Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de – 12 [END]
It’s gonna be Dark and Dark to the END…
I welcome you back for the final time, Battlers. Well, we have ourselves a wrap up, and that’s pretty much what we expected.
Unusual Days (Ordinary Life)
Chifuyu and World Create FTW…..for now….
It was a very good return from last episode’s cliffhanger. We got straight into the action (no OP, and a quick refresher on the action) with the gang able to pull out some hasty teamwork and save their bacon. But, they soon realize they are out in the rain after a a quick Closed Clock retreat, down two powers and little idea what has happened. After a battle strategy, tucked away in the local karaoke box, they soon get themselves up to speed. After some deductions they realize that Mirei is not acting to personality, and is possibly a fake, or possessed. What is surprising to everyone is how much Andou had given these sorts of measures the thought he had. It does make me wonder what Hiryuu has in story for Child Virgin after all. Did he count on that chuuni nature of Andou’s to kick everything up that many notches?
…now that is turning the tables….
And so we find out what Hitomi and Shizumu had in mind. I guess they figured by taking out another faction, and getting a new member stocked up with powers, Hiryuu would forgive her former membership in F. But Luci First has other things in mind for our Literature Club (what? a next season? that would be a great super-power right there <name it for bonus points>). Regardless of future plans, in present we get a pretty terrifying reason why the group forbade Andou from using ….to the End! Crap, son! You went from useless to needlessly dangerous!
OMG, why did Chifuyu imagine it with blood??!!
Yeah, that was rather crazy. But crazier still is that they didn’t take any time to refine their methods. I guess they were in a bind, and honestly, I would be hard pressed to come up with an alternative to the situation given the powers they had to work with and the timing. But, those tears. Even though it was handled fairly well with Route Origin able to heal up the damage, none of them could stand seeing it the second time. No matter what anyone else has in mind for them, I don’t think they are ready for the War. And with that in mind, this still leaves them in the dark as too why all this happened in the first place. Which again, give me a super power to create the second season and I could tell you what they do next….(well, the super-power is actually learing Japanese with the Level Up of buying the LNs) As the first act of three act story, I felt the story stands up very well, and it leaves me anxious for the next act…
…cause after that…it was back to normal….
With the first half being fairly well paced, and exciting, I was hoping they would carry that over to the second half. But, nope. We got an ending which pretty much wrote itself.
…with the usual wacky hijinks….
It’s nice to see that everyone is getting along, status quo maintained. And for once, I’m going to go out and say that that is boring. Drama and comedy are made of pain and misunderstandings, and we did get that in the run of the show. We also got a good romance brewing as well. Both Mirei and Sayami admit a love for Andou, and he get’s to reestablish his protective relationship with Chifuyu. And then we got confirmation with both Hatoko and Tomoyo on how they feel. But you know, nothing says we kinda did a cop out like Hatoko’s “I won’t lose” bit. We’ve seen that so many times already. Which is not to say playing the play is necessarily a bad thing. But it looks like they didn’t even bother to make it their own by the end. They have no excuses, as they very much did put their own brand on some time honored tropes in previous episodes, and for most the series as a whole.
Extra Battles
Well, we have come to an end of another Fall 2014 show, and it’s one I’m sorry to see go so soon. It had a great deal of potential that it realized, and made the promise of more to come. I’m hopeful for another production. But with Trigger fully geared up for NINJA Slayers, it might be a long wait for the next Everyday. I felt they did a very good job on this program, and loved the character design, and the animation style suited the story very well. So with that in mind, I’ll leave on a positive note, and thank Sumaraii for allowing me to take over for the show two months ago, and a thank you to all of you, the commenters, for your support. Of the shows I covered this season it was a surprising top of my list sorta feeling. So, what did you folks think?
Thanks for Watching!
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
They can’t just leave it hanging there. Maybe it won’t be until the summer or fall season next year, but there are too many loose threads left dangling for this to be the end. Of course, if the disks and other merchandise don’t sell well in Japan this is the end.
I really enjoyed this series, although I had hoped there wouldn’t be some supernatural battle going on. I wanted to see how they’d end up using their powers in their everyday lives. Yes, we got some of that with them playing around and testing their powers, but there was also that supernatural battle in the background that did catch them in its net briefly.
So I suppose a second series would have them participating in the Fairy War. At that point it would be okay since that’s something that’s just too big to ignore now that it’s been introduced.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, the Fairy War episode was too big a Chekov’s Gun to ignore, and I was hoping they would at least fire off a tiny shot, maybe that’s what it hiding behind Hiryuu’s smug exterior….
