And so, against all odds Ikki bests Todo, gets Stella, and proves himself to all.
Well I'm not sure where to begin. Regarding this last arc...I felt various conflicting emotions, mostly negative. The BS Ikki had to endure for literally no reason besides his dad hated him(or whatever excuse they gave) made me rage. At the same time it felt soooo over the top that it was tough to take seriously. Like leaving me with a sense of....exasperation. Even knowing all the power his dad had I just couldn't believe this was allowed, like literally, my suspension of disbelief snapped. And I like to think I have a high tolerance for BS. Then the show justifies Todo going along with it anyway for some BS chivalry crap reason, and Ikki actually agrees with her! And my suspension of disbelief snapped again.
I think it's just a different moral code. Were it me, if I knew my opponent was effectively being tortured repeatedly I'd refuse to fight based on principle, integrity, fairness. And were I in Ikki's shoes I'd curse Todo for going along with this farce until the day I died, certainly not agree with/support her decision! But this show treats these feelings as the wrong choices, and ok fair enough, maybe I'm wrong. THEN, when they finally do clash, it's one strike. That's it. Mind you it's one intensely animated strike, and I understand Ikki's too exhausted to do anymore, but it's underwhelming. I almost think it's because the scene relies entirely on emotional investment that it falls flat, but that's not it. I still felt the anger and then happiness for Ikki. The emotion was there. Rather, by this point the BS that led to this moment felt soooo stupidly unbelievable I was ready for it to end, I was done. So maybe even if we got some epic 10 minute battle like 2 episodes ago I wouldn't have liked it either, I dunno.
So what did I like about this arc? Stella...with a caveat. Stella this arc was great. I did think having her second guess her relationship with Ikki last week was bad. It undermined their progress just a bit. Progress that I loved btw. I, like many, watched this together with Asterisk. I, also like many, noticed the glaring similarities. And I was assured by fans of the LN that this series would be different. Stella and Ikki would be the clear couple from fairly early on, with a blossoming relationship. That would set this apart from Asterisk as the superior series. And I can now say...they were right. I was worried during those middle 4 episodes where Stella took a back seat and Ikki saved Ayase. But thankfully Stella, and her relationship with Ikki, became more prominent again in the last 4 episodes.
But getting back to that caveat regarding episode 11 yeah. By that point it shouldn't have taken Shizuku to snap Stella out of her fit of doubt. If anything, Stella should have went to where Ikki was and torched his captors! :D And if she got in trouble, just elope! :D But yeah...that wasn't gonna happen. :D Seeing her knock out that fat sack of trash this week, and become engaged with Ikki, was good enough I suppose. :D Immensely satisfying really.
So moving on to general series impressions uh...yeah. This was good. Good, not great. Better than Asterisk certainly. The romance alone ensured that, but I found the art, animation, character designs and whatnot were all better. No one from Asterisk, not even Claudia, matched the beauty of these girls, especially Stella. And of course the ecchi goodness was much better here too. :D So, naturally, Asterisk is the one that gets the second season. :D Oh well, 7/10.
BTW, how great was this show's op?! Same guy who did the s-CRY-ed ending. I'm surprised I don't hear that guy more often, he's got a great voice. And the show knew it was a good song too. Even skipping the intro they managed to fit it into this last episode, twice! :D |