Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince - 08
[gallery columns="4" ids="13009,13010,13011,13012,13013,13014,13015,13016"]
Well that episode of Majestic Prince was.....something.
Having just watched written about the poor choices Crime Edge made with its action, I find it amusing that Majestic Prince would have its own problems. Granted, not the same problems but problems nonetheless. Problems which would best be summarized by pointing how little effort the writing staff actually put into this episode.
Action was what we got, and we got a little too much of it. Beginning with the deployment of Team Doberman and Team Rabbits, we plunged straight into a fight with no second thought. The first fight Team Rabbits are facing after their recovery win at the enemy base, which seems to have worked too well in instilling them with a tonne of confidence. It's this new-found confidence which provided a spring-board for them to fight like the soldiers they're expected to be. But let's not talk about that.
Let's not talk about how Asagi's weak stomach is no longer a problem or how Tamaki continues to be useful in an unexplained manner. The bigger issue in the episode was how little was actually said and how much was actually shown. In short; there was so much action! Too much if you ask me. From start to finish, there was almost no point in the episode when someone or something wasn't being or doing the blowing up.
The sheer amount of action that was rammed down our throats this episode was surprising. Majestic Prince has some nice, smooth animation when it comes to that but even it can't get away with overloading an episode with just action. It didn't do much for the series, except show off the animation and wet the appetite for a proper build-up to the next fight - hopefully there will actually be one next time. Had it scaled back a little bit, the episode would have been better off and I wouldn't have lost track of every single move each character made in this episode.
One way or another Izuru's ended up as the main battle. Asagi may have become the temporary leader of the group but it was still Izuru at the centre. Not surprising since he is Majestic Prince's rightful main character and he's been shown as nothing but that. His role lead him to fight the presumed leader of the alien race Jiato, with some amusing moments.
Jiato was introduced in the previous episode as the hedonistic ruler of the race, and in this episode he ended up as the funny cartoon villain hunting his prey. Not something out of the blue for Majestic Prince - need I remind you about the first few episodes? - and it didn't feel remotely out-of-place. It was a funny little moment to enjoy, which unfortunately made the ending feel disconnected from the rest of the episode.
Somehow, after unlimited action and bad one-liners from Jiato, Majestic Prince made a sudden 180 back to its more serious plot. The ending suggest a deeper plot of two races fighting each other without full knowledge of one another. A direction for the story that could yield a more interesting plot, yet one which came at a random time. No matter how good an idea it may be for the story in the long run, it doesn't change the absurdity of sneaking it in at the end of this episode.
This was certainly one of the more unrefined and goofy episodes of Majestic Prince thus far. Something I would have expected if the story continued the way it did from the first two episodes, which is to say it was fun but nothing substantial. Where it failed was the ending and the excess action, hence lowering the quality of the episode quite substantially. I hope to see something better next week, but more than that I hope to see more stability in the style of the series.
Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince Episode 09 Preview
[gallery columns="4" ids="13017,13018,13019,13020"]