Gokukoku no Brynhildr – 11
Let me introduce you to my pimp hand.
So begins the epic final showdown, with mind-boggling magical powers and body-parts flying left and right! Oh wait, never mind. I guess there’s still time for that later.
Bad Stuff
Don’t interrupt Mako when she’s enjoying herself.
Yeah, I figured that the Valkyria, who we now know as Mako, would get straight down to business. But I was wrong. Instead, she’s more interested in enjoying and nonchalantly destroying the outside world along with its inhabitants. Which makes sense in hindsight. I assume she’s spent almost all her life so far locked up in the bowels of the laboratory. So now’s as good a time as any to do a little sightseeing. Conveniently, this means a bit more time for the gang to enjoy themselves before the end. And enjoy themselves they do. But first let me go over the confrontation between Mako and Ichijiku, which was a remarkably bad moment for the show.
Whuuuuu-?
Having finally been set loose, I thought Mako would absolutely destroy Ichijiku at the first sight of him. You know, after all the inhumane experiments he had carried out on her at the lab. But instead, her brief temper tantrum was quelled by… a slap to the face? Oh, and then her mood abruptly changes, she begs for forgiveness, and even professes her love for him? Well, OK… I guess the show was going for something like Stockholm syndrome? Mako doesn’t appear to have the most stable mind after all. And there’s also the potential that she was putting on an act because she realizes betraying the lab (even though Ichijiku has more or less been dismissed) means a gooey death. But whatever the case, that was just some absolutely atrocious writing.
Moar Harem
Hatsuna demonstrates the value of initiative.
Moving on, we are introduced to yet another magician, Hatsuna. The things to remember about her are: she doesn’t die when she is killed, and she’s quick to make a move on the guy she likes. Yes, that’s right. Hatsuna makes the latest addition to Ryouta’s ever-growing mahou shoujo harem after having met him for less than a day. And unfortunately, I was very unimpressed by how quickly she fell in love with him. I get it, Ryouta is nice guy supreme with the strongest sense of JUSTICE ever. And Hatsuna doesn’t have forever to live. But even with these rationalizations, it all happened so quickly that her love came across as shallow, forced, and disingenuous.
Dayum! Nice moles, girl!
New members to the harem aside, there is much needed development from the first to join, Neko. Mainly, the big news here is that at long last Ryouta again finds out that she has Kuroneko’s moles thanks to more bad writing in the form of contrived events caused by Kotori. Of course, I actually can’t say for certain that Neko is in fact the Kuroneko that Ryouta knew in his childhood just yet. It’s undeniable that she has those distinctive moles, but the problem is that Mako looks just like Neko. Plus, their names sound somewhat similar. So what’s going on here? My initial suspicion is that there’s been some sort of cloning shenanigans thanks to the lab’s experiments. But then that might mean that there could be any number of Neko-like magicians out there. Who’s to say which one of them is the Kuroneko, if that specific girl has even survived to present day.
Still No Drugs
This would never have worked anyway, but they didn’t even bother to hide the bucket?!
I could go on to complain about the fan service again, but then this post would sound far too negative so let me instead discuss the recent breakthrough that Kogorou has made. Basically, Nanami’s death didn’t go to waste as he was able to surmise the workings behind the melting act by witnessing her demise. So the prospect of the girls surviving has gone up from impossible to improbable. Of course, the timing of the drug’s new ETA was such that only one magician could survive if they pooled all their pills and gave them all to her. But since that would essentially kill the harem, it’s never going to happen. Err, I mean the strong friendship between the girls prevented them from making such a decision.
Mad scientists at work.
So in the end the situation is still as hopeless as it was to begin with, and I am again left wondering what Kogorou’s relevance is beyond providing a light at the end of an impossibly long tunnel. We do learn that he was acquainted with Ichijiku, but such a thing is so trivial I doubt it’ll amount to much. It’s not like Kogorou will contact Ichijiku for help and accidentally alert him to the location of the runaway magicians. He’s the type of guy to figure things out himself and also he knows he has to keep the situation a secret. Plus, Ichijiku already knows where the magicians are thanks to Mako’s convenient detection ability. So I guess it again comes down to researching the alien embryo?
With two episodes left, it’s crunch time for Gokukoku no Brynhildr to wrap things up. I am a bit worried about its ability to do that since there’s so much left to go over. There’s the battle with Mako, introducing that mysterious German organization, a possible confrontation with Ichijiku or other laboratory representatives, possible revelations about Neko/Mako, Kana, and Kotori, and the potentially timely development of the drug to save what magicians are left alive after everything is said and done. But I guess we’ll find out in due time if all that can be squeezed into two episodes.
Well shit.
About Sumairii
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
They really did cut to the chase there. Instead of “Oh, we are on the run from Mako” it was *poof* Hello!
The Ichijiku part was horrible. Bleh. Yuck. It’s not clever, it’s not saying “Look how strong Ichijiku is.” It’s saying “We’re lazy and going to use terrible stereotypes.”
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
I dont think that scene with Ichijiku was meant to demonstrate how strong he is, but rather how meek and childish Mako actually is. At the end of the day, she is just as conditioned and scared as some of the more weaker witches despite her power. Plus there’s another reason but that would be a spoiler. Either way i didnt read too much into it. Under normal circumstances that scene would have been very misogynistic and what-not, but in this case, it wasnt to demonstrate how dominant ichijiku is, but rather how pathetic valkyria really is and how childish her personality is so i looked the other way. Besides….this is brynhildr after all.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m surprised at Ryouta’s arm and upper body strength.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Hatsuna: Bro do you even lift?
Ryouta: *smirk* I do now.
Hatsuna: *blushes* I think I love you!
…aaaaand that’s how it happened.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I know right? And we’ve never seen him work out. He looks absolutely scrawny.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
The slapping scene was the best unintentional comedy of the episode or perhaps the entire series (to me so far), ’nuff said.
And I binged the manga again. There is NO way it will end w/out rushing it to the death or go anime original. For starters Hatsuna is another B rank magician in the manga that escaped at the same time with Neko and co.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I can see it now; an anime-original ending. Mako is the real Kuroneko and she kills off the rest of the harem on the spot to live the rest of her days happily with Ryouta.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Let me introduce you to my pimp hand.
Okamoto Lynn REALLY loves his semi-misogynistic themes in his works, doesn’t he?
Ichijuku looked better with short hair back then. Now he just looks like some J-pop reject. :p
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Wow, no mercy and one of the usual anime clichés got cut down. I’d expect our group to at least get a little head start but they had absolutely no breathing room. Nice try with the fake blood. The trick would’ve worked well on viewers if we weren’t watching from an external point. Gotta wonder how they’re going to beat Mako. She outranks them all.
So Ryota got what he wanted. Neko is actually Kuroneko but I hope he doesn’t get all obsessive over her because in my opinion, he character got better while that was suppressed.