I love how despite there being multi-episode arcs in this series, every episode still feels different, and this arc in particular was an excellent example of this. The romance gets dropped, and instead this turns into a bit of a thriller, and as for the lead characters… Ouji returns and the episode is chock full of the addictive chemistry between Kraft and Ouji, making this episode even better than it already was.
I also loved that for once, an arc with a gimmicky premise like this doesn’t end with a cop-out. I mean, usually when the creators put the stake of the entire earth on something silly like this, they end up writing themselves into a corner and end up with a very cheesy and rushed ending. Here however, Ouji actually comes up with a plan to save the entire earth using clones and a whole lot of breaches of intergalactic treaties.
This episode also contained a few nice jabs at alien abductions, in quite a few different ways, from abductions while asleep, those classic light beams and suddenly feeling like 30 minutes disappeared. I also keep getting amazed at Ouji. His trick is that he’s either completely honest, or not honest at all, and his lies sound so sincere. When he said that he used to be a woman… oh lord.
The reason why I consider Level E to be one of the best comedies I’ve seen though, is really because of the big picture. I mean, standalone comedies that are funny are nice, but this series adds in so much more. The standalone stories that it tells are actually very good ones that could have worked well even without the humour, it has consistently created down to earth characters that are believable and relatable, and its backdrop of 90s alien fiction continues to create interesting backstories and fits really well in terms of the big picture. It’s just everything that this series does that still makes me consider this to be an amazing comedy, even though I do admit that the funniest arc was the first one.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
I have to admit that I felt this episode to be the weakest since the beginning of the series.
Especially the ending did feel for me like a rather cheap way out.
I mean, the Macbans were keeping an eye on the future mate so how could they switch “him” with the clone?
Also what about returning “him” to earth without any memories? Wouldn’t “he” start to freak out when “he” is suddenly starting to change into a man physically?
Those two points really bothered me…
Especially as the other episodes were rather thought-through. (ok, it was also a bit weird that none of the parents would worry when their children went mising for days in the last arc but you could say that Ouji took care of that, as he was the one responsible for it in the first place).
All in all I just felt that this episode was missing something and that it’s resolution fell a bit flat.
Hopefully the next arc will be better again, at least the preview looked really promising!
It was nice to see the genius of Baka being used for “good” instead of just another prank… He really is amazing
I actually liked this arc more than the Color Rangers one, maybe because there was lots of Kraft in it lol he always steals the show
The show has been funny, but it doesn’t stand up to a lot of scrutiny here. The whole thing is driven by increasingly baroque phlebotinum. Besides that and ignoring a host of low-hanging technicalities, their scheme wouldn’t work, because aliens bent on securing priority for their progeny wouldn’t sit idly by while their usual passive aggressive approach failed. They could just introduce their pathogen manually and claim innocence, and the Dogurans could only contradict them by implicating themselves in illegal activities. So long, humanity.
However, I agree that the tale certainly did manage to cram in perversions of a lot of alien abduction tropes. Though I think they received little attention compared to the time spent on our transgendered character. I can’t help but suspect that there was probably an interesting parallel there that I simply missed. I’ll have to look into the manga after the series ends to see if it’s more apparent.
I also think this episode was the weakest since the beginning of the series. When it was over I was like “is this how it ends?”. I was hoping for a more creative solution rather than using a clone, which is the most obvious thing to do (in a world where it’s possible, of course ^^; ).
I only enjoyed watching Ouji and Kraft this time. And I can’t say I’m happy to see the color rangers back for more, at least so soon. Where’s the japanese baseball player?
@Sapphire, Mr. Japanese Baseball Player should be back again in the next episode.
Unless they’re skipping the next arc…I don’t know, I didn’t bother to check the preview. Seems likely though cause there are still 5 chapters of source material left.
This arc was kind of a weak one, so even if there’s a lot of technical issues, I’m glad it’s over.
The preview for the next episode shows that it’s a color rangers arc (involving the twin tailed mermaid) – this one is more action oriented than comedy though.
According to the FUNi translator of this series, the next arc is the mermaid one, and after that it’s the baseball one (Yukitaka’s back for this arc). They’re not skipping anything, just swapping the order of the two arcs.
COLOR RANGERS ARE COMING BACK!
Is this running for 12 or 13 episodes?
@brianwuzhere
According to MAL, 12.
I read the manga and the anime-creators are being pretty damned faithful to its origins !
of course, my fav arc was… well… the very first one: the baseball arc. it’s what got me hooked, line and sinker !