Märchen Mädchen Specials

On one hand, these two episodes are the closing chapters in one of the craziest stories in anime production - and from the staff literally giving up on the show, these final episodes are cathartic, a message to the production staff themselves that they are truly the ones who can write their own happy ending.

And on the other hand, dear Lord this anime is terrible.

Who are these characters? What is this story? What is even happening? I want to rewatch the first 10 episodes to find out but I really don't want to go through that hell again and I have a suspicion that even ... if I did rewatch it I still wouldn't have the faintest clue what is going on. Something about their moms failing to seal this book-eating destroyer of worlds, and now its up to them? You know what show did that exact same plot-line super well? Toji no Miko. If you want to see an example of this kind of story but done well, go watch that.

Hey, the art is like, okay again. There are a few moments where derpy cuts still leak through, but for the most part you can almost believe that Kantoku was the original character designer (the poor soul). The OP by fhana is still a great song (Wow wow!) and deserves recognition.

The characters are extremely flat, with linear motivations and shallow personalities. Though I recall the Russian team being super fun, and its a shame that there's barely a minute's worth of screentime for them. I think if they tried to capture almost a Girls und Panzer-esque fun atmosphere with more of the teams the show would play out better. Instead we get to focus on abused evil American girl and some English chick that I don't remember having a speaking role in the first 10 episodes.

It's clear that I didn't enjoy it, and the ending is extremely forced, but you know what, if that's what it takes to put to rest a past demon and finally get to move on from this disaster of a project, then I say these two episodes were a resounding success. I sincerely wish that the animators, production staff, voice actors and actresses, and other related staff can move on from this with no hard feelings and look towards a brighter future in their careers.