Another prelude to another big battle once again over the Fuji Primary pillar, but this one in somewhat different circumstances.
For one, we get the answer to the
questions the previous episode raised: Odin stands now as the enemy,
declaring that he’s given humanity the means to fight and now gives
them their reason to fight and enemies to fight, broadcasting from
inside Fuji Primary with Thor to the world.
In the wake of that declaration of war,
Tateyama base prepares… both for their new battle to take down Odin
(who’s blessing has not been recalled from the Valkyries. I’ll be
honest, I think he does want to die “right” more than he wants to
win) and for the summer festival.
Yes, we are really doing a festival
episode right now… and you know what that angle is actually
handled. It’s basically Miko’s idea, with everyone else getting
involved out of an interest in raising morale (theirs or that of
others), which Azu quite angrily calls her out on. Their fight takes
up much of the meat of the episode, with Azu ultimately having to
come around and accept Miku’s brightness rather than being sullen and
sour, to the tune of either some serious friendship or some light
yuri ship teasing. Along the way Claudia also realizes her reason
for fighting, to protect the friends and home that she’s made along
the way with everyone at Tateyama, and…
By Haruhi, that really is all there is
to this episode. There are a lot of small scenes trying to give us
the sense that everyone is going to be prepared, mentally and
physically, for the final battle at Fuji, and establishing the stakes
(current Valkyries may be empowered, but no friendly Odin means no
new Valkyries to replace the fallen, so they’ve only got one shot),
but that’s very paint-by-numbers. The show is clearly in its last
act, and just wants to get itself done with what it’s got to do
without screwing up. There aren’t really any surprises here, but
it’s holding its C rank together just fine I guess. That’s what it
really seems to be interested in, so OK.
Honestly, at this point I don’t think
Warlords of Sigrdrifa can pull out anything better. When I do these
seasonal write-ups, I try to stay optimistic, and leave the door open
for a show really kicking itself up to the next level, as there are
quite a few shows I’ve seen that have had second halves or final acts
that do drastically improve. Yuki Yuna is a Hero (which I’ve often
compared Warlords of Sigrdrifa to) really kicked into a different
gear after a major twist. Girl in Twilight (one of my most unpopular
positive opinions) put its worst foot forward in a huge way but
ultimately did something of value. And the opposites, good shows
rendered bad by botched endings (or bad shows rendered unforgivable,
as in the case of Hundred) are a well-known phenomenon. So I don’t
like to make premature judgments about what a final score is going to
look like.
Here, though? The show picked up a
little after the first Fuji battle, but only a little. If there was
going to be a major turn, I think we would have seen something more
impressive by now, especially considering the turn we got already.
There’s not enough time left, I think, for a quality spike to even
really matter. Even though we have roughly an hour (half a movie)
more to stay with these characters, there’s still only so much you
can do, and it all has to be built on the foundation we have.
Just sit back and hope for some badass
air battles.