Monday 24 September 2012

Rinne no Lagrange: Season 2 - Episode 12 (Completed)

Despite everything seemingly have resolved themselves within the Rinne for Madoka, Lan and Muginami, things certainly aren't looking any rosier back in the real world outside - in fact, they only seem to be getting worse as the environment becomes ever-more threatening, much to the delight of Moid.

However, it appears that everything is still under control as the girls within the Rinne come across Yurikano and an unconscious Dizelmine - although Yurikano is adamant that herself and Dizelmine must stay while the others escape to pay for the lives lost as a result of their misguided efforts in the past, Madoka is having none of it, insisting that they all escape so that those concerned can rectify their perceived sins in a more beneficial way.  Thus, the group escape from the Rinne safely, with the only "harm" coming to Dizelmine as he returns some ten years younger than he entered - not a bad deal at all, truth be told.

With planet Earth safe once again and Moid's plan thwarted, Madoka and her Jersey Club cohorts get to spread their influence across the galaxy, while the Rinne itself and its fallout ultimately leads to an end of the Polyhedron problem thanks to a "miracle" of some kind altering the orbits of both affected planets to ensure there is no chance of them ever coming into collision in the future.  In other words, it's a happy ending all-round - provided you don't feel a little worried at the prospect of Madoka holding an incredibly influential position across an entire galaxy, of course.


Following on from a first season of fun and frolics punctuated with occasional bursts of action and drama, this second season of Rinne no Lagrange never quite got its balance right - its comedy was less marked, which (arguably quite rightly) allowed the show's "serious business" to take centre stage; the trouble is, that serious business was rarely all that compelling, with its galactic politics and the behaviour of those deeply ensconced within it becoming increasingly repetitive.  Even when it came to the shows grand finale, its story couldn't quite match its in turn sinister and beautiful visuals, failing to deliver any real tension or explore the legend around which the entire series was based in a suitably interesting manner.  While incredibly fun at times and quite affecting at others, Rinne no Lagrange never really knew what it wanted to be, nor did it particularly have the legs to fill its running time in a satisfying fashion - issues which mean that it will be remembered as a colourful failure that brought some great comedy to what was almost a slice of life mecha setup, without ever delivering the full package of action and drama that it clearly wanted to alongside that.  Still, that soundtrack sure did kick ass...

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