Kyoukai Senki 13: Conclusion Of The Fight
A pretty nice “in media res” by the writer, by circling back to what episode 1 started off with. Well, I guess we can all see this coming that “that” scene must appear somehow, and what better way than to include it at the end? Although, this isn’t the definitive end just yet.
Continuing from last ep, Amou’s team tried to engulf Ghost in flame, turned out to be a failure, and the beast was still raing. On the other hand, Brad deployed a drone to scout the battlefield, as the most important thing for him is the data, which would probably be used to develop better AMAIM for the North America army. The episode first half was all about how Amou’s team tried their best to subdue Ghost, which was done beautifully. Even if at some points Ghost overwhelmed the team, the fight did not seem one-sided at all. Each side had their own plans to finish their opponent, and that our MAILeS team was using tactics while Ghost was slowly adapting to them, it’s quite literally a cat and mice situation. Well done on that part.
Continuing from last ep, Amou’s team tried to engulf Ghost in flame, turned out to be a failure, and the beast was still raing. On the other hand, Brad deployed a drone to scout the battlefield, as the most important thing for him is the data, which would probably be used to develop better AMAIM for the North America army. The episode first half was all about how Amou’s team tried their best to subdue Ghost, which was done beautifully. Even if at some points Ghost overwhelmed the team, the fight did not seem one-sided at all. Each side had their own plans to finish their opponent, and that our MAILeS team was using tactics while Ghost was slowly adapting to them, it’s quite literally a cat and mice situation. Well done on that part.
Amou has really changed. The first few episodes he was still a normal civilian trying to live his life in peace. But then, after Risa’s death and encountering “real” examples of how Japaneses are being oppressed, as well as what Yatagarasu is doing for the people, he has had a change of heart and resolved to help them out. Though this is quite a typical journey for a main character and that Amou hasn’t exactly “grow” yet, this epiosde really mark a highlight on him. His selfless action was something we didn’t expect, well maybe we expected that but not to such degree. At the end, I still think he will survive and will come back with a new, stronger MAILeS. What caught me off-guard was Brad at the end. The man went full Mr. Bushido on us. He’s obsessed with MAILeS just like Graham is with Gundam.
For the last ep of season 1, the series did a lot of things right. Pretty good music and fight scenes. Kyoukai’s animation has always been super solid but they really went all out for the last episode with Kenbu and Ghost duel. You can see the fluidity of the action and not just pure snappy frames that are like 10 actions apart. The transition between moves are very smooth and natural, which means the amount of inbetween frames are quite high, and they are all crisp looking frames too, unlike some very crude transitions in other series *cough MLA *cough. Aside from the animation, the climax felt a bit forced but still quite a heroic scene nevertheless. Love the last conversation between Gai and Amou.
Now, the negative. To sum it up my experience while watching the anime: It was like you are reading a book that you have known the pace and what will happen in the story. It plays, and feels like a “How to make a real robot mecha anime 101” kind of book. It was done with logic progress, but nothing really special about the plot. Characters had brains, but compared to the antagonists from various sides they felt bland. The story would be the same. But with the 2nd cour will be premiered on April, I do hope that the series will become better through time. The series is basically Sunrise Beyond’s way of advertising their 2D animation as well as train up new animators using Xebec’s experienced veterans that they acquired a while ago. It’s a good-looking anime, just not a very impressive one writing wise.
Now, the negative. To sum it up my experience while watching the anime: It was like you are reading a book that you have known the pace and what will happen in the story. It plays, and feels like a “How to make a real robot mecha anime 101” kind of book. It was done with logic progress, but nothing really special about the plot. Characters had brains, but compared to the antagonists from various sides they felt bland. The story would be the same. But with the 2nd cour will be premiered on April, I do hope that the series will become better through time. The series is basically Sunrise Beyond’s way of advertising their 2D animation as well as train up new animators using Xebec’s experienced veterans that they acquired a while ago. It’s a good-looking anime, just not a very impressive one writing wise.
>Reryuu<
