Mahou Sensou (Magical Warfare) Episode 12 (Finale)
Buckeye: The battle between brothers Takeshi and Gekkou is on at the house where Gekkou murders their mother, and it turns out that the mother called for Gekkou to be killed in that accident he survived to keep Kazuma from reawakening. And then the armies collide. Just when Gekkou appeared to admit defeat and come over to Takeshi, it’s a trap and Kurumi takes the blow for it. Takeshi’s consciousness gets transported into the past where he sees what life was like back then, and then encounters Gekkou again when the series suddenly ends.
If there was any way not to end a series, this would be it. When the credits rolled, I thought that there was one more episode left to go, but no, that’s it. As for what was in the episode itself, it was just a huge mess seeing how all of this stuff was told straight from Gekkou when it should have been told by his mother to avoid this mess. And Takeshi falling for the oldest trick in the book was the last thing I needed. To pile on to this mess, the previous episode leaves off with Takeshi leaving home only to come back to it for his battle with Gekkou, without any explaining, which totally defies common sense. That’s not quite what I was hoping for in the end.
Overall, this is one of the biggest disappointments of the season. It certainly had the look of a nice series with great music, nice action, and excellent animation. Unfortunately, the execution of the story was about as bad as it could get as there are three major strikes against this show. First, the plot is terribly rushed. Second of all, the interesting parts of this show do not really come until the second half. It would have been better if they happened sooner rather than waiting until I have to sit through some terribly written stuff. And lastly, the plot was fragmented, and the last episode puts that on full display. At least this show has some good episodes in the middle, relatively speaking. Episodes 8-10 are what I was expecting to come out of this show, but then the last two episodes were just a full of incompetence all around. If it were not for the music and the action, this show would have been complete garbage, but at least there was something worth watching.
Shiroe Hane: So Wizard Barristers ran out of budget or time to animate things properly, and this show apparently ran out of episodes because this was so rushed it made no sense.
Weren’t they in the Trailer base just now? Wasn’t his mother in hospital? How did a duel suddenly turn into a war? Where did Kurumi come from? Are they really ending it there?
Buckeye: Those are questions I want answers to, and sadly, I don’t think I will be getting them. When this show gets released, I hope that there is an OVA that puts the finishing touches to this encounter because as things stand, it is one of the worst endings ever. Things went from point A to point B without explaining how it got there. I am just in confusion as to what exactly went down in all of this.
