Plot: The girls clash with Deep Blue again, but their attacks still have no effect. Done with the fighting, Deep Blue decides to end everything by summoning a massive floating base and retreating into it to implement the final phase of his plan. Pai is left behind to take care of the Mews.
According to Akasaka, the last bit of Mew Aqua is contained within that base. Deep Blue plans on concentrating that power into a blast that will annihilate the earth. The Mews try to rush in to stop him, but Pai stands in their way, vehemently defending the base and Deep Blue from their interference in their plans.
He creates a Chimera Animal that looks strikingly like the one that murdered Shirogane’s parents when he was a child and sics it on the girls. While Lettuce, Pudding and Mint fight the Chimera Animal and Zakuro fights Pai, Ichigo tries to infiltrate the base.
Pai won’t let himself be distracted, however, and moves to strike her. In a surprising twist, Taruto comes in to defend her. He’s tired of the fighting and doesn’t wish to see everything and everyone on the planet perish – even if that means fighting his friend.
While Pai is slightly sympathetic with his old comrade, he still doesn’t hesitate to strike him down in one fell swoop. Taruto is made the first casualty of this final battle, devastating Pudding.
As the Mews fight off both Pai and his Chimera Animal, Ichigo makes her way through the desolate base to Deep Blue. As soon as she gets through the doorway, and without a word spoken, Deep Blue starts his assault on Ichigo.
Meanwhile, Lettuce uses herself as a shield to block Shirogane from an attack from the Chimera Animal. Mint and Pudding pick up the slack, and Zakuro sets out to end her battle with Pai.
Deep Blue reveals that he plans on destroying everything in this planet, revitalizing it and keeping it for himself – not giving the planet over the Kisshu, Pai and Taruto’s species as he promised. Ichigo is about to endure another strike by Deep Blue when Kisshu arrives, seemingly pleading for Deep Blue’s forgiveness and offering to kill Ichigo in his stead since killing humans is below one such as him. Once Deep Blue stands down, however, Kisshu teleports back and puts a sai to his neck. He doesn’t care if he lied about giving the planet to the aliens or if he destroys the earth, but he won’t let him kill Ichigo.
As Kisshu attempts to finish off Deep Blue, he is met with a swift sword strike to the stomach. A tearful Ichigo rushes to his aid, but Kisshu can’t even gather the energy to kiss her one last time before he collapses in her arms.
Ichigo makes a desperate plea to Deep Blue as she readies her bell for battle, but this time it seems as though her words have effect. Deep Blue yells out in agony, causing the Mew Aqua within him to glow. The base reacts and shoots off numerous beams of energy that are atomizing anything they touch – including the Chimera Animal they were fighting. As a massive beam heads for the Mews and Shirogane, Pai, shockingly, has a change of heart. Remembering Lettuce’s words to him previously, Pai whips out his strongest attack to deflect the energy beam and save their lives, seemingly sacrificing himself in the process.
As the dust settles from the destruction, the other Mews lay alive but down for the count. Ichigo awakens in the rubble of the wrecked base to see…..Aoyama?
Breakdown:
– Ah, cool. The girls kinda get new animations for their attacks. It’s just their weapons glowing as they say their attack names, but it still looks cool.
– I’d give it more points if their attacks didn’t collect in Ichigo’s bell so she could use it as her own attack…..
– Am I imagining things or does Deep Blue look quite a bit different than he did the past couple episodes? Maybe it’s just the slight hike in animation quality.
– How exactly did all of the Mew Aqua get so scattered? The aliens had access to at least some that they could lock away, but the rest was spread out over Japan. Did it get created naturally over time or was it scattered before the aliens left?
– So….Pai, right now, created the Chimera Animal that killed Shirogane’s parents? He reacts as if it is, and even the subtitles say this is the same one. Or is this just a Chimera Animal that looks exactly like it? I have to assume it’s the latter somehow because the former doesn’t make any sense. However, even if the latter is more correct, that still leaves the mystery as to where the Chimera Animal that killed Ryou’s parents is.
– Annndddd….the girls are relegated to the ‘I’ll take care of these guys while the hero does the actual important stuff’ role. Yup. That’s about right.
– Yay Taruto joining the Mew side!
– Damn, Pudding breaking down over Taruto is heartwrenching. 😦
– They really nailed the ‘final boss’ vibes with Ichigo walking through the empty palace-like base on her way to the main room while organ music plays.
