[Triple_R]

I agree with the criticism of Ginka's kamikaze death, and of the episode that featured it. I had mixed feelings about it at the time, and it looks worse in retrospect since nobody else has followed Ginka's lead. So, to be blunt, it does make it look like she foolishly threw her life away when she didn't really have to. But to be fair to Ginka, it is clear that the plot is trying to isolate Akari, so Ginka's actions are probably partly an one-off occurrence of what's called PIS (Plot-Induced Stupidity). While I'm critical of this, I'm willing to roll with it given how excellent the last two episodes are.

So, with that in mind, I disagree with Klash and Solace over the two most recent episodes.


Sometimes villains simply victimize protagonists in fiction. It happens, a lot. Not every victimized hero has to be a totally tragic figure who's undoing is brought about, at least in part, by some chief character flaw or key mistake.

Also, I can think of a couple good plausible reasons for why Cerebrum never directly targeted an elemental tarot card user before:

1. There's strength in numbers, and in direct organizational oversight. As long as Luna was at that facility with her fellow elemental tarot users she was safe. They all were, as the way they operated as a close-knit team would make it very hard, if not impossible, for Cerebrum to pull off what he did when Luna was almost all alone at her villa, left ripe for the picking.

2. Cerebrum needed to setup a situation where he could take Luna by surprise. For that, perhaps he had to spend some time learning about her, and learning about who it is that Luna would put complete trust and faith in. Cerebrum then acted as that person (as Akari), using the image and perceived presence of that person to lull Luna into a false sense of security, taking her by surprise at the most opportune time.

Personally, I found this very impressive - even delicious - villainy. I thought it was great, and I still do. I think some have been far too critical of this.


Now, as for this latest episode, it's simply a logical extension of what came before. Yes, the organization sucks, but that's been obvious for quite some time now. As I suggested before, perhaps there's some sort of social commentary there. Perhaps this organization is meant to reflect US Intelligence Agencies that have a tendency to underestimate their enemies.

The protagonist organization is afflicted with what I would call a dumb rationality/cynicism. What I mean is that by sheer virtue of them putting an emphasis on rationality, and not growing overly optimistic, and not letting themselves care about the emotional morale of their operatives, they think they're being shrewd, smart, and efficient. But it's a shallow rationality rooted more in pride than in truly careful, logical and meticulous thinking. And in many ways, I really do see how the organization being this way can offer some compelling social commentary about certain real life organizations that may well share the same flaws.

So Akari is like the good person, the good agent working/fighting for law and order, saddled with an organization that doesn't support her and her colleagues/friends as much as it should. I'm sure Akari's story is one that many a "ground level" Intelligence Agent or Soldier or Police Officer could relate to.

The enemy is cunning, corrupting, seemingly omnipresent, and perhaps most importantly, terrorizing. Are the antagonists of this work meant to reflect real life terrorist organizations and the problems that their asymmetrical style of warfare can cause?


Personally, I think this show still has a lot of potential, and that some here may well be underestimating the writing quality of this show. I also don't see a problem with how Seira was handled in this latest episode. I don't see any issue with an Elemental Tarot user-turned-Daemonia being able to do some wild things, since such a being is rather rare if not unprecedented. Daemonia!Luna managing to corrupt Seira's card to the point that she can't fight anymore is not something that I think is worthy of criticism.

And if you want somebody to root for, look no further than Akari. You don't have to feel like the organization as a whole is worthy of support, you just have to feel that she is. And personally, I definitely think she is worthy of support. She has consistently tried to do what she thinks is right in this show.

On the whole, I think this show is going splendidly right now, and I definitely look forward to more.