Altoh pushes forward to rescue Ranka and stop Grace once and for all.

Impressions:

This episode was fantastic. All throughout the episode there were just so many scenes that just gave me chills, they were that good. Times when Ranka and Sheryl were singing fiercely as things were going on, everything just seemed to come together and the atmosphere of what was going on was great. The plot came to an interesting end. I was really curious to find out how they would conclude this Vajra problem. On the one hand, they attack the humans but Ranka kept vehemently thinking there was another side, that the Vajra weren’t evil. How they would have a final battle and resolution to the conflict, while still keeping in mind the Vajra aren’t evil, was a big issue and I thought they concluded it very well.

As for the ending of this episode and series, I thought it was done very well. Although it turned out to be a very open ended finale in terms of romance, I thought it was handled very well. It’s better then Altoh being forced into a romance one way or another in order to resolve the plot. I thought they ended things with the plot concerning the Vajra and Grace was good, and although as I said I would have preferred for the romance to be more concrete and seeing him really pick one over the other, it was enough to cure Sheryl’s illness, clarify Ranka’s position, and have them both compete for him in a now normal situation.

Final Thoughts:

It’s hard to say anything bad about this series just because I remember how entrancing the show was near the beginning. Now I personally continued to like the series throughout. Yes, plenty of people will have problems, and hell because this is such a popular series there will be more people who bash it just to try and be different, but I don’t care about them. I thought the series was great. I just remember so many moments throughout the series that just made my mouth drop. There was an amazing mix of romance with actual plot, something I don’t’ see a lot of. Throughout the series it wasn’t obvious which girl Altoh might end up with, something that a lot of shows don’t have either. There was just so many things, a mix of romance, plot, and overall excitement that made this series incredible.

I have to mention the romance itself as it really was one of the strongest points this series had, and one of my favorite parts of it. It really was done remarkably. It didn’t really take a backseat to the plot, while at the same time it didn’t get in the way or hinder the plot either. It’s a great example of why I love romance in anime, even if it’s an action show. The romance really seemed to drive some points of the series. It prompted Ranka to become more brave and to get involved in things, it changed Sheryl’s outlook on things and made her realize her own feelings, which prompted her action, plus all of the emotions going around and so forth drove Altoh as well, as he was fighting for them or going though inner struggles because he might have to fight against someone he may have feelings for. It really affected the plot, and without it the story aspect of there show wouldn’t be the same.

The Frontier begins its all out attack on the Vajra home planet.

Impressions:

This episode was pretty good, although ultimately not as good as I thought it was going to be for a second to last episode. It had a lot of action in it, but asides from that not much until the very end. It just showed them fighting, and showed Grace and the new president guy being all evil like, which we’ve seen plenty of times before. I did find it interesting though, the quick encounter Altoh and Sheryl had before Altoh headed off. It really seems to be tipping in Sheryl’s favor; however Ranka still has a pretty big shot. I’m surprised at how the series has pulled that off, that even in the second to last episode it’s not blatantly obvious who he’s going to go with.

I think the biggest thing the final episode is going to have to deal with is Ranka’s siding with the Vajra. Even though right now she’s kind of in a trance, she still believed before that that the Vajra weren’t an evil species. Seeing as how she has some connection to them, her views on how things should go could be very different from even Altoh’s still, and may run into problems there. I’m sure Altoh is a live, as it would be a horrible way for the series to end, not to mention very hard for them to do anything in the final conclusion with him gone.

Ranka and Brera approach the home planet of the Vajra and Altoh decides what he’s going to do.

Impressions:

I thought this episode e was great. The second to last episode of the series generally should be so. At first I was a bit surprised at how much it showed Sheryl and Altoh together. It seemed like she had pretty much already won, and Altoh picked her, but his talk with Klan was really interesting. At first it sounded like he loves Ranka. That he did everything up to this point for her, to protect her, and so on. However then he says he has to go kill her. It’s likely that what’s going to happen is somehow they find a way to solve things without killing Ranka, but the fact he’s willing to do that is pretty big.

I’m still slightly unsure of what the hell Grace is up to. She’s obviously been masterminding some huge plot since the beginning; however what it’s actually come to mean I’m not sure. On one hand she seems to be against the Vajra, calling hem worms and such, but then she seems to know more about them then anyone and when Ranka was kidnapped by them, she seemed to be there, as if she was using the Vajra. Plus all of this amounts to some doorway to a new world opening up. I almost find her inclusion in the series unneeded, as there is a big enough conflict of Altoh realizing his feelings and that despite them having to kill Ranka or not.

