The fight against Perseus requires something first – a kiss!
What They Say:
Without the knowledge, Godou has no chance of defeating Perseus. He could order Liliana to give him the knowledge but that is not his way. How will Godou defeat this ancient hero?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show focusing so much on Perseus, I have to admit feeling conflicted about it. While it’s a decent opponent overall, something about the character and his personality just doesn’t click well for me and leaves me feeling a little indifferent towards him. The recent events have worked out well as it’s made Godou the focus a lot more and teamed him up primarily with Liliana, moving Erica out of the picture for awhile and giving Athena a chance to intercede. Her work alone is amusing since she’s giving Liliana a divination that Godou needs, but she’s not exactly keen on the process of transference since it involves a kiss. And Godou continues to be the classic good guy who won’t do anything she doesn’t want.
The first half of the episode deals well with the way the two are handling this problem with each other. Godou does come across in that classic way, but that just lets Liliana take the stage more and provide the emotion and feeling behind things. She wants to help, wants to do the right thing, but there’s a personal price to pay. To my surprise though, when the two do end up in that “compromising” position, what we get instead is one of the best anime kisses I’ve seen in a long time, one that feels like it’s filled with some great emotion, tenderness, uncertainty and more. While they do toss in the whole master thing at the very end of it, the repeated kisses, the buildup of what she has to pass on, it all comes together beautifully and really made me like Liliana even more.
The second half is all action based, which balance things well as there’s a good bit more emotion and meaning behind it now. The whole golden swords and strong presence that Godou gives off when he takes this role continues to be good and the visuals are solid. But there are naturally twists and turns that come along the way because of Liliana, and the controls that are placed on her, which makes it pretty tense at times and resonates more because of the kisses that really do feel like they were quite passionate. While things do go somewhat predictably, there are some good little twists that come from it and it really drew me to the characters more, making them more engaging than they already were and I liked them a fair bit already.
In Summary:
While Campione was on my radar to a good degree before it aired, it’s a series that has really worked very well for me as it went along. There have been some uneven bits that come from the weekly viewing and it’s one that I suspect will flow even better when marathoned, but it’s had some beautiful moments of animation and storytelling that have really captivated me. I love that it’s put the majority of the cast to the side in order to focus on just a few characters and that it made me go from not really knowing or caring about Liliana all that much to truly desiring to see something bigger and more interesting come from her and a pairing with Godou. This episode provides some great emotional and dramatic moments as well as lot of solid action, making it a very, very enjoyable episode.
Grade: A
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.