– What exactly is the deal with this Chimera Animal? Before, the girls were taking on 100 Chimera Animals apiece with little issue. Now, three of them are teamed up against one (Zakuro’s fighting Pai) and they’re getting their asses kicked. Shouldn’t they also be super rejuvenated since they were all just exposed to some Mew Aqua? I know they were tired before, but the Mew Aqua should have been enough to bring them back to full strength so the final battle wouldn’t be so one-sided.
I’m not saying have the final battle against the Chimera Animal that killed Shirogane’s parents be quick and boring, with the skew more towards the Mews, but at least give us some buildup to it; a reason this thing is more powerful than the others. All it’s done this whole time is fly around and hit things yet they still can’t even really damage it.
– But, still, aw for Lettuce protecting Shirogane.
– Even when Kisshu goes full good guy, he still has to prove to be a little messed up by saying Deep Blue can have the earth, but he’ll never let him touch Ichigo.
– Kisshu was skewered with a sword through the stomach, but, like last time, there’s no wound. It’s just weird, because last time he was wounded, even though they didn’t show the wound initially, later on they did show blood all over. Here, there’s nothing.
– Maybe the flashback clipshow that Ichigo’s having of Kisshu shouldn’t include all those times he’s tried to kill her?
– I feel bad for laughing, but Ichigo’s hand was right behind Kisshu’s head when he was trying to kiss her, but when he died she just let him fall down.
– Each girl individually has yet to get their own battle/time to shine, but I’m at least appreciating Zakuro vs. Pai and Mint vs. the Chimera Animal. It’s not the most epic battle, but it’s still relatively exciting.
– Interestingly, Deep Blue’s face looks a lot softer and sympathetic after Kisshu dies and Ichigo makes her speech, perhaps hinting at the return of Aoyama. Could just be a coincidence, but interesting either way.
– I don’t know why I completely forgot that the body in front of Ichigo in Aoyama’s dream was Kisshu. You’d think I’d retain such an important detail. Man, my memory blows.
– Oh BULLSHIT! The Chimera Animal that killed Shirogane’s parents isn’t even beaten by the other Mews – it’s defeated by a random beam of energy shot from the base when Deep Blue went nuts? Come on! That was their one and only thing that was theirs to fight (considering Pai turns heel) Not only that, but what a lackluster resolution to such an important part of Shirogane’s backstory….
– I’ll be honest, I never got the PaixLettuce shipping thing. They had even less teasing than ShiroganexLettuce, and it just seems weird. It’s nice that Lettuce’s words and actions helped change his mind, but on a romantic level, I have never been able to see it.
– Even though I totally get Taruto’s change of heart and Kisshu’s, it’s always been harder for me to accept Pai’s. He knew all along that the entire world and everything and everyone in it would get destroyed by Deep Blue. He struck down Taruto without flinching to help him achieve this end. He listened to Lettuce’s speeches without giving a damn. But now, out of the blue (pun totally intended) he’s just suddenly decided to fight for the good guys just because he suddenly remembered Lettuce’s words to him?
Keep in mind, he doesn’t yet know that Deep Blue intends on keeping this planet for himself and not making some utopia for the aliens, which would have been a perfect reason for Pai to have a little redemption arc – realize the horrible things he’s done in Deep Blue’s name when Deep Blue was lying all along.
– Zakuro: “We’ve done all that we can until now.”
Mint: “Please, Ichigo.”
Lettuce: “The rest is up to you….You must protect the earth.”
Alright, last time I’m going to talk about this. I promise.
Actually….*sigh* Is it even worth it? Because that pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? We’ve done all we can. Which isn’t all that much.
Not on their end – but more from a writing standpoint, ya know? I applaud them for their efforts, really I do. Keep in mind, they’ve been fighting their asses off for hours now. But…at the end of the day….They didn’t…DO much, ya know? The ones who actually got big memorable moments….were the aliens. The guys who have been the enemies this whole series.
Let’s go down the list of what the girls got to do in the final battle.
Altogether: Fought hundreds of Chimera Animals, but they weren’t even actual enemies, they were distractions.
Got their asses kicked about….uhm…I’ll say four times between Deep Blue and the Chimera Animal. Damage to Deep Blue – Zilch.
Damage to Chimera Animal – they landed hits, but it didn’t seem affected by anything so, also zilch.
Acted as distractions for the lesser threats so Ichigo could save the day.
Mint: She got to fight one-on-one with the Chimera Animal. Neat fight, but didn’t beat it.
