Zetsuen no Tempest ~The Civilization Blaster~ ? 05

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It's becoming increasingly hard to think about things to write for this series, but at least the end did provide an interesting enough twist.

Zetsuen no Tempest has proven itself to be one of the slower paced anime this season. Not a big surprise considering how rare it is to see BONES adapting a shonen manga and less surprising after watching 5 episodes.

The pace isn't an issue - usually a strength - because it gives me comfort in knowing the series will be extensive, but much like Uchuu Kyoudai it is at times a little boring. A trademark problem with multi-cour series is that they tend to fill up a few episodes here or there with close to no content and stretch them out to the extreme. In Zetsuen no Tempest's case, it's a little different.

It's more a case of repetition. I get that the concepts of fate are central to the storyline and that every series has their own 'thing.' I don't even mind that we've seen Aiko so many times, since she's a very influential posthumous character, but the focus on fate and Aiko feels too concentrated. Besides the previous episode, I'm pretty sure that Aiko has appeared in every single episode and in each one there has been some kind of fate-related discussion.

That said, all those flashbacks Yoshino is having about Aiko are creating a personal conflict. Depending on how much you like/hate your main characters to be in emotional turmoil, your reaction may be differ but for me it works well because of the setting involving Yoshino, Aiko and Mahiro. Aiko's constant Hamlet quotes are getting stale as additions to the episodes and if I remember correctly, this lessens as the story goes on. We'll just have to wait it out.

In this episode, the flashback challenges Yoshino's perceptions of fate. We've already seen Mahiro throw all caution to the wind, with no regard to anything such as fate but for Yoshino, who has had the idea of fate burned into his existence by his girlfriend, it's harder to swallow. This type of emotional conflict will most likely play a big role in the future when it comes to Yoshino's decisions and character development. To me it looks like a long-term character development being started and for now I don't know how I feel about it.

There wasn't much else to the episode until the actual ending. We got a few uninspiring fight sequences, which compared to the first few episodes put me sleep. The episode's ending however was the wake up call. A little bit unusual and had I not read the manga, it would have shocked me to no end - although the next episode preview gives away a lot in the title.

I think Zetsuen no Tempest is still going steady but at times its just plain boring and this episode is proof of that.