What They Say:
I will reclaim 78,840 hours of you. A school fantasy with a twist about those who fight for love.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Taito having gotten to the point where he has to go up against the Spell Breakers in order to free Haruka and get Himea back, he’s gone all out into the other world where they’re currently residing. Unfortunately, while he is there to save her in time, Haruka is pretty much down for the count at this point with how they’ve used and abused her to get what they need. Taito’s coping with what he’s seen pretty well though, between the unconscious body that is Haruka and seeing Himea chained to a rock where she’s on the verge of collapse herself. He’s angry, but he’s not acting out foolishly to try and strike against them.
The same thing can be said of Gekkou as he goes and trains against his teacher, a sequence that works decently enough to show how much he’s grown in general but how much further he has to go. But it’s all just prelude as those they’re going to be facing off again step in, very casually, as Gekkou’s brother Hinata steps past the military blockade of the school and makes it very clear that Gekkou is indeed “twenty thousand steps behind him” in power and skill. It’s a humbling moment and one that makes him angry, but like Taito he doesn’t act out as much as he might have earlier in the series. Both of these young men have changed since then, though they’re still not up to the same power level as those they’re going against, which gives it a challenge but also feels horribly unbalanced here.
Everything moves towards the predictable big moments, especially as Taito and Gekkou get to squaring off each other verbally after taking a whole lot of abuse. It’s good to see Taito’s determination, the raw emotion over it all, but it comes back to the same problem that we’ve had with the show since the start. The bond between him and Himea has not been established well, we’ve never felt like they were either really appropriate for each other or well suited but rather just fated to be together from the time in the past. That lack of connection keeps Taito’s emotions and intensity from coming across honestly because we never felt it as a viewer. Of course, you don’t want to see someone give up on someone, so his mindset isn’t bad, it’s just taken too far and even Gekkou can’t believe he’s going as strong as he is here. It’s supposed to be uplifting but you just end up being incredulous that it’s this intense.
In Summary:
Teenage angst and drama on a world breaking level but without the connection to make it work. This series has gone so big, so huge in a way, with what it wants to do emotionally here when it comes to Taito dealing with the Spell Breakers and his attempt to get Himea back that it has to be a love the transcends centuries if not millennia. But within the space of the eleven episodes so far, they haven’t even made me feel like it’s a love that would be believable on a Disney Channel tween series. Like past episodes, there’s a lot to like with the colors and animation, and I appreciate Taito’s intensity, but that’s about it. It doesn’t resonate in the slightest and it feels like it had no clear sense of self throughout.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Nico Nico
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.
