Apologies for the brevity of this post. The site migration has been a nightmare and set me way back, and weekends offer no downtime from an anime standpoint this season. Friday’s other show is Kabukibu! and that’s a season finale, so the crunch has to hit Shingeki no Bahamut I’m afraid.
In brief (this the brevity) – This was another strong episode, but not one of the series’ best so far. “Virgin Soul” has tended to be better in the smaller scale than the larger (rather unlike its predecessor for the most part, actually), and the A-part this week was all grand spectacle. The angels have arrived and they’re ready to kick ass, and El seems to have the ability to turn the tables dramatically in their favor. That it until Charioce deploys “The Device” – the death star thing he’s been developing beneath his island prison. This is all good stuff in an epic sense, but a bit emotionally detached for my part.
Much better is the stuff (mostly in the B-part) focused on our heroes busting out of prison. As is common with “Virgin Soul”, it has the ability to play off dead-serious and very comical effectively, and to be honest I could watch Rita, Nina and Jeanne running all day (it’s the facial expressions that do it). And of course, we’re treated to the reunion of one of anime’s greatest odd couples – and Favaro and Kaisar are still great together. Every conversation between them is pure win. Also loved the face that Rita put an unexploded bomb in Kaisar’s hand, because she was worried about him. “Next time I’d like one that isn’t going to explode.”
As we leave things, our quintet is reunited – without much ceremony I might add, especially given how long it’s been for Favaro and Nina – only to be trapped inside the death star. That can’t be good.
Oh, and I miss Azazel. Bring him back.
Flower
June 23, 2017 at 8:04 pmGlad I was not the only one who immediately thought of the Death Star. XD
This episode did have some hollywood theatrical elements to it like s1 had – like the mine car sequence, and that was okay, I thought. And I must admit being impressed with how Favaro can still run briskly on that peg leg of his….
HoTaRu
June 24, 2017 at 11:44 amAside from some small moments that made it bearable (the exploding hand and the reunion) I did not enjoy this episode. I feel like the production value has been slipping more and more lately and it’s kind of distracting. Also, a lot of what has been happening since they got put in prison has been a little too over-the-top for my tastes. It just seems messy and all over the place, like they aren’t really sure what they want to do with the story. I feel like they need to address Charioce’s motivations more in depth and get into whatever it is between him and Nina. I’m still left feeling confused after their face-to-face scene in the prison. I still think that this show can continue strong, but I am starting to worry it might end up disappointing me.
sonicsenryaku
June 24, 2017 at 5:11 pmyou thought this ep’s production values were messy??? That’s like the complete opposite of what was actually on display. Anywho, i thought these last two eps have been wonderful rip roaring homages to action adventure films both in regards to technical and narrative elements as well as on-the-nose homages. I appreciate the foundations to which good adventure stories are built upon and what they do in sense of narrative scope and character/world building. Just as i predicted, virgin soul is shifting into more of its adventure roots from season 1 now that the gang is all coming together. That doesnt necessarily mean that virgin soul has/is going to cast away its more methodical, sociopolitical narrative and how its characters respond to it; but it’s more likely these story elements will be fused to push the second half of virgin soul in an interesting (if more grandiose) direction.
Besides, not knowing the extent of nina and charioce’s feelings for each other is not a fault of the writing; you are meant to be left in the dark
HoTaRu
June 25, 2017 at 3:02 amYou seem to have taken offense to my honest opinion. By production value I was referring to how all the female guards look like the same person, the god soldiers all look alike to me, the animation quality hasn’t been as good as earlier episodes, etc. It is distracting to me after I got used to this show looking so good up until recently. I also was not faulting the writing concerning Charioce, but we are nearly halfway through and I would like to know more about our main antagonist already. The main reason I have been so in love with this season is because it wasn’t simply copying what made the first season work. Now that they are slipping back into familiar territory narratively speaking, I feel it’s sort of messy. It’s not really a bad thing, just jarring. So far this is the only episode I have not liked.
sonicsenryaku
June 25, 2017 at 12:54 pm…..why would i take offense to your opinion?? If u feel let down by the quality and direction the series is going in then go right ahead…..i was just disagreeing with some of your assessments That’s all…. particularly that of this weeks animation considering the plethora of energetic character animations (like nina skidding on the water n the way her body interacted with it), effect animation on display, and some solid storyboarding using plenty of wide, panoramic shots to give some of the more chaotic scenes cinematic weight.
You compaining about the prison guards having derivative faces is like complaining that two or more people in a drawn crowd look alike….that’s just how it is sometimes; that’s not an accurate assessment of a drop in production values. If ur going to comment on the animation…you should at least be a bit more scrupulous is all. Had you pointed towards something like ep 7 or 8..i would have been more inclined tp agree with you that its production values werent on the level of the ones that came before it. Either way, me exclaiming my disagreement doesnt mean i took offense; like why would i? I just thought you were inherently incorrect in stating that this ep’s production values were a mess.
kisshentaitv
December 23, 2018 at 2:08 pmThis episode did have some hollywood theatrical elements to it like s1 had – like the mine car sequence, and that was okay, I thought.
kisshentaitv
December 23, 2018 at 2:09 pmepisode did have some hollywood theatrical elements to it