Sunday 25 March 2012

Rinne no Lagrange - Episode 12 (Completed)

It might need to get itself ready to sign off for a season before returning to our screens (notwithstanding an OVA outing), but that doesn't stop this final episode of Rinne no Lagrange's first series from beginning by jumping two weeks forward in time.

Thus, we're greeted by a return to normality for Madoka and company - well, at least somewhat.  Although Madoka and Lan are strutting their stuff for the Jersey Club as always, Muginami is conspicuous by her absence, and the arrival of a full-on fleet from Le Garite has caused quite a stir (and lots of political activity) from the Earthlings.  Not only that, but the appearance of Lan's brother means that it's time for her to make her way home with the Earth now safe from danger, for now at least.


In the way of Lan's leaving party, we finally get to rewind to where we left off last week to find out exactly what happened, even if a lot of it still leaves plenty to be explained.  After seeing her sister wounded, Madoka's connection to the Vox and the powers inherent within her trigger something akin to the effect we saw earlier in the series, albeit this time Madoka ultimately seems to have more control over the situation.  What happens next is left unexplained, but what we do know is that the Vox Aura "Midori" loses all power soon afterwards, with Le Garite's forces arriving just in time to prevent Villagiulio from attacking a defenceless Madoka.  If nothing else, it seems that our protagonist isn't quite the potential disaster many thought she might be within her Vox (although her abilities do seem scarily like those of Guilty Crown's Apocalypse Virus...), and even the person in the know about such things seems to be satisfied with the situation.  In fact, Asteria seems to know far, far more about being in that position than we might have given credit for - a fact to hold on to as the franchise moves onwards and upwards, I would wager.

Given its ending which (for now) leaves us dangling, I'm still not totally sure what to make of Rinne no Lagrange - its first episode left me disliking it, before the instalments which followed shifted my opinion of it entirely.  The series as a whole however has left me somewhere in between - Madoka's character is a perfect foil for those around her and a joy to watch in itself, and the unsteady, ever-shifting line between "good" and "evil" between the shows different factors actually stands it in good stead even if this did feel like a show that occasionally forgot what it was supposed to be about as it spent its time goofing off and having a giggle.  That lack of consistency could well frustrate hardcore mecha anime fans, but for my part I've found Rinne no Lagrange to be entertaining more often than not so I'm definitely on-board to see where it plans to head next.  It may not be perfect enough to elicit Madoka's catchphrase, but this has been a slickly presented and frequently fun series that hopefully can really kick on and deliver upon the foundations its built during that forthcoming second term.

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