It wouldn’t be a final battle without some noble sacrifices.
What They Say:
Selesia and the others encounter the final Creation, who turns out to be Charon, the hero from Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier, the same story Selesia comes from! While Selesia is overjoyed at the reunion, Charon is sick of the endless fighting in his world, and joins Altair, who is trying to destroy the world. Selesia refuses to fight against Charon, and makes up her mind in a big decision.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After it seemed like everyone who was on Altair’s side had been turned against her, the final Creation appeared to ensure that Altair still had one pawn, and of all people it was Selesia’s own trusted comrade. Just as Yuya and Sho fought last time, the two of them naturally face off against each other despite having no animosity in their actual story, and with the extra resources on their side, Selesia’s new mecha buddy Kanoya does his best to help out. Meanwhile, Altair doesn’t seem too concerned that almost all of her forces have been turned against her and one of those who stood by her side for the longest despite Altair being the one to kill her closest companion in this world, Alicetaria, finally faces off against the master who so horribly wronged her for so long.
I’ve had problems with both Altair and Magane for being villains who can just stand there with the smile and have everything work out for them without having to make any sense because that’s just how their characters are, and the story validates them. Magane was particularly obnoxious due to her claim that her nonsensical babbling did something to reverse cause and effect, which effectively just let her do whatever she felt like. Her contributions last episode being to help Sota out didn’t make her character any better since nothing changed about how she was treated, but at least it offered the hope that we wouldn’t have to deal with much more of that. Well it turns out we’re not so safe, because Altair pulls roughly the same logical fallacies to not only win a fight but cause the first major death since Mamika early in the series. The point is obviously to make people hate Altair more and more, with her only potential for sympathy coming from her infantile tantrums about how the world was too cruel to her Creator and the rest of her character in this episode existing purely to be as evil as possible. In a way it makes sense that she’s not a real character so much as a manifestation of pre-suicide despair and rage with a bunch of add-ons from random doujin videos on the internet, because she is not written like a believable human being whatsoever. That’s not a good thing whether a character is meant to be loved, hated, or conflicting, though, and when a far better character loses their life to someone that flat while she’s gloating about having killed one of the best characters to have graced the series, especially so abruptly and unceremoniously, it doesn’t succeed at being emotional as much as it is annoying.
But those kinds of big losses don’t end there, and while the circumstances around the other one aren’t ideal either, they’re a lot better than Altair’s nonsense, and they do succeed in that emotional resonance to at least some extent. If the point is to be surprising, this is definitely a bold choice, because in a series that doesn’t kill off characters that often, the one to fall at the end is not one you’d be likely to expect given the general importance of each Creation in this world.
In Summary:
I’m still watching for now. I continue to have problems with Altair’s character and how the story serves her so much more than any other character (or logic, for that matter), but with conflicts still going on around her in this episode, there’s still a hint of genuine pathos to be found for right now.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Anime Strike
Review Equipment:
Roku 3, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
