Well, so it turned out to be a pretty good end here. It had some things I didn’t like, but overall there were enough things that surprised me and went against my fears. It’s an action-packed ending that at the same time still spends enough time on the dialogue and the conversations between people.
Togame’s death had an interesting effect on this episode, and I definitely liked it when she revealed that she was also planning to just get rid of Shichika after her mission ended; definitely gives a twist to the two of them being lead characters. I also liked how this episode also showed battles that showed exactly how not to use the first eleven defiant blades. That was definitely an interesting way to get rid of them, even though it may not make the most sense in the story.
I also liked the iron of the whole ending. We pretty much have Shichika trying the same thing as his sister, and failing. I really expected the princess to be this boring final villain, and yet instead she gave a nice little twist at the end. I liked that a lot.
Now, for the stuff I didn’t like, the battle between Emonzaemon and Shichika was as dull as I expected. Here, it was no longer a matter of martial arts but instead it was this over the top Dragonball Z esque fight in which people supposedly moved too fast for the naked eye to follow. That’s not epic, that’s just lazy, it’s a sign of the creators that they don’t know how to create an interesting final fight. On top of that, Shichika ended up with a dozen gunwounds, all of which just perfectly heal afterwards… that was just too shounen.
Overall, this wasn’t always the most interesting series to blog due to so little happening in each episode, but overall I liked this show. It’s definitely kept my attention, and in any case we need more series like this that go beyond the standard formats of broadcasting.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
A satisfying finale with plot twists that I didn’t quite see coming, thus ends one of my favourite series of the year.
Really enjoyed seeing Shichika turn into badass mode fighting once more against the eleven deviant blades. Emonzaemon’s and Shichika’s duel may have followed all the usual shonen cliches, but I was still enthralled to watch their fight.
And finally the ending was okay I guess, unspectacular but satisfying, and which I think totally fit the series.
I was really disappointed.
It was a good plot, good story, but the end was just horrible (maybe it’s the humanity in me). I liked Togame, she shouldn’t have died…
I like seeing Shichika getting hardcore, and breaking all the swords, the fight with Emonzaemon.
But that twist at the end…it’s just plain unforgivable. Also, to just say that all the feelings Togame had were for not. I don’t know. This just makes a lot of mixed feelings.
Just beautiful…
This anime took everything i loved about japanese animation and crammed it into one brilliant little ball..
Makes my top ten list of anime easy.
And makes my list for favorite anime ending as well.
This gave me mixed feelings… First of all, that death sequence was TOO DAMN LONG… Seriously I kept thinking “Just die already so we can move on to the fights”
And really, Togame had no feelings for Shichika? Yeah right, thats a blatant lie, probably used to make Shichika fight for himself and not for revenge
And I agree completely on the fights… It was awesome until he reached the Maniwa guy… But that last fight sucked balls, and ruined a perfectly good final episode
ah~
I also have a mixed feeling, I thought I would really love this serie but in the end, I don’t hate it but I don’t like it either…
Togame’s death scene was really beautiful but I wished at the end of the episode, Shichika would say something about togame like : I have to spread “cherio” all around the world or something like that… well… I’m kind of disappointed…
But the episode was enjoyable, I like the fight… well… I just wished the fight with emonzaemon wasn’t this “epic”…
And isn’t it kind of pointless that all the sword-collecting thing didn’t have any effect in the future? (well.. I don’t know if I missed something in the story… arg.. so confused >
This goes to show that togame was a complex character more than what we give her credit for. To disassociate herself from her feelings and just watch herself do and act on certain events, that is pretty cold. The fights were cool but I’m disappointed with the fight against enmonzaemon the trailer made it seem like it would be an epic fight but it wasn’t. I’m still wondering why did hime-sama decided to follow shichika in the end. Now its their journey? That is the only part i didn’t get aside from the whole alter history thing. I think i got that point but i didnt understand her motives really.
In that final scene, I think Togame used her strategic skills one more time to figure out a way to persuade Shichika to live without her. I think she tried to use logic to help Shichika (as well as any of the audience who were expecting/rooting for her and Shichika to have a happy ending) to accept this (ridiculous) result. I don’t believe for a second that Togame would actually have killed Shichika; they only had each other, but as a tactician, she may have considered this as an option early in her planning before she actually got to know Shichika and decided to use this plan as a lever to put distance between herself and Shichika to dampen the pain of their parting. She at least admitted her true feelings at least, to balance that logic. Don’t like it one bit but well, there you go. =.=;
Did Katanagatari get axed or something? I would have expected more build up, at least a little bit of a hint that something like this was coming. And what’s with that white snake that was tied up around Togame? Probably something to do with her cross-shaped iris. Another tiny detail that exists but really isn’t explained in the end.
In the end they never clearly spelled out who Emonzaemon really was even though they made me very curious about this.
I liked this episode alot, i thought it was well done. I found things fell into Tagome’s plans perfectly, at least one of the many plans she accounted for. It would be interesting of they did a remake of the last two episodes showing a different ending.
Yeah the whole last battle was a bit anti-climatic, there was potential there for something special. I liked how short it was, it shows more that battles between elite opponents are usually not drawn out, but it was to heavy, i loved the combo, just shows you that you realy don’t want to be caught in that move. Reminded me of arcade games were if you get stuck in a combo your dead, “Flawless Victory”
The best was the choice he made at the end there, to kill the shogun, very nice..
I loved this concept of a no sword style. Very insteresting but the full story was less than it’s promise.
Should have seen it comming when they killed off the sister. Then they were killing off good evil characters every show. So I can’t say I was shocked by the ending.
Great show over-all with some very good ideas yet the final story had too many flaws and left me feeling like it was a rushed ending.
2.5 out of 5 is how I rate it.
I wanted Togame to die. I was afraid that she would survive the gunshot. Talk about cliche dude!, but it didnt happen. It was tottaly unpredictable in my part. Everything in this episode totally exceeded my expectations.
Looks like Shichika got another interesting partner xD
I just finished this series in two days. It was quite addicting. I would have rated this as one of my top favorite anime if it weren’t for that damn twist at the end. I can accept Togame dying, Sichika dying, Sichika living on, but not Sichika living with that yellow haired bitch by his side instead of Togame. That really soured the whole series for me. CHEEEERRRRRIIIIOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!