Gokukoku no Brynhildr – 12

meh

Well that was just dumb. (-‸ლ)

 

 

Something About Aliens

No, that’s not a glowing nipple on the back of her neck. It’s just her harness.

Gokukoku no Brynhildr steers the plot head-first into a ditch, and I’m afraid nothing can save it. Perhaps it could have done better if it had more time to flesh things out better. But that’s not the case so I can only comment on how things really are. And things are pretty bad. Basically, insert random revelation that aliens are responsible for life on Earth, and then speed through the explanation by abruptly jumping straight to Kotori being some sort of doomsday weapon thing. Yep, there really was more to that bumbling doofus. But now that I know what it is, I’m wishing there wasn’t. Because making her a living apocalypse just waiting to go off and obsessed over by the world’s most unlikable sociopath doesn’t make me appreciate her any more than I did before I knew all this. And believe me, I didn’t appreciate her a whole lot to begin with.

Could be worse; they could have been making contracts with QB

Speaking more generally, the evil organization’s endgame was pretty darn stupid. It’s essentially a rehashed Human Instrumentality Project from NGE. Only replace any semblance of careful planning with a reliance on chance. They’re more or less throwing mysterious creatures known as drasil into girls randomly and hoping that one of them hatches into the mystical Grani that will bring about the “next step” of evolution, or something along those lines. I have only one word for that: BOOOOOORINGGGGGG! I also notice that it was never explained how anyone knew that Kotori’s drasil was the chosen one that would become the Grani. It was just established to be that way and we’re going to have to accept it as fact because the show said so. Granted, a proper elaboration on that wouldn’t actually do too much for the direction of the show. But at least it would help us swallow the recent developments more easily.

Herpy Derpy Dumb

Press for badass… sometimes.

Continuing on this symphony of disaster, there’s also something about Neko being a hidden badass. But she can only go super saiyan if the top-most button of her harness is pressed. And as you may recall, pressing that button is said to result in a fate worse than death. So basically, it’s supposed to be a high-risk last resort that the gang will inevitably have to resort to because why else would the show mention it? We already know that Ryouta is gonna push her buttons. And he’s gonna push all the right buttons, so everything will be OK and Neko will safely power up to beat the shit out of Mako. Guess what? I also have a word for this: BOOOOOORINGGGGGG!

Nope.

While we’re on the topic of Mako, the reason for her attachment to Ichijiku is revealed. And it too is pretty stupid. He just saved her life in the past, so now she absolutely adores him when she isn’t overcome by an urge to kill everyone in close proximity and obliterate the landscape for fun. Maybe additional details will be related to us in the finale to put the situation into better perspective? Nah. What are the odds of that happening? The show is already short enough on time as it is, so I can’t imagine it sparing even a few seconds to make Mako’s relationship with Ichijiku more sympathetic, if such a feat could even be accomplished. Say it with me now: BOOOOOORINGGGGGG!

Ichijiku is a Douchebag

This girl I like is dying…

Finally, to round things off we have Ichijiku himself. And what else is there to say but to call him the douchiest douchebag in all history? What a guy. I hate him almost as much as I hate that hater in Black Bullet who used to be in Seitenshi-sama’s personal guard. You know who I’m talking about. But I’m not here to talk about Black Bullet so I digress. The thing about most convincing villains is that they will stick to their convictions even if said convictions are made out to be bad for whatever reason. And guess what, Ichijiku doesn’t even stick with his guns. After giving a spiel to Ryouta about how all people only care about themselves, he goes on to tell Kotori that there is one exception to this unofficial official rule of his. Only he is allowed to care about this random girl whose brain he fed to the drasil that dwells in Kotori more than his own life. Right, OK.

…better cut her head off quickly!

Maybe I would have sympathized with him a bit about the untimely demise of Rena as he clearly and genuinely cared for her, even if his love was a bit twisted. But certainly not after he lectured Ryouta on how one’s own life takes precedence over others’. It’s possible this display was supposed to demonstrate that Ichijiku is quite unstable himself. But if that was the case, I didn’t get it. Instead, all I got from the exchange is that he is a hypocrite, a maniac, and an all-around douchebag. I’d root for Mako to let her temper get the better of her and unceremoniously end him without warning, but given the inclinations of the show, it’s more likely that she will follow him to the very end.

Oh right, I got so caught up in everything wrong with this episode that I almost forgot about the two rare palatable developments that did crop up. Firstly, the Hexenjagd are introduced. They are exactly as we might have imagined: a rebel group that broke away from the lab to prevent the coming apocalypse. Secondly, it is revealed that Neko and Mako used to know each other before the former had her powers sealed. This really is the most intriguing part of the entire episode and I’m hoping the show capitalizes on it in the finale. Well, that’s about it. All that’s left now is to hold on tight and pray that the finale isn’t anywhere near as bad as this penultimate episode was. Ah, who am I kidding. There’s no way the show can wrap everything up without being ham-fisted so we’re surely in for a rough ride.

