Rinne no Lagrange – 12 [END]

Asteria-“Maybe I should have parked my giant mecha somewhere else…”

Well here we are at the end of the first cour of Lagrange. It’s been fun, but I guess it had to end sometime…

OH NO!! The end is finally here for Rinne no Lagrange, but this is more like a break before the series continues again in the summer anime season. So, what can we expect to find in this episode!? Hopefully, they can tell us if Yoko manages to live and what becomes of Madoka, Lan and Muginami during that final battle to save earth!?Plot this week follows Muginami, Lan and Madoka saying their final goodbyes to each other.

Lan-“I think it is time to reveal our love.”                           Madoka-“Yes! We shall… Just think of the DVD sales.”

This episode starts up with a small time jump and shows us the aftermath of the alien invasion. I assume this is a few days after Villagibro’s team tried to take the Vox machines. Anyway, we quickly join Lan and Madoka talking together on a beach about their feelings for each other, but this is only for a movie that the jersey club is helping with… Yes, another romance story about Madoka. I guess it is safe to assume the director is a big time yuri fan? Afterwards a few girls from the school throw a huge going away party for Lan because she has to return to her home planet and has no idea if she can ever return to earth. Whoa, seriously ALL MY TEARS for poor Lan; she just made friends and now she has to return home.

Lan-“What do you mean we should stop acting like lovers?”                        Madoka-“THIS LOVE IS REAL! I think…”

Watch out for Lan’s harem, they are crazy about her.

The Lan and Madoka shipping does not stop there, shortly after the small party the two girls share more moments between each other as they make a few promises about meeting sometime in future. Of course this scene involves more hand holding and lots of tears from both girls, but Madoka tries her best to stay positive about the whole situation. Before things get too dramatic between the two girls, we jump back in time when Madoka started to flip out over seeing Yoko bleeding. Thankfully Yoko survives from her injury. So, what happens with the three Vox machines? Their power combines and creates a massive redish black hole sucking up the ships in space turning them into crystals… Someone got Guilty Crown in my Rinne no Lagrange this week.

Driving massive ships while watching fail anime is not a good idea.

Moid-“Excuse me while I rape your mind.”                 Asteria-“That is not very nice, mister evil alien!”

While the Vox machines wipe out the aliens, Madoka has a bit of a mind trip where she finally meets her grown up lookalike Yurikano and she talks about what she really should do. Eventually Madoka snaps out of it and returns to normal and finally realizes what she needs to do. Midori grabs ahold of Lan and Muginami and the three girls fly around in the sky to form a huge flower in the sky releasing more flowers, but something happens to Midori and this sudden power down gives Villagibro a perfect chance to attack Madoka, while her Vox has no power. However before he has a chance to finish her off, Lan’s brother arrives with a several ships to launch a counter attack. Villagibro’s machine gets shot all to hell and Muginami saves him making her escape.

Madoka-“Are you my mom from the past?”            Yurikano-“Nope, I am just an alien version of you with bigger boobs.”

Villagibro-“CRAP! We are getting owned so fast….damn these laser spammers.”

After the giant mecha battle, Lan and Madoka finally say their goodbyes and the drama hits Madoka hard as she cries alone thinking of Lan. A few days later Madoka is seen running around her school helping in various clubs. She really is quite multi-talented, isn’t she? The Jersey club really is a great odd jobs themed club. Anyway, Madoka gets a letter from Muginami where she talks about meeting Lan and how both of them promise to meet Madoka one day. Even the space bishies decide to become waiters for the surf restaurant. Finally near the end of the episode, Astreia finally revealed her true identity to Yoko saying she is a witch who pulled this universe into an eternal loop and she sports a mark just like Lan, Muginami and Madoka.

Watch out Chihaya, Madoka is ready to challenge you.

Asteria-“So, I heard you like random moments filled with fan service.”

Yoko-“What are you doing with that camera?”         Asteria-“Helping land you a husband of course.”

Asteria-“Dude, where did I get this random tattoo?!”                Yoko-“We sure got messed up last night…”

Extra special Lagrange

Dat yuri handhold.jpeg

Villagibro-“Damn it! Why didn’t I choose to join the space bishies boy band! So not fair.”

Madoka-“I should take more mind trips like this! Well time to strike a pose.”

Because the fangirls demand such things to exist.

