Rinne no Lagrange: Season 2 - Episode 11

With Dizelime's (or rather, Moid's) plan well and truly swinging into action, things are looking rather dire for the Earth as it becomes enveloped in, well, stuff, signalling the impending unleashing of the much-feared Rinne.

At this point we'd normally look towards our trio of Vox pilots to save the day - except we find them all lost in some kind of unknown wasteland, each seemingly facing their demons and their enemy in their own unique, but completely separate, way.  With nobody able to contact them and communications between the three pilots lost, is there any hope in getting through to them as they fight their own futile battles alone?

If nothing else, we finally get some insight into what has driven Moid to the actions which caused this forthcoming apocalypse in the first place, via a story that stretches back 20,000 years to Maycun's own abuse in the name of activating the Rinne, causing the destruction of the planet but also sowing the seeds for a goal which Moid could never hope to attain.  Our new villain might be convinced that nothing can stop the progress of the Rinne now, but others disagree for one simple reason - they have faith in Madoka; faith that looks all set to be repaid as our protagonist is brought to her senses from the depths of despair by an e-mail and, of all things, a packed lunch.

It feels as if we've wait so long for this final battle with the entire planet on the line that I'm not sure that anything short of an End of Evangelion-esque display would really do it justice, and lo and behold this penultimate episode of Rinne no Lagrange doesn't quite get it right.  Visually the series managed to remain reasonably striking, and it put forth some confident ideas and plot points, only to shirk them somewhat at the last - was the world really just saved by some packed lunches?  Was Moid's desire really so woolly and poorly-formed after all his efforts?  In spite of some decent moments and smart ideas, there wasn't really enough sustenance to the climax to this battle for the future of the planet to really feel satisfying; something was missing, pure and simple, and I was never left with any feeling of tension or suspense even in such an apocalyptic setting.  Perhaps this series works better as a slice-of-life series with some mecha elements than anything more serious after all...