Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers Episode 12 Discussion

ernest314 said:
This show wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, but I have to say I think the ending is much better than people seem to be giving it credit for.

A lot of people seemed to expect some kind of "coma"/"terminally-ill"/"dream" resolution to the story, but the issue with those is that it cheapens the original episodes, and in the worst-case scenario you end up with a finale that ends up making the rest of the series seem worse. If you do something like that you need to add something else to it, a different message, in addition to the "what you just witnessed was completely meaningless". Say what you will about Your Name, its ending actually does this very well, and you could interpret it along the lines of "love is created through interwoven experiences, and even though they may not remember their old ones, they now have the chance to create new ones in the future".

I would argue that in ep.11, Magical Destroyers already crossed the "it was all a dream" line--by revealing that the entire season had been scripted, and that the ending was predestined. In order to save us from going "well why did I bother watching that then", the real ending in ep.12 had to do something radically different. The difficulty is that the most straightforward possibilities aren't very good. Shobon wins and takes over the world? boring and pointless. Otaku Hero saves the day with the power of friendship? boring and hackneyed. They ascend to fight on some higher plane of existence? boring, and still not solving the issue where "it was all a script" invalidates the original storyline. It's difficult to come up with a good ending because by definition it is an ending, and it's scripted, and it just makes the entire anime feel blasé.

One small diversion before I wrap this up. Obviously there is no "correct" way to interpret an anime, but this is the way I interpreted the final episode, and I think it is an interesting interpretation: Otaku Hero is a Christ figure (in a literary sense). When he dies, his pose is that of crucifixion. His death includes puncture wounds. He is betrayed by his "disciples", who happen to be "born" on a snowy Christmas night... heck, his "otaku" flag is a friggin' cross, fer Christ's sake. ... and the ending song is literally a gospel. When you look at the episode in this way, there's an obvious way to interpret what happened--his body disappeared; he had risen. Of course, this isn't the whole story--in the earliest manuscripts we have, Jesus never reappeared in the flesh. We simply have visions and spiritual experiences. If you aren't religious, you would say that Jesus (the man) died; of course he didn't come back to life. I think this anime is implying the same; Otaku Hero died, of course he didn't come back to life, but his body disappeared--he transcended and what is important is what he stood for. Otaku Hero the Second isn't our original Otaku Hero, but he carries on representing what the original Otaku Hero represented.

And so I think the ending of Magical Destroyers succeeds on two fronts. It sends a more interesting message than just "like what you want to like", it says "you have to fight for what you want to like, and that fight never ends, you must keep fighting for it". But poetically, it also manages to satisfy us with a story that was meaningful after all, even after the "it was all a script" fake-out--the ending is that our protagonists managed to break out of the script. It seems like a limp, unsatisfying way to wrap up the story, but it is the only way to truly defeat Shobon and preserve the meaning of the rest of the season. It might not seem that important that they're "going off-script", but it's a huge victory, and the only way they can win.

--------

Now, personally I don't think the rest of the episodes actually support the final episode very well, or rather they could've been done much better. But it also could be that I just don't like the rather postmodern style of the story, but I can appreciate what it tried to do. ... But at the end of the day, I don't think the final episode was the weak link of this anime series; in fact I think it was quite a good ending and exceeded my expectations.

ernest314 said:
but his body disappeared

Chipp12 said:
"Pls play our mobile game" the ending I guess.

Stark700 said:
Not going to lie, Otaku Hero without his glasses on is on another level of badass this episode.

poemofdevil said:
Thta swa lfwau.
ihTs owhs llef ffo so hdra wayidm thrguho eht osesna. tA seatl ehnw ti satnw noggi edep iton teh mina ostyr leni sftuf and neignla hyleiav on eoymdc/sgga wthi eth ilsgr ti aws unf ot ctwha. euBsl MBDS ftufs... eTh wsim tsui poieeds... tI wsa tpiusd and yilsl owl owrb omydce ofc, tub it asw nitieratneng luinke eht tals vasreel oepdssei. I was itdrunieg dna cdeixet ot ese the torsy eeodlvp, tbu wtha ehty adh ni nidm was fdklab-hea, serlauipfci, kfiucng ibhrsiebg. I efel pymet nad iioneptdpsda onw that I veha hewcatd it lla.  tI etfl elik etyh dha ignhotn neandlp dna erew jtsu wntiigr eht ohsw ta het astl teiumn teh psta svalere wekes. lwufA.
Wath vree pdhapnee ot rlyeSa nyaawy? Ddi esh eid na ispedoe ro owt aog? Did I rofetg or mssi mheoigtsn?
ghslthiigH ofr em eerw het scmiu, OP nad DE, hte ydmeoc alyre no in teh oseasn, ayitolKtlet rietraoetn swylaa gndiy, dan het nraosarfnitomt ecness hhwci rwee niceyl ntmaeida. dI asy hte ebts namaionit ni eth show epaeapdr airlere in eht aeossn. It aws yvre ulgy rudgin eht ncedso hfla. tI mbeeca a hosw ttha refodef oopr aiitnonam, a tispud rytso, dna nntme vuela.

ernest314 said:

