天下制覇

 

What kind of nonsensical wankery was this?

Impressions:

What a horrible horrible way to end the series. I mean, seriously. What was up with all this Kairyuu related nonsense of the past two episodes if the stupid thing was just going to completely ignore them the whole time and Ikuto was just going to wander off of the island anyway… and then immediately wander back once he saw (the scarily voiced) Misaki was okay. I’m fine with drama in my comedy, but let’s have it be not-retarded. Besides… what happened to the crazy budget from last episode? Blew it all on sake and whores, I’d wager.

Final thoughts are at the end, after the summary/caps. It’s better that way.

Suzu and Ikuto come to a shrine on Kiryuu’s island… still followed by Ayane. The lock is rusted, but the key still works and they descend, hand in hand. Suzu wonders what kind of god Kairyuu is. Ikuto asks if she’s scared, but she says no as long as she’s with Ikuto.

A scream starts, and they wonder what it could be… Ayane… tumbling down the corridor in the dark. She gets her face stuck in the ceiling before reaching them and the voice’s owner remains a mystery.

They come to a pond and start calling out for Kairyuu. Ayane has somehow made it past them and is in the water. She swims down to a cave with a glowing eye and makes her own prayer along with an offering. Something begins pulling her in. Until she grabs only a rope. As she climbs it, she sees that it’s part of a giant snake creature. It breaks off and Kairyuu turns to her.

Suzu and Ikuto keep praying. The cave rumbles, scaring them and then Ayane comes out of the lake and runs out. They follow her as the cave collapses. They notice that Ayane’s holding something and she says that it was part of Kairyuu that she accidently pulled off.

Back on the main island, Ayane is owning up/filling in the rest of the girls on what happened. They’re happy because it means Ikuto is definitely not leaving… until the village elder shows up to chew them out for being heartless little bitches.

In the rain, Machi is watching Ikuto and Suzu through a shikigami. They’re preparing a boat to leave the island. Even without Kairyuu’s help, Ikuto is still bound to go. He gives Suzu the same speech about how it’s a guy’s duty to protect the girl, so he has to go save Misaki. He thanks Suzu for everything she’s done, and pushes off.

The rest of the girls run up to stop Ikuto, but Suzu stands in their way. The elder asks if Suzu is really okay with this, and she says that it’s what Ikuto really wants. She turns and sees Ikuto being flooded by the waves and swims out to Sashimi, telling her to take Suzu to Ikuto.

Ikuto has neared the last whirlpool and thinks he heard Suzu’s voice. He starts crying involuntarily as he thinks about leaving. Suzu is really behind him on Sashimi and she shouts out to him that she doesn’t want him to leave and she really wants to be with him. Ikuto holds out his arm and calls to her and she moves to Sashimi’s fin to try to grab him.

Ikuto gets pulled into the whirlpool and Sashimi follows. The two reach for eachother, but Ikuto gets pulled away and under. Suzu dives into the whirlpool, but can’t find him. Sashimi follows her into the depths.

Later, Suzu has washed ashore, but Ikuto is “in Kairyuu’s hands.” They scowl at Ayane for a moment before Suzu runs back to Sashimi and tells her to go to Kairyuu. Ayane thinks for a moment, and then runs off with the rest of the girls in chase.

Suzu thanks Sashimi and then dives underwater again. As she swims, the tremors starts again and rocks are falling everywhere. She swims back into Kairyuu’s cave thinking about Ikuto. She reaches the caved-in place where she was before and dives to Kairyuu’s cave. She prays there to be heard. Kairyuu swims by and then the same suction starts again, pulling Suzu in. She grabs the edge, but starts to lose consciousness. As she lets go, Rin grabs her hand.

Pulled out and saved, the girls tell her that they’re diving under there to look for Ikuto and used Chikage’s bombs to bust through the cave in.

Ayane dives in and sees Kairyuu again. She freaks out, but then thinks of Ikuto and calmly reattaches the whisker. She prays for Ikuto as Kairyuu swims off.

