I would like to make the following statement: I include pictures in the top rotation from a series because I think the pictures look good, not because the series itself is necessarily worth watching. Note that in the most recent update I included pictures from Girls High which even I didn't watch.

As to the ending of Magikano, I think Aroduc rather overstates it. It's not the "worst ending imaginable." But it's far from really being satisfactory. I've seen worse, but I've also seen much better. It's one of the very few cases I've seen, maybe the only case, where a reset isn't a cop-out. The ground work is laid well for the reset, and making the reset happen takes all the power of all those who are there. And they all know what they'll lose because of it, especially Ayumi.

Nonetheless, resets are always frustrating.

After I'd finished watching the series, it made me wonder: if everyone is caught in a time loop, one which has repeated dozens or even hundreds of times, and if, somehow, Sora and Hajime are dimly aware of it, then maybe that's why they're so nutso. It's because deep down they know that nothing they do matters, and deep down they know that reality as it appears is a lie. And deep down they know that Haruo is in the middle of it. Maybe with all their weird equipment they managed to come up with a way of communicating forward from cycle to cycle.

Pete writes: Consensus seems to be, abandon the show with 2 episodes to go. Except that when you've reached that point, you won't want to quit. And you probably shouldn't; there are worthwhile things in the last two episodes, most notably the reappearance of the baka neko. (Who, when he shows up again, gets the best single line of dialog in the entire series.)

UPDATE: Here's what I said about the ending in my review:

This is one of those endings that feels satisfying just after you watch it, but becomes quite hollow a day later. (Scrapped Princess was like that, too.) The good guys don't lose, really, and that's fine. But they don't really win, either, except in the sense that not losing in a situation like this is a victory. It's bittersweet.

It's not a trainwreck. It has the emotional punch it needs to have to wrap up the story without feeling like an anticlimax, and what happens is well founded in the characters and plot line, and makes complete sense. It isn't contrived.

It's just that by that point I wanted something else, something better.

UPDATE: Speaking of botched endings, this one isn't nearly as bad as the ending of Venus versus Virus.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Site Stuff at 08:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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