Family can extend beyond just those who are related and the bonds formed can hold an impressive weight, for better or worse.
What They Say:
Episode 12: Cats on the Roof
Yune has grown somewhat accustomed to the Galerie and is able to go shopping with Claude now. One day Yune decides to help Claude with his work and uses some small cloves she finds in the workspace. However, those belonged to Claude’s belated father. Claude loses his temper and lashes out as he cries, “Get out of here!” After Claude cools down, he decides to check up on Yune, but he can’t find her anywhere in the shop.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Claude has to go out shopping and he invites Yune to come along and even is willing to agree to have her cook Sukiyaki for dinner when Oscar requests she make it. As they walk through the Galleria the impact Yune has had on the fellow residents is seen as their faces light up when they see her and she is greeted warmly by many. Claude notices at one point that Yune is missing from his side and he finds her in front of a bakery whose cat wearing a bell sign has entranced her. She learns that the sign had been made by Claude’s father and the owner says that it is based on his cat who is rarely around and he asks her to return him if she sees him.
Yune later tries to help Claude after they return home but when she tries to pick up a small set of gloves in the workshop Claude goes off on her without warning. It turns out that the gloves belonged to his father and have special meaning to him though he has never bothered to give Yune any warning of that. Claude roughly sends her off to go do what she wants as Oscar reprimands him explaining it may be time for Claude to explain things to her, though the most he can do at the moment is ask Oscar to tell Yune to stay in the Galleria.
As Yune stands at her position in the front of the store she hears a soft bell and remembers about the wayward cat she heard about and she leaves the store to find it. Claude comes up a short time later to find Yune missing and he panics as he starts to conduct a mad search for her, a search which will pull in the other members of the Galleria whom Yune has touched as well as a visiting Alice. In the midst of his frantic scramble Claude hears a bell as well and discovers Yune in a peril he never imagined-one which may force him to face some of the deepest demons that have driven him.
With the final episode of the series (or at least the season if they make more) the story tries to bring its varied threads and tales together to show where the characters are and to an extent how far they have come. To this end it really doesn’t work as well as it should due to the limited amount of Yune walking the Galleria that we have been shown in the past for her to have become as important to them as it appears. The episode isn’t done any favors either with Claude again reverting to being an ass and doing some of the same behaviors that he had been previously shown and the lack of learning he’d taken away from previous episodes about his behavior.
While the final act is quite touching, taking everything into account it also feels a bit too little, too late to save his character and lift the series up to the original heights it looked like it would obtain early on. It is a very good episode at the start and finish but the middle is soft and it really doesn’t bring about a very satisfying feeling of closure for the series.
In Summary:
Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth comes to close with an episode that addresses some of the divide that exists between Claude and Yune and just what it was in Claude’s past that helped create the personality traits that would be at his core. As a character piece it is a wonderful episode but after all the time they have spent together it feels like something that should have happened earlier. In addition as the capstone of the series the episode doesn’t stand as high as it otherwise might have due to the series inability to fluidly build up to that point and leaves one with some warm fuzzies but also muddled feelings on the whole.
Grade: A-
Simulcast By: The Anime Network
Review Equipment:
Toshiba 15.4” Notebook
