What They Say:
Team Rabbits returns to Earth to graduate from the academy. Will they remain the Fail Five in the hearts of their classmates forever, or will they get one last chance to redeem themselves before they go?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With what we’ve seen Team Rabbits go through since the start of the series, there’s still this weird feeling where they’ve done some intense things and gone the distance, but they’re still considered failures in a lot of ways. A good part of this continues to come from their general inability to actually work together as a team and the strong individual nature of each of them, though they haven’t displayed much in the way of personality that’s stuck for me in any meaningful way. But with all that they’ve been through, they’re now done in space for a bit as it’s time to head back to Earth, with a little extra data at that, to go through the graduation ceremonies if they’ve actually managed to achieve what’s necessary. With a show like this, you know how it’s going to go, but the potential fun is in the drama of it all and the way they’re viewed by others.
The groups reputation has hung on fairly well, for some at least, as they’re still called out for being the Fail Five as they go through the motions. Dealing with closing out this part of their lives has a certain sense of closure about it that’s rather welcome in a way as we see a different kind of bonding between the five of them as it goes on. Of course, there’s some mild flashbacks that come into play that helps to show they ways they were getting closer together earlier in their time since meeting each other, including when some of the guys ended up slugging it out a bit, but it’s all simple things that really needed to be made much more apparent earlier on in the series and in their existing relationships. But with the stresses they’ve had, individually and as a group, it’s no surprise that we were introduced to them while they were just a complete mess and completely earning their title.
As they spend more and more time together here by finishing things out, we get to see them bond in a better way overall and to realize that the time they have spent together really does leave them in a better place overall. There’s also the fun of getting to show off some as the ceremonies let them do a little bit of piloting to showcase what they’re capable of after all of their field experience, though even that gets to bring in a bit of utterly goofy and simplistic fanservice that makes you roll your eyes. Overall though, we get that bit of needed closure here that will push the team forward in a new and better way and it does just that. But it doesn’t make me feel like I know the characters themselves any better.
In Summary:
Majestic Prince continues to feel like a very superficial series, even when it’s trying to do something to expand the characters more. While we get a nod towards the larger war effort that’s on just at the end here, which is certainly intriguing, the majority of this is just finishing out the school section of the series and moving the core team to where they need to be next. But it doesn’t really say much about them, instead just going for mood and feeling rather than actual depth or character. There continues to be no real central focus here and the ensemble aspect is handled very weakly, leaving you no characters to latch onto and root for, which is what makes it a real problem overall.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
