Michiru’s search for answers to her Beastmanitis comes to
an end with revelations that rock her world and that of all of Anima City. Meanwhile, Alan Sylvasta slowly unveils the
fruits of his labor and his final endgame for the Beastmen, using Nazuna as an
unwilling pawn and putting Shirou in the crosshairs of the law. As chaos threatens to engulf the safe haven
of the Beastmen, Michiru and Shriou reach a mutual crossroads. After all they’ve been through together, what
kind of future will they choose and will it mean the end of relations between
Humans and Beastmen or will it be a brand new beginning for Anima City?
The finale was split evenly across the final four
episodes. The first half gave us the
answers we’d been waiting for but could have guessed as soon as certain
characters were introduced, and by that I’m looking squarely at Alan
Sylvasta. Not sure if I buy his Michiru
and Nazuna getting Beastman blood by accident story, just seems too
convenient. I did immediately accept
Alan’s reveal that he was a descendant of the General who ordered the attack on
Shirou’s village a thousand years ago.
There was also the discovery of Nirvasyl Syndrome, named after Shirou’s
doomed village: basically it’s when a bunch of Beastmen are concentrated in the
same place for too long and get easily aggravated to the point of going full on
Incredible Hulk and causing all kinds of devastation. All this plus Alan coming clean about making
a cure that turns Beastmen into Humans and it all became clear what the endgame
was…at the time anyway. Alan was
planning to finish what is ancestor started and wipe out the Beastmen for good,
either by killing them or worse taking away their identities as Beastmen.
Honestly, one of my major gripes about the finale came
from the fact that even after Alan revealed some of those details: Michiru and
Nazuna were still willing to trust him and Shirou was even goaded by him into
believing that Shirou himself cause the destruction of his village cause of
Nirvasyl Syndrome. Just from his vocal
performance, Alan has always been the manipulative villain from behind the
scenes. He’s holding most, if not all
of, the cards and oozes smarm and confidence that is borderline
infuriating. I was getting vibes of
Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night as to how badly I wanted Alan to get his ass
handed to him, mostly by Shirou but if Michiru got some hits in, that’d be
fitting too. There was just one more
added caviate that didn’t gel so well: the reveal that Alan was a Cerberus
Beast God masquerading as a human. That
made me shake my head. How fitting would
it have been to see Alan, a Human, driven so insane by his families legacy that
he’d stop at nothing to wipe Beastmen out of existence? The Cerberus God reveal comes too late and
feels like just an excuse to have TRIGGER animate a pretty cool Wolf God vs.
Wolf God action sequence.
Alan trust issues and God reveals aside, I really don’t
have any other issues with the final four episodes. Michiru and Shirou faced their final
challenges regarding where they stand in the world now. Nazuna finally dropped her bitchy diva act
and let Michiru back into her life and even got to live her dream of being an
idol. Even side characters like Marie
the Weasel…I mean Marie the Mink, Mob Boss Flip and Albatross Pinga all had
vital roles to play when things really got bad in Anima City. Personally, I’m glad Mayor Rose wasn’t a
villain in this whole affair and even made a couple of pretty big decisions
regarding Anima City’s future. If I had
to give MVP to a character not Michiru or Shirou, it was Nazuna. At first, all I could say about her plan to
reveal she was a Human and not the Silver Wolf to the masses was, “not a great
plan.” But Nazuna trusted Michiru’s
warnings and abandoned that plan and later helped a bunch of kids lost in the
chaos find hope and safety. Girls got a
good future in Anima City as their shining new idol.
As for Michiru and Shirou, God bless em, I’m gonna miss
the tale of these two. Somehow I knew
Michiru wasn’t going to go back to being a Human and stick around in Anima
City. We’ve gotten some glimpses of her
old life in flashbacks with Nazuna. But
Michiru is pretty happy here and enjoys being a Beastman. She’s the Best of Both Worlds now and proof
that Humans can understand and find compassion for Beastmen. Shirou’s changed through Michiru’s
experiences. His hatred for Humans has
always been a driving force. But when he
nearly killed Michiru when Nirvasyl Syndrome took him over, the shock and
despair on his face was real and so was that gut wrenching howl. As much as he’s accepted Michiru as a
Beastman, Shirou forgot that she was always Human and one he could put his full
faith and trust in. Hell, her blood
saved his life and all of Anima City.
Shirou would be lost with Michiru and vice versa. So yeah, I’m glad they reached their natural
character arc conclusions in a good way.
So yeah, the character conclusions dominated the finale
but come on, it’s TRIGGER. While this
was a smaller scale finale it didn’t mean that the studio wasn’t going big in a
Series Finale. Like I said, everyone got
in on the action and it was some of the most fun sequences of the whole
show. Seeing the police fighting side by
side with the mafia probably got the biggest laugh out of me, plus the Bears
Baseball team pitching in as well (no pun intended). And then there’s Shirou and Michiru vs.
Alan. While the incredibly flashy
showdown between Gods got some good F YEAH moments, I loved seeing a battle
ready Michiru all set to throw down with Alan cause she was sick of his
crap. Nazuna even unleashed her inner
bad ass against the creepy Church of the Silver Wolf attendant who had been her
stalkerish bodyguard. Again, not the
intergalactic shattering scale of Kill La Kill or Gurren Lagann (which had a
lot of TRIGGERs staff before TRIGGER was founded). This was a finale for the characters to be in
focus and the scale and spectacle factor came second. It all still looked really pretty though.
Well, how was BNA: Brand New Animal? It was good, a much needed bounce back for
TRIGGER after Darling in the Franxx dumpster fired itself from beginning to
end. BNA brought to the stage a
character driven story in a unique world that had the same problems as our
own. The social commentary and focus on
the darker elements of a supposed utopia were handled very well and hit hard at
home when they did. Michiru is another
strong and loveable female lead like Ryuko Matoi and Akko Kagari. Shirou is a guy I wouldn’t mind seeing a spin
off or even a prequel about…though I think his character is at his best with
Michiru close by. Animation wise, BNA
looks great though not quite as eye popping as say Kill La Kill or Promare but
its still a good looking show. The shows
problems mostly stemmed from unnecessary character drama and some characters
being dumb for the sake of the plot AND a last minute revelation that could
have been excised with nothing lost in the end.
All in all, TRIGGER gave us their most mature offering yet with heart
and reality in a world of talking Animals while also providing their signature
sense of fun with colorful animation and eye popping fight scenes. I wonder if we’ll see a sequel to this one
down the line. I’d love to see what
challenges Anima City faces next as it takes its first steps towards the next
stage of its existence…with Michiru and Shirou there to lead the way.
8/10
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