Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! #12 — Miracles Appear Beside Reality

September 10th, 2009

 

Yeah yeah, corny. So sue me.

Impressions:

First off, they completely ruined the OP for this episode, and that makes me very very sad. It was the same OP as usual, but they added sound effects, like cheering when protagonists appeared, or bounces for the breast wobbles. They’re all obtrusively obnoxious and ruined my favorite OP of this season.

I’m a bit disappointed with how low budget this ending was, and the corniness of more than a few things. We got flashbacks to just about every single major ‘charge’ for the entire season, as well as the third repeat of Sento’s speech about how great the Juudens are in as many episodes. To cap it off, the last minute or so was eaten up by a montage. We hates us the montages. Oddly, I find that I actually have no problems with the refreshers all being chained together. I mean, they’re just basically electrical conduits. The alternative would be for every single Juuden to energize Kenta at once, which would be more or less the same thing, except with gangrape overtures. There were also more than a few dangling loose ends, although I’m not too mad about that because they’re pretty clearly pitching themselves for a second season with the antagonists being the evil grinning guy whose face we’ve yet to see and the power thieves from the other world.

All in all though, it was a relatively satisfactory ending for the most part. Very few surprises here at the end, but about as entertaining as most of the second half has been. The girls save people through electricity, and Milly gets laid. I really really really want to speculate on how Sento was able to channel the backlash from Kenta and how it relates to his ability to interact with the parallel world, but until that second season does get announced, it seems kind of useless. The show is starting its ‘real’ broadcast on stations besides AT-X in the fall as well, so a lot remains to be seen.

The Leakage girls were completely decimated by Rona. Bored with them, she looks around for a new toy, and finds the Zeta-class human, Kenta.

Plug takes a shower, thinking about what Sento said about her and the Juudens a couple episodes back. When the announcement comes that her refresher is ready, she steels herself and heads out.

Magical Milly ends with a kiss and the mascots happily leaking urine all over the place in joy. The BGM is also suspiciously identical to Sailor Moon’s OP… and Mahoro shows up to deliver her catchphrase as well. Sento turns it off and sighs again. Arresta tries to charge him, but it fails. She tears open her uniform and shoves her boobs in his face, but that doesn’t get a reaction either. Finally, she leans in to kiss him.

…but is interrupted by Hakone and Iono.

Plug finds a new target that needs to be charged, but it’s Kenta.

Iono and Hakone are almost in tears as they demand to know why he won’t tell them what’s wrong. Sento tells them it’s nothing and calls Hakone dumb, prompting a slap from Iono. She tearfully reminds him of what she went through, and Hakone does the same. They care for him deeply and know when something is wrong.

Because of him, even though they were in deep trouble, they could feel the people around them trying to help, and they knew that they weren’t alone. Sento happily hugs them both, but at the same time, Plug starts trying to charge Kenta and knocks out the power to most of the city. Sento immediately thinks of Plug and Arresta and runs out of the house. Arresta drags her refresher on a powerline to generate a spark that Sento can follow.

Plug’s blasted off of Sento and Rona laughs happily. Sento’s depression deepens even further and he starts to walk into the river. Plug tries to yell at him to stop, but he just passes through her and keeps going. Plug becomes more and more desperate, but nothing she can do will stop him… until Sento grabs his shoulders.

Sento tells Kenta that he has friends watching over him. Even if he can’t see them, his friends are always watching over him. Kenta’s unsure, but Sento raises the kid’s arm and Plug hugs it. Kenta says it feels warm. Sento keeps comforting the kid as all the other Juudens arrive. Rona is getting more and more pissed off. However, their refreshers aren’t enough to supply the charge that Kenta needs, so they suggest using the refresher’s combined super mode, which Plug is completely ignorant of.

The Juudens explain to her that the refreshers can be strung together to combine their charging potential to provide one much more massive charge. Rona’s not about to let the do it, but Klan and Reika appear and distract her enough to let them finish making the giant beast of an electrical plug.

However, Sento’s boost from Hakone and Iono is wearing off, and both he and Kenta are falling back into depression. Plug and Arresta take the super refresher and charge.

Kenta’s zetaness generates a huge backlash in response, but it starts being channeled into Sento, who absorbs it without harm. When the charge finishes, Plug and Arresta kiss Kenta on the cheeks and he can feel them.

Suddenly, it’s then day for some reason, and Kenta’s friends are passing by. He thanks Sento and goes running off to join them. Sento cheers him on and then thanks both Plug and Arresta. Arresta’s shocked that Sento can see them again, but now Rona’s really pissed off at them for messing with her toy.

She prepares to nuke them all, but Sento smacks her (more urine) and tells her to stop behaving like such a whiny little spoiled brat. She looks stunned for a moment, but then starts bawling and hugs Sento. Everybody’s amazed that that is the legendary girl that was causing all the problems, but Plug’s happy that it’s all resolved.

