I've been waiting for this episode since EP3 started, really. And with the awesomeness of the last 2 episodes, I was looking forward to it even more, and built my expectations up unrealistically...so was it as good as my delusions? Of course not. Honestly I was thinking of my favorite scenes and forgot just how much they would have to cram into this (I was kind of hoping that the 1998 stuff could be saved for next week but that was wishful thinking). But
realistically speaking...it was great. Not as great as the last two, because there was a very rushed feeling about it (though thank
GOD not episode 11 caliber), but everything that was included was awesome and aside from a few nitpicks handled perfectly. We all know by now that we'd be happier if someone other than DEEN got this series, because even DEEN's best is just not good enough. But after 18 episodes I've come to more or less accept that, and I think that as far as what we can expect from DEEN, this episode couldn't have been done more perfectly.
Unfortunately my favorite scene in all of EP3 was what got the most rushed of the whole episode, and that's Beatrice guarding Jessica and Kanon. I'd been waiting since the Anime began EP3 to see how this would turn out, because this is the scene that made me go from hating and mistrusting Beatrice to 'OMG no matter what I just can't hate you anymore ever'. Even after her troll, I couldn't forget this character development (and I have theories that make me believe the whole North Wind and the Sun Strategy might not have been as fake as she wants us to believe but that's a story for another thread). This was the scene that did it for me, and so I wish it hadn't been so rushed and that the musical choice was...well, better. As much as I love
あかいくつ it's a totally different tone than the VN music and it makes the impact of the scene completely wrong...and yet, I still found it to be awesome, just a different type of awesome. So even the part I was most disappointed in of the episode is proving hard to complain about. I mostly just wish it had lasted a bit longer (like by holding off the 1998 stuff a week). Jessica/Kanon's portion was handled very well, too.
Oh God, DEEN, you are
so adding fuel to the fire with some of these Bat/Beato shots. *considers making a new sig*
Eva-B's voice somehow seemed to pierce right through the terrible quality RAW I got, because even with that I can tell that Itou did a fantastic job in Eva-B's final real episode. But...
WHERE IS MY RED WEB?! Disappointment...I feel like they left out some important red texts, though, but between the bad audio and my bad memory, I can't really remember which. Anyone care to enlighten me on what ones they skipped?
Meta Battle was quite awesome, though I do feel that the whole cigarette thing seemed forced in the Anime. I know they kinda worked the whole 'Eva hates smoking' issue with Krauss last week, but it all felt so tacked on. That's a nitpick though, so whatever. So good to hear more VN music being used,
AND NO SUSPICION!! The lack of
Suspicion alone is enough to make this episode a 9. I'm kinda glad they held off on
Dread of the Grave and
Happiness of Marionette initially, though, since the impact felt a lot more dramatic having them here for the first time (though I think DoTG got played at the very end of episode 11, that whole episode was such a trainwreck that it didn't matter too much). Oh, and Ronove was epic.
Beato denying witches scene made up for shortening her Kanon/Jessica defense scene. And Damn you, Moetrice.
This was so great. A perfect replication of her expression in the VN if you ask me, and man did that expression ever make me shit my pants when it popped up in the VN. This scene scared me almost just as much (since I knew it was coming this time), so this was great. However...
This just wasn't good enough, and I was kinda worried about that since Virgillia's first appearance with her eyes open. VN's version made me shit bricks, but this was just kinda like 'wait, what now?!' and not '
HOLY SHIT SOMETHING'S WRONG HERE'. Beato's face was fine, but Virgillia was too lulzy to actually be freaky. As opposed to
this. *shudder*
OMG AWESOME ANGE IS AWESOME. And I'm not even an Ange fan. Something about seeing her bust in and go to town on those goats was just so cool. Her voice seems fine to me, though I'll need to wait for better quality to really judge.
Lambda got shafted her big scene, which I think is the main flaw of this episode since I think her threat to Beato was pretty important. I wouldn't have minded the loss of MirageCoordinator if they at least got a little more of the scene in there (save it for EP4), because really, Lambda has done like nothing in the Anime so far. She's just kinda
there. The EP2 tea party didn't bother me too much since I had enough to complain about in episode 11 as it was, but I think this was a pretty big loss and the only reason I'm not giving this episode a 10.
1998 was good. Old Eva = scary. Loved the camera angles of Skyscraper!Ange; they actually made me feel like I was that high up and going to fall. Bern's scene was handled well, and Ange's jump was cool. Makes me look forward to diving into next week's ep.
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