Well, here we are, at the finale of that weird…wacky show about ghosts and panties. And I have to say, the series was ALMOST good. It ALMOST did it. But…not quite. What do I mean by that? Well let’s jump into Punch Line one more time and i’ll tell you.
So the episode picks up with the house being bombarded with explosives. It seems that launch of the missiles are almost ready to go, but for some reason, Meika stops answering her messages so the group goes to investigate. It turns out that the bad guy/girl fucked up Meika to stop the launch.
The bear girl stays behind but Pine and the bad guy/girl get into a fight with swords and a bunch of flashy moves.
So this is when the three parter of the climax comes to a head. In one corner you have the bad guy American general who is possessed by the leader of Qmay who is going to shoot the bear girl. However, that’s when Rabura shows up and exorcises him out of the general’s body.
The second part is Meika and the bear girl firing off the last of the missiles that will destroy the meteor.
Finally the last is Chiyoko Yubafying even though she knows it will kill her to punch the bad guy/girl right in the face. The meteor is destroyed but now Chiyoko’s dying. The evil guy/girl in pine’s body offers to take her place and switch back, but Pine won’t have it saying that he/she has to atone for their sins. And so the two switch back and pine dies.
Well, there’s an epilogue. So he’ll come back right?
Nope. Nope he stays dead for some reason. For a show about ghosts and stuff they kind of just keep him dead. The future Pine ghost possesses Rabura a while later and says he has stuff to do in time and leaves them. And then the group just goes about their lives. With panty shots at the end. And…that’s basically where the series ends.
If you couldn’t tell, I was not happy with the ending of this show. For a series that was so focused on “getting the happy ending” I don’t really call “Pine dying” a happy ending. In fact if this were a video game this is what I would call the BAD ending. I don’t know what they were trying to do here but killing Pine really just put a bad taste in my mouth. Honestly I expected originally that the bad guy would switch back and THEY would die. This was a change from what I was expecting but..it wasn’t a GOOD change. I didn’t even think it was necessary. I kind of just..rolled my eyes at her decision to yubafy and die. And really…the ending kind of undermined the sacrifice. It’s like “tee hee, Pine’s dead, but LOOK PANTIES! because isn’t this really what the show is all about?” No..no it isn’t.
This show tried to sell itself on fanservice and tried to work it into the plot, but all it did was seem incredibly out of place and stupid. It wasn’t funny, hell, it wasn’t even attractive. It was just kind of there and annoying. (sigh) well let’s get onto the ratings.
Head: This show…the plot…my god. For the first 4 episodes I had no idea what the fuck was going on. Until we learned about the plot in episode 6, my head hurt after every episode. Once the plot got underway, it got a bit better, each episode better than the last (pretty much) but then the ending of this episode really took me out of it. I see what they were trying to do and I liked the idea, but the execution was absolutely terrible. When the audience is confused for 1/3-1/2 of the series, that’s not a good thing. I wish they would have gotten rid of the fanservice thing. It really didn’t fit, it had no purpose, and it seemed the writers themselves didn’t have any idea what to do with it. All in all….meh. 4/10
Eye: The art was…for lack of a better word, okay. It wasn’t the greatest art i’ve ever seen. There were times when it got flibbery floobily and it was obvious where they made budget cutbacks. But honestly, the biggest sin of this show with the eye is that..I didn’t find ANY of the fanservice attractive. In most shows that have fanservice I can go “wow, that’s hot.” That never happened once in this show. And for a plot where a guy gets superpowers from seeing panties…that’s pretty bad. 4/10
Heart: I really wish I could say that the emotional buildup in this show was good. And…for the last half of the series it was…until the ending ( you see a pattern here?) It’s hard to describe this one. Nearly every time I watch a show, good or bad, I feel some sort of connection with the characters. Like I feel them as a family, or they feel…easy to relate to. I didn’t feel any connection with these characters whatsoever. They felt….alien to me. Maybe it’s because the entire cast was thrown on me at episode one and the first 4 episodes were so confusing and fucked up that I had no idea what to make of anything, but whatever the reason, I did not get invested with these characters AT ALL. Fuck. I finished the series and I still call the one main character “The girl who has the bear”. That goes to show you what an impression these characters left on me. That being said, killing Pine at the end was a really stupid idea. I didn’t think it was poetic, or good, or cute. To me…it was stupid. honestly, it was stupid. There was literally NO REASON for Chiyoko to yubify. The meteor would have been destroyed anyway, and Pine wasn’t really in any real danger anyway. Even if the bad guy HAD hit Pine, it would have had the same result. Pine dying. This ending was so forced it actually hurt. A bad show is one thing, but a show I can’t even feel the humanity? That’s inexcusable. 3/10
Total Score: 3.66
Final thoughts: Really…episodes 6-9 + 11 are good but it’s not worth the effort you have to put into this show. Would I recommend this show to a friend? No. No I wouldn’t. It doesn’t have enough of ANYTHING to really make it worthwhile. I wouldn’t give it to a fanservice fan because there’s not enough of it. I wouldn’t give it to a time travel fan because it’s fucked up. I wouldn’t give it to a romance fan because…well there isn’t really a romance. There’s no one I can show this to except maybe the “Fuck you this ending sucks” fanbase….. Of which I’m not sure I WANT to meet anyone who appreciates that. All in all. I can’t recommend this show. I can see what they were going for…It’s a shame the execution was just that. An execution.
-Hideki