Peach girls, giant robots, and rocket ships. Just another day for the Rolling Girls.
What They Say:
Episode #11: “Rose of Passion”
Things are getting heated up in Okayama, but how is the Nayotake family involved? Will the girls be able to reunite and resolve everything?
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
We return to the frantic duel between Momo and the demon queen. I have to say she doesn’t look much like a demon. Momo’s mother steps in to stop her, and that’s when we discover that Momo’s real mother is the demon woman she is fighting. Chi and Ai arrive at the same time and get to watch as Momo is taken out of the battle.
Chi immediately sees the connection between Momo’s relationship with her mother and herself. (Nevermind the fact that there’s a clear Momotaro reference here.) Chi learned from Momiyama that her mother wasn’t her biological mother, and that’s why she was trying to get her back home.
Meanwhile, Nozomi learned about the pact between Okayama and Hiroshima, and the changed role of the vigilante squads in the area. None of the particulars really matter to us. What does matter is that Nozomi is able to convince Kaguya to go with her to put a stop to the current situation with the tax collectors. She arrives at the end of the battle which reunites the whole group. Well, except for Yukina.
There’s a silly animation continuity error that was bothering me during the battle between Momo’s two mothers. Ai grabs Momo’s core hair clip but when they kept showing Momo she was still wearing it. With all of the fantastic and complicated action scenes in this series, they go and mess that up.
Ai’s mad rush to stop the duel is nearly suicidal, and it’s hard to say if the core actually helped or not. It almost appeared as if she caused it to error or something. It’s fascinating to see the Rolling Girls actual achieve something without being Bests. Ai and Nozomi make up, Chi is back with them, and all is right with the world! Except Yukina is still prisoner of the bad guys!
About halfway through this episode we return to the A-plot about the pirates and the cores. Did you notice that white haired guy hanging out with Shima? It’s okay, the show points out who he really is for us. Yukina and Otonashi are still locked up with Momiyama at the pirate base. They ask Yukina to lead them out and you can imagine how well that goes. Masami and Shigyo arrive at the base to make the exchange for the hostage, only to realize their powerless without their cores and the back up plan was a failure. Kaguya goes toe to toe with Shima, only for Shima to bring out a giant robot like the ones in Tokyo!
In Summary:
One conflict has been resolved but the main problem with the stolen cores remains. Chiaya’s fate is intwined with the cores, so this makes the whole situation much larger than just a country squabble. The plethora of organization names, intwined plots, and juggled plot lines makes this a tough show to follow along with. We really could have done without the Okayama conflict. However we are now at the climax! Everyone and everything is coming together in one place, and the fate of intergalactic travel and Japan is at stake! I think I have a pretty good idea about how all of this is going to end. I just hope there’s enough time to resolve it properly and for an epilog.
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: FUNimation
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.10.1, via Safari 8.0.2, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
