Otome Youkai Zakuro – 13 [END]

Round 13: Rangui vs Spirit Affairs with Omodaka?! ~ FIGHT~!

We finally made it to the last episode. Byakuroku leads the Spirit Affairs group toward the ablaze mansion after Omodaka who ran off carrying the still unconscious Zakuro. Byakuroku asks the group why they trust her and the hanyou girls reply simply that it’s because they’ve shared the same sorrows.

After all of this, lets be friends forever~!<3

Omodaka arrives at the mansion to find his men hung up in spider web, drained of their life and suddenly hears Rangui creepily singing the song that the girls usually sing in combat. The Spirit Affairs group arrive shortly after and Bykuroku runs past everyone in search for her sister Daidai.

Twins: “Wait, are we in hell?! And Ganryu-sama is damned with us?! At least we’re together in the end” :3

Byakuroku finds Daidai grasped in Rangui’s mouth and Rangui throws Daidai away saying how Daidai wasn’t even worth eating because she tasted so bad. As Byakuroku holds the dying Daidai in her arms, Daidai tells her sister her feelings of being left behind and a burden. The sisters comfort each other until Daidai.. dies. Byakuroku sets Daidai down and in a raging anger, rushes towards Rangui but only to be knocked out.

The others arrive, Omodaka puts Zakuro down and attacks Rangui who seems stronger than usual which is due to sucking the life from her prey. Rangui confesses her love to Omodaka as possessive to the point of wanting to consume Omodaka. As Rangui attacks Omodaka, Agemaki rushes in front of Omodaka and parries her attack (WHY AGEMAKI WHY?!). Omodaka inquires on why Agemaki helps and Agemaki responds that it’s his duty to protect a commanding officer and that Zakuro would do that same thing. I’m sure if Agemaki knew Omodaka’s initial intentions towards Zakuro, he probably wouldn’t have saved Omodaka.

Rangui goes berserk upon hearing Zakuro’s name and moves toward the still unconscious Zakuro while shoving everyone out of the way. As Rangui approaches, Agemaki grabs Zakuro and with her gets caught up in web.

Everyone starts to attack Rangui while Zakuro and Agemaki are elevated in web. Zakuro talks in her conscience about how helpless she is and has a flashback about her mother encouraging her. Meanwhile Agemaki struggles and refuses to let things end bad. Agemaki embraces Zakuro saying into her ear that he loves her and then he hears a response of “stupid, you should wait ’till things like this are taken care of”. Zakuro’s awake and uses her powers to set Agemaki and her free.

Zakuro breaks the pendant that seals her powers and with a surge of power, rushes in to attack Rangui who is defeated in one blow.

Zakuro FTW~!

Afterward, everyone rushes to Zakuro to greet her but is interrupted by Byakuroku crying for her sister. Omodaka rushes past everyone into the still burning mansion towards the room that Tsukuhane is in. Upon arrival, Omodaka and Zakuro is surprised to see a skeletal Tsukuhane. Byakuroku from behind says that she’s always seen Tsukuhane’s bones. Omodaka starts to laugh and then cry at the thought that he’s been delusional of his mother. Zakuro starts to cry as well and Agemaki responds that it wasn’t that but his mother protecting them.

The fire gets worst and Zakuro yells at them all to get out but Omodaka decides that he wants to stay with his mother who he hasn’t been able to be with. Zakuro leaves without stopping him and only says that he should consider if it would make their mother happy. Omodaka sets Byakuroku free but she refuses to leave and tells Omodaka how she wants to serve him because she has nothing left. The group watches from above a cliff as the mansion burns and says their farewell.

Everyone is back at the Spirit Affairs happily enjoying themselves until Kishimatsu tells everyone that the Spirit Affairs will be disbanding due to Omodaka’s scheme and lost of interest. The twins rush out in anger of the decision and Ganryu chases after. Amaryoju explains that even if they are dissolved, they will still continue to do their work but the military guys have other things to do.

Afterward, Susukihotaru is packing Riken’s clothes and expresses her sadness. Riken tries to comfort Susukihotaru but she pushes him away not wanting to read his feelings. Riken ignores that and embraces Susukihotaru.

Otome Youkai Susukihotaru – Love Story

Meanwhile Ganryu is looking for the twins and finds them sitting up in a tree; upset and in tears. Ganryu promises that he’ll come visit come back and get both of them. The three make a pinky promise with Ganryu in the middle.

Agemaki and Zakuro are sitting together. Zakuro expresses that she was actually scared of spirits and humans too but that being with Agemaki made things not scary anymore. With those words, Agemaki tells Zakuro that he loves her again which makes Zakuro blush and rant on how she can’t believe Agemaki’s horrible timing. Agemaki starts to degrade himself which causes Zakuro to get more irritated. Zakuro stands up, covers her ears and once calm she responds to Agemaki’s feelings saying that she loves him too. Agemaki asks why she covered her ears and tells Zakuro that it’s part of who she is because she’s hanyou. Zakuro then says that his father will be angry but Agemaki replies that his father will get used to it so the two of them can take their time and slowly get to know each other. With that, the two kiss, well you can’t see the kiss but you know it happened, teeheehee~!

