With one episode to go, I have absolutely no idea how Manglobe is going to finish this.
11 might have been the busiest episode of all – it seemed as if they crammed about 4 shows worth of development in there. But the finale is going to have to blow it out of the water to have any hope of wrapping up all the loose ends dangling after this week. It was a briskly entertaining episode, at least.
Will these developments offer salve to the Ganta-haters out there? Well, who knows. I’m not one of them to begin with, but at the very least I think it should be acknowledged that he’s already way ahead of the pack by admitting he’s been too wimpy. Certainly, he feels badly about hitting Shiro (though if he knew…) and he wants to do better, so he does a very wise thing in seeking out Crow. While turned off by the crying habit, Senji does have a grudging respect for Ganta’s tenacity and agrees to put him through an accelerated boot camp to dry and develop his own ssssssslice at supersonic speeds to foil the Undertakers.
Into this inspiring scene steps Mockingbird, AKA Toto. It’s funny that such a powerful and critical character should have been introduced basically at the end of the series. He’s a serious badass despite sounding exactly like crybaby boy Lag Seeing. Heck, even Crow is a little scared of him. And a little freaked out when Mockingbird licks his blood. He makes a point of answering Crow’s inquiries by saying he’s been “dead for a while” and he’s back at the bottom of the totem pole, for strength. Stopping only to shake Ganta’s hand (so as to be able to imitate his form later, presumably) he’s on his way). So is Ganta, after Genkaku proudly announced the capture of Karako and Shiro, with the intent to gang rape them and then kill them off. With him, Ganta takes his newly found supersonic tiny bullet. Size isn’t everything, Ganta.
As usual, Scar Chain has a remarkable talent for getting themselves killed and captured. They may be the most inept resistance movement ever, but Ganta at least has a sense of duty to try and help Shiro. As the rest of the chain gang continues their plan to escape he goes to the Undertakers secret base to try and help Shiro out, reaching it only with Minatsuki’s assistance. The spanner in the works is Nagi, who appears to have been turned into a full-out vengeance demon by Genkaku. Shiro appears ready to forgive Ganta, but killer loli Hibana reappears, not dead after all, and knocks her out cold.
So many characters, so many subplots, so little time. We didn’t even see Makina this episode, but she’s still a variable out there in addition to everything else that’s happening. Anime-original or no, how can they possibly tie this thing together in 22 minutes?
