The forces are being marshaled against each other at long last and the threats are looming large.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the penultimate episode of the series, there’s some good rallying going on with Sagara’s part in events as he’s doing his best to give everyone hope and bring them to bear towards Nobuna’s dream. It’s not an easy thing to do since there are so many variables in the fights now and Sagara’s ability to see events coming is no longer really in play, though he can make some solidly strong guesses about what might happen based on extensive knowledge from history and the games. But as time marches on and the enemy forces get closer and closer to him, more people are starting to fall around him in an effort to protect him. And even some of those like Hanzo are doing what they can, but there’s something else amiss as well that make Sagara’s presence in the world problematic.
As the events do move forward, things get darker and darker as the various forces attack and win, pushing back against Nobuna. To make matters worse, with her now ill and out of it, bringing her the news of what’s happened with Sagara could be detrimental to the effort overall. While there’s obviously a trick in his death, it does deal with Hanzou after all, it’s something that those living this can’t know for sure. And telling that to Nobuna in her weakened state, physically and emotionally, could break her in the worst of ways. There’s a lot of buildup in place here for the finale as we get the various forces coming together, and all of it is just perilous because of Nobuna’s being out of it. So having those that advise her try to come up with the right way to bring her back into the game, and to ensure that she doesn’t crack, is tough but it’s what their job is. Seeing what they do here is decent, but it’s all feeling like it’s missing something.
In Summary:
While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the majority of this series, surprisingly at times, the penultimate episode here has a feeling where events are rushed and forced in order to get everything where it needs to be. There have been “dark” episodes earlier in its run as well, but something here is just much darker and more oppressive in a way that takes a lot of the fun out of it. It’s not a surprise to get more serious at the end, and we have had serious along the way, but the unfolding of events here just doesn’t work well. And removing Sagara from most of it in a very forced way as you know he’ll be back in the finale as a living, breathing person just doesn’t work well. It’s too big of a cliche that just stands out as an obvious prop piece to try and get others to do things rather than writing it better.
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.
