Monday, October 29, 2018

Supernatural: The Anime Series Part 5 Episodes 17-20


With their father dead and The Colt missing, Sam and Dean are on the warpath.  With the Yellow Eye Demon still at large, no one is safe, especially those with powers similar to Sam’s precognitive abilities.  But no matter the danger or the monster, the boys press on to continue their fathers legacy.  But is this all there is to their lives now?  Or is there more to life than just hunting all the evil on Earth?  The answers to these questions might change Sam and Deans lives forever…or cost them their souls.

As we head into the final stretch of Supernatural: The Anime Series, im happy to see that the series isn’t just brushing over the big loss the brothers endured last week.  This week, Sam and Dean dealt with the fallout of their fathers sacrifice while speeding headfirst into their final battle with Yellow Eyes.  All the feels were here, some a little out of order but I’ll talk about that in a second.  By the end of this set though, there was plenty of reason to cry a little.

Once again, I have to give a lot of credit to the Anime Original stories of this series.  They not only opened the doors to missed storytelling opportunities but also manage to expand them and even go a little crazy for crazy’s sake.  Example: A flashback to Sam and Dean’s childhood involving a woman who was almost a surrogate mother to Sam was very well done.  It gave us a chance to see adorable little Sam and even give one last little hurrah for John Winchester, sewing the seeds of the sacrifices he’d make to ensure Sam and Dean would always be ok.  And then you got Dean and John vs a Giant Robot Junkyard Monster created by would be Demon Mom…it’s farfetched but when youre telling this through an Anime medium, you can give it a pass cause you’d never see a creation like that on the TV Series.  We also got an Anime exclusive backstory to Jake, a character who will play a big role in the Anime series finale.  Just goes to show that, even if they do feature heavily, the focus doesn’t have to be exclusively on Sam and Dean for Supernatural to work, particularly when Jake’s story is compelling and has one helluva sad conclusion.

Dean was the one you felt the most for during these episodes.  After realizing his Dad made a deal to save his life, he was nothing but tormented.  In fact, the other two episodes in this set dealt specifically with Dean’s emotional state, from lashing out at Sam to seeing what life could be if he had never hunted.  Deans smooth talking negotiation with the Crossroads Demon was very effective at breaking Dean’s shell open, even when he was trying to save a mans life in the process.  Yeah, Dean managed to keep an innocent soul from being devoured by Hellhounds.  But the Crossroads Demon still got in a win by poking Dean’s shattered spirit, having lost his father to preserve his life.  Nothing, however, compared to the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” tale that saw Dean living in a perfect world.  He was married (to a woman we never knew but I guess it couldn’t be helped since Dean hadn’t connected with any other woman in this series so you’d have to make one up); Sam was engaged to Jessica and his mom was still alive (John not so much so what’s up with that?).  Seeing Dean slowly come to accept this reality was something but seeing him deny it to escape and save his life from the Djinn draining his life was one of the most powerful and emotional moments of this entire series.  After all he’s lost and suffered, how does Dean not deserve a happy ending?  Same could be said for Sam but his and Dean’s roles seemed to switch this time around, with Sam needing to be the voice of reason and the shoulder his brother needed.  

One thing that did bug me this week was the placement of the first two episodes.  I feel like Dean’s trip to see the seer Missouri, which is where the flashback episode took place, should have come after Dean’s encounter with the Crossroads Demon.  Dean was a wreck at the beginning of that story and, on screen, it came after he seemed to finally begin reconciling his fathers death and strengthen his resolve to protect Sam even though his Dad told him he might have to cause of his powers.  When he visits Missouri, Dean has finally broken and is sobbing into his friends shoulder.  Idk one story definitely should have come after another in this case for better character flow.

Well I hope you got all the crying out of the way cause Wednesday is Halloween and it’s time for the Winchester boys to put their game faces on.  Check back Wednesday for the special two part Series Finale Review of Supernatural: The Anime Series as, as the episode title implies, All Hell Breaks Loose.  See ya then.

No comments:

Post a Comment