Pudding: Jack squat. She had an emotional moment with Taruto that was sweet, but that’s about it.
Lettuce: Saved Shirogane, which was pretty cool, but it wasn’t like a big sacrifice moment like with Kisshu or Taruto, nor did she get to kill the Chimera Animal. That would’ve been a nice and fitting moment for her (and Shirogane), but nope.
Zakuro: Fought Pai one-on-one, which is almost certainly the coolest thing any of the strawberry-free Mews did, but not really all that great of a battle and she didn’t even defeat Pai in the end.
If I recall correctly, I’m pretty sure all they do in the final episode is just give their energy to Ichigo so she can power up her bell for an attack, so this is really all they do for the finale.
Compare that to;
Taruto: Nobly fought his old comrade, letting Ichigo escape into the base and sacrificing himself to save Pudding, the other Mews, the earth and humanity.
Kisshu: Tried to take on Deep Blue directly to save Ichigo’s life with a slick bait and switch and paid for it with his own life.
Pai: Summoned a massive lightning blast with huge fans to combat an even massiver energy blast of Mew Aqua that leveled about a half mile radius so he could save the lives of the other Mews and Shirogane.
And now it’s all up to Ichigo. Though, to be fair, outside of playing defense, she hasn’t been doing much either. She’s been very reactionary through most of this arc. It’s understandable, given the circumstances, but most of what she’s done so far is just clash with Deep Blue, plead with him and cry. Everyone else has been doing most of the fighting to this point.
I’m not angry, Tokyo Mew Mew. Not anymore. It’s time to move on. I’m just…disappointed.
– Ichigo has no pupils when she awakens after all that.
– Aw the next (er, I guess final) episode preview is so sweet.
—————————–
I know I had more notes this time around, but I still think this episode’s on the same level as the previous couple of episodes. The action is intense, the emotional moments hit you pretty hard, especially Pudding’s moment with Taruto, and the ending was a great mixture of both emotion and tense action. It was also a great spot to end on before the big finale.
I’m just eternally disappointed that this is all the other Mews end up doing in the finale and that was the big crescendo to the Chimera Animal that killed Shirogane’s parents (Still not sure that even was the same Chimera Animal. The logic isn’t adding up.)
Again, it really just seems like the aliens got the best moments, even amongst themselves like Pai and Taruto, and Kisshu and Deep Blue. And as much as I prattle on about Ichigo favoritism, the aliens even eclipsed her here. She spent most of the episode going to Deep Blue. She had a brief battle with Deep Blue, which was moreso her blocking his blasts, and then her plea triggered Deep Blue’s identity crisis.
The aliens did need their times to shine too if they were ever going to be redeemed, but I feel like it was at the expense of the other Mews and that just bothers me a little. Maybe just squeeze in one more episode or omit a filler episode to make room for another finale arc episode to really give everyone elbow room.
Pai’s turnaround was also a bit too sudden and out of left field for me to really believe it. I know they wanted to redeem all of the aliens, but the way they went about it with Pai was sloppy. Either establish more of a link between him and Lettuce, romantic or not, so her pleas more obviously get to him as the episodes went on or have him learn that Deep Blue doesn’t intend on holding up his part of the bargain with the aliens.
Taruto’s turn was believable because we know he’s a bit more sensitive, being younger, and we watched him bond with Pudding a few times now. One whole episode was basically dedicated to their budding friendship, and he ended up saving her life out of sympathy.
Kisshu’s been puppy dogging after Ichigo since day one – it’s fully understandable for this already heel-turned character to turn heel fully to the side of good and make the ultimate sacrifice.
Pai’s been stubbornly on Deep Blue’s side this entire time, knowing his intentions with the planet and everything. He’s never shown a shred of sympathy for anyone else besides his comrades, and he even turned on them when he ‘killed’ Taruto, who is also a child, mind you, all in the name of Deep Blue.
It was just jarring is all. It’s like Pai’s turnaround was a complete afterthought.
Finally, the art and animation, outside of one or two weird spots, was top-notch in this episode. I really liked that we at least got a little more variation with the Mews’ attacks in the end, even if it is just a bit of glowing. Some shots are really pretty and beautifully drawn.
The finale is up next! Ichigo has gotten through to Aoyama and brought his soul up to the surface of Deep Blue, but can he maintain this control? Can Deep Blue be stopped once and for all? Can the Mews truly save the world from utter destruction? Find out in the final episode!
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The Anime Madhouse 