Rental Magica #24 — Uh… It’s Over!

March 23rd, 2008

 

Certainly didn’t feel like an ending.

Impressions:

Well, I got tired of waiting around through the usual channels for a decent raw to show up… so I apologize for the quality of the caps. It reminds me of the ‘olden’ days of the terrible terrible Nanoha raws. Now rewinding or the video player crashes, no fixing caps unless I feel like re-encoding the whole thing first, etc etc. How nostalgic.

Anyway, it starts with a slow remix of the OP playing while loli-Honami’s grandmother tells her to make friends with the boy with Gram sight. In the present, the Astral team is stopped by a giant Earth dragon, but Mikan and Kuroha are able to hold it back letting the others continue on (Sekiren stays with them). Nekoyashiki and Addie attack Finn, but he’s able to take them down with ease using his Celt magic augmented with his eye.

Addie bites her lip and uses her blood with Itsuki’s (no kiss this time, just sticking a bloody finger in his mouth) to summon Asmodai. Honami joins the battle to take on Asmodai, but not before Addie and Honami have a heart to heart about liking Itsuki and Addie demands to know why Honami would do this. The two magics basically null eachother, and Finn goes to finish Addie off, but Itsuki gets up and pulls off the makeshift eyepatch. He’s crying from his Gram Eye this time, but not blood. He declares that he forgives Honami and was happy that she was with him as we see the damn flashback to the childhood yet a-freaking-gain. Honami drops her staff and the ritual ends as Honami collapses in tears. The dragon outside also starts to break up.

Finn’s not quite ready to call it quits yet and explicitly explains his own Gram Sight and plans… like it wasn’t obvious last episode. The two face off. Itsuki announces orders to Addie and Nekoyashiki, but Finn still easily dodges and summons a massive mistletoe spear to attack them. Honami is behind Finn at this point and dispels his spear using the ritual markings just as he’s about to attack them. That means… FLASHBACK MONTAGE TIME as Honami says she doesn’t want anything to change about Astral or her life. Her wish isn’t what Finn thinks. Itsuki runs forward and gut punches Finn while creamboy looks stunned.

Finn staggers backwards, and then laughs. Oopsies, the Association is already on the way to take him away. Finn blasts away the crapola and falls backwards out of the tower as the Earth Dragon finally crumbles and the mist rises.

Some narration about suspicions of Finn being with Opheon, etc etc life goes on, the dragon appears before Itsuki and Honami, he silently gives it the name ‘Astral’, and then it flies off into the night, and the show ends.

Talk about a lackluster ending. Itsuki’s fight against the flying dog in episode 1 was more exciting that this one. Seriously… they managed one clean hit on Finn, and it looked like Itsuki didn’t even do much more than ruffle Finn’s clothes. Finn should have really been around for at least 4 or 5 episodes more to build up his ‘betrayal’ and power and maybe actually made something of these last few parts. It just feels like there could have and should have been a lot more to the battles at the end here than just energy bursting against other energy and then disappearing. The dragon itself was also terribly disappointing. It just sort of appeared, and then was gone. What was the point of that? Bah.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Final Thoughts:

Rental Magica was an interesting series at the start and actually did a lot of really neat and deceptive things early on that made me a fan. The way they handled Kuroha early on was especially nicely done. Being unfamiliar with the series, I wouldn’t have guessed at all that she was a ghost until her introductory episode. I’m not a big fan of chronological discontinuity, but at least as far as keeping Kuroha’s identity a secret and a very nice twist, it worked rather well. The rest of them… ehh… probably could have done without since there was some awkward bouncing around.

The problem was that there was really no focused content to build on after those episodes. For a long time, the best episodes were the ones where there was buildup and an actual plot. They still tried some neat things in episodic manner, like the Sekiren and Daphne episode, but so much of it was basically disjoint and didn’t really try to build on things that happened before that it really felt like it just didn’t have any direction or sense of purpose. A good solid villain could have done great things for this show. Finn was kind of weak and uninteresting just because they tried to make him out to be a misguided do-gooder, but Johan and Lapis were a great pair and those are probably some of my favorite episodes of the series.

So, overall, Rental Magica could have been a hell of a lot better if it had even made an attempt at cohesion. It could have also used much more of a budget at the end. All the fights and animation just sort of petered out and were nowhere near as well done as anything early on. Even Itsuki, who had been training and ‘becoming more powerful’ basically just stood around like a dunce for the last three or four episodes. The lack of cohesion or any central plot really makes this not even feel like the series is over. Half a dozen episodes ended pretty much the exact same as this one. I mean… hell… I was choosing to summarize Prism Ark last season because it was more directed and plot driven than RM. Ah well… it wasn’t a bad series, but here at the end, it doesn’t really feel like it’s a noteworthy series either. Just another way to kill 30 minutes on a Sunday. There are worse things in life.

Posted in Rental Magica | 9 Comments »

9 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • serenade_beta says:

    “Johan and Lapis were a great pair and those are probably some of my favorite episodes of the series.”

    Agreement. Though they ARE without a doubt my favorite episodes.

  • Avisch says:

    Well I think this is better than Kaze no Stigma’s anime (saying this after watching 4 episodes).

    “and it looked like Itsuki didn’t even do much more than ruffle Finn’s clothes.”

    That’s depressing….

  • Tensho says:

    Maybe there will be season 2 like Shana. Or nevermind, I have the feeling this anime is like a fodder. It’s not bad but there are way too many of those special episode that totally like those Naruto’s fillers. The good thing about this is that it’s not too up or down (if you know what I mean) and provide just enough entertainment.

  • shadowlancer says:

    nah i still prefer kaze no stigma over this. but then again i have read the novel for both of these. And i still liked the kaze no stigma more. Shame that the author for Stigma is sick and cannot write more.

  • Anonymous says:

    looking for a grand plot with a series that is obviously a villain of the week style…then of course youll think its not that great -_-

    Its like looking for citrus in an apple.

  • Snowsie says:

    I agree that this series could have been many many times better if they had “even made an attempt at cohesion”.
    I mean Itsuki went through “all” that training and we didn’t even get to see anything.
    And all of those flashy lights symbolizing big magic struggles just get on my nerves.

    But it was still a pretty good series.

  • Adelecia ftw says:

    Middle of the road – Average

    I’ve seen worse, I’ve seen better. Season 2 might happen, the light novels are still continuing. Who knows, maybe in a year or two we get Rental Magica 2: The Final Conflict.

  • ninpo says:

    episode 24 is not the last episode people! the episodes are not in chronological order episode 21 was the last episode for more info on the episodes just go to wikipedia

  • Akuma Kami-sama says:

    i’ts a lot better than kaze no stigma??..no way…kaze no stigma has a lot of twist and every episode is so much exciting…hopefully they continue to release season 2 someday coz the story is so cool….i love ayano and kazuma tandem…basically rental magica is also one of the best anime series i watch but eventually i have a lot of questions about the story like “why is itsuki-kun father didn;t show up ir who will itsuki-kun chose?..addi or honami?..” i think the i find the answer if the story continues and focusing how to heal itsuki-kun eyes…and where is his father whereabouts……