Magician shouta is here to save the day!

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18 Responses to “Gokukoku no Brynhildr – 12”

  1. Di Gi Kazune says:

    Remind me how many episodes this is?

    So last picture is Jesus, Mary and two of his disciples? (Only this time around, he learnt from his past mistake and ensured that he has ARMED disciples.)

    • BlackBriar says:

      It’s a total of 13 episodes. The next one is the last so your guess on trying to figure out what’s going on is as good as mine.

  2. skylion says:

    I swear this show just has to be it’s own inside joke. It reads so much about everything that can go wrong in series composition, and can, scraping by on a dime, has somewhat repeatable characters.

    It taunts us, and wants us to taunt it back.

  3. BlackBriar says:

    This is going too haphazardly. Where is this leading, especially with bringing in these new characters? Not to mention I’ve seen comments stating Mako’s introduction alone means a lot of material was skipped.

    The alien thing sounds good but it’s way too late to do anything about it if we’re on the penultimate episode. A lot of expansion could have been better utilized in the previous that felt like the story was dragging.

    Ichijiku is the kind of scumbag I hate with a passion. Obviously he comes from a family that believes they’re better than everyone else. As if that’s not he makes me think of Kunato from Knights of Sidonia. Yet another wretch on a high horse.

    • Di Gi Kazune says:

      I think they are hoping for a season 2. Or did they already announce season 2?

      Requoting what I have previously said somewhere, sometime on the Internets, some shows are meant for 10 eps, some 12/13, some 24/26. Unfortunately, monetary risk these days means that shows are solicited for the minimum these days. For those shows, they should actually script it show that it ends fairly cleanly.

      Unfortunately, cliffhangers do not drive BD/DVD/sidedishes (NO, not THOSE sidedishes) sales, and sales are what seems to drive future seasons. Again even unfortunately, even smoothly written endings don’t even guarantee anything. (my poor mondaiji.. no future kurousagi~~ T_T Things got more interesting further in the LNs). Henneko also not getting S2 looking at it; while it was cute, the story wasn’t too strong – then again, weaker stories from some other certain studios still sell so I cannot understand the minds of the viewers… Even Date-A-Live got an S2 despite its weakness and even though I didn’t give it a good cheese rating, I would say it does actually wrap up its ending fairly tidily.

      In conclusion, I should stop churning out these theses, but the anime market is actually quite saturated competing for a limited slice of the viewership.

      • Sumairii says:

        As far as I am aware, the original plan has always been for this to be a single 13 episode cour. There will undoubtedly be OVAs that come out later which will be unlikely to elaborate upon the story.

  4. Foshizzel says:

    SURPRISE SISTER ALERT! What? I don’t even care how tragic her life was it still doesn’t make this series any better LOLOLOL

    with the other “crap” anime this season I have my ranks

    #1 Blade and Soul
    #2 Diamadaler
    #3 Gokukoku no Brynhildr
    #4 Date A Live II
    #5 M3 ~Sono Kuroki Hagane~

    • Di Gi Kazune says:

      wow. the fat boobs shows rank #1 and #2. Insufficient Kurumi and Kotori ruined #4. As for #5, I can’t even remember head or tail of even hearing about it.

      • Foshizzel says:

        Date a Live2 just has too many girls! I would prefer if Shidou’s kiss returned them to their own worlds instead of them sticking around while having Tohka stay with Shidou cause shes “special” LOL

        With Brynhildr Kazumi is the only reason I keep watching <3

      • d-LaN says:

        I don’t know what you mean by insufficient Kurumi since she doesn’t really get that much appearance post volume 4 anyway. She only appears in Vol 7 & 10 of the LNs.

    • d-LaN says:

      >_> I enjoyed 4/5 of the “crap” show tht is listed….. Though I will not deny that they have issues.

      • BlackBriar says:

        Which was that one entry that fell from grace?

        • d-LaN says:

          Daimadaler, never tried it.

          • BlackBriar says:

            Bleh, I dropped that drivel within the first 10 minutes of the opening episode. Just remembering it is unpleasant.

  5. zztop says:

    Is the manga as bad as the anime?

    • Sumairii says:

      I do not read the manga, so I cannot say for certain. However, I do hear that the manga is better than the anime because it’s not rushed and important events and characters aren’t cut.

    • d-LaN says:

      Nope. Its way less rushed than the anime.

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