Reviews

Despite all my complaints about Max Heart, this was probably the perfect ending for a series. For a series I thought would never end, and for what I hated about last season's ending, along with the amount of pointless filler, they can really pull together some tear-jerking moments. Honoka and Nagisa giving up and dropping to the bottom of despair only to find hope. That's really a wonderful moment because it felt so genuine and wholesome. I didn't actually think Hikari would be able to give up her life, but when she did, it was really sad seeing the graduation scene, and I was as shocked as Nagisa to see she returned. (it's a deus ex machina, but I don't mind really. Other series get away with this as well, so why not.) That said, the season does have a fair degree of problems; some of these include severely limited animation. The animation in the first half of the series is frequently off-model and only vaguely illustrated at times; most scenes take place in the mansion, Tako Cafe, or the school. As a character, Hikari's characterization appears to be wildly inconsistent, showing an unnatural degree of mood swings and actions which suggest the opposite of what she's saying. She is also overly reliant on Nagisa and Honoka to protect her, not even bothering to transform half the time, despite stating she wants to protect them, as one example. The evil generals were serviceable to the plot, but lacked the charm that previous Dark Zone members had. After a while, Hikaru/the little boy simply became boring as there was nothing to his character outside of his relation to the Dark King, and thus most of his scenes felt wasted, especially when they occurred every episode. Character development was also limited; nearly every episode with Nagisa involved her as the butt of a joke, or involved her in a needless and fruitless romance with Fujimura. The series also relies overtly on stock footage; about four minutes of each episode is devoted to stock footage or 6-7 minutes including the opening and ending themes. Porun wasn't a problem, but Lulun was; Lulun's character served no real purpose at all other than to provide Porun with his own annoyance. This wouldn't be a problem if done properly, or if Porun was actually as annoying as other mascots who would deserve this. This show also lacked the animation to demonstrate the villains as a serious threat; for instance, let's say a character was thrown 20 feet down into a wall. Instead of showing the impact, the character would simply "cushion" themselves, as though they'd landed on a pillow, depleting much of the impact. As for Honoka and Nagisa, many of the impacts can't be said to have hurt them whatsoever; for about 80% of the attacks directed at them, they would simply backflip to perfectly land on their feet standing up MID ATTACK. This makes no sense whatsoever. The Heartiels were somewhat grating and dragged on the plot more than needed, considering each Heartiel stayed around about 3-4 episodes, for no apparent reason other than to watch the main characters live their lives. Unfortunately, I will be required to rate the series only a 5/10.