The girls pull Ayane out, all saying how much they want Ikuto to be protected and saved. As Ayane comes out, she yells to Kairyuu to protect Ikuto. The rest of the girls pray as well.

The elder and the lords of the island all think about how everybody should be together and how much Ikuto would be missed. The girls come back in their rowboat empty handed.

Ikuto is unconscious and sinking when a ghostly sword pierces his chest and wakes him up. Machi is helping him in her own way. Now awake, he scrambles to the surface. The ocean is calm and the storm has passed. Ikuto has left Airantou. Probably. The sky’s a little weird. For all I know, Machi has forced him into some kind of psychotropic world.

He hears chanting and sees a group of men rowing towards them. At the front of their boat is Masaki. She’s finally found him, and both are safe. Misaki, instead of pulling him out of the ocean, begins to go into a longwinded explanation, ending by saying these are all the men from Airantou who were stranded alone on their own island. They met up with Misaki and she was in the same situation as Ikuto… only backwards. I think. Misaki’s not particularly easy on the ears andwhenshestartstalkinglikethisit’sreallygoddamnedhardtodecypherwhatshe’ssaying.

Misaki tells him that it’s time to go home. He apologizes to her and says that he’s going back to Airantou. He leaves Misaki in the care of the men. They toss him a raft and then row off to her distress. Ikuto begins rowing back to Airan, but the storm starts up again.

He’s thrown out of the raft, but thinking about Suzu he hops back in and says that nothing’s impossible. With an extra burst of strength, he tries to leap over the whirlpool… and falls straight down, saying that it was impossible after all. Fitting end.

Days later, Suzu is restlessly pacing the beach. The elder is there and asks how Suzu is feeling. She’s certain that he’s okay. Tonkatsu runs off while they’re talking… and then when they look over, Tonkatsu is dancing on a washed-up Ikuto’s head. She starts crying and hugs him. He hugs her back while the pig looks on.

Then the elder screams out that the 2nd competition for Ikuto has begun. The game of tag for him starts now… and he runs off with all the girls in chase.

Suzu is in shock for a moment, but then gives chase as well. The troupe runs past all the rest of the island not already involved in the chase. Shinobu, Meimei, etc.

Final Thoughts:

Well, it’s been a bumpy ride on Airantou. It started out very well, high production values all around , some great jokes, and even eventually a teaser that this Romantic Comedy would actually have a smidgeon of romance. Unfortunately, things fell by the wayside around episode 12 or so (to randomly pull a number out of my head) and everybody associated with the show pretty much stopped caring. Animation went down, humor went down, writing quality went down, the works. There were some moments where things threatened to be back on the uptick, but it never lasted more than half an episode or so.

They tried to salvage things a bit by introducing character after character through the entire show, but by doing that, focus gradually shifted more and more away from the former main character Suzu and onto pretty much anybody else. She spends most of the second half moping around instead of using her super strength, ninja powers, or Ayane thwarting abilities that she had in the first half. She’s pretty much just a passenger to Ikuto’s blind date for the week.

Don’t get me wrong here, it was overall a fairly enjoyable show, and the last couple episodes were fantastic. I’m of the mind that the whole thing was worth my time, but I can pretty easily see how others would disagree. Too many recycled jokes, a perceived lack of effort through the middle, and teasing character/plot development with none actually happening. Still, the cast was rather charismatic and it was certainly off the beaten path enough times to keep large parts of it fresh. Tonkatsu alone deserves points for his part in the series.

My overall opinion? Eh. I have no clue. It was enjoyable and I’m not sorry I watched it, but I really can’t imagine ever having the urge to watch it ever again and it’s a far cry from being, well… good. There were moments… but unfortunately, that’s all they were and after episode 8 or so, those moments became distressingly few and far between. Que sera sera. The ending though… man… what an awful and lame way to end the series. Screw that noise with a 15 foot bamboo pole.