From the New World and Psycho Pass had endings that really impressed me. The downside to that is that they did raise the bar on endings quite a bit now. You can’t just defeat the evil monster and do nothing beyond that. You have to do something special now as well. I guess that that’s why I was underwhelmed by the first half of this episode, because that was exactly that. Not to mention: this series prides itself inits logic. A fight scene ending doesn’t have the same impact compared to if they would have based it on logic.
The second half of this episode was much more satisfying as an epilogue, though. This really showed everyone being able to move on, and quite a few characters have changed their ways or beliefs thanks to what happened in the series. Aika also showed again that she was a really compelling character to watch. She was a character who was dead at the start of the series, and yet her impact is all over it. She definitely was my favorite character here.
Tempest was great. It’s a shame that there is not going to be a bones series next season, because they are always interesting, even when they’re weaker. But really, their last weak series was Heroman for me. I eagerly await their next work.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)
The show was pretty interesting when they were discussing Hakaze on the island, and it was pretty interesting when Hakaze meets Aika, but everything else was pretty dull. Also, the details regarding the tree of beginnings and the tree of exodus was so confusing that I stopped trying to understand it. The tree of (something)’s spreading all over the world caused crimes to go down because…? The main crew wanted to dispose of that tree because…? Eh whatever nobody tell me I don’t really care all that much.
this was a good series, didn’t quite make up for the shit-stain Eureka Seven Ao turned out to be though
Autumn 2012 season has been great. Shin Sekai Yori, Psycho Pass and Tempest are my top 3 favourites. Each is unique in their own way. Tempest’s plot twists bring out the charm of this series. Though the final episode does not have such an impact compared to SSy and PP, it delivers a satisfying closure. We get to see the main leads moving on to a new beginning.
Honestly i thought the ending was very good. I know we all want to have an epic battle, what, tree versus boy, but seriously i thought it was great. I just think that the ending did the right thing and focused in on what made this show great, the characters.
This ending is pretty much the same as manga’s, but I found it a bit disappointing that they decided to scrap the part that “a message (light) was sent to outer space after the tree was defeated, and 2 months later, a light stroked where tree of exodus was located, and left some kind of message…”
Personally, when the tree just disappeared like that, it felt kinda anticlimactic for me…I think that if they’re gonna do it this way, it’d have been better if they rushed a little bit (like removing the Mahiro/Yoshino on boat part, which wasn’t in the manga btw), and have the tree destroyed by the end of episode 23, and use the whole episode 24 to talk about the aftermath.
An excellent show with and excellent ending that does what any well made ending is meant to do .. emphasize the themes of the series and play on its strengths, tie all or at least most loose threads, give closure to the characters, bring things full circles .. and Zetsuen like From the New World and Psycho Pass succeeded in achieving all of those point to a great degree of success.
Also like From the New World it warped up the final battle at the start of the episodes and dedicated the rest of the time to the aftermath (instead of leaving only a 1 min for the aftermath and epilogue .. i’m looking at you Robotics;Note), here is how i thing this ending fits perfectly with this amazing show.
-Emphasize the themes of the series and play on its strengths –> which it did in spades, Mahiro’s talking about writing his own role and that he won’t be an actor in a pre-set play/story contrasted by Aika’s final message and how she believes the exact opposite really hammers in the theme of the show about fate, how life is like a play where everyone is an actor with a specific role to fill .. it also played on the strongest aspect of the show which is the dialog .. after all this is a series that had four people talking for 4 full episodes (Mahiro, Yoshino, Hakaze .. of course emergent comedian Samon) and still manged to be tense and super exciting, the rabid back and forth between Mahiro and Yoshino is always a joy to watch because of how much they contrast yet complete each other as best friends .. Aika’s final message and her final words were just beautiful and heart-wrecking at the same time.
-Tie all or at least most loose threads –> Apart from the fact that we truly didn’t know what are those trees for real (aliens of deities) everything was pretty much explained and covered .. no major plot-holes or massive inconsistency that soils the enjoyment of the show or the ending.
-Give closure to the characters –> Done in spades, Mahiro will end having the power he thought to change/save/rebuild the world and he found a love interest (the last one is a little underdeveloped plot point but at least it shows he grew over his fascination with Aika), Yoshino finally accepted Hakaze’s feelings and is more open about his feelings way more than before .. he will probably live a normal, logical and happy life with Hakaze who might have lost her magical powers and status as mage/princess of the Ksurabi clan she got the heart of the man she seeked out and the normal life Aika wished she could have had, almost everyone (even Hanemura) got what they were looking for .. even Aika despite how tragic her fate was got what she thought she could never have (the normal life she lived with Mahiro and Yoshino).
-Bring things full circles –> done very well, choosing the final location of the last dialog between Mahiro and Yoshino infront of Aika’s family grave was spot on (with a sunset for dramatic effect), the flash backs that played brought back sweet memories of the early episodes of the show making you feel how far the story and the character came since the start of the events of the story (five months ago for us .. five enjoyable months ^_^)
Goodbye Mahiro, Yoshino, Hakaze, Samon, Aika, Hanemura and Frau Yamamoto .. goodbye Zetsuen no Tempest.
Why did Aika die? It still bugs me. There is no soild reason for her to commit suicide. All she needed to do is to feign her own death. Yes, then there wouldn’t be a new mage of exodus but so what? Is hanemura really that important?
It wasn’t really about Hanemura, Aika was afraid that if she didn’t die and things went differently that Yoshino and Mahiro might end dead or hurt in an unexpected way since the events that happened before will start playing out differently .. basically she killed herself for them.
That’s what i’m saying, hanemura doesn’t matter. And his role in the show is the only thing that would be affected/changed if aika weren’t really dead. Why would the events play out differently if aika had faked her death? Mahiro would still think she was murdered and his feelings over it and actions wouldn’t really change. He would still be upset, mad etc and he’d still make a deal with Hakaze and everything else would follow.
I thought the reason for actually dying and not faking was indeed Hanemura. His appearance and powers, getting rid of parts of the tree and not to mention the ending sequence, are what matter.