Mecha-Ude Ep 12 Review: Brothers In Arms

Here we go! The final battle between Alma and Fist commenced at last. A tale of conflict between pairs of brothers that transcended time and generations. Can Hikaru resolved this feud and stop Fist from world domination? And could Alma fight against his brother when he found out a deadly secret about Yakumo? And could Hikaru fight against Fist – who is possessing Jun’s body in a very Orochimaru-way?

But first, let’s talk eye-candy. The combat in this episode was amazing. The fluidity was increased and there are more in-between frames making the moves look much smoother. I also really like the distinction between Alma and Fist’s fighting style. It’s kinda funny that his name is Fist and he mostly utilized long-range beam attack. The fight between Hikaru and Fist really remind me of Byakuyu versus Sawada Tsunayoshi from Hitman Reborn. A flaming fighter versus a being of light and hatred. There aren’t a lot of 3D used like in previous fights, with Aki, but instead we get a few Itano circus.

In-between the fight, we get a few monologue from Fist where he stated his intention. I thought he had a more sophisticated plan, but it’s mostly just normal human domination. Of course, he did say he’ll help his brethren as well, but yeah, we still don’t know what they meant by “helping the Mecha-Udes in their world”. But still, Fist has an unusual disdain for “human”, and Alma really couldn’t understand, because him and Fist used to be close to the Yakumo brothers, and they were very happy living alongside humans. And then Fist revealed the true dark past.

The talk we see at the start of the episode is your classic family conflict. Tsukihito was the big brother, yet he is sickly and could not lead, Yakumo was the younger, but his ambition and energy led the Kagami to prosperity using Tsukihito’s research. The “first gen” situation was a 180 of the current one – where Naohito – the big brother – is capable and healthy where the lil’ bro Jun is sickly and “dissapointing”. Fist was with Tsukihito back then, so he saw first-hand (pun unintended) how his partner was treated by other humans. Even worse, Fist revealed that Yakumo’s death was actually not by Ordela’s malfunctioning, well, not unexpectedly anyway. The old geezers of the Kagami House tampered with their data and caused them to perform a failed experiment, which caused the incident leading to Yakumo and Tsukihito losing their lives. As a result, the old men was able to instatewhoever they want in charge and basically took control of the family.

This revelation really shocked Alma, but I expected to see a bit more reaction from Alma. I guess he just recently recovered his memories with Yakumo so it didn’t really hit him in the moment just yet. But still, Fist really laid out the dirty work of the Kagami groupin order to convince Alma to join him. Well, this is where the talk-no-jutsu happen. Alma told him that if he hated humans that much, why would he want to keep them by his side as slaves? After obtaining Ordela’s power, he should be able to do anything he wanted without relying on human. And despite hating the few humans that caused Tsukihito and Yakumo’s death, Fist loved the people that support them. I guess the dialogues here could be a little clearer, like saying Fist must have seen plenty of good as well along all the bad. From his words, it sound a bit like Fist only loved Tsukihito, and by extension his brothers, and noone else. That really isn’t enough for Fist to get swayed by Alma’s words. Nevertheless, it’s another case of “there are certainly bad humans, really horrible even, but humanity as a whole is trying to do more good, to help each other, and push the world to a better future”. Fist should have also seen how everyone in ARMS support each other – since he spent a lot of time with them.

And that was basically it. Fist was ruffled by Alma hitting the mark, and the final clash between the two ended in Fist’s defeat.

And the largest conflict of the show ended there. The world was saved as well as everyone, including Fist and Jun too. We also got half an episode worth of epilogue as well, with everyone getting their own happy endings. I really like the small snippet where Jun bosses Naohito around, it was hilarious. And it seems he’s still doing fine despite not having Asclepius. The show ended with Alma going back to the Mecha-Ude’s world with some human researchers to find a way for both to co-exist and help each other.

Well, overall, the show ended on a pretty strong note. Although I would like to see Fist fight against some members of ARMS, especially Aki. Since she has been one of the best combatants in the series. But I think the “solo duel” between Alma x Hikaru and Fist x Jun acts has more symbolic impact. The show overall was a very nice mix of action, comedy and drama. Although I do think they rushed it quite a bit with how the power scaling works, but I reckoned they didn’t get a lot of resources.

=Aaron=

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