In the parallel world, the chief watches a report on the energy thieves. Off in his building, the evil guy keeps grinning.

Plug gives Sento his Christmas present and almost dies of embarrassment. Arresta gives Sento his bat, and he immediately puts it to good use by smacking both of them. Sento jolts them out of their masochistic daydream by demanding to know what he’s supposed to do about the little girl clinging to his leg.

The Leakage girls think that it’s adorable, and that since she is a still a girl after all, needs somebody to take care of her. Arresta starts getting jealous and possessive, but Hakone et all arrive and they all enjoy a Christmas party.

After the ED, Plug reminds everybody that they’re not alone.

Final Thoughts:

If there was ever an argument for the advancement of censorship in anime, Juuden is it. So many episodes would have been much improved by the simple removal of anywhere between 5 and 30 seconds with absolutely no loss of anything relating to the characters or the plot. It’s really a shame too, because the show is actually pretty good and I don’t think very many people will give it the chance to show that. The show really excelled at subversion of expectations from the get-go, and continued as it went. Not always  successfully, as in the case of the Leakage girl episode, but Arresta’s fascination with Sento’s bat was a complete delight and they didn’t use it to turn her into just a one dimensional caricature either.

The characters are unique and they all have solid chemistry without ever needing to resort to any of them having an existential crisis. Plug’s continued optimism and upbeat attitude, even after having her arms practically blown off is nothing short of endearing. They certainly could have gone a lot further with the relationships, especially after Iono’s big confession in episode 4, but it’s still so very very very very much more than what I was expecting that I can’t help but be happy with it. Which isn’t to say that it was weak at all, just that it lost a lot of momentum towards the middle after a very strong start and kind of just rolled to the finish line. Still getting that going up in smoke, but if it had maintained the engagement of those first few episodes, I would be singing this show’s praises from the rooftops, urine notwithstanding.

So overall, if you’re really not that bothered by the water works and some really in-your-face T&A, this is a very well done unique little comedy with just enough drama to keep the plot being a real plot while never bogging itself down in melodrama. That in itself is a rare enough feat for many comedies, and while I really do hope we get an announcement about a second season, I’m rather satisfied with how this turned out and already remember it fondly.

And I’m still waiting on that OP single. Or anything at all from them aside from a couple hug pillows and a character CD for bloody Rona of all people. And even those aren’t out until practically November.

Posted in Juuden-chan | 4 Comments »

4 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • sage says:

    Show of the year.

  • Anonymous says:

    I went in expecting a lot of fanservice and a plot with about the level of queens blade (that is to say, no plot). What I got was the fanservice plus a great plot that kept me wanting the next episode. I’m sad this is over but I’ll wish for that second season to roll around in the coming year(s).

    Also, on a side note, I like how you went from thinking this show would be poison in your fall preview to what -seems- to be one of your most-liked shows of the season. I know you always say to take those previews with a grain of salt but I still got a chuckle out of it. :3

    • Aroduc says:

      Humor’s always somewhat hard to predict, and just the simple change in direction to make sure it’s tongue-in-cheek drastically affects what would otherwise be pretty abhorrent. Although in this case, I think it’s because there was actually some really strong writing and characterization backing up the less… savory portions of the show instead of letting the latter dominate.

      But yeah, between Penguin Girl, Macademy, and this, my track record for predicting fanservice shows isn’t so great lately.

  • Travis says:

    I’ll be honest, it was really hard for me to stick with this one, in part because of the premise, and in part because of the constant waterworks/slightly weird overtures (girls want to be hit with baseball bats? Riiiight.). But I’m very glad I did. It was 80% enjoyable, and it was very easy to see how it could have been more than that. Sento was such a welcome breath of fresh air from anime stereotypes, and reminded me of the things I’ve forgotten and enjoy in anime, rare though they may be.

    – Directness. Why is it that everyone, especially women are always so goddamn embarrased about everything? I can think of scenes in Planetes and Patlabor where the plot was made better by one interested character or -gasp- both actually expressing a brain and awareness in their crush/love interest. And sometimes not even getting them, and moving on.

    – Violence. Although there are times that feel really weird and even more ‘What the hell Japan’ then usual, Sento knew how to lay down the law. Actually, this is something I appreciated about Rosa in Umineko, but then again I’ve been leaving off comments for. Gonna play the game. Some day.

    -Entertaining. I really don’t have to elaborate here at all, do I?

    Seriously though, an all-around good show that totally caught me out of left field. I’d watch it again/give the next season a go, although even with my tacit approval, I *STILL* can not get the fascination with piss. Author approval gone overboard, I s’pose…

    Thanks for throwing this one out here, otherwise I wouldn’t have given it more then a disapproving glare.