So it seems like this series can’t end without killing everyone in the cast at least once. It was an interesting showdown between the floating man and Doctor Octopus…I mean, Yamato and Alcor. This really was a strange episode in some ways. The trials have finished, but it appears that they couldn’t just face Polaris without killing off everyone they possibly could. Although the more bodies that pile up the easier it is becoming to just wait for the meeting with Polaris and everything getting turned back to normal.

Of course this episode really didn’t come close to matching what we got last week. There was a lot more chaos in that episode and frankly Daichi stepping up was far more interesting than anything we saw this time around. Not surprising a tired Yamato could only solo a Septentrion like Alcor for so long. Though have to wonder what the heck Yamato is supposed to be if he can survive a self-destruct like that. Although I kind of wonder why Alcor was such a big idiot in the first place. He had Yamato completely helpless and just decides to blow them both up. While in that position it would have been remarkably easy to just stab him to death. An attack similar to the one that slaughtered Cerberus and that would settle things for good.

But really the whole episode just felt really awkward at times. Even the weak points like Yamato recovering enough to summon Cerberus who was then slaughtered and yet restored moments later to fight Hibiki. At that point shouldn’t Baal have been ready to go as well? Heck even thinking about that why didn’t Hibiki make use of Suzaku who was taken out before Byakko was? Everyone might recover at different speeds, but it just seemed weird how everything turned out.

It just seems weird to have the final battle be between Hibiki and Yamato in this situation. I mean Hibiki has had next to no growth throughout the series. Yes, he managed to make use of more powers as the series went on, but other than Suzaku he’s summoned absolutely no other demons. We talk about potential, but really Hibiki hasn’t shown much of that. I mean come on Daichi of all people has summoned a more powerful demon than anything Hibiki has come up with. At this point they should have just sent Daichi ahead, but I doubt Byakko could have bought enough time.

It was kind of weird to watch Alcor and Yamato go at it. I kind of felt bad for Yamato really for having to fight off someone that monstrous on his own. Really quite weird since I don’t care that much about Yamato. It just seemed a bit unfair considering he couldn’t legitimately fight back. Although when you think about it things have hardly ever been fair in this series.

I suppose the only thing that had an impact on Yamato was the sacrifice of Makoto. I suppose it wasn’t much of a surprise that she’d do something like that. Can say that at least he seemed to care that she got herself killed protecting him. Maybe it had that kind of impact because he had to be saved. I suppose you could be impressed that she stood by her beliefs to the bitter end, but in the end I can’t help but say she chose the wrong person to follow. It certainly fit that she sided with Yamato seeing as she also had no hope for the future as the world stood. Putting her faith into Yamato’s view of a better world made things easier for her. Still, I can’t exactly cut Makoto slack here. She knew what horrible things were being done and gave up on the future of others along with her own.

Despite all the weirdness I’ll give a RIP to Alcor. He was an interesting character pretty well right up to the end. He believed in Hibiki enough to put himself on the line to protect him from Yamato. He probably also felt responsible for Yamato’s continued turn into a cold and somewhat twisted individual. A strange being, but one who clearly did care about Yamato and Hibiki. He just made a choice about what kind of future he’d like to see.

Despite all the flash and death it comes down to Yamato and Hibiki. The winner can move on and have their appointment with Polaris. The world as they know it has literally vanished into the void so really it all comes down to this. As it stands there won’t be anything left if someone doesn’t win so they have to settle it here and now. The only benefit is that Yamato getting knocked around by Alcor should bring his fatigue down to Hibiki’s level. It should be a decent fight and look forward to seeing how this all wraps up.
Score: B