What They Say:
The Helpers assault Admiral Perry ship with all their forces with the help of a surprised visitor.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Roman never really found its stride for balancing comedy, action, and development of its plot and characters. This episode, the next to last, underscores that once again. The Get Backers realize they will need to take to the air if they hope to catch Perry’s ship before it reaches Edo. Fortunately, the old man just happens to have already built a turbine powered aircraft for just such an emergency. They take wing and kill a minute or two with a few boob jokes.
They crash land on Perry’s ship, and the technology just ramps itself up from there. The three zombie battle suits combine into a giant robot. Magoichi managed to find his way onto the boat to fight Perry’s right hand man Conte. Conte happens to be a match for Magoichi’s power suit, and Perry’s ship features a really big laser cannon. With all these pieces in place, Roman pretty much does nothing; everyone else is busy fighting. He just runs into Perry’s cabin throwing around dialogue along the way.
We also get a flashback to Gettysburg where Conte, as a child, survived the battle and met Perry. With only one episode left, why even bother trying to give him a backstory? He follows Perry, and that is reason enough. If you wanted to flesh his character out, that should have happened episodes ago.
Still, the action was mildly entertaining, and the humor was funny though ill-placed. The story should be focused solely on putting Roman into a position to be the hero of the day. Anything else is just eating into the few precious minutes this series has left to make a lasting, good impression.
In Summary:
Ah, Roman… Once again, you manage to entertain and frustrate in the span of one episode. You give some decent action and an explanation of Perry’s ultimate goal but detract from it with ill-placed humor and a pointless flashback for a minor character. We have the best opportunity for Roman to be pushed to his limits and show off his heroic nature, and you do so little with him. Given this mediocre lead up, I have low expectations for the finale.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
24” Early 2009 iMac, Firefox 19.0.2
