Shinkalion Change the World Ep 37: Forced Conflict

January 25, 2025Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
Well, continuing from the last episode, Taisei and Ina continued to confront Vina about Vina’s unexplained action of unleashing an Unknown onto the world. However, the motivation that Vina give feels a bit forced, as the series is rushing to a close, but still got a few more episodes to air, they have decided to make a final “minor” conflict to solve the underlying cause of the entire series: the abandoned data. And maybe this isn’t actually for the best.

To be honest, putting this in the end of the series feel really out of left field. What they could have done is to just make Tender the final boss by aggregating the entire unknown data into something else. This heel-face-turn is really out of character for Vina – who has shown to be a very understanding and trusting companion of Taisei. And knowing Vina, she has a lot of trust for Taisei and Ina’s ability. Surely Ina will be able to find away with all the resources and manpower they have at hands. So Vina taking on the responsibility alone and just shrug everyone else off feels REALLY forced. But still, this makes for great drama as the last arc is more for Reiji and, to a point, Ryota. Pitting Vina against Taisei is probably the ultimate drama that they can create right now. And truthfully, I think they are trying too hard.

Another issue with Change The World is that…the combat has become boring and predictable. The Unknown appeared, then hit some stuff, the Shinkalions arrive, they use their basic attacks on the Unknown, it doesn’t work, and then they use their Hissatsus and boom, battle ended. In previous Shinkalions, the struggle and variety during major and minor battles are all still pretty good. The choreograph never feel repetitive and boring. And also due to the length of the series, the screen time each Shinkalions get is too little for us to have a lasting impression of them. The amount of time the Dr. Yellow – one of the most popular Shinkalion designs – in CTW is pitifully short compared to other series. And the regional Shinkalions and Driver got it worse – there’s not enough time to flesh out their characters – so they feel very one-dimensional and their Shinkalions are very under-utilized. In previous Shinkalions, major boss battles include the entire team working together, unleashing combo attacks that really wow us and make us hype. In CTW, they are more focused on the plot and characters that they kinda neglected the action in the latter half. Although the finishers are still cool as hell, they are reused too often and don’t leave much room for other innovations.

This entire episode feels like a lot of drama dump and manufactured conflict to pit Vina against Taisei for some last-minute drama. I’m sure that in the end, they will figure out a way for the abandoned data and Taisei will “defeat” and convinced Vina to return to how they were before. Unless they pulled some insane plot twist and have Vina actually sacrifice to keep those data alive. That’d really turn the viewers on their heads – although I don’t think it’s a good way to conclude the series. Although it would be insanely cool to have Reiji return in the Zero Shinkalion.

=Aaron=
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