Agemaki x Zakuro <3

The military guys depart the house and the girls are by themselves in their sorrow. Later on, the hanyou girls are walking around town and seeing the change in peoples reactions toward spirits. A car drives by and we get a glimpse of Omodaka with Byakuroku inside. THE END

. . .

. . .

. . . OR NOT

Zakuro is in anger that everyone is back together and if she knew this would happen, she wouldn’t have embarrassingly told Agemaki her feelings. The military guys (well, Ganryu since he seems to be bragging) convinced the general to reinstate the Spirit Affairs. The two kids run in to greet “Agemaki the kisser”, Zakuro and Agemaki react in embarrassment as the kids explain that they saw them kissing. Everyone joins in to tease the couple and now we have a happily ever after.

Really now… Fin~

Extras:

Omodaka: “My love letter… you dare reject me?!”

Hidden Stash #2

MOON PRISM POWER… MAKE UP!~

Rangui: “Ooops, I farted ^^;”

Ganryu: “I’m so cool”. Twins: “Kyaaaah, Ganryu-sama”. Zakuro: “Gross”

Final Thoughts: Well, we made it through 13 episodes and I see no chance for a second season (but if one is even announced.. whateva). I’m on the borderline of relief for this series to be over and yet this last episode was really good. But I think that they could have just mashed up all the main things that happened before this episode into one and then have this episode and be done. However, I won’t say that my time was wasted in reviewing this series because after all, it was enjoyable to a certain extent and there are just as much good points to this series.

What happened to Daidai was expected, after all, naive little girls usually get what’s coming to them and the raging Rangui knows how to use people well. I do however, feel sorry for Byakuroku who worked so hard to protect her little from people like Rangui but all that effort went to waste when she let her attention waver elsewhere. As for Rangui, even though she was evil, she was so amusing with her jealousy of Zakuro and possessiveness for Omodaka. I figured that her ‘love’ would be distorted to the extent of even consuming Omodaka as a form of wanting to be one.

When Rangui went berserk after Zakuro, it was funny at how crazy her character was depicted; repeating Zakuro’s name continuously and raging towards Zakuro. Thank goodness for Agemaki’s save. I’m so glad that it was Agemaki that went to save Zakuro instead of Omodaka. I figured that with Agemaki and Zakuro bound together by the web, they’d get their chance, well Agemaki would get his chance to do something great this time and finally confess. When Zakuro broke her pendant and raised it up into the air, I totally felt Sailor Moon transformation going on (thus the extra screenshot above haha). But when Zakuro went in for the attack it was so cool, too bad there was no backup singing. As well, the animation was awesome for these past few scenes. The rotating scene of Zakuro against Rangui with the red light behind them and the balls falling from the sky when Zakuro broker her pendant… both of these were my favorite scenes that left me in awe of the animation effects.

As for Omodaka, the transition in his change of character from evil to ok was something that I slightly ignored. While observing Omodaka’s scenes, I was like “meh, he was bound to change his way of thoughts” but nobody really worked to persuade him from his evil ways. When Omodaka arrives at the mansion and starts to attack Rangui with everyone else, it was like yeaaaah. As well, I knew that the reason that Omodaka was rushing to the mansion was towards his mother. The scene of him kneeling in front of the skeletal Tsukuhane was sad and even touching when Omodaka cried. On another note, I knew that if Omodaka survived in the end, he would be with Byakuran. In the end, it was somewhat nice to see them together as part of the happy ending that the series went for.

I thought after the group said their goodbyes to the burning mansion that it would just somehow end happily after a few confessions and conversations. I didn’t expect the disbandment of the Spirit Affairs. It was nice though to see the separate love scenes between the military guys and their partners. I especially somewhat liked Susukihotaru’s scene with Riken even though Riken sounds so monotone. The twins scene was cute and the way Ganryu looked was actually pretty good. Agemaki and Zakuro’s scene was as expected to be – so cute and funny. It’s funny though that they didn’t show the kiss haha.

After the scenes of the girls walking around town, I thought that would be the final ending – a not so perfect love ending because the military guys had to leave. I think it would have been fine if the series just ended there. But the sudden flash of Zakuro’s ‘waaahh’ face was cute and funny that I didn’t care anymore about the unoriginality in the choice of the re-establishment of the Spirit Affairs and everyone together again. But the best funny scene was the two kids making fun of Agemaki and Zakuro kissing, good way to finally end things. Yet somehow I just felt that this ending is too good to be true that it’s over the top. In the end, all I can say is that I admired the music and moods that the artists established through animation. Even though the story is somewhat weak, I find that some of the characters like Agemaki, Zakuro, Susukihotaru and Riken were strong whenever I got to see their scenes of closeups and expressions. I don’t think this is one of those series that I’d re-watch again but I’d still view pictures of it.

Thank you to all who followed, commented and supported me through this, my first episodic series. Take cares and happy holidays.