Pursuit of Heavens – Kōan Web Series Episode 2 Review
A faltering follow up, the second episode of Kōan, the online animated anthology series, ‘Pursuit of Heavens’ lacks the brilliant simplicity of their opening masterpiece.
After finding the opening entry (‘What’s There’) of Kōan (an animated anthology series from Moti Media available on YouTube) to be an unexpected delight with a perfect combination of ideas and visuals offering feasts for both eyes and minds all enraptured in something that was a signal of pure ambition and independent artistry, it is a shame that the follow-up, Pursuit of Heavens, is far less successful. The ambition and daring animating remains but the conceptual crux is lacking a true target and with a scope so vast and societally established it is frustratingly aimless and feels like a futile, intellectually self-aggrandizing endeavour.
A shining light of ‘What’s There’ was the paint-like fluid animation that dared to step outside of the status quo and did so with a purpose that made the underpinning ideas all the more potent. But the animation becomes slightly more conventional in the beginning of ‘Pursuit of Heavens’, with an art style that could be transposed upon the abundance of CGI animation from the 2010s but less finessed as the aesthetic has an unsettling plastic artificiality. All this before older influences reignite the ingenuity of the opening ‘What’s There?’ when the animation endeavours upon interdimensional exploration with progress bars and an 80’s arcade synth jettisoning any fear of the series venturing down a ploddingly orthodox avenue as the 2-minute short is diverted toward the eccentricity that allows this Kōan anthology to soar.
The nature of these short formats does mean that the ambition shown in the ideas can lead to dissatisfaction when such ideas feel poorly drawn and underexplored. This is certainly ‘Heavens’ biggest failing. The grand concept of Why? and the nature of reality and space are at the core of ‘Heavens’ as it pulls upon a structured age-old cultural understanding and attempts to prompt questioning, but in truth it barely rattles the status quo. Its ambitions may be commendable but when grappling with such concepts in as limited a span as this episode does, it barely establishes the core ideas, never mind beginning to offer revelations or conclusions. Even any profundity that the entire series is infused with is missing which makes what is an expansive and endless idea feel tragically empty.
Flawed but admirable it’s hard to hold too much distaste for this second of eight outings in the Kōan anthology series but it fails to capture the same awe-inspiring wisdom of others in the series.
