Brooooooooo I was so happy when I read the description of the last episode, as it implied Takopi would find a way to save Shizuka, Marina and Naoki, cuz that's exactly the kind of ending I wanted to happen all along, but man did they fumble the execution.
First off, the camera being broken after killing Marina was the whole reason for this mess in the first place. The fact that Takopi could have make it work again at any time is driving me crazy. Sure he would have had to sacrifice himself, which explains why he didn't do it this entire time. But why wasn't this something he explained sooner? If not to the other characters, at least to us the viewers (through an inner monologue or something, or by trying to hint at it, but being cut off by other characters before he can finish his sentence) It would have been so much more satisfying knowing this entire time that he could do it, but at an incredibly cost. Hence why he went along with trying to find an alternative solution to solving the problem of Marina's death. It would have made it so much more impactful knowing that in the end depaite how hard they tried, the failed an hence Takopi's sacrifice was the only option in the end.
BUT THAT'S NOT EVEN TRUE. Cuz remember how that clock on his home planet still exists?!! Naoki even mentions it again in this episode. Heck he basically straight up tells Takopi, to use it to go back in time.
But the dumb octopus doesn't.
And even if the author wanted to still go the route of using the camera again, just say Naoki somehow managed to fix it. Does it make sense? No. But still more satisfying than what we got. You could even say Naoki wasn't able to perfectly fix, and that's why Takopi has to power it by sacrificing himself. But at least it would mean that Takopi couldn't have done it way earlier.
And speaking of things that don't make sense. How tf does Marina remember Takopi???? I get that the story is trying to hint at the fact that deep down Shizuka and Marina still remember him despite the time being reversed. Shizuka I can somewhat understand, since she met Takopi when she was in elementary school. BUT MARINA HASN'T MET TAKOPI YET??!?!?!? It's not until middle school that she remembers him. Are you telling me, she somehow has her memories of her older self from the previous timeline??? I'm sorry but that makes no sense whatsoever.
And it's not even like it was established before that you could regain your memories of a previous timeline after time is reversed. That would have been neat, like if Takopi had lost his memories due to time travel but eventually regained them. But remember, that's not what happened, cuz Takopi's mom erasering his memories was the reason he had lost them, not time travel itself.
Honestly, if only these two things (making the camera work and regaining your memories from previous timelimes) would have been foreshadowed in earlier episodes, it would have made this ending truly great. But without any foreshadowing, it just seems like these plot points were pulled out of thin air, which is just disappointing cuz it could have been done so much better.
Other than that, I find it weird that Marina and Shizuka are suddenly all friendly with each other now. But then again, it's not like there was a happy gadget that could have made them make up with each other... oh wait.
All in all, Episode 6 couldn't live up to the peak that was episode 5 imo. Imma probably still leave my rating of this anime at 10/10, cuz that's just how highly I think of the first 5 episodes. But know that right now as I'm writing this, I wanna knock it down to 9 so badly, just for the wasted potential in this episode alone. But it gave me a happy ending, so I'll be nice. |