The X-Men have to step up their game a bit as Mastermind’s control reaches a whole new level.
What They Say:
Revenge – Mash and Neuron subdue most of the X-Men; Hisako has a startling memory.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With much of Mastermind’s manipulations revealed and events moving forward quickly, the situa-tion has certainly turned for the worse for the team. And with Mastermind now taking advantage of Takeo, the whole thing is escalating hard because of his powers and abilities. But an unex-pected twist has come into play as it turns out that Takeo used to be in the same academy as Hisako, which gives her a potential edge for getting through to him to try and change the path of events. And with Takeo’s abilities being the type that can truly rewrite the world and the fabric of reality, something is definitely necessary to try and stop everything from going to hell in a hand basket.
And Hisako’s memories are important to be sure since it goes into events when Takeo was a child, explains away the closure of the academy and other events that have culminated in where the show is at this point. And thankfully, it also starts to tie into what’s been going on for a couple of episodes now with Xavier being stuck in freefall with the Blackbird, as he’s being reached out to about everything with his students. It’s a solid launching point for the action side of the show as hisako herself gets pushed by what she’s learned to really act out and go big to protect the friend that she had been forced to forget she had. And when you add in that it’s not just Mastermind manipulating things but also Takeo in his state of confusion and rage but also the other minions that Mastermind has control of.
As the episode moves forward to set things up for the big finale, it has some very strong moments to it. Wolverine going into a forced berserker mode is priceless, especially since it puts Beast in just as bad a position since he doesn’t differentiate between people. But the segment that really won me over was finally seeing the death of Phoenix storyline that’s been dabbled with throughout the show’s run as well as the opening sequence. Having Mastermind put Scott back into that time, making it all real and true again for him, is a lot of fun to see since he’s both aware and unaware of events and gets to see it all through a different light. It’s an interesting reworking of one of the best, classic stories out there from the X-men comics and seeing it play out here just made me quite happy.
In Summary:
The penultimate episode of the series does a good job of clearing up a few issues while also setting the stage for the big finale to come. And that finale is going to revolve around Takeo in a way that’s going to make it go big in a class anime and comics way that really works well. The bulk of this episode deals with good stuff with most of the main cast, but the focus on both Hisako and Scott works the best as it ties things together,deals with the past and focuses them squarely on the future. With so much of what’s been dealt with during the series now reaching its crescendo, it’s great to see the different elements come together and to have a show that really worked a full season to tell one story with nothing in the way of fluff. X-Men’s anime incarnation continues to be top notch.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