End thoughts

….Am I the only one who thought that 90% of that fake movie scene wasn’t acting? This episode was one of the worst trolls I’ve encountered in a while. Here I thought they would go from Madoka’s sudden freakout into something, but instead we just got… nothing. Well, there was a ton of sismance, but I was expecting something heavier. Like, you know, an actual fight? Seeing the guys in the end in suits (plus Array in that maid uniform. …He’s really never going to take that thing of, is he.) was totally worth it though.

I probably should have realised that the Vox weren’t threatening in the first place because of the pretty flowers (pretty flowers can’t be evil! Most of the time!), but I thought they might have been trying to troll us or lure us into a false sense of security. …Which they did in a way, but yeah. Hell, Madoka didn’t even have as much of a mental breakdown as I thought she would have had. It was like the show went “remember how you were stressed all week wondering what was going to happen? Well have a yuri scene instead. Btw, nothing really happened during the battle. That cliffhanger was for nothing,” I’ve been expecting something way darker than this, but I guess Madoka Magica really upped my expectation about shows with moe girls to unreasonable levels. Even the previous owner of Aura (that’s who I assume the woman on the beach was) wasn’t exactly someone who you’d think almost destroyed the world. Then where the heck did that legend even come from? Oh well, I don’t really mind it not being what I thought it was. I’m just a little disappointed is all. I still liked the anime as a whole.

…So yeah, Asteria is actually someone important. I was worried that the indecent public exposure was coming back in this show, but unlike swimming nude in the ocean, Asteria stripping actually had a purpose xD. …So what was that mark about? They definitely left a ton of loose ends about in this anime, but it’s perfect for making me excited for part two. I’m kind of hoping for a time skip when the girls meet back together (let’s see what Madoka looks like when she’s older!), but really I think I’ll just be happy when it returns. At least there’s the OVA in between somewhere!

First off, WHOA the drama in this episode was high quality stuff this week! Also all of the yuri? OH MY GOD THE YURI! I normally hate on that type of theme, but during this final episode it was filled with all kinds of Yuri stuff. And sure I know Madoka and Lan never ever actually locked lips at any moment throughout the series; however, they must have held hands at least five to six times during this episode. Anyway, I was happy they showed us what happened to Yoko instead of ending on a cliffhanger with her life in danger; I would have raged on that! I was waiting for the space flowers to end up healing people that got hurt in the failed invasion of earth.

Speaking of invasions, Lan’s brother arriving to kick Villagibro’s ass like that? HA! YOU GOT OWNED, buddy! Then again his butt getting whooped meant that Muginami had to save his life and make a tactical retreat with him. Still, most of us probably saw that playing out in our minds before this episode aired, but I did enjoy watching the girls flying in that huge circle to form that massive sky flower. That was filled with some amazing visuals and then the music kicked in at the right moment that was just fantastic as always especially during the sad bits at the end.

I need to talk about Asteria for a moment after she revealed what she really is, but what does her role mean anyway? Is she an immortal or something like that? I assume she has seen the vox legend play out a few times in her lifetime. I am interested in learning what Asteria meant about the whole eternal loop. That might add more reasons why she doesn’t want to see the legend come true ever again, but hopefully during the second half, when Rinne no Lagrange returns in the summer season, we might learn more about her background. Yeah I know that means more dreaded flashbacks in our future.

Overall Rinne no Lagrange was filled with great characters like our super fun Madoka. Between her energy and personality, it really is hard for me to see her go so early…I swear this season has some fantastic main lead girls; however, there are plenty of side characters who made the experience even more fun for the viewers. The Mecha side of this anime series plays a huge role in the story, but as far as action goes it wasn’t anything brand new except Madoka’s unusual fighting techniques. Remember that wrestling move? That is still one of the best action scenes in this series. So all and all if you like mechs, girls, yuri vibes you should give this a shot, but the last thing I need to say is if you have the mindset that oh boy girls piloting robots? That sounds like a hardcore fan service anime! You might be shocked to discover after episode one and a random bath episode in the middle, the fan service basically dies off.

Preview

Successful mid season ending. We will miss you!

See you in the summer! Also there is news of an OVA coming soon, but I really have no idea what that will cover. I assume it bridges the gap between season one and season two?

Thanks to all the amazing readers and commenters! And I want to give a huge high five to my tag team partner Kara for joining me for this crazy series! I hope we can do this again in the summer time.