Some of the SMS goes against the commands of Mishima, the new president.

Impressions:

This episode was pretty good. The SMS becoming pirates was pretty big. I was honestly surprised Altoh didn’t go with them. It seems like something that would fit his personality, but I guess not. I’m not too sure what the new SMS pirates will really be able to accomplish, its not like they had the same info Ranka did when she left, they know hardly anything actually, so it will be interesting to see what they do, as they have to do something or they would have made this huge fuss for no reason.

The romantic aspect of this aspect to this episode, and really the entire series at this point is really complicated and confusing. On one hand this episode seemed to almost confirm Sheryl being who Altoh picks. He had that talk with her at night, and at least kissed her and maybe more. However at the same time, she’s dying. It’s kind of hard to be with someone who’s dead and the way they explained things, it seems like she’s pretty much a goner. They said her condition is curable at first, but once it reaches the stages is at inside her, it can’t be. The options are to have her die or somehow go back on what they said. I think it’d be better if she died. Not that I hate her character or anything like that, but the drama about her dying would be cheap if she didn’t actually do so. Ranka seems almost completely out of the picture. Although she could easily come back and probably will and there will be a whole thing about the Queen bit, Altoh didn’t seem o have any emotions towards her leaving. When they talked about fighting to protect he seemed to be thinking of Sheryl. Things are definitely complicated, because as it stands now it seems that Sheryl will die, Ranka will be back but Altoh may not be with her, as being with Sheryl, having her die, then jumping over to Ranka seems odd.

Luca informs everyone of a plan to destroy the Vajra using Ranka’s singing as bait.

Impressions:

Wow, taking off from the HUGE episode they had last time, we have another huge episode. I was really blown away. This episode wasn’t huge in the same way though. The last episode was big because of the big events like the Vajra attacking and so on, however I think the biggest part of this episode was the end, involving Ranka leaving. They’ve been continuously building up this connection she has to the Vajra, yet beyond showing her being in some pain when they are destroyed, nothing really came of it until now. This REALLY changes the situation. The reason this episode is so big is because it changes the whole dynamic of the struggle they have. It’s no longer a clear cut war against these monsters. However things are more complicated now with Ranka understanding them and some realization that they may not be this horrible species they are made out to be. With Ranka with them now, things have drastically changed.

I’m really almost bothered by the change in relationship between Altoh and Ranka when she left. Her phrase, I loved you, as in past tense, rally got to me. It’s obviously Ranka loved Altoh, and her admitting that is big, but the way she said it means she doesn’t love him anymore. THAT is huge. For a character that has bee interested in Altoh the entire series, and her motivation being doing things for him, to no longer love him is big. I really want a Ranka ending and I had a lot of hope for it until the past tense part of loved hit. There’s still a chance, but things are, again, very different from before.

Hordes and hordes of Vajra attack the Frontier and everyone fights for their lives.

Impressions:

This episode was huge. Of course one of the big things in this episode was Michael dying, but I’ll talk about that in the next paragraph. Even without that this episode was huge. I just couldn’t get over the big overall feeling about how totally screwed everyone on the Frontier is. There’s thousands of the Vajra inside the ship, if they ever get dealt with there will be pretty much no buildings left for people to be able to live. If the Vajra don’t kill them, the destruction they caused will. They’re f’ed. This episode also had some good romance in it, but not a huge amount. I knew that Altoh wouldn’t have said anything romantic to Sheryl, that it would be something like him telling her to keep singing, but it still was a bad thing for Ranka to walk in on. Hopefully this event will bring them a little closer together. It gives me a lot of hope for Ranka actually because Sheryl singing again means she’s not in a horrible place. If she was it would be too sad for her to also not get the guy, but if she can pick herself up without him, it won’t be as big of a deal.

Of course the huge thing that I’m just absolutely stunned by was Michel dying. I mean….holy shit, that was f’ing huge. He was such a great character. He was experienced, helped people along by giving them a push in the right direction but almost more importantly he had a great thing going with Klan that was just destroyed when he died. They finally got to the point where they were open with each other and he dies. It’s horrible. I feel so sorry for Klan. I loved her character and I loved seeing her try and get Michel to realize her feelings. He was a great character and it’s really tragic to see him die, but at the same time it brings a huge level of seriousness to this show that is already great.

Ranka realizes the reason she wants to sing and for whom.

