Level E - Episode 12

We come full circle as Level Ereaches its final story arc - a story which sees Prince Baka looking for a place to hide as he tries to avoid the pursuit of some fellow Dogurians, a search which leads him to the apartment of one Yukitaka Tsutsui of course.

This time around, those in pursuit of Baka are no less than his brother and the Prince's bride to be, as it's revealed that not only has Baka been trying to avoid getting married to this girl who is doe-eyed over him, he's even changed the laws of his own planet in the hope of avoiding being tied down to what he views as an overly conservative woman and his even more irritating (to Baka at least) younger brother.

With that law stating that he has to step aside in the ascendancy to the thrown if he isn't married by the time he "comes of age" (which is one month away), even Craft and company are more than happy to jump on the bandwagon and help him out on this occasion - something which proves to be increasingly difficult as Mohan, the brother in question, always seems to be one step ahead whether it's creating a barrier around the Earth, inviting huge swathes of spacecraft to orbit the planet or performing surveillance of Baka's movements.  Indeed, it almost seems like someone is helping Mohan out from within Baka's unit of bodyguards...

As Level Ehas lost its way somewhat over recent weeks, I'm sure I'm not the only one looking fondly back to those earlier episodes and hoping for more of the same - in some ways, this final story arc is the answer to our prayers as it properly reunites Baka and Yukitaka to make their most of their dynamic while also throwing them into the midst of a reasonably interesting plot for any such character dynamics to work with.  However, even despite all that this isn't quite the Level E we loved earlier this season, as it struggles to really extract much humour from its scenario (managing only the odd smile and very few laughs) - perhaps its major characters simply don't stand up to a sustained period in the spotlight over thirteen episodes?  It would be too harsh to just these final episodes before this story as finished (we've learned all about the twists this show loves to hold in reserve by now), but I get the feeling this might be an okay but unspectacular end to a show that promised so much more early on.