- Genre : Fantasy, Adventure, action, political
- Studio: A-1 Pictures
All things considered I guess this was exactly how this show would end…
Last week I doubted Grancrest would have time to wrap things up satisfyingly in a single episode seeing as they had been continuously introducing new story lines throughout the entire season. Somehow I had managed to both under and overestimate this show. They saw my challenge, looked me straight in the eye and raised me yet another plot point to gloss over. I really should have seen this coming. At this point, it’s my fault really.
Last episode ended on a cliffhanger and this one starts off immediately after with a modified Castlevenia like intro. The Theo possey is in the vampire dimension(?), everything is very red and ominous. They meet up with the Vampire King who does that real old school villain thing and just gives them a big boring presentation on his future aspirations and such. It’s almost adorably quaint. In short, if the end the age of Chaos, magic and demons disappear and the Vampire(s) all die. So he’s generally no too keen on it. Only he made a big long speech about it.
Theo goes, dun care about your species, get ready for extinction and everyone decides to fight, they get apparated back into that womb like room we saw in the first werewolves vs vampires episode and the twins are all super agro and want to avenge their mother. Except their mother was killed by the witch who was already defeated by the twins and killed. But whatever, I guess vampire dud should be more careful about who he makes friends with.
And they werewolf big bro appears out of nowhere dragging the vampire’s real body(?). How did he get there, how did he find the body, how did he know his sisters were going to be there (cause he was not surprised to see them in the least)? This is Grancrest fool, we don’t bother with such petty concerns!
At this point a disorganized fight takes place and it becomes amply apparent that the situation is completely one sided as Dimitrie just basically toys with them like a cat with a mouse. When he becomes bored after a few seconds, he changes the floor into a sea on blood and everyone starts to drown. I really enjoyed the shift in animation at this point, I wish it would have gone on longer. But almost immediately we get post mortem Priscilla Ex Machina, a light glows and the vampire king starts disintegrating. Yes it’s that easy…
The big bro wolfie sees his chance and attacks the vampire, he gets wounded in the process. The twins join in and kill the vampire. Everyone’s back in the normal dimension but big bro’s dead. Why bother bringing the character back at all. His one and only role in the episode was to die and I can’t say I particularly cared. The only plausible reason I could see for all of it was that they wanted to include that scene of the twins being adorably sad. I read somewhere that certain demographic found sad girls appealing and anime writers try to put in excuses for their female charas to tear up (it’s the same with boys and brooding).
So after defeating the final boss in less time than it takes Siluca to put on that ridiculous outfit, the scene jumps to Theo and Siluca walking past every lord to make it to the final mage stronghold where the Academy’s leader is waiting along with that huge black ball of his.
More useless villain speeches and The and Siluca decide to go into the ball instead of, you know – just about anything else would have been better. Like if they decided to put on a puppet show right then and there, I would have been, ok that works… So they touch the thing and get stargated into yet another dimensions. They are going to sleep like babies tonight. They see a pretty futuristic city that looks a bit like a Bioshock Infinite level, and meet up with Pandora. The agent of chaos explains that a long time ago, humans evolved beyond all expectations, creating wonders and miracles, but eventually they figured out how to create great sources of energy which were used to make weapons (because of course they were) and they blew up the planet (the images and speech lead us to believe that it was our fault, yours and mine, and that Grancrest actually takes place in the distant future.)
After humans destroyed their own world like morons, everybody else got together to come up with a way to prevent future uh-hohs. They decided that they would keep everyone in the age of chaos thereby forcing a certain balance and making it impossible for humans to set out again on the path that leads to oblivion. Now that she has explained the situation, Pandora pleads with Theo to help maintain the age f chaos and save the world. Theo goes F. the world, stargates outta there, tells the old mage guy, I’ma .gonna be emperor so like check yourself. Mage dude goes, this is my cue and drinks some good ole poison. Seems all mages really do carry that stuff around with them.
Theo goes back out, makes a huge crest and everybody wins.
Then the show goes in flash forward and we see follow Siluca on her way to her wedding. I was really hoping it would be to someone else but nopes. Not only is she going forward with this sham but it seems it’s a double wedding as Lexie and best girl Marine are also getting married at the same time in the same room… That seems kinda cheap and gimmicky. And for some reason that’s when chaos disappears from the world. Not 3 years earlier….
Point is, my main main Sir Whiskers Purrsalot the 3rd is either magic or a demon or something but he gets dusted as well. I seem to be the only one that cares.
I really didn’t go into much detail yet this review is already too long. In a way this episode is a very good representation of the series. It tries to cram way too much in. Makes visible budget cuts on the animation which prevents us form trully getting lost in the action sequences and doesn’t take the dime to flesh out the characters enough to be able to capitalize on the emotional climaxes.
After all this, I still just miss Villar. Once again, tons of stuff happened, some of it was confusing, a lot of it wasn’t completely thought out, and I didn’t care that much. It really was a fitting finale.
And yet….I didn’t hate the show. I wouldn’t recommend you invest 24 episode into it but it did have its charms and I’m glad I didn’t drop it halfway through.
Thank you all for keeping me company through this one. Thank you Crow for making his watch way more fun than it would have been otherwise. Hope to see you again next season!
I may have gone a little overboard with the screencaps. If you missed the episode you can just click through these really quickly – it will be like a slideshow!
You know, after all these episodes I’m still siding with chaos. Maybe because the show did such a terrible job showing us how dangerous it’s supposed to be. Just the occasional giant spider… *Shrug*
Also werewolf brother travelling with a vampire asleep in a coffin would make for a good road trip comedy.
Cat was the best character. I think he was holding out hope and vanished with the sense the show was supposed to make (I’m kidding it’s not that bad).
I’m with you in that as much as I’ve been frustrated by this show, I’m glad I saw it through to the end. Also glad it is finished. But there is something charming about it even as the plot and characters continue to just kind of throw themselves around without much in the way of context.
it could be stockholm syndrome….
Maybe, but we’ve all been released from captivity now so hopefully there won’t be any permanent damage.
“How did he get there, how did he find the body, how did he know his sisters were going to be there (cause he was not surprised to see them in the least)?”
I remember Aeon leaving in a previous episode for mysterious reasons, so him traveling to the castle makes at least a little sense. But you raise a really good point — how _did_ he know they’d be there? I don’t have an answer for that one!
“and The and Siluca decide to go into the ball instead of, you know – just about anything else would have been better.”
Did you laugh when Siluca said, “It might be a trap?” I did!
“I was really hoping it would be to someone else but nopes.”
So you never warmed up to Theo? I thought the last scene was kinda romantic and might have changed your mind, but maybe it’s a case of too little/too late? Still, Siluca finally gets to wear a full length dress instead of that “battle” mage outfit. That had to be a relief! And I bet her stomach’s a lot less chilly.
“don’t go kitty!!!”
I’m still thoroughly bummed about Bulgari (“Sir Whiskers Purrsalot” — LOL!). I hated to see him vanish. I think your title (A Farewell to Mittens) is a fitting way to say goodbye to him!
“Thank you Crow for making his watch way more fun than it would have been otherwise.”
Thank you, too! It was a lot of fun, and it was great being able to see the show from another perspective!
I don’t hate Theo although hi character development is sill a little baffling but I don’t like them much as a couple. I think both are more fun with other characters.
“it was great being able to see the show from another perspective!”
It definitely was – I knew no matter how much I disliked and episode you would show me some little gem I had missed