When all is lost, the girls of AKB0048 rise to the challenge…
What They Say:
At the start of the 21st century, an interplanetary war broke out. Earth’s ecosys-tem was severely damaged, and humanity was forced to flee the planet. On sev-eral planets of this new society, things that ‘disturb the heart’ like music and art are forbidden. That is, until AKB0048 is resurrected…
The Review:
Their hostile reception at Akibastar has shaken the girls, but they’re determined to go through with their plan and continue their performance – the crowd has surely come around if they just give it their all, right? And as the girls continue to perform, their kirara grow brighter and brighter – but it’s not until Nagisa confronts the crowd head-on that their mood begins to change…
One thing that the shows I’ve been reviewing this season have in common: they’re not exactly what you’d call masters of the plot twist. Of the three, AKB0048 has probably made the most effort in that department (the Kawamori effect), but when it comes to the climax there’s very little in the way of surprises: girls sing, girls overcome the negative feelings of their former fans, girls win battle, although the war presumably continues.
So far, so normal. But while this finale isn’t doing anything surprising or original in the way that it unfolds, it’s the presentation that makes the experience worthwhile, as the episode pulls out all the stops to create an event. Being done in the style of a performance, there’s of course plenty of music, and plenty of group versus DES action. Toss in the revelation of what’s happened to the missing Center Novae (which the show tries to make sound like a good thing, but sounds like a fate worse than death to me), and the end of Nagisa’s and Chieri’s respective journeys to stardom, and there’s plenty here to fill 25 minutes with if not quality entertainment, then something that’s far enough into the ‘mindless fun’ category to keep a dumb grin on the face for the duration. Worked for me, at any rate.
That’s been the story for most of the series, too. While AKB0048 tended to get bogged down a little in the more idol-y side of things – great if you’re into the series for the idol connection, less so if you don’t care about that sort of thing – when it turned its focus to the ‘war’ against DES and Zodiac the series rarely missed a beat. Sure, the premise makes no sense and any attempt to apply logic to it is doomed to failure, but it’s been a mostly enjoyable rollercoaster from beginning to end.
In Summary:
As finales go, AKB0048 does a good job, tying up most of the important loose ends and having a hell of a lot of fun along the way. Light on sense but strong on enjoyment, and well worth seeing as a result.
Content Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” Apple iMac, 2.9GHz Core i5, 32GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.8.3