Impressions:

This episode was great in terms of both romance advancement and plot. The biggest thing for me of course is the romance. I just knew that the scene they ended with was going to happen when I saw Ranka running up the stairs. I’m just torn at what to think really. On one hand Altoh seems to like Sheryl more because eh went to the mansion and he seemed to be flying for her, but Ranka obviously likes him. I really want to find out the result of the romance part of this series more then the plot. It seems that from the preview the entire ship gets nearly destroyed and is in ruin from the attacks but I just want to know who Altoh will pick damnit. My hopes still ride on Ranka right now, as I would really prefer her over Sheryl, but unlike at the very beginning of the series I don’t hate Sheryl, I wouldn’t hate the show for her ending up with him, but I’d still prefer Ranka.

I can’t just completely disregard the plot aspect, as it was pretty big in this episode. I was a bit surprised that Ai, the pet thing actually did something. I expected it not to really play any important role; I was even expecting them to neglect explaining what the hell it was. Still, it seems Luca recognized it as something but we never actually saw it activating the eggs of Vajra or something so even now I’m a bit confused. Regardless of Ai, it seems as if the Vajra have emerged right in the ship so people are pretty screwed.

Sheryl tries to leave the hospital in her condition and Ranka continues to sing for the fleet to protect them from the Vajra.

Impressions:

I found the bit with Sheryl in this episode really interesting. It’s nice to see her character go though such a huge change in the series. Well, not nice for her seeing as how the change is going from super popular and loved by all to being nearly forgotten. This isn’t even taking into account that she’s going to die for some fairly unclear reason; she’s been completely dethroned as any sort of singer by Ranka. It really makes me feel sorry for her. I still wish Ranka ends up with him but I’m not going to feel terrible if Sheryl does. In fact, I think Sheryl has a better shot. It will be more tragic for her if she has nothing. At least she’ll have Altoh and Ranka will have singing. We’ll see though, either way it’s interesting.

I’m really curious to find out what the whole situation is exactly with Ranka and the Vajra. There’s obviously some connection there, as back when she was kidnapped she had some connection to the queen and she’s even been referred to as the queen Now she certainly doesn’t look like a Vajra so I’m curious why she’s connected to them. If it has something to do with her birth or something or she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way there is something gong on there, as shown in this episode when she began to hurt when all the Vajra were wiped out. Something like that is big enough to be the major plot for the entire series so I want them to progress on it soon.

Ranka prepares for her live concert while Ozma remembers the past and how he came to take care of her.

Impressions:

I thought this episode was great in terms of showing Ozma’s character and a bit of his past. It wasn’t just showing the past and how he started to take care of Ranka, but really showing Ranka’s growth in her personality too. I loved the way they really depict this super tough and rugged man as living his entire life for his sister, it was really a great episode for Ozma. Beyond the bit with Ozma, this episode didn’t really have that much. Just them revealing that the Vajra adapt to the weapons. It really didn’t seem to have a lot going on, just some random fight with the Vajra and the other stuff didn’t seem important.

I still really dislike Brera as a character, as I stated in the previous episode’s post there’s something about him, be it the way he thinks he knows everything and thinks no one is good enough except him really gets to me. I don’t necessarily want him to die, as I know he’s likely Ranka’s brother and isn’t evil, having him die would be too tragic when that’s revealed, but I really want a moment where he is just completely showed up by Altoh or something, something to knock him down a few pegs.

The government begins to use Ranka’s singing as a weapon against the Vajra.

Impressions:

This episode was really interesting. The two things that really seemed to be the most important in this episode was that Sheryl really is getting kind of tossed aside for Ranka. Although I still favor a Ranka and Altoh ending, I don’t dislike Sheryl at all anymore and I’m really feeling sorry for her. When they showed her on the bridge listening to everyone say Ranka is the hope for them all was pretty bad for Sheryl, seeing someone take over the spotlight like that. Also Ranka definitely seems to be a critical tool in fighting the Vajra. It seems her emotional state is important when doing so, but her singing seems to be the best weapon they have. I can easily see something like that turning against Ranka, having people force her into situations and not let her really do what she wants.

There’s something about Brera that really pisses me off. I’m not sure what it is exactly, as it’s pretty obvious that he’s not a romantic threat to Altoh and Ranka or anything, as it seems he’s her brother or something, but there’s still something about him that really pisses me off. More so then Grace even, which is odd seeing as how she seems way more in charge of the evil plots going on then Brera is. It seems that he’s just doing what he can to protect Ranka, but he still bothers me. I really hope they redeem his character a little bit alter on, which I can easily see them doing. However until then he’ll bother me.