There is no deeper understanding to be gained. For Agents of the Four Seasons, all of this juvenile trauma pornography is itself the end by which all means are justified. That’s called “bad art,” my friends. Plain and simple.

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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.