“This is the power of friendship!”
Impression
“Rei…do you know how planets die?”
One of the guys at the control room called the crow’s new form an Alone – I doubt it’s exactly like those other Alone we’ve seen throughout the series given its sentience and intelligence, but it did manage to absorb the rest of Rei’s arrows to triple its power to a massive level. I guess it’s just one of those questions which will remain unanswered about this show. What’s evidently more important is that its strong, and overwhelmingly so, with negative energy that’s completely opposite to the type projected by the Engine and the Vivid System. By interfering with the Engine and siphoning off its system, it’s completing its objective of destroying Earth, but not by blowing up the Engine – instead choosing to shut down the world. Not even those SGE bombs that took out a past Alone can get rid of it. It’s also very arrogant now that it’s gotten itself a bit more power, claiming to be the overlord of space-time with powers that apparently exceed that of the “higher existence” it used to work for, planning to carry out judgement on the Engine and anyone who stands in its way. Clearly, someone’s got a stick shoved too far up their ass. And what’s with the Spiderman reference, Kenjirou?
Rei was still alive inside the monster, which really wasn’t too surprising – Akane needs to save her after all. It was very much like Akane to go and challenge the crow despite all the odds, going up against it with the power of friendship and performing a docking with all the girls in the Vividteam, which was a nice tribute to all the friends she’s grown close to during the series. Even though Kenjirou claimed their powers wouldn’t work, they did – with quite a lot of damage dealt to that crow with just Vividyellow, Vividgreen and Vividblue. And then Akane went and docked with Rei of all people – or perhaps it’s more right to say that it was the the way round, with Rei taking on Akane’s hair colour and using the term Vividred. After all this time, I’m glad we finally got to see what Vividred Operation actually meant; not Akane powering herself up through arrows or something, but docking into someone else and giving the last boss a good taste of what the power of friendship can do. VIVID PUNCH!
Surprisingly, there was actually a conclusion to Rei’s whole dilemma of having destroy Earth in order to regain her lost parallel dimension – the “higher existence” turned up in its figure-eight form and decided to allow her to return, using the key that Akane handed back to Rei. I did think of Rei making the choice to stay in Akane’s world instead of returning, but I guess that would go against the strong desire to return that Rei’s showed throughout the series – though this has put her into conflict in the past, all her actions have been based around wanting to earn her world back, and so it wouldn’t make sense if she decided to back down now. And so things ended as they started – a circular narrative, in which life goes on for Akane as she returns to delivering papers on her hoverbike. Seeing Rei (with Piisuke) again is a really nice way to end the show; it’s that kind of happy ending that you’re satisfied with, even though there may be questions left unanswered. As for a Season 2…I don’t think it’s the type of show that would get one, especially with how everything wrapped up nicely, with no enemy for the Vividteam to engage now that the Alone have stopped their assault. Besides, I’ve heard rumours of director Takamura planning a 3rd season of Strike Witches after Vividred Operation, which is something I’m very much looking forward to xD
Well, I wouldn’t call that 8…. It was more like an infinity sign.
Ah, yes that would make more sense xD Fits in line with their all-powerful, divine existence after all.