EPISODES 47 & 48
As quickly as he decided to fight for Yui, Shinji decides to not fight for Yui -- that is, he's beating the hell out of Knight, but can't quite insert that Final Vent card when he pulls it. This causes Ryuki to have a meltdown that concerns even Knight, who helps pull him from the Mirror World as they're disintegrating and the obnoxious Shear Ghosts are after them. Shinji then decides to try to stop thinking about things -- he'll plaster on a happy face as Shinji and just dive into fights as Ryuki.
I see Shinji's obsession with trying to stir up fights as a death wish. He feels so cornered by the situation, you have to wonder if he's contemplated suicide to try to escape it. And he must have, when he's going around challenging everyone to fights, and everyone turns him down. (I like that he notices the irony -- when he wanted the fighting to stop, nobody would. When he wants to fight, nobody will.) I can see what the show's going for with Shinji is these past few episodes, and I like the idea behind it, if not the execution. If they could have gotten Shinji to this point in a more believable way -- he just pulls it out of his ass like he used the Indecisive Vent card and quickly bounces back to his original stance...but then repeats his new resolve before bouncing back to his original stance. It's rushed, it's repetitive, it's especially a little too close to what they've done with Ren, and they don't even bother to come at it from that angle, that Shinji's as lost as Ren once was and needs Ren to come through the way he has for Ren. Ren's concerned for Shinji, yeah, but is still keeping up his cool and detached front which is hard to believe by this point. For as focused on Ren as this show's been, he's shockingly just hovering in the periphery in these final episodes, when maybe he should be feeling the dilemmas more than anyone -- Eri's life is still on the line, but also close pal Yui's and he's seeing Shinji suffer.
They needed to dig into the characters' heads just a little more here. They especially need to give Yui more shading -- a big problem is that the show hinges its entire end game and purpose on Yui, but has never cared to make Yui matter as much as she's supposed to -- both to the audience and to characters like Shinji and Ren. She's a nice person, an innocent in all of this, and actress Ayano Sugiyama is likable, so you can care about the character to a certain point, but by trying to keep her background and involvement so mysterious, that limited what the writers felt comfortable doing with the character, so she's shoved into a cupboard and hauled out when it's required. It's not as bad as, say, what we'd see with Koyomi in Wizard, but I feel like we needed more for her, especially seeing more of her bond with Shinji. (And, no, not have it be that they met as kids.)
The moment that Shinji abandons his principles and decides to fight for Yui should be a really big, shocking moment, but the way it's done is just kind of like "Oh. Shinji being wishywashy. AGAIN. Having to learn the same lesson. AGAIN." *sigh*" And while it's obvious that the knowledge of Yui's quickly approaching birthday being the deadline is meant to accelerate the situation and put emotions on edge -- leading to Shinji's quick decisions back and forth -- it's done in a way that just makes the show feel like it's rushing, not the actual situation leading the characters to organic decisions.
It's hard to have your hero wrestle with so many moral dilemmas when 1) you're going to drag things out to the point of tedium 2) you don't want to commit to answering those questions 3) you don't know how to answer those questions and 4) you're centering most of it on a character who you can't be bothered with developing beyond damsel in distress, even though she started the series far stronger and knowledgeable and involved than that.
It's really all in the execution. Because this could work as is, but it's all depicted -- written, filmed, acted -- in such a similar manner, and THAT is what makes it seem so repetitive. Otherwise, I like what the show's trying to do. This show's supposed to be unconventional; our hero is in a moral tug of war and our other characters have murky motivations and/or are ethically compromised. The point of the show, of Shinji's being yanked around, is that there's no simple answer or easy way out. He can't, like a traditional toku hero you've seen so many times, just go, "I'll fight for justice! Protect world peace! DAIJOBU and YURUSAN!" and be OK and have all of his problems solved. No, it's more complicated than that, and Shinji will feel like he arrives at that point, and has figured a way out, but discover he's still stuck. But the show isn't the bold show it started as; it's more indecisive than its characters, which culminates in the ultimate cop-out, the finale. (I'll save that mess for then.)
And imagine how interesting it could have been if Shiro had taken special interest in Shinji after he decided to fight for Yui; he could have then valued Shinji, looked after him, made sure he made it to the end (which would mean kind of protecting him and fighting off the other survivors). Shinji should have been comped in Kanzaki's casino! But we just get more of Kanzaki's same old same old. The keyword in these final episodes is "repetition."
For the last couple of episodes deciding to have Shinji question himself, whether he's actually saved anyone or interfered, I like that it's not just Ren who shows concern for Shinji, but -- more surprisingly -- Kitaoka's concerned for Shinji, noting that his involvement has changed him and Ren, whether they like it or not. The strength of Shinji as a person got through to these two initially very selfish men, and he's had a positive impact on people. So I would like for these episodes, in which our hero is having his doubts about where he belongs and the way that's dovetailing with his former opponents acknowledging his good and worth and proving why his instincts have been right all along, to have been more focused, more detailed, instead of making you feel like, "Ugh! This again." It's kind of like...the show needed to abandon the Rider fight by this point and have the remaining heroes unite for a shared cause. (Taking down Odin? Exposing Shiro? Breaking the Mirror World?) Because the fight just ain't working at this point...
And it still isn't going to work when Shiro pops up and gives them a three-day time limit, just as he did in Episode Final. Again, it just opens up so many questions, like...if Shiro knew he had a time limit -- which was Yui's 20th birthday -- then why'd he go about things the way he did? Setting up this Rider fight and thinking it had a chance of working in just a year's time is a little too presumptuous and leaves him no wiggle room. It's a bit careless, isn't it?
Why doesn't the show just come out and say what the deal with the Kanzaki parents is, anyway? They sound pretty effed up and so much of the info given is murky when it doesn't have to be. Like, Yui says she remembers vacationing with her entire family and the great time they had, and then Ren finds a photograph of a seaside that looks just like one of Yui's drawings. We later hear Yui say she doesn't remember her parents much, and Sanako says that their parents basically locked Yui and Shiro in a room to live. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like the implication is that that happy vacation memory was just a photo Yui saw, and that her drawing that picture meant it came alive from Mirror World magic and THAT is why she thinks it's a memory, but...eh, the show doesn't really confirm that. And I have a sense that it's something born out of inconsistent writing more than a missing puzzle piece. Basically: the show didn't take the Kanzaki parents -- as characters -- into account early on, but changed it at the end. And while you COULD wiggle in some fanon like I just did...nice try, show. Why should I do all of your work, Kobayashi?
Why were Ma and Pa Kanzaki so crazy sounding?! I assume Kobayashi probably had plans to flesh out the Kanzakis more that were either ruined by Episode Final or ruined by Shirakura wanting to do, like, some funny and epic episodes instead, man! Like, it's interesting that Shiro, in these episodes, decides to kidnap Yui and lock her up at their old house to keep her from hurting herself -- he's basically repeating what his parents did to them, unwittingly, but I don't even think the show's aware of that connection.
One more thing...Reiko's been missing for a few episodes, and she returns here from America, suddenly having all of the info on Shiro Kanzaki, even his Mirror World research material. Um...HOW? Who had this info? Where'd she get the tip? And how many people did she get killed in the meantime? And not only that, but she finally catches Shinji transforming. Nothing like knowing you're in the final episodes to light a fire under this ace reporter's ass.
Just a frustrating final few episodes, and while there's elements I like, the execution is off. The show is playing it safe and will lead into two very disappointing final episodes that make it clear just how much the staff didn't want to commit to anything and didn't want to answer any of the hefty questions it posed to our heroes and to the audience.
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