Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda – 12 (Fin)

Zvezda looked down and out, and we were honestly at a loss in predicting how they were going to dig out of the hole they found themselves in. After all, we left last week with Galatika toast and Kate and Itsuka surrounded by guys with guns, with only big words to bandy. Defeat against Governor Jimon seemed inevitable barring a miracle. They got several.

Kate may be up against the wall, but aside from passing out for nap time, she never abandons her belief that she will ultimately prevail over the cigar-chomping boob of an adversary. The final battle is an highly amusing push-and-pull: Jimon has his magic shield, magic cigar smoke, and giant retro mecha, but Kate has Dva, Natasha and her tentacle monster, Roboko in human disguise (complete with Total Recall-style transformation), who snatchs the real Galatika from the traitor Yase, and White Robin, who helps out the bad guys and coaxes White Egret to her side.

Even Pepel/Goro revives, woken up by White Falcon/Kaori, who turns out to have a thing for him. We’ve been listening to Maaya Sakamoto voice Lightning for going on forty hours, so it’s fun to hear her as Kaori, whose voice is more emotional and varied than Light’s. Some units of the JSDF defect to Zvezda, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Kate taking over the driving of Plamya’s motorcycle, flashing her inexpirable license to Asuta when he asks.

It’s a totally absurd, logically dubious hyper-stylized final confrontation, but full of Zvezda’s trademark charm, wit, and internal commentary about how absurd and logically dubious things are. In other words, a fitting way to end. The crass nihilism of Governor Jimon falls to the optimism, spunk, and gregariousness of Zvezda. Life returns pretty much to normal, but only briefly: a Zvezda-like organization from New York fires the first shot in the next battle, one that actually sounds more fun than the one against the stodgy governor…a teaser for a possible sequel, perhaps. But for now, we’ll bask in the light of Zvezda.

Rating: 8 (Great)
Average Rating: 7.750
MyAnimeList Score: 7.38

Pupa – 12 (Fin)

With Utsutsu and Yume free from their captors and totally fine with their living situation, this final outing looks back to a less fucked-up time in their lives, when they, as young children, went unsupervised to a toy store to replace Yume’s busted bear (her dad busted it…such an asshole).

Having insufficient funds, Utsutsu attempts to win a new teddy for her. He loses, gets a harsh life lesson from the cock-eyed mascot running the lottery, and actually gets four more chances from his friend Arita and his three sisters, all of whom we meet for the first time and seem a bit sinister but aren’t.

On his last chance, he wins seventh prize; the pink hairpin Yume has worn ever since, which is fitting, as she gave him his four-leaf clover pin, which has clearly given him luck, as he possesses the ability to heal no matter how much Yume nom-noms him!

Rating: 4 (Fair)
Average Rating: 5.250
MyAnimeList Score: 4.14

Nisekoi – 12

Aw, screw it, how about if RURI was the one Raku made a promise with?! Her offhand comment about Raku and Kosaki getting on her nerves echoes are own feelings on the matter. Like Banri’s surly neighbor Nana in Golden Time, Nisekoi wouldn’t be the same without Ruri, both to say what we’re thinking and to try her darnedest to nudge Kosaki to where she wants to go.

But now that Raku has been told by both Kosaki and Chitoge that they both made a promise to a boy ten years ago (and each have a key), things are more complicated. Not to mention while Raku continues to crush hard on Kosaki (and she him), there’s no denying there’s a totally different (and no less mutual) romantic dynamic between him and his fake girlfriend.

His quandary now is, how come there are two girls and two keys? Note to anyone trying to discover the truth about the past regarding a girl or girls you know: ask your damn parents! They weren’t five at the time, after all, and are likely to remember a whole lot more about ten years ago than you. Raku learns this entirely by chance by bumping into Chitoge’s dad (who seems like a decent guy) who confirms Raku not only knew Chitoge ten years ago, but that they got along famously…and the Onodera kid hung out with them, too.

Now it could be that both of them made a promise to Raku, but each of them is missing the specific memories to be sure. Or maybe he gave the correct key to the girl he loves and the wrong key to the other…which would be f-ed up thing for a five-year-old kid to do! Hell, maybe they all work. In any case, perhaps Raku will learn more when he goes through the photos from that time his dad has stored away…and when the locket comes back repaired. We hope so!
Rating:7 (Very Good)

 

Sakura Trick – 12 (Fin)

With Mitsuki about to graduate and move on to college, her window to tell Haruka how she feels is rapidly closing. She finds the right moment in her kitchen at her graduation party to confess and ask her out. After denying those feelings for so long, it was gratifying to see not only come to grips with them as a reality in her life, but actually try to do something about it.