And so I think the ending of Magical Destroyers succeeds on two fronts. It sends a more interesting message than just "like what you want to like", it says "you have to fight for what you want to like, and that fight never ends, you must keep fighting for it". But poetically, it also manages to satisfy us with a story that was meaningful after all, even after the "it was all a script" fake-out--the ending is that our protagonists managed to break out of the script. It seems like a limp, unsatisfying way to wrap up the story, but it is the only way to truly defeat Shobon and preserve the meaning of the rest of the season. It might not seem that important that they're "going off-script", but it's a huge victory, and the only way they can win.

nicktrito said:
I don't think I've ever had a show go from a solid 7 in my mind to a 4 so fast. That ending was just plain atrocious. It was like this was meant to be a 24 episode series, and then after episode 11 last week the producer called the writer up and said "Alright, let's wrap this thing up". Honestly ruined my whole experience with what was to this point a very good series. 

poemofdevil said:
That was awful.

This show fell off so hard midway through the season. At least when it wasn't going deep into the main story line stuff and leaning heavily on comedy/gags with the girls it was fun to watch. Blue's BDSM stuff... The swim suit episode... It was stupid and silly low brow comedy ofc, but it was entertaining unlike the last several episodes. I was intrigued and excited to see the story develop, but what they had in mind was half-baked, superficial, fucking gibberish. I feel empty and disappointed now that I have watched it all.  It felt like they had nothing planned and were just writing the show at the last minute the past several weeks. Awful.

What ever happened to Slayer anyway? Did she die an episode or two ago? Did I forget or miss something?

Highlights for me were the music, OP and ED, the comedy early on in the season, Kyotaro always dying, and the transformation scenes which were nicely animated. I'd say the best animation in the show appeared earlier in the season. It was very ugly during the second half. It became a show that offered poor animation, a stupid story, and little entertainment value.

poemofdevil said:

What ever happened to Slayer anyway? Did she die an episode or two ago? Did I forget or miss something?

ernest314 said:
This show wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, but I have to say I think the ending is much better than people seem to be giving it credit for.

A lot of people seemed to expect some kind of "coma"/"terminally-ill"/"dream" resolution to the story, but the issue with those is that it cheapens the original episodes, and in the worst-case scenario you end up with a finale that ends up making the rest of the series seem worse. If you do something like that you need to add something else to it, a different message, in addition to the "what you just witnessed was completely meaningless". Say what you will about Your Name, its ending actually does this very well, and you could interpret it along the lines of "love is created through interwoven experiences, and even though they may not remember their old ones, they now have the chance to create new ones in the future".

I would argue that in ep.11, Magical Destroyers already crossed the "it was all a dream" line--by revealing that the entire season had been scripted, and that the ending was predestined. In order to save us from going "well why did I bother watching that then", the real ending in ep.12 had to do something radically different. The difficulty is that the most straightforward possibilities aren't very good. Shobon wins and takes over the world? boring and pointless. Otaku Hero saves the day with the power of friendship? boring and hackneyed. They ascend to fight on some higher plane of existence? boring, and still not solving the issue where "it was all a script" invalidates the original storyline. It's difficult to come up with a good ending because by definition it is an ending, and it's scripted, and it just makes the entire anime feel blasé.

One small diversion before I wrap this up. Obviously there is no "correct" way to interpret an anime, but this is the way I interpreted the final episode, and I think it is an interesting interpretation: Otaku Hero is a Christ figure (in a literary sense). When he dies, his pose is that of crucifixion. His death includes puncture wounds. He is betrayed by his "disciples", who happen to be "born" on a snowy Christmas night... heck, his "otaku" flag is a friggin' cross, fer Christ's sake. ... and the ending song is literally a gospel. When you look at the episode in this way, there's an obvious way to interpret what happened--his body disappeared; he had risen. Of course, this isn't the whole story--in the earliest manuscripts we have, Jesus never reappeared in the flesh. We simply have visions and spiritual experiences. If you aren't religious, you would say that Jesus (the man) died; of course he didn't come back to life. I think this anime is implying the same; Otaku Hero died, of course he didn't come back to life, but his body disappeared--he transcended and what is important is what he stood for. Otaku Hero the Second isn't our original Otaku Hero, but he carries on representing what the original Otaku Hero represented.

And so I think the ending of Magical Destroyers succeeds on two fronts. It sends a more interesting message than just "like what you want to like", it says "you have to fight for what you want to like, and that fight never ends, you must keep fighting for it". But poetically, it also manages to satisfy us with a story that was meaningful after all, even after the "it was all a script" fake-out--the ending is that our protagonists managed to break out of the script. It seems like a limp, unsatisfying way to wrap up the story, but it is the only way to truly defeat Shobon and preserve the meaning of the rest of the season. It might not seem that important that they're "going off-script", but it's a huge victory, and the only way they can win.

--------

Now, personally I don't think the rest of the episodes actually support the final episode very well, or rather they could've been done much better. But it also could be that I just don't like the rather postmodern style of the story, but I can appreciate what it tried to do. ... But at the end of the day, I don't think the final episode was the weak link of this anime series; in fact I think it was quite a good ending and exceeded my expectations.