Short Synopsis: Birdy finally gets the chance to bring Natoru back to earth.
Episode Rating: 9/10 (fantastic)
What an utterly incredible episode. I’ve seen a lot of disappointing endings this season so far, but this one did EXACTLY what it promised, with some of the most amazing results. What a ride. And what a huge shame that this incredible series is already over.
And seriously, this episode had some of the best fights I have seen in a long, long while, showing that Kazuki Akane has in no way lost his touch since Noein. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen animation that was this good; even Bonen no Xamdou’s final episodes feel inferior compared to it. Unlike Shikabane Hime, which promised a huge ending and instead got resolved within five minutes, this episode made optimal use of its time, and yet nearly everything got resolved, and the things that haven’t been resolved (Natoru’s past) are being saved for the OVA.
This show seriously has set such a high standard for the rest of the year, and it’s been an amazing ride from start to finish, and I loved how even at the final episodes, it never forgot that Senkawa’s classmates also are supposed to have a life (something that many other series seem to forget at this point). Some of the most touching scenes in this episodes included those parts about the presentation that the series has also been building up for.
This series has really confirmed how Kazuki Akane is my single favourite director. His works of Escaflowne, Noein and Birdy the Mighty have been utterly incredible, and a true work of genius. I am SO going to watch his next work when it airs in a few years’ time.
Ahh, I’d forgotten this show was directed by Kazuki Akane! Escaflowne is my very favorite series, and I liked Noein a lot too, so that combined with your praise of it makes me eager to give this a look.
Curious… why so much praise for Akane.. and none for Hiroshi Ohnogi? You know the writer of this show, Noein, 17-24 of Macross Frontier.
Escaflowne aside (which he teamed up with Shouji Kawamori of Macross fame anyway) pretty much every Kazuki Akane show has heavily involved Hiroshi Ohnogi. Birdy, Noein and Heatguy J… have you see that one btw?
He’s writing Gonzo’s Shangri-la, so before you set about defending Gonzo if you end up liking the show remember that… oh and he’s doing the new FMA as well.
The soundtrack was especially awesome in this episode. And the messy animation style made much more sense this time round. A very enjoyable episode (and series), made me wanting more ^__^
wholeheartedly agree – the animation in this episode’s fight was superb – I haven’t even seen such animation in Western movies…
One thing I noticed that didn’t get explained (unless I missed it) was Iluma’s connection with Kazuyoshi Chigira’s family. We saw her there getting information from his mum, but that was it. Does that mean that Chigira’s family aren’t normal humans either?
But great series! The second half was especially fantastic! And I liked the way that Senkawa’s and Birdy’s situations mirrored eachother, with the person they each liked ending up as an enemy. After seeing how Senkawa dealt with the situation, deciding to sacrifice himself in Nakasugi’s place, I wondered what path of action Birdy would take. But in the end it seems it was Senkawa that broke Nataru out of his rage. Also I was kinda confused as to how Nataru knew that he had to go back in time to save Birdy as a child?
I’m really curious as to why people find the animation incredible. If by animation you mean the capability to show 24 frames per second then, yes, the animation was incredible. In my case I didn’t find anything particularly amazing about that sucky drawings (I only mean the ending and episodes with that style).
I liked the story a lot though, for me it was not the ending but the way in which the story got there. The ending was so-so but there have been so little good endings in a lot of time (not that there was ever a lot to begin with).
Just saw the last episode. Freaking amazing!!! I was sorta mad though…WTF is this really the end? Season three man. So much stuff left to talk about.
Definately my current top anime of 2009 right now.
i wanna see a 3rd season darn it!!! revi is on earth!! so who could it be then? the original ova never showed us the woman but i wish they’d make a 3rd season.
I hope they make the needed edits to the animation when they release the DVDs. if they do, i certainly hope to get them if i got the money then.
do you know when season 3 is airing? perhaps october?
You can find anything related to Birdy the Mighty here:
http://www.birdy-tv.com/index.html
Only problem is that most of the site is in Japanese.
please let me know when the birdy season 3 comes out
I hate to say this, but in the years i have watched anime i have come across ONE single bad thing that like about 50% of the anime’s i have seen has in common, they lead up to something more but then they end just like that…
If they had a better ending i would rate them higher.
But i just hate that somehow almost all the best anime’s stop like this one, season 2, when CLEARLY there should be a season 3, at least, if not also season 4:)
But the sad fact is that we are now in year 2011 soon 2012 and the anime companies haven’t made any progress in the birdy matter at all since then…
So there will 99% surely not be any season 3, but that’s what makes anime companies SO FREAKING stupid.