Man, this is the last Brynhildr blog I’ll be making until the second season. Much sadness! 3 gokukoku 8 me.
So how was this finale? Honestly – lukewarm. It could have been better – that is not to say it wasn’t salvagable to some extent. Let’s start at the best of places: the beginning (please kill me).
I was surprised (Even knowing that this is Brynhildr) that they killed Kotori and Kazumi so easily. I applaud the show’s balls though – people don’t always have dramatic deaths when you think they should – sometimes making it really unexpected makes it feel more real. Kazumi is especially someone who I’ve grown to love throughout the show and I was really sad to see her so helpless. When she throws in love and her feelings regarding Ryouto, it does make your heart swell. Poor girl. Kotori’s death was much more sudden, as well. It could be argued, rather callously, that neither of their deaths even meant anything, as well – all fitting with Brynhildr’s constantly cruel motif.
That said, I did have a problem with it, but I had this problem with the entire finale – it was so rushed. Everything happened so goddamn fast and it felt like not enough attention was paid to what mattered. It’s unclear what feeling Chisato had for the valkryia, but apparently he actually did care for her and wasn’t just using her as a tool? I felt like this could have been expounded upon better, as it just felt random when it happened. The last fight between Kuro and the valkryia felt asspull-ish and wasn’t as impressive as I was hoping – I wanted a no-holds-barred superpowered smackdown, and I didn’t quite get that. I’d also like to know the reason Kuro has such potential in her – please explain show?
Let’s talk about the bad: What I did like was the organization that opposes the laboratory as well as the fact that Ryouto’s friend had made a discovery – excellent small bits of titillation that were presented with various degrees of success. In my opinion, the organization could have been presented as much more mysterious and less friendly – let them “disappear” after the events are done with the valkryia with Ryouto wondering “Who were those guys?” and you could have had an interesting conversation piece for the second season. As it is now, it comes off as a great idea with poor execution and presentation.
Also bad: the whole damn thing was so rushed. The last fight was disappointing. The last three minutes in particular were rushed even more than the rest of the finale. Kazumi lived – thanks for explaining? Her body was sawed in half. Guessing side pigtail girl saved her (Who you forgot about, by the way. Thanks Brynhildr.) That is to say nothing of the weird fantasy stuff like antimatter, which came out of nowhere. It was a bit underwhelming.
The good? It successfully completed the thought of the first season with Chisato, finished up his story, provided further insight on the world and a direction for the show to take from this point onward. Whether or not it was presented well is another story.
Brynhildr’s second half, while still solid, definitely wasn’t as strong as the first half – that said, the mediocre finale does hurt my opinion of it just a bit. I give the show a solid 7.5 or 8 – it could have been a 9.2 if it kept up the momentum in the first half however. I still love the show and look forward to any future installments. Second season soon, please?
