Telepathy Shoujo Ran - Episode 26 (Completed)

Had this been a thirteen episode series I would probably have been more forgiving, but as it is I have to say that I'm both glad and relieved that Telepathy Shoujo Ran has come to an end. I hate to steal the thunder of a fellow 'Blogger who mentioned this series in passing recently as the dullest anime of the year, but I'm more than a little inclined to agree.


Anyhow, this final episode takes us to a final battle between animals (or rather, humans turned into animals) and humans, and as a result Momoko versus Ran and Midori - A battle that the latter pair eventually triumph over by not fighting at all, which somehow convinces those animals to become humans again. If that sounds weak, then I suppose at least Momoko being reunited with her grandmother made a little more sense and rounded out that particular aspect of the series in a clean fashion. If only the same could be said for poor old Rui - All series it's been heavily hinted at that he has some kind of special power, but by the end of this series we're left none the wiser, and thus simply have to label him as the annoying smart-ass that he was for much of the series. The series also ends with a potential lead into a second season, but I really don't want to contemplate that right now if you don't mind...

In its entirety, there were a few things wrong with Telepathy Shoujo Ran. Firstly, it proved to be an incredibly formulaic series, which works fine for so long but after twenty-six episodes.... well, it leads to people calling it the dullest anime of 2008. Perhaps equally damaging was the way the telepathy angle of this show was abused, with Ran and Midori's powers soon becoming some kind of catch all to help them out of any situation, which extended to levitation, force fields and goodness knows what else. What the main protagnosists of a series can pull something out of nowhere to save them in any given situation, things soon get... you guessed it... dull, as any kind of drama and tension is lost. While early episodes of this series actually managed to foster some of this tension, as more powers were added to Ran's arsenal so any drama or action became less and less interesting. So, Telepathy Shoujo Ran was a nice try I suppose, but it wasn't executed anywhere near well enough to become anything but a decidedly mediocre anime.