Platinum End ep 13- Bad Guy is Bad

The Winter 2022 anime season has just started and I’m not gonna lie, there are a lot of shows that look way more exciting than Platinum End premiering. But you know, I think my OCD would go wild if I left the series only half reviewed. Besides, I do rag on this show a lot but at the end of the day, it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever watched. sometimes it’s funny.

Not this time though. This was not a great episode.

I think my main problem with episode 13 of Platinum End, is that it was, for lack of a better word, completely useless. First, it was just one long standoff, we started the episode with Mirai and Metropoliman facing off in sort of a variant of a Mexican standoff and we ended the episode in the exact same spot. There was no linear progression of the plot at all.

Instead, they did that thing we all make fun of shows for and they had the main characters go through an ideological debate in the middle of a fight for some reason. Didn’t their arms hurt after a while?

This could be forgiven if the episode had some other purpose. A lot of it was a flashback to Metropolitans past and it could have served to better develop his character or maybe nuance him a bit. You know, humanize him or potentially show that he has a very good idea of how to change the world and might in fact be the best choice for a new god. Create some conflict for the audience.

But no. Instead, we saw Metropoliman’s little sister when she was alive. I hate to say this but she really seemed annoying to me. I was a bit relieved that we weren’t likely to see much of this character in the future. Then the entire thing turned into what I can best describe as an American Psycho-type monologue, over images of Metropoliman working out naked which somehow just fit perfectly with that idea. And I guess that could have been fun but it just made me think that I should rewatch American Psycho at some point.

In the end, it just didn’t do anything. We already knew that Metropoliman’s little sister had died and that’s what drove him to become suicidal. Finding out the details didn’t add anything to the current story. It didn’t affect the narrative or change something about how we saw the character in any way. All it told me was that they hired an architect with a very tenuous grasp on what the point of a conservatory is. And I don,t think that’s the message the show was trying to bring across.

After that, they gave Metropoliman another long super villain speech that once again serves no purpose. You could argue that they are really driving home how evil the character is but they had him shoot an innocent, helpless tied-down child for no particular reason in the first act. At this point, the fact that he happens to be elitist and has some real outdated ideas on the role of women seems like it’s not adding that much.

It would have been better if they leaned into it much more and showed every tiny transgression he’s ever done. Like when travelling to a country with a tipping culture, leaving 2% less than the standard amount just because. Or sitting in the seats reserved for older people and pregnant women on the bus even though there are a lot of other empty seats. You know, just be really petty about it. At least that would have been funny.

Basically, this entire episode can be summed up a: bad guy is bad repeated over and over again for 23 minutes.

Previous Episodes

• Platinum End ep 1 – A Messy Start
• Platinum End ep 2- With Great Power
• Platinum End ep 3- Amore
• Platinum End ep 4- How Blasé
• Platinum End ep 5- Everybody Hates Metropoliman
• Platinum End ep 6- Another Fakeout
• Platinum End ep 7- Saki Saves the Day
• Platinum End ep 8- Emotional Baggage
• Platinum End ep 9- Ridiculous
• Platinum End ep 10- She’s an Angel!
• Platinum End ep 11- In the Name of Love
• Platinum End ep 12- Baby’s First Philosophy Class