11eyes Episode 12 ends and OVA to follow

Since when was this a Rozen Maiden crossover show? Not only do we have Suigintou lookalikes, but we also get Shiori turning out to be a doll?

11eyes stood out for turning out to be more than the average harem and mystery alternative world where nothing seems to make a lot of sense. Well, the latter is still applicable towards the end with the rushed explanations in this last episode. The fact that this episode was treated as if episode 11 had never even occurred is a huge letdown for the ending. Lets screw the awesome crazy end from last week where everything is obliterated and turn it into a long “precognition” for Kakeru for a “what if I ran to save Yuka?”. Last week was an awesome episode, this week.. not so much.

Instead, Kakeru takes the vision as a cue to try to kill himself.

Defeating Liselotte just seemed too simple this week. Last week she was perfectly capable of holding off Avaritia, Superbia, Abraxas and Shiori and yet they seemed a bit more on level this week? Sure, she did have an extra fragment from Yuka, but that can’t have made too much difference surely? The fighting in the series has been decent, but the first half of the series was disappointing. The Black Knights all fell way too easily, that is until they came up against Superbia.

The show was very formulaic up until around episode 8:

1. Find a new friend to join their group and do some slice-of-life school stuff.
2. Go into the Red Night.
3. Fight and defeat one of the Black Knights.

Turn to half beast thing to protect the one she loves. Too bad he's already fallen for a crazy yandere.

Mizusu’s transformation with the blade was kind of cool, but Kakeru’s little monologue that followed was long and unnecessary. Although it followed with the overall “守ってあげる” (I’ll protect you) theme, coupled together with the lengthy explanation of Abraxas and the parallel worlds; the pace was completely stop-start.

What I didn't understand is why Yuka had to be stripped down to her underwear. Fanservice?

The ending sequence was mediocre. Everyone is resurrected and happy ever after in another world and the Red Night just a distant memory in the past. It reminds me of a game where you saved and decided to take one path, only to find it was a BAD END and reverting your save file to choose a better end.

Overall the series wasn’t bad, but it had many qualities that didn’t make it perfect. I can only assume the game was better and that they didn’t have enough time to animate everything. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable, Liselotte (Niina Ayano) is awesome and the ED pretty cool.

7.5/10

According to ANN and the 11eyes website, an OVA has been scheduled for release with the Blu-ray DVD on June 25th, 2010. It says that it’ll have different content to that of the TV anime, though presumably that just means a different path in the eroge being adapted?

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