What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Medaka back on track with who she is as the brainwashing didn’t take hold,s he’s now ready to do what she originally came down to do, which is to end the Flask Plan. The episode almost starts you off in a panic as it seems like it’s going to do a full on recap, but instead the past ten episodes are covered in about 30 seconds worth of material, making it easy to just jump into things without missing too much beyond some character drama, background information and lengthy fights. Which doesn’t exactly speak well for the show in a way, but that’s just a very cynical way of looking at it. The second season has been problematic with its approach for me, but it’s done some interesting things with who is who and what the family past is like for Medaka.
With all that’s happened, the show feels like it takes a bit of a shortcut here as Oudo essentially invites Medaka and her group the basement level of the 13th Party in order to just get things done and settled. It’s certainly an interesting area at first, not exactly suited for fighting, as it’s just a massive series of computers used to analyze Abnormals, which is what Oudo’s master plan is all about in his quest to truly make the world all his, which he feels is his right. With Oudo working towards using what he learns from them in order to create his vision of a perfect world, it’s not something that Medaka can let happen, especially since those early stages of it involve using the students at the Academy as guinea pigs.
While we’ve had some time with Oudo, it’s here that we get more of his background, taking us back to when he was six years old and went off on his own while not using his Abnormal abilities as he saw life as a test to achieve greatness without using them. It provides a very different view of him overall, one that is a bit hard to reconcile with where he is now, but it makes him a more impressive foe in general, especially as he goes up against Medaka and realizes that she’s truly unlike anyone he’s fought before. Especially as it’s revealed as to how she’s mastered her Abnormality even more over the course of fighting the 13th Party, something her sister reveals somewhat reluctantly. It all makes sense in retrospect and it’s a useful little info dump, but it’s another piece that just doesn’t feel like it was revealed naturally in a way that made sense over the course of the series.
In Summary:
The show works things fairly well here with its focus on Oudo and his inability to really see Medaka for what she is. He’s achieved so much in his time that it’s beyond his ability to accept that someone could have grown beyond him, as he is a king and she’s just a monster. Medaka certainly comes off impressively here with the way she carries herself, but the monster aspect is also made a lot clearer in the grand scheme of things. It’s hard to say whether this is a positive or a negative though, since once you know the darkness that she has and how it impacts others, you can’t view her the same way. For me, it just made how she normally is an act all the more, but with her ability to turn things off about herself it has a chance at being real. The show goes big in a distinctive way here and while Oudo has not been a huge favorite of mine, he’s one I’ve enjoyed more than others because of how he carries himself. Getting more of who he really is and seeing how he goes up against Medaka is well done.
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.
