Watched with James in one sitting.
A beautiful show that I refuse to believe goes past episode 19.
I’m honestly conflicted. This had some of the highest highs I’ve seen, that were genuinely breathtaking and yet, some of the lowest lows that feel utterly inexcusable. But one thing needs to be clear: this isn’t an Alicization. This wasn’t a case that seemed like it had an amazing story base only to stumble and fall all the way to the finish line. No. This had a brilliant plot. Genuinely great worldbuilding. Deep, well realized characters. Real, meaningful conflict. Beautiful animation. Hell, it has one of the best beach episodes I’ve seen too. Not only does it do the usual fan service, it literally has a minor mystery plot with a key item that changes the course of a whole character. Then there’s the subtle character development sprinkled throughout the runtime. A small action scene here, an interaction there. It had all of that. And then decided to end with one of the least satisfying ending sequences I have seen to date.
Now, consider this. What if the show stayed exactly as it was until episode 19. Then, instead of what we got in episodes 20 to 24 with its transformer, mecha, gurren lagaan at home bullshit, it pivoted. Imagine the final boss wasn’t some spacefaring whatever, but one of the immortal popes, maybe revealed as part of an ancient twin race to the blue princess, one that split off a few million years ago. The gang teams up with the blue princess, old grudges put aside, and they go to war with the popes. Hiro and Zero Two still die, and the ending remains mostly intact. The rest of the cast learning how to survive in this strange, unfamiliar world, slowly rebuilding from the ruins. That would’ve been peak.
Up until episode 19, if you’d asked me how I felt about this show, I would’ve told you without hesitation that this is one of the best shows I’ve seen at balancing intimate character work with conflict development. But now? I don’t even know what to say. I want to love it. I really do. But instead of landing the plane, they crammed what felt like 12 episodes of buildup, emotional fallout, and plot resolution into a episode space opera bullshit salad. Complete with alien civilizations, Eva-esque instrumentality and inexplicable cosmic nonsense. Why? Why did they have to do that? Was that truly the only way? The character development was so strong until then. Some moments hit the same emotional highs as Heavenly Delusion. That’s the kind of show this could’ve been, or rather should’ve been. If it hadn’t tripped over itself right at the finish line.
Those last five episodes, man. Why did they have to turn out like that? I had hopes. I had real expectations. I had characters I genuinely cared about. And then the show just… did everyone bad. The 9’s ended up feeling like glorified suicide bombers, tossed aside without meaning or closure. And then there’s the two whose memories were wiped. Their reunion didn’t feel natural. It felt like they just ended up together because the guy fucked her in some alternate timeline. That’s it. That’s the emotional payoff. And don’t even get me started on the alien civilization. The less said about that, the better.
And that’s what makes this so hard to recommend. Now I understand why Vik and James just smirked when they told me to watch it. Why they only said, “Just wait. You’ll see.” They knew. They never denied it was a good show, they both agree, it’s got so much going for it. But they also didn’t pretend it wasn’t infamous. They didn’t even try to hide that something was coming. And honestly? I get it now. Because up until the moment the space railguns burst out of the ground, I was convinced that it couldn’t be that bad. The show up until then was peak, there’s no way it could possibly be mid.
But mid, it became.