天下制覇

 

Oh. Apparently it’s over.

Impressions:

Well, that was abrupt. And I still have no real idea what the point of Ichika’s little psychic metaphysical journeys into the ethereal plane were really for. He also deserves some kind of special award for stupidity (above and beyond ones already won) for turning his back on an enemy when they’re about six feet away in the middle of a fight. God help him if the enemy figures out all they need to do to kill him is jangle some keys. I do wonder why they didn’t use that as a cliffhanger and stretch out… well… basically any of the fights here instead of all the padding through the rest of the show. Houki and Celia vs… uh… the spider one in particular seemed to end with particular abruptness. Also, I’m not sure how it was suddenly night.

And thus it ends, sort of. With a better whimper than it’s put forth for most of its run (aside from the awful hot springs tagline), but still with an episode that should have come a month ago as a set up to the finale, not the finale itself. The antagonists are not dealt with, there was no big showdown, most of the protagonists barely even have any idea who they are nor have had any kind of actual contact with them. Not that it stopped the trumpets from blaring their heroic fanfares.

Final Thoughts:

A large step down from the first season which was already a popcorn show to begin with. Everything was so padded and stretched out with blatant filler and half-assed fanservice that the final episode was only an ending in the sense that no more episodes are being made (for now). It could get by on the fluff a little better in the first season since every new character came with a little 1-2 episode arc built around them, but not so this season. There’s pretty much just the two new ones, one extra-bland and extra pointless in a show that already has too many pointless characters eating up obligatory screentime every single week, and some really really half-assed antagonists that Team Scooby were barely even aware existed and in the final moments of the show, were still wondering what was up with them.

The approximately 2.5 episodes where it cut the fluff and put together some action/moving the plot (or what can be charitably called such) really weren’t that bad. That’s kind of similar to the first season, sans the angst and a healthy chunk of the budget, but the chaff is so very much more pointless that it’s so much harder to just roll with it. It’s unlikely to be worth suffering through the other 10 episodes of dressup, cooking, and insecurity, but there were a few glimmers in there of the okay action show that once was.