What they say:
The story follows high
school student Hotaru Tachibana, a girl disguised as a boy. Through
strange circumstances she finds herself drawn into the world of
survival games by a host, Masamune Matsuoka. The two form a team with
ero-manga artist Tohru Yukimura and aim to be the best in Japan
The Review:
Many a show end in a way
that you don’t realize they ended. I didn’t realize there was
not another episode of this show until a couple of days after
watching it. Aoharu x Machine gun is not a bad show, and this was
not a bad episode, but when shows like this end like this, it leaves
much to be desired. This episode continues from where the last
ended, with Hotaru issuing a challenge to Matsuoka. If Hotaru win’s
she wants Matsuoka to say something. The bulk of this episode was
revolved around the battles between Hotaru and Matsuoka. As the two
face of at the survival games arena, with Hotaru failing horribly, we
see some of Matsuoka’s struggles. Most of his development in this
episode is based on a quote. He says there are two types of people
in this world, “those who let go, and those who are let go of.”
We see how Matsuoka has been let go of multiple times, by his old
teammates, and his mother, who left him when he was young. All of
this is nice depth to his character, but it feels a little rushed to
put it all at the end of this show. Matsuoka’s character has
always been one of the weaker points of this show, and it really
struggles with not giving all the details. We know he was betrayed
by Midori, which caused him to start on the path that he’s on, but
never really find out what happened.
At the end of the day
Hotaru gives a speech about how she won’t give up the title of Toy
Gun Gun’s third member to anybody else, and acts very differently
then normal. They have a final final showdown which ends in Hotaru
running towards Matsuoka. This is paired with some sweet music and a
shot of people from his past leaving Matsuoka and Hotaru running
happily towards him. It’s one of the best done scenes of the show.
Matsuoka starts crying and Hotaru hugs him. Hotaru “wins” and
they stop playing. She tells him to say the thing she wanted to say.
That thing is what he told her when they first met. With that,
Hotaru rejoins Toy Gun Gun and at the end of the day it’s shown
that Matsuoka is developing feelings for Hotaru, which confuses him.
The whole team is now back together, ready to defeat Hoshishiro. We
see them the next day, Hotaru says to herself that she’ll tell them
today. We see the three of them smiling. And then the show is over.
You can’t help but feel disappointed. I’m fine with ending it
with a rematch between Hotaru and Matsuoka, but I’d much rather
have an ending where the reunited team faces Hoshishiro again.
There’s so much more to be desired from this ending. We’ve been
building up for most of the series that Hotaru would reveal to the
others that she’s a girl, and that never happened. Some shows that
end like this get second seasons that kind of make up for there
sloppy endings. Hopefully this one can as well.
Summary:
Aoharu x Machinegun is a
decent show that has a poor ending. This episode was entertaining
and was one of the more interesting ones but is hurt by having to be
a finale. If you were a big Hotaru x Matsuoka shipper, you might
enjoy this episode more then most, but for the most part it doesn’t
do much in any sort of conclusion. I hope this show gets a second
season.
Grade: B-
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