Owari no Seraph ep 12 [ Final Impression ]

Owari No Seraph is scheduled for 24 episodes, but aren’t we lucky? There is a three month pause in between them. So technically speaking this is actually the season finale of Owari no Seraph! Go figure that. This makes some of the pacing choices even more annoying, but you know what? I can dig it.

The only problem with this finale is it’s. . .very much slow paced. It feels like the next episode of something, not the finale of a season. I’ve never seen such a calm and collected Season 1. It’s legitimately just an episode of the series. But you know what? This is fine. Owari no Seraph has beautiful production values and if it needs three months in order to stay beautiful, you won’t hear me complain.

But the entirety of this episode is Mika being bleak about his status as a vampire to other vampires, and Yu waking up. We learn some interesting things in the end but other than that, we just learn that Yu remembers nothing. He has no idea what’s going on with him and has no memories of being a terrifying monster. So, all he does it say how grateful he is and declare he’s going to save everyone.

I thought everyone in this shows production team was vying for Yu to be with his tsun tsun girlfriend, but instead it seems this episode was key to focus on Shinoa. Shinoa is actually revealed to be a member of the higher branch family (as in, above Guren) the Hiragi family, and it’s made very clear she’s falling in love with Yu. Yu, meanwhile, seems to be just as invested in everyone as her.

I did appreciate some things. We learned Shinoa’s sister is responsible for the Cursed gear and died doing it, and we learned vampires have a detox machine for fighting off the curse once they’ve left a battle. It would almost seem like there is a mole inside both the organizations hmm hmm hmm. And at the center is Yu, who seems indifferent to anything but his friends and Mika.

And, guess what? As soon as he can, he’s crying about Mika. He’s declaring he’ll save Mika. Even now that he knows he is a vampire the two of these idiots are still like, I’m gonna save him. This show has such a blatant love between the two, and I’d ship Shinoa x Yu if Yu showed even half of the deep love and admiration that exists between Mika and Yu. There was what, 5 episodes of obsession over Mika alone to support that ship? This whole anime focuses to show Yu’s desire for power is over Mika. I don’t ship yaoi normally but you can’t sell me a goddamn ice cream cone and not expect me to freak out when it’s really just a peanut butter sandwich. Does he like Shinoa back or what?

I digress with this show. I have no idea where it’s going to go in the end, I know that now once the show returns and Yu finds out the truth about everything he’s going to lose it. I’m also fairly sure at the end, Ferid is revealed to have an ally in the corps, and it’s probably fucking Guren. Or the end with Guren was a bait and switch. Who knows? We’ve got three months to find out and it will be deliciously wonderful.

So how was Owari no Seraph? Well, it has an incredible concept and the art never ceased to amaze me. It did have substantial build up and ultimately kept me engaged, but there was a good 5 episodes where I was going “will you just fucking fight vampires already”. The best parts were learning about the vampires and the intrigue but the only way we saw that was Mika. That’s why Season 1’s MVP is Mika. It’s almost painful to watch Yu’s side because vampires being arrogant and stupid or not, the humans are definitely fucking with Yu. No one in this show is good, sans Yu’s actual team mates, and the only ones we can expect to be good guys in the end are them and perhaps Mika.

Would I say to watch this show? Yes. Did it live up to it’s potential? Not yet. We really need a better paced finale and much more information. Until now the entirety of the show has been build up and I’m ready to see what it will become now that we’ve learned that the conflict really isn’t one sided. The Bible allegory alone will be enough. Until episode 10 this show was basically a 5 out of 10, but now? Just for it’s potential and that amazing reunion, let’s give it a higher rating simply because now we know we’re in store for better.

Final Rating: 7 / 10

Season 2 will show whether it deserves higher, and we’ll see just how many trumpets have to sound before Yu is pushed to his limit.

Oki