It’s all fun and games until someone looses their cool.
What They Say:
Episode #11 “Nostalgic Triangle”
It’s time for the midterm battles, but Eruna has bigger things to worry about as she discovers more about Seisa’s past.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Mikagura starts to close up loose ends as we approach the ending of the season.
There is the lingering history between of Shigure and Kuzuryu to deal with as well, and the two are matched up for the midterm battle bracket! There’s not much to say about their past, the two had a bit of a falling out after middle school and hadn’t officially fought each other in battle during high school. We discover that Kuzuryu went out of his way to avoid it, but there’s no bad blood here. They finally get there chance, and we get a chance to see the abilities of both during a short but cool battle.
Otone gives and honest and heartfelt apology to Eruna about picking a fight with Seisa. Eruna accepts it because, heck, she wasn’t looking for an apology. The attack was still uncalled for, and Seisa won’t accept Eruna’s concern. She heads home and broods and for the first time we see Eruna looking honestly concerned about the situation.
I had my suspicion’s the lights that blasted Seisa in the prolog were flashbulbs, and sure enough her upperclassman was indeed a member of the photography club. A club which has been defunct ever since Seisa’s former friend betrayed her, attacked her brutally, and dropped out. Seisa, as we’ve seen, was once cheerful and enjoyed club battles. School rank and the drive to be number one caused that friendship to fracture, leading to the unauthorized blasting we saw before. Seisa still carries the scars her former friend gave her, both physically and mentally. It’s a bit gruesome that these flashy abilities in the wrong hands can cause real physical harm. It certainly makes these games more than fun diversions.
Seisa’s killing art has been extremely mysterious and we learn her ability is failing her. Seisa used her power to seal the scene of the incident away in a closed dimension where it wouldn’t remind her of the past. Eruna follows the rifts opening around the school and finds the old photography room. She learns from Bimii, who we saw get sucked in last episode, about Seisa’s sad history. However, before they can escape the dimension it begins to collapse back to the present and time catches up with the ruined building.
There’s another new ending this week, and I think it’s my favorite of the bunch, it’s got a really cool style.
In Summary:
Holding in the backstory until the final moments, we learn about Seisa’s past and what lengths she went to in order to try to forget. The problem is those extreme abilities of hers are now putting Eruna in danger! The animation picks up after a few episodes of slacking, and there are a few nice moments of action peppered in with the drama. I was surprised to see that the magical battles can cause real harm, and surprised that incidents like what happened to Seisa don’t occur more often. Then again, maybe that escalation isn’t uncommon, we did see a nasty fight earlier that almost ended in similar tragedy. I believe next week in the final episode, and I’m curious to see what Eruna does to pull Seisa out of her funk and into the club!
Episode Grade: B +
Streamed by: Funimation
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.10.3, via Safari 8.0.4, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
