What They Say:
The Mekakushi-Dan find themselves face-to-face with Mr. Tateyama and the serpent that has caused them all so much pain. But the reason behind the serpent’s actions isn’t what they expect!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When this episode launched on Crunchyroll, it only had Spanish subtitles. Knowing next to no Spanish and having now watched the entire episode with English subtitles, I’d say it probably would’ve been about as effective anyway. This is equally true because of both the confusing dialogue and the tendency of the series to use the visuals more than the writing, which is seen more than ever in this final episode.
So while the words actually spoken by the characters only marginally tie together the mess of plot threads into the coherent story we’ve been waiting for, the artwork and animation are at least at their finest, culminating in a visual feast that not only conveys the climactic finality of these last plot developments but also offers a few nuggets of insight to combine with the subtleties hidden within the dialogue to form some more substantial underlying themes. In this regard it may be the best episode of the series, even if only a little, and maybe not quite on the level of enthusiasm suggested by some of the first episodes that implied the potential for something more impressive.
In the end, though, I suspect one might almost require some degree of familiarity with the franchise from which this series spawned in order to fully appreciate the events of this episode. It’s clear that it brings together pieces from probably every episode before it while adding to them to form some much-needed connections, and it does benefit from that fact even if it was pretty much a necessity for the finale of such a story, but it still feels like there’s a great deal missing, not an uncommon phenomenon for adaptations limited to a brief length of 12 episodes. Given its limitations, it could’ve gone more poorly, and its structure may have left this the best outcome.
In Summary:
Mekakucity Actors is a series that seems like it should’ve been something really great. Although I can only go on faith that the print installments of the franchise were indeed very good, that did seem to be the consensus, and for the adaptive process, having Shaft animate a series under Akiyuki Shinbo’s perfected stylistic choices and with the kind of budget that Aniplex knows to give them (and even Mages on the production committee) is by all means a great sign. Take the fact that this is a music-based series with music by its original creator tailor-made for the anime version, with vocals by the likes of Lia (and her Vocaloid IA, an important piece of the original compositions), LiSA, and Haruna Luna, and additional composition by ANANT-GARDE EYES (also responsible for theme song arrangement as is more common for the group), Ryosuke Nakanishi, and TeddyLoid, and it should be all set. But as it turns out, things just don’t work out quite like that, and both the apparently strong storytelling of the earlier versions and the musical variety may serve to hurt the series more than they help in the long run. The involved and ambitious story doesn’t have nearly sufficient time to stretch and naturally develop over the course of 12 episodes, and while much of the music is very much appreciated at the time, they’d work a lot better as music videos (which they did start as) rather than trying to work their way into episodes that are already desperate for time to tell their own stories. Even the beautiful Shaft animation, even if it’s very nice to look at, is used in such a way that, combined with the story structure and dialogue, makes the series feel a bit pretentious for the most part.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