To do so requires courage, but also selfishness, but Mitsuki finds her opening when Yuu tells her she and Haruka haven’t exchanged confessions of love yet. It’s pretty clear that any situation where Mitsuki would snatch Haruka away would hurt Yuu, but that’s a bridge she’ll cross when she comes to it, and in any case, she doesn’t know Haruka’s answer; asking to meet after the graduation ceremony to hear it.

The thing is, Haruka herself doesn’t really know how to respond. She hasn’t really given much thought to what it means to be doing all of the things she’s done with Yuu; the two have just been living in the moment and going for it. It isn’t until Mitsuki comes in talking about being “in love” and “going out” that Haruka starts to consider that that’s what she and Yuu are doing. She “loves” Mitsuki too, but it’s pretty clear it’s not the same as her love for Yuu.

So yeah, Mitsuki is pretty much rejected, but it’s not the end of the world (nothing on this show is); and she goes off to college with Rina, who holds a flame for Mitsuki but isn’t as forward about it as Mitsuki was with Haruka. Maybe down the road that will change. In any case, we close out the series with Haruka and Yuu still very much together and in love and having confessed to each other numerous times. As the new school term begins, their sakura-colored life goes on.

Rating:7 (Very Good)
Average Rating: 6.583
MyAnimeList Score: 7.51

Kill la Kill – 24 (Fin)

Last week we said we were sad that Kill la Kill was ending, but that didn’t mean we thought it shouldn’t end. Far from experiencing pangs of withdrawal in the aftermath, we feel perfectly satisfied and a little relieved; almost as if we’ve been through a mutual breakup. A weight is gone, but there are no regrets. The show came to its natural conclusion…which is to say it went completely nuts; one last hurrah before purging itself form our systems.

Victory ultimately goes to Ryuko, Satsuki, and all mankind, but it isn’t easily achieved. Sanageyama’s initial raid on Honnouji results in a scene suffused with fairly overt reproductive symbolism: he’s leading a charge of thousands of his underlings—lets call it a school of sperm—but Ragyo’s transmitter is protected by what amounts to a giant condom, which is ultimately busted open by…err…Gamagoori’s face cannon thing.

That would only be the…er…tip of the complication-berg, as Ragyo throws anything and everything at Ryuko & Co., including ordering Nui to cast her body into the revived original life fiber, creating an even more ultimate garment that Ragyo dons, allowing her to rocket into orbit to transmit the message for all the world’s Covers to start feeding. Ryuko in turn borrows the fibers from everyone elses’ uniforms to create her own ultimate rocket suit, thus leaving the entire cast buck naked.

The orbital battle between Ryuko and Ragyo becomes just as much one of words than of blows exchanged (Ryuko is slashed to pieces multiple times, but quickly regenerates). In effect, Ryuko yells a lot about how she and Senketsu are neither clothing nor human, and yet both clothing and human, Ragyo calls out their lofty, highly abstract BS, but it doesn’t matter, because they use that BS to absorb her power and render her Covers around the globe inert.

Rather than return to earth and reconcile, she tears out her own heart. With his role as a check against Ragyo’s plans completed, Senketsu burns up in the atmosphere, shielding Ryuko during re-entry. Ryuko is distraught, but once she comes down to earth, and her landing cushioned by the bosom of her sister (and virtually everyone else, all of them still naked), she immediately feels a lot better. As Senketsu eloquently puts it in his parting words, a sailor fuku such as himself is meant to be grown out of, not worn forever like a second skin.

Now the threat has passed (at least until the next Life Fiber arrives on Earth), and she is free to wear what she wants, live life with her real and adoptive sisters (Satsuki and Mako, respectively). Kill la Kill took the guilty pleasure to dizzying new heights, ones we won’t likely return to for quite a while. But like the placid epilogue we see during the credits, coming back down to earth and to a state of relative normalcy isn’t so bad either.

Rating: 9 (Superior)
Average Rating: 9.417 (episodes 13-24), 8.958 (total)
MyAnimeList Score: 8.51