Houkago No Pleiades

That was a beautiful moment for the two.

That was one heck of a date. Shame Subaru forgot about it.

Hikaru and the others' attempted date peeping was funny. Especially when Nanako was going to take a photo.

Now then...are the Minatos merging into one or something?

edited 5th Jun '15 9:47:52 AM by Diamite

Maybe one of them is the future self of the other one?

Space!Minato is the theoretical future child of garden!Minato and Subaru.

Episode 9!

A planetarium? What is this Sora no Method?

Looks like the het option is gonna win. AS ALWAYS.

She's already seen more outer space closer than other humans will probably ever see.

Huh, he's even better than the Pleiadian.

Are you just questioning it now, because you've done similar things before.

And the Sun WASN'T bright?

Okay, so Minato's method has more of a drawback to it.

Frick, they're childhood friends even. One of them may technically be dead too. Or maybe he just went to space for a few years.

She keeps catching these astronomical events at exactly the right moment.

Oh sheet he gon steal the fragments?

Questions!

Did the two Minatos merge into one? More questions!

Just finished marathoning up until the latest episode.

It's... a lot better than you'd expect from a car commercial. Also surprisingly decent science, espcially in Purple's episode. The Conspicuous CG is really really conspicuous, though.

It's really lighthearted, kinda like if you took the first five episodes of Yuki Yuna and made that the whole show, except with SPACE instead of NATIONALISM. It seems nostalgic somehow.

Also, my yuri radar is... confused. Although Subaru and Aoi are the obvious yuri pairing, I'm not picking up signals. Maybe its because of the incredibly obvious Ship Tease with Minato. Somehow, I'm not too bothered by it. I feel like that ship won't have a happy end, though.

Also, they totally kissed, right?

edited 6th Jun '15 1:49:19 PM by MoreThanBored

GAAAAIIIINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX

edited 10th Jun '15 3:12:48 PM by MoreThanBored

Minato is the bad guy. Shock of all shocks. I guess they do have some sort of magic veil. These alternate timelines/pasts is getting confusing to me, especially since some of them have to have intersected for Nanako to have found the President in that state. Also, Minato was proto-Nanako with the President. Subaru isn't good at self-preservation. No idea where it'll go from here.

Well this episode sure changed a lot.

It was always pretty obvious that "Minato" was the villain, but the question was always "which Minato." Now we've learned the dark side of all of those multiverse shenanigans, seeing as how Minato tried it and got shunted into a Bad End. It was pretty funny seeing him as a literal Magical Boy complete with transformation, though.

At first I had though that Minato and Subaru not recognizing each other through the series had been just indulging in Paper-Thin Disguise, but now that I've thought about it that whole "parallel universes" thing plus the fact that the girls are Invisible to Normals while they transform makes me think that maybe there was some sort of Weirdness Censor around them.

Even though the girls' journey is seemingly over, Subaru is obviously less than happy with the outcome. My guess is that she's going to go rogue and search for Minato, and the other girls will have to stop her or something. In that sense, she'll become a lot like Minato. Perhaps the Pleiades will be able to change the ending to this story, like the fairy tale in Itsuki's episode.

Also, this picture◊ basically confirms that they kissed. How can Minato just leave after stealing Subaru's purity like that?

I kind of-sort of-half-understand what's going on now. Inception. Is this Madoka Magica Rebellion, I don't know maybe. Also either everyone is a figment of Minato's imagination but Your Mind Makes It Real or Minato is a figment of everyone else's imagination schrodinger's boy with a lot of parallel universe stuff or they all exist but in different ways.

Where are the subs HS?

WHERE ARE THE SUBS?!?

From CR

Spaceship's design is kind of disappointing. Feel like they were running short on budget

Overall: Hm, mixed. Pretty, I quite like the atmosphere, and it use some interesting concepts, but it very much suffers from the character writing— the characters never really bounce off each other the way they should and they tend to fade into the background when not being focused on. Hikaru and Itsuki could be cut without losing anything of value. Though it's really Minato who suffers from this the most; on top of barely having a personality to begin, he doesn't show up enough or have enough chemistry with Subaru for his ultimate role in the story. All that said, I'd still be willing to recommend it to someone looking for Mahou Shoujo, though not all that highly

I think that was a great final episode. There were a lot of cute moments and gorgeous space vistas, as well as a nice confirmation of Official Couple (Subaru sure is direct in that regard). Plus we got a nice dose of classic Gainax Ending with Subaru and Minato taking a nap 4 billion years in the past. Even though they go their separate ways, I think that it's pretty heavily implied that they'll meet again soon.

Also, I read an interesting theory on /a/ that the President's appearance in Minato's universe is based on The Little Prince

Final boss, a black hole. Nothing else it could be. Subaru/Minato is even more official now. Teamwork vs space. Teamwork wins. Minato is officially reunited with his first friend. And so the president must go. Sucks for Nanako, but she knew it was coming. He was cool. To the past. Everyone going back to their own timelines should be happy, but it feels melancholic. Subaru makes up with her own Aoi and gets a new rival. She's got plenty of friends now. A solid ending.

This show had to grow on me, but I've become really fond of it after awhile. It took time for it to find its feet, but once it did it became mystifying. The Nanako episode alone justified the series, but once you wrap your head around multiple timelines and whatnot everything clicks. I even got used to the car brooms faster than I thought. Characters were simple, but solid and well defined. Subaru wasn't the most compelling, but she managed to be alright by the end. The show certainly captured the essence of space, both the science and beauty. It was certainly nice to get a magical girl show that wasn't magical warrior or cute witch focused. I could get used to more of them. Overall, a solid show and one I would recommend others to see.

So, their final obstacle was a black hole.

Subaru/Minato's totally official... Well, at least that potential was fulfilled. Liked how everyone reacted.

Reunions are had. Sadly departures must also be done. And thus, the gang disbanded... It was...quite sad...

But they return to their dimensions, ready to be better than their previous selves. And if Subaru's timeline is any indication, they'll be fine.

Truly, one of this season's hidden diamonds...

I'm a bit surprised that they didn't utilize the theory that inter-dimensional wormholes exist in black holes so that Minato and Subaru could go universe-hopping or something. Then again I guess staying in their own universe fits better with the theme of the show.

Overall I agree that this was the hidden gem of an otherwise rather lackluster season. It's nothing hugely groundbreaking or innovative but it's very enjoyable and fun and has lots of astrophysics porn. Not too shabby for a car commercial.

edited 26th Jun '15 3:50:24 AM by MoreThanBored

I don't think I ever quite got the alternate timeline shenanigans. If I'm correct, everyone was in their own separate timeline and got pulled into the President's timeline because they had potential. Minato's timeline is the one the President got stuck in I think. Which means the Minato in Subaru's universe might be in a different situation? And in the end everyone was sent back to their own timeline since their mission was complete. Is that about right?

Now that I think about it, shouldn't Minato and Nanako come from the same timeline, seeing how Minato turned President into the rock Nanako found. Or was she drawn into the main timeline by rock President? I had a hard time following everything for some reason.

You had a hard time following it because it didn't make sense

Well that's the obvious answer. I'm sure the writers had something a bit more coherent in mind, though perhaps I give them too much credit for a car commercial.

I think it was all written by the director. And, yes, there was probably an overall narrative in mind, but I suspect a fair amount of it was just intended to be weird/interesting

I think Minato and Subaru were from the same timeline, but I'm not sure if Nanako was supposed to be too or if the prez got knocked across timelines before he got stuck in that rock.