What They Say:
Izuru’s AHSMB unit awakens as he fights Jiart in their final duel. Now he must combat the formidable enemy within known as, “Instinct.” Will he be able to control his AHSMB unit or will it consume him?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having moved most of its pieces into the idea of just dealing with the gate between the two sides, Majestic Prince has offered up a couple of decent episodes of story and action as the forces align against it in the depths of space while the big warriors for each side have stepped up to battle each other. The scale of what’s going on is nicely done and as we’ve seen before, the choreography for the space battles are spot on, even if it lacks resonance because there are no characters worth latching onto. But as the fight has faltered and now there’s only so far to go, the idea of just ramming the lead ship directly into it really does make the most sense as it’s a sacrifice that will allow humanity to take time to take stock of what happened and prepare for what could come next at any time.
Not surprisingly, a lot of the focus is on Izuru as he continues to fight even as everyone pretty much keeps telling him to pull back and away. Which at some point does make sense since you don’t want to be caught in the potential massive explosion by ramming the gate. But for Izuru, he can’t back down from this fight and is just intent on going through it to the end, facing down each of the Wulgaru that come up against him no matter who they are or how skilled. And of course, he has a whole lot of luck as well in the fight as his system just keeps making all the right choices as he goes into a hyper mode. The calls from all his fellow soldiers gets to be a bit much at times, especially when they plead with him to retreat right in the middle of a fight that he’s so completely focused on.
Much of the episode is focused on the action, with it all moving towards that big event as mankind’s ship advances on the gate, and it’s a pretty impressive work when you get down to it. The animation is strong, the mecha fights are fantastic and the intensity of the characters is definitely really well done and proper for what we get. It builds and builds throughout the episode, rarely giving you a chance to catch your breath, and that makes for an exciting action sequence overall. And as much as I dislike the series, I do appreciate that as it moves into the final minutes of the episode, it plays out more like a series from the 80’s with an expected abrupt ending that has everyone wondering what happened, and being open ended enough for more.
In Summary:
Majestic Prince has been a hard sell for me through and through with only what this episode does as the main reason for sticking with it. When the show dealt with the action, it really did excel and showcase some very strong design elements and choreography. But for the rest of it, which is just as important, it failed handily. The characters never connected and with them being in helmets and mecha most of the time, they had no personalities beyond the most basic and simply existed without any true history, connections or ways to empathize with them. There’s a whole lot to like with half the show, but it wasn’t enough to sustain it for the whole run. The finale serves up what works best with it and it definitely was an enjoyable watch, but I wish it had more meaning for me by having characters I actually liked.
Grade: B-
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.
