天下制覇

Now what’ll I do with my Sunday mornings?

Impressions:

No ending expected, and none really achieved, aside from leaving things open for a post-graduation second season. While it certainly would have been great to see the future esper war, this has always really been more presented like a western show, with that kind of stuff just being some distant inevitable threat as the show keeps trucking along at its own pace. Sort of like the Planeteers’ battle against Global Warming Bot. I don’t know… I’m not feeling particularly creative at the moment.

Very little to actually talk about in regards to this episode. The first half was pretty much minor business as usual while the second was essentially one giant montage of a few years later. PANDRA’s antics (and fanservice) probably took the cake there. Both the Mary Patty and Muscle moments were great, and Kyosuke sipping tea while the compound behind him explodes in chaos was a perfect way to leave the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. I’m not going to try to read anything into Yuri showing up at the end since she can mindwipe them into believing whatever she wants anyway.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Brief Summary:

PANDRA attacks a ship to free all the espers held hostage there.

Everybody’s summer vacation is interrupted by a level 5 teleporter that needs to be caught, but after Kaoru pins him to a wall, he threatens to kill himself. Minamoto talks him down and and everybody (except that guy) goes home happy.

Skip to graduation in the future. Nobody can hold back tears and Fujiko makes sure to get a shot of Minamoto bawling for the girls. Montage of everybody’s current lives. Naomi’s still being stalked by Tanizaki, Sakaki invokes Oboro’s wrath, no luck at group dating for Double Face, the Hound’s the same as always, Bullet and Tim are doing well, the Comericans watch Caroline’s space mission, PANDRA lounges while Mary Patty fantasizes yaoi couplings, Muscle laments going out into the world to be a normal human, Kyosuke sips tea, and Fujiko lurks on BABEL’s roof.

After the credits, Chisato and Tohno run into a former classmate, Yuri. After they leave, she smiles and says that she’s waiting for Kaoru.

Final Thoughts:

I actually have very little to say that I feel like I haven’t said a billion times over. SynergySP maintained relatively high production throughout this, the characters were fun, the music was great, and there was always Gonzo lurking in the wings to do strange things. There were a couple segments where the show really began to drag and lose its way, but for a 51 episode show, it never really felt like things ever stopped progressing. The ginormous cast probably had a lot to do with that, as new characters have been introduced at the rate of about 2 a month, and very few of them were one and done.

The biggest praise that I can give to this show, however, is that it never forgot what it was; a cartoon. There were no attempts at unwieldy angst and it always remembered that things like Hard Gay, talking squirrels, and a grown men shepherding around three lovestruck little engines of mass destruction were silly jokes. Even after the most serious moments, there was always time for a hug, happy smiles and then a "Minamoto is a lolicon" joke. It’s tried, it’s true, it’s the inevitable banana cream pie in the face of the series.

So long as you’re not looking for a strong overall plot, or a particularly short show, ZKC is great to just sit back and enjoy. You’ll never yell at the characters for being overly stupid or drama queens, and while the plot may not really go anywhere, the show is constantly evolving and changing. It’s hard to even remember what BABEL was like before Fujiko showed up, let alone the Normal People, PANDRA, and Black Phantom. This has really been a joy to watch every week for the past year. It may really just be an X-Men knockoff, but it’s one hell of a damn fine one and the perfect thing to kick off a lazy Sunday morning enjoyably.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.