I really do want a second series. This was to fun to let go.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The show had a really shaky start, but many stories take a little bit to find themselves in any form. After the 4th episode, I think it was finding its stride. The romance and attraction stuff was pretty well done, and Andou as a MC proved himself worthy of the attention (always an important hurdle to climb). I’m glad they limited the scope of the series and kept them out of the Fairy War (it would be awesome if the whole property went by with them skating past the Fairy War, just because).
I actually think this is a very balanced harem, with true strong points and attractions to each of the girls. And I liked Tomoyo’s admission to herself of the truth.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, since you want them to skate past, I would like to see them skate into, just because. Well, I would favor the gang maybe poking in and “helping” from time to time….
Very balanced harem, though I never think in those terms with the genre. And Tomoyo was a bit of a blessing as a character all around…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Andou was far from the usual milquetoast harem lead. And when we saw what he was willing to go through in order to protect the girls and save Mirei we know why the girls have all fallen for him. It’s more than the usual harem anime “Because they have to for the show.” That took some real courage on his part knowing what he was going to have to go through and what the cure entailed. He’s not just very brave, he’s also someone you can rely upon no matter how hard things get.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Highway hit it on the nail here. I literally left the show just as it started getting good. But I’m at least glad you were able to cover the good stuff, skylion.
Overall, the show handled the balance of chuuni nonsense, romance, and Fairy Wars with great poise. I wouldn’t go so far as to call the show a great harem since I don’t believe it to truly be a harem. As far as I am concerned, Chifuyu, Sayumi, and Mirei were more or less sidelined. Leaving only a triangle between July, Tomoyo, and Hatoko. But nonetheless, the romance bits were well-done even if they weren’t anything new.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, that’s pretty much any harem show: Two main contenders (or even one lock and one long shot), one that you think would be a great choice but you know has no chance of winning, one who is completely unrealistic, and then fill out with as much as you want. Everyone but those first two are sidelined the same way. For instance:
High School DxD
Lock: Rias
Long Shot: Asia
Great Choice but no Chance: Akeno
Completely Unrealistic: Kiba, Gaspar
Scenery: Koneko, Xenovia
Infinite Stratos
Contenders: Houki and Charlotte
Long Shot: Cecilia
No Chance: Ling, Laura
Unrealistic: Student Council Prez
Scenery: The whole rest of the school
OreImo
Contenders: Kirino, Kuroneko
Long Shot: Minami
No Chance: Ayase,
Unrealistic: Saori, Kanako
So I’ll go along with the idea that this has the same sort of breakdown, I just think that it’s a little more balanced between Tomoyo, Hatoko, and even Sayumi and Mirei (a name I think is just beautiful) than the gaps in some other shows.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I will concede DxD.
However, I disagree with your claim about IS and OreImo. I’ve not read the LNs for IS, but my impression is that all the girls have more or less an equal chance (which is to say, none of getting any action). Your interpretation of the leading girls is your own bias. Haven’t seen anyone sidelined yet. And as for OreImo, I don’t consider it a harem for the same reason as stated for InoBato. As you astutely noted, the only two real contenders are Kirino and Kuroneko. And, I think you’ll find that the show is not classified under the harem genre. So I rest my case for InoBato.
If you can find other more convincing examples like DxD, I might reconsider.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Agreed…with Konkeko as Best Scenery.
N/A to me
Agreed..but with a mild chance of Ayase.
InoBat pretty much had harem feels if not outright moments…So it’s a soft classification in my book.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
Between this and Trinity Seven – I have to say Inou-Battle was the superior series this season hands down. Certainly better than that Grisaia whatever.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
For me, the first comparison is apples and oranges, with my bias going towards Battle Apples. The next, well that’s just rotten “fruit”.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
Trinity had a lot going for it (if you’re a harem fan and like that sort of thing ). I really liked the interactions between the protagonist and the girls for instance. But Trinity derailed precisely where this series succeeded.
Trinity started wandering off into boring world and system exposition, and as a result the final battles felt like a chore – something just being thrown out there to explain things to the audience, and had no real emotional connection to the characters.
Whereas, Inou-battle never lost sight of the fact that the battles are mainly meant to tell a story about the characters. You can even get away with the audience being confused as hell about how the magic works, as long as the emotional link with the characters is solid throughout.