Short Synopsis: Yumemi uses her powers to instantly take care of most of the major conflicts in the series.
Episode Rating: 6,5/10 (Lacking)
Well, there you have it. There’s going to be a movie, which is going to recap all of the new material of the series (read: copy and paste) and paste the real climax of Munto after it. There was no point to the TV-series at all, and it really reminds me of the Death and Rebirth Movie of Evangelion: pointless and only there to squeeze some extra cash out of a franchise. It’s such a shame: if the creators only took the time to rewrite the original story and make it fit within 26 episodes, we would have had ourselves an absolute gem here. Instead, the series is merely a nice enough series for those who haven’t seen the original OVAs yet.
Having said that, though, this final episode left a lot to be desired, unfortunately. I would have been at least satisfied with a decent action-packed finale, but for some very strange reason Yumemi suddenly started acting completely out of character. She’s been this calm yet reserved girl up till now, and this episode transforms her into some sort of cheerful super-heroine of some sorts. Munto also turned into a completely different person after the climax ended.
But hey, at least we now know where the extremely short skirts from the ED came from: they were simply Munto’s strange sense of fashion. I’m still not sure why exactly he decided to give Yumemi and her friends those new clothes in the first place, and where the school uniforms came from…
In this episode it also really becomes clear that Yumemi’s power needed to be fleshed out much more than it already was. She simply zaps everyone and all the problems are instantly gone, and I also assume that she’s simply going to do the same in the movie. The creators have just god-moded her way too much throughout the series.
In the end, looking back now I regret blogging this series. I’m really going to have to be more careful on that with the upcoming Spring Season, and I predict that it’s going to take a looong while before I’m going to be blogging another Kyoto Animation-show again. Please, Kyoani: do SOMETHING that’s out of your comfort-zone.
I had a lot of hopes for the anime as I really enjoyed the OVAs and had been hoping for a nice thorough anime story, but this was such a disappointment. I would even take a cliff-hanger ending if only so that it meant more could be told about the story. Instead we are simply shown that the major conflict is resolved, the world is saved, and everybody lives happily ever after. Gah!
And I agree about the OOC-ness in this last episode. Yumemi went from hesitant and concerned to all of a sudden full of confidence. But the most jarring change for me is in Munto’s personality. It’s especially noticeable in an anime format because we see him just seven or six episodes ago with a determined and noble air (the whole “call my Munto-sama!” thing). But now he appears almost casual and cheerful. I’m tempted to blame this on a writing inconsistency but the thing is they had the script writer for the second OVA work on the anime, so I can’t understand why there’s such a dramatic shift. Or do they expect us to believe that a day’s worth of interacting with Yumemi is enough to change him that much?
The series is not over.
The official website for Kadokawa Shoten’s Newtype magazine reports on Tuesday that Sora o Miageru Shōjo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai, Kyoto Animation’s ongoing television remake of its Munto fantasy video series, will get a movie finale in Japanese theaters next month. The film will be a director’s cut of the climactic scenes with new footage. The film will run in two theaters in Tokyo and Kyoto from April 18 to May 1.
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