Aah, and it went so well!
This episode… it contained the “why the heck are you pulling so many twists at the last moment only to make them pointless at the end?”-syndrome, and it’s unfortunately the bad variant of it. Let me explain what I mean by that:
I was actually fairly impressed with this episode for its main part: the final two segments actually were an actual conclusion to the series. It was completely out of left field, but actually worked surprisingly well. Squid Girl actually suddenly loses her powers due to some mysterious reason, which pretty much makes her hopes for world conquest impossible. After returning to the sea for one year she returns and actually seems to have accepted that she’s not special anymore. She’s really about to significantly change as a character.
And then out of nowhere, the scientists launch a giant whirlpool that conveniently swallows Eiko and makes Squid Girl magically regain her powers immediately in order to save Eiko’s life, completely nullifying just about every part of the serious development that was put into Squid Girl. What the heck was that?
This episode was horribly rushed. It’s the kind of ending where the creators first want to give some decent conclusion to the characters, only to hear at the last minute that they’re not allowed to because of the possibilities of a second season that this series doesn’t need. It’s these kinds of endings that I hate, especially when it’s obvious that too little thought has been put in it. I mean, the final two segments weren’t even funny. It would have been better to just pick the funniest chapter of the manga in order to end with a bang.
This final episode is a shame, but it doesn’t ruin this series at all, because it never really was building up to it, so only these final two segments were wasted and nothing else.
I hardly ever blog pure comedy series because you never know which ones turn out to be great based on just their first episode. Squid Girl however was consistently fun to sit through and write about. It’s perhaps not the best comedy this season, but the reason why I picked this series over Panty and Stocking and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes was that it had by far the most solid characters of the three. In the end there is very little character-development, but Squid Girl’s characterization really is something the creators should be proud of.
Rating: – (Disappointing)
This reminds me oddly of the concluding episode of Bottle Fairy – a big climax n’ synthesis of the main theme, and then…restart.
Which at very least leaves the door open to indefinite continuation-