Rakudai Kishi No Eiyuutan

Episode 11.

• As everyone noted, Stella just finishing off unimportant characters in one shot is getting pretty darn old.
• And Touka storyline opens up with gratuitous panty shot. I already feel like skipping this part.
• Yadda yadda yadda, 9 minutes in, Touka is actually pretty nice, whatever. Skip.
• The rest of the episode: all this for a family squabble.

Fuck this episode, I would have lost nothing of value if I just skipped this, like I should have done with episode 7. -sighs-

Get to the finale already.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Aww, you don't like Touka? You have bad taste.

I'd actually say that Panty Shot isn't entirely gratuitous. It does serve a purpose in crashing a certain idea of what her character is like. And it's not like she's not given them in all other appearances anyway.

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> Ikki's family essentially runs this whole magic knight system now.

sheesh, no wonder why Ikki is Rank F.

The entire reason he has to win the Seven Star Festival is because of his family, otherwise he gets expelled.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Am I correct in saying that, while he has gotten the shortest end of the stick, it is also the thickest, and up his arse?

OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - Forzare

After finally seeing the episode, I'll agree with the first half involving Touka being better than the second half.

Well, sucks for me because I didn't like that part either.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I can understand why, I read your earlier post.

Hopefully the final episode the salvages things but I gotta ask as someone who hasnt seen the episode yet, is it really that bad? Like whats the problems with it here?

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

My problem with the episode is the hanfisted drama involving Ikki's family in the second half.

Pretty much this.

All of issues with Ikki's family just come crashing all at once with no subtly at all. Even worse, it pretty much removes Stella's agency from the plot as she doesn't really do anything to help him beyond send her a piece of hair.

Its not the absolute worst thing ever, but its very abrupt.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

made worse by the fact that the whole premisse of the show, of Ikki having to fight and win or be expelled because his family is eeevil has been more or less shoved to the side since episode 1 and other than some stock sinister silhoutte cameos we haven't seen much of the villains before this episode.

I mean we got hints of it with Shizuku's episode; I imagine because the show is nearing the end, it kind of had to rush plot points so I guess its probably better paced in the novel.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

It usually is for novel adaptions. I mean the last third of Overlord was rushed to finish the 3rd volume after all.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

And it's over. Ikki and Touka put everything they have into one attack, with Ikki coming out as the winner. Mamoru Akaza, the fat guy in case you forgot, tries to end Ikki's life but is knocked out the way Team Rocket style by Stella. Ikki then proposes to Stella and she says yes.

I honestly though this show was good. I also found it more enjoyable than *, which I gave up on after 7 episodes.

edited 19th Dec '15 6:35:16 PM by VeryMelon

It's well crafted. You can tell Silver Link put their heart and soul into this.

I'm a little askew at him straight up overpowering her best move but I'll be damned if the show didn't show the hell out of it. Props have got to be given to both.

lol marriage proposal, way to BTFO the competition

Episode 12 was great and I must say that this series wins the award for most beautifully artistic animation of the series. The final fight may have been brief but the way it was animated was simply brilliant. Stella's Offhand Backhand against the fat git was very funny and I am impressed that they ended with a proposal.

As for comparing this series with Asterisk, I think that has been more consistently good whereas this series is more variable with some parts that are worse and some that are far better so overall I would probably rate them equal.

Rakudai is more pretentious, so its animu moments hurt it more than Asterisk's. Asterisk is more interested in having a fluffier time while this is pretty melodramatic to the max.

Ahh that was a fun final episode, although yea it came off as really heavy-handed. Fortunately, it was saved by Ikki's proposal and the subsequent cheering he got.

Rakudai was a pretty good series, definitely better than my initial first impressions. If I had to compare this to Asterisk though, Rakudai is definitely Ikki's story while Asterisk has more of an overarching plot. I'd say they're equal, but I slightly preferred this series over the other as I felt it had stronger characters and therefore kept me engaged more.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

x4 He didn't overpower Touka, he outsped her. He transferred every ounce of energy into his swing, condensing it all into a single second. Just to make it even a millisecond faster. The colour draining from the visuals? That signifies Ikki manually shutting down his ability to perceive colour just to eke out that little bit of energy. I think he actually also completely shut down most of his senses just to put everything he had into that one attack.

Episode 12. In which it just ends.

Yeah, she's not happy about the situation either. No surprises there.

Best commentator. But at least she didn't go far.

She certainly has some buttons that make her lose her composure.

They're so evil it's not even funny.

He has fans.

And suddenly they disappeared and were replaced by others?

Copy-pasting the audience is so very obvious when they do it in chunks.

And Stella just smiles. But her conclusion is kind of obvious.

This would be an excellent time to open with a feint.

That was... disappointing. I mean, sure, very good buildup and so, but then it just ended. It was one attack. Just animate it, for crying out loud.

Okay, that was actually funny. Whack.

I guess they're done hiding it. Suitable for a finale.

I guess that shows who's got the more reasonable father.

I find that one of them sticks out, and two of them don't stick out from each other.

Nice words, Touka. No need to say it. And she's happier about it than most. She's probably gone on to be my favourite character of the show. Seems I was on the right track back in the first episode.

If I get to exclude a certain previous part, I'd say it's the other way around. This has consistently been better, with stronger episodes, more emotion in it, and better characters. The standard harem fare elements have been more than balanced out with the good stuff. As I believe I've said before, I'd say that difference is the result of this series only having 12 episodes, while Asterisk has twice that. That allows the latter to take its time developing the plot, and not just cram way too much crap into the penultimate episode. Other than that, the main thing Asterisk has over this is that we actually get to see Julis fight, frequently. Stella's mostly just there.

edited 20th Dec '15 1:48:14 AM by AnotherDuck

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Well, this was very much a story of Ikki climbing up despite starting from nothing and going beyond his limits and this episode is the epitome of that. It's also a love story and again it shows, as Ikki finds strength in Stella's love. He started a pariah who almost everyone looked down on, and became the school hero and got engaged to a princess. Nice.

Great anime, with awesome characters, well written romance and incredible fights, it was a treat to watch. I really hope for a second season of this.

@Hanabira: If that was the case, why did Narukami break?

Hmm. My mistake. They did clash. I'd remembered something else: Ikki used his fastest attack, but realised right after that it would've still been a little too slow, so pushed himself just a little bit further to raise his speed.

I thought this was a very good anime considering I went in with average expectations.

I still think the way Stella & Ikki's relationship was treated is the strongest point of the show. I would definitely like more focus on Stella's side of things though.