This episode really showed the strength of Tatsuo Sato’s series. I mean, this is supposed to be a mecha-series, but the Vox of this series only appeared at the end of this episode, taking off. Instead this episode was one giant build-up to the final moments of the series. It really had my attention from start to finish here and every time at which the episode seemed to dull in, they threw in something new to regain that attention. And that in an episode with so little action in a series that’s supposed to be mecha action.
Last episode I noted how annoying Yurikano was. Okay, I understand now: that sharp contrast between who she really is made her such a more interesting character because of this. Then there was that point two episodes ago, at which I whined that Lan’s brother needed more attention. And yet again this episode comes and delivers on that. This episode fleshed him out: he didn’t really change, but he finally showed his colors as a ruler ruler who knows that what he’s doing is bad, yet continues to charismatically lie his way through the episode and threatens to kill off an entire race for the sake of his own people. His character still is typical, but this episode made him so much more relatable than what he was before.
What also surprised me was that this episode pretty much answered all of the major questions in this series. From this point onward, there are many routes that this series can take, but here is the thing: this is an anime original series, so the creators have been preparing for that from the start of the series. Also, this is by Tatsuo Sato, who really was on fire this year. With Mouretsu Pirates, the final quarter just kept getting better and better, and I really hope that he can influence this to be the same here. The thing is: that at this point Rinne no Lagrange has a really good and relatable cast. The build up has been done really well, but actually using the build-up takes a lot of skill. The people working on this have the potential to make it work, though.
Also, I noticed that the soundtrack has gotten a bit more varied: it uses a lot of different instruments together. A nice touch.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
