Excellent and appropriate ending. Loved it.
I was afraid the ending would be rushed, but the pacing was quite appropriate. Only Kiroumaru's death at the beginning of the episode and Squealer's subsequent capture seemed to happen a bit to fast. I was really hoping Kiroumaru would survive so I'm pretty sad he had to sacrifice himself. Did he even truly need to give up his life to defeat Mamaria? Since she (eh... I don't see the point of changing her gender but okay) couldn't harm Queerats, he could have just attacked her head on after Satoru got rid of her escort and ripped her apart. I suppose this would have been more risky since there could have been hidden snipers around who could have killed Kiroumaru before he reached her. Anyway, his death was a great. I feel like he was the one Queerat who could have established better relations with humans. He was more reasonable, intelligent and respectable than most.
Squealer got to explain his motivations but I'm not sure I buy them. As Saki stated, he has always been a liar. He had no reason to reveal the truth to them. It was better for him to be remembered as a martyr than a petty rat who lusted for power. That said, I do think he believed in his cause or he would have never been able to deliver such a speech, but he probably had ulterior motives. As much as I hated him, they actually managed to make me feel pity for him... first when the humans laughed at his claim to be human, and then when they subjected him to this hellish and inhuman punishment. Even Saki, who had all the reasons in the world to hate him, thought his fate was too cruel. At the end of the day, he was definitely an interesting and memorable villain. Major props to Daisuke Namikawa for voicing him so well. His performance in this show was fantastic.
The revelation Queerats were indeed former humans without PK was not unexpected at all, but that didn't make its implications any less horrifying. Until now, I thought the humans' mutations into Queerats was a consequence of cantus leakage, but it was actually intentional. To think PK users went this far to ensure their supremacy... These people are despicable.
I am happy beyond words Saki and Satoru got a good ending after all the hardships they went through. They deserve it. Thanks to Saki, there is hope their society will gradually change for the better. She already managed to uphold her promise with Kiroumaru and save his colony. This in itself is already quite an achievement as it must not have been easy to convince the humans to let spare the queerat race. I'm quite optimistic about the future of the new world. It will take a long time to change people's mindset, but it's not impossible so long as people like Saki and Satoru exist.
I absolutely loved the wistful epilogue showing all the people important to Saki, the majority of whom she lost. They even included Reiko! (bet you forgot her
). It was a very nice touch.
In closing, I'll say I've tremendously enjoyed this series. It had all of the elements of a great anime. Intriguing setting and atmosphere, lovely characters, very solid and tightly-knitted plot, beautiful soundtrack, brilliant voice acting. It was only lacking in the animation department, but that I can overlook. Definitely the best anime of fall 2012 (you can even include the winter shows).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grey
So the scientists, so prevent PK crime and death, inputted attack inhibition and death feedback. But...wait...if they could mutate all the non-PK users into bakenezumi, couldn't they have given them death feedback and attack inhibition too? Either way should prevent war.
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They could have. The thing is, they didn't only want to prevent a war... they wanted to make sure they would remain the dominant "species", so they needed to be able to kill them if need arose. They could have also gotten rid of their PK. They didn't because they wanted to remain "Gods".