Everything starts to come crashing down for Ruri as Kenmi makes his move.
What They Say:
Ruri, the current CEO of Aiba Foundation, has been arrested. Alma meets up with Kagami and they are attacked by Kenmi’s soldiers. Meanwhile, Kenmi is about to extract the “core” of Sacred Seven that sleeps in Ruri’s body.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sacred Seven has taken some unusual turns here as it gets to the end of the season by trying to ramp things up in an even more serious way. While the last episode turned serious, this one goes even more so by pushing how the Aiba Foundation is being investigated now for tax evasion and other illegal activities across the board. It’s gotten so bad that Ruri has been arrested, but she’s focused before that on making sure the people who work for her are protected and can go on with their lives if she ends up being taken down along with the Foundation. And unfortunately for Tandoji, he’s feeling completely out of the loop and ineffective.
Lucky for him that Kagami is still on the outside with everything, even if he’s unable to get to Ruri at this point. He provides a connection and someone he can plan with, though the two of them care caught flatfooted and end up being brought in themselves. Amusingly, this gives rise to Maid Powaa as the Foundation’s girls grab their guns and come to the rescue. It’s comical with all the cuteness, the pink and the outgoing natures as they leap into action, kicking butt and setting things right for the two men so they can help Ruri. And as luck would have it, a bit of extra help practically lands in their lap. Paralleling that story with Ruri being examined (and her clothes cut off in a very medically precise way) just adds to the amusement.
All of this leads to a fairly decent action sequence where the guys head in to rescue Ruri from Kenmi and deal with the forces that he has there to help him. Having Kenmi working to get the core that’s in her, there’s plenty of tension to be had here with this and the action works quite well with its dark overtones and the fact that it’s played straight. Everything works its best here to build up to an epic level but also a very personal one with the way we’ve seen Ruri and Alma come together recently, even if that’s been forced a bit more than is necessary. Alma’s emotions during the rescue feel right, even just as a friend, and it works as it starts tying a few things together to bring it all to the right level.
In Summary:
Sacred Seven has been an awkward series for me in a lot of ways, but it does manage to redeem itself at times with some good material. As it nears the end here, it reinforces the bond between the two leads while giving us a surprising revelation about when they first met in the distant past. Of course, it plays up the action and it definitely works when Alma makes his way into Kenmi’s facility, but Kenmi has lacked resonance as a bad guy (though I liked him getting on their good side for awhile) and the whole maids to the rescue piece still rubs me the wrong way, much as it has in every series ever since Gravion. But compared to a lot of what’s come before, this episode of Sacred Seven works better than most of them and left me wanting to see how it all comes together for a conclusion.
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.
