Koukaku no Pandora: Ghost Urn – 12 [END]

No! Clarion, don’t go!!!!

Well, here we are with my first of three in series reviews. Today we have the finale of Ghost Urn. How did this show wrap up my least talked about show this season?

It’s OK To Have the Yuri Goggles On

Or the kickass catgirl maid cat plasma punch goggles on too, get em while they last!

As we left off from the last episode, things were getting into crunch time. Well, in as much crunch as you can get from a show of this variety; which on further thought is still quite a bit. Nene came to the aid of the person she holds most dear, and Clarion learned to accept that help. I’m quite glad they took that feeling to it’s next logical step, while at the same time giving validation to those emotions both very much felt.

It always comes down to these sorts of situations, where the character want to give everything they have, up to and including their own life to accomplish the goal. When it comes to saving other lives, giving your own is the most noble. But not when other people don’t want to let you go and urge a different option. It’s been done time and time again in fiction, and they do a very good version of it here. It all depends on how much the audience has invested in the characters.

And they did quite well with that in many respects. Well, except for ignoring Vli__, I like Robert Altman and his earnesty. I like Bunny when she listens to herself more and doesn’t try to play the fence, I like her better when she looks out for her friends. I love Takumi who’s only real sin is wanting to be better than a rival. I adore Uzal for being magnificent, and for having vision. But really, who do I l love the most?

Nene and Clarion are nice people. They don’t have ulterior motives beyond protecting others, they aren’t out to control everything, nor do they fear that which they can’t control. Pure motives, pure hearts, pure maidens, if I can borrow a feeling from BUER for a moment. So of course we want them both to succeed and keep each other protected and ultimately stay with each other on the road they share. It’s that kind of show. In any other type of program it would be cheap, or would be seen as too saccharine, but for me, it all fits the continuity the series set out to show.

A few extras….

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Series Review: Well, as I said week by week, I am not a big fan of the GitS franchise; just didn’t gel with me in terms of structure. But I will gladly take more of this. Turning things to it’s lighter and softer side allows you to give a place some scope. The villain was broad, his goal the same, his methods matched, and in being dispatched, it’s all still very broad. But no harm really, he’s not what the story was about, at least not yet.

Now while the connections to Shirow’s much more well known and larger works to this are tenuous, and it’s already well established that the manga this show is based on in in truly different hands, it hardly seems fair to put this and that side by side. But, as I said, I like it to pull the lens back and see a larger picture; one that can very much include sweet bits of hope and yuri love.

It looks like the BUER’s mission and experiment is not quite over and as has become typical of Uzal, we don’t know exactly what her motives are. So I guess the story can go on? For me, I like that sort of experimental nature she suggests. It means that the next step could be nearly anywhere. That was a very neat way to to keep the narrative not hemmed in. I wish more storytellers could embrace their ideas with that much confidence and expansiveness.

As for theories? Well, it reminds me of, the Moment, from Doctor Who. It’s the ultimate weapon with it’s own sense of purpose, it’s own consciousness. With this comes it’s own hang ups, and predilections. It’s a weapon you want on your side, but one you still have to convince to fight for you. That’ a strange, fun, dynamic science fiction idea, and it might be saying that you can’t have peace without hope, and you cannot sustain that without fighting for it too.

One more kickass Clarion before I go…

On the technical side of things, I thought that Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ did quite well in all departments. This is miles better than the work for Gokumi’s last series, not that that is a high bar to jump over. The animation wasn’t a huge deal, but at the same time I didn’t detect to terrible many derps. I loved how they just put in Clarion’s “cut out” form whenever they had to ratchet up her emotional response in some way, yet still keep her normal face laconic. I wish the Optical Camouflage moments would have had a bit more welly in them, now that I think of it, but that’s just a personal gripe. Overall, I loved the show from start to finish, was very entertained, and want more.

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