Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Izetta: The Last Witch
|
Goto page Previous Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24092 |
|
|||
|
I found it a satisfying finale and a satisfying series overall. Although I had to admit I did chuckle at the beginning of the battle between Izetta and Sophie when the following exchange happens:
Izetta sees missile. Izetta: "There!" Sophie pulls up very close behind her in a tight shot. Sophie: "That's what you want to stop, right?" Izetta: "Yes. I'll stop it no matter what." Sophie: "I see. But..." Sophie gets evil grin on her face and suddenly pushes it close to Izetta: Sophie: "Nope!"  I would love somebody to make a gif of that.
|
||||
|
||||
|
maximilianjenus
Posts: 2894 |
|
|||
|
I enjoyed the nice detail of making the wheel chair scene several years into the future, which makes the crippling a more permanent thing and thus makes the victory not feel cheap.
|
||||
|
||||
Luke's Yu-Gi-Oh! Channel
 Posts: 159 Location: Australia |
|
|||
|
I'm was very happy that Izetta survived.
Wheelchair or not she gets to spend the rest of her days around Fine and her friends. |
||||
|
||||
zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
|
|||
|
That was a reasonably good ending to a reasonable good show, though I can't help feeling it didn't do as well as it could have for reasons that have already been expounded upon.
I can't help feeling they glossed over the Pacific part of the war, no doubt by design. That's probably for the best though given the circumstances, but it does temper at least my own feelings about their finishing WWII (in Europe) early. "Yeah we ended the war early and saved millions of lives! - But what about the Second Sino Japanese War and the rest of Japan's...adventures leading up to their formal introduction to WWII? - *whistle whistle*" Come to think of it, Izetta and Fine's actions might not have stopped that part of the war, though it could have. On the one hand, the earlier buildup to fight Germany may have deterred Japan from attacking but on the other hand with the US being preoccupied with Europe and Japan having become formal allies with Germany by then, 1941 would have been a great time to attack, so it may not have stopped that part of the war. I didn't check for this version of the war, but from D-day to the end of the war in Europe it took like a year, so there would be plenty of time to open a second front and pull some resources away from Europe, though that may not have changed the outcome, considering the US and the rest of the Allies won with two fronts being open anyways. Even if it had prevented that part of the war with regard to the US at least, it would not have ended it for the residents of East and Southeast Asia. So all in all no better than a wash in the Pacific part. Though again, they have plenty of reason to just avoid that whole thing. |
||||
|
||||
Desa
 Posts: 285 |
|
|||
|
Goddammit that ending was bull$h|t! The Germanians shouldn't have lost. Before Izetta entered the picture the Germanians were about to wipe Elystadt off the map with technological and numerical superiority. Izetta only served as a pause button for the inevitable. As soon as she was out of the picture it should've been "resume ownage; New World Order incoming".
Writers these days. too weak to push any boundaries creative or otherwise. Here you have your own fictional universe, and what do you decide to do with it? Make it end basically the same way it does in our universe (sans nuking because apparently Japan's collective @ss has only JUST finished healing from the last nuking it got smh). But I guess everyone's happy with safe and predictable. Can't be bothered to rewrite history even in your fantasies. |
||||
|
||||
invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2476 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
|
|||
Will this do, or were you just looking for Sophie's sudden "Nope!"? 
|
||||
|
||||
|
John Thacker
Posts: 1008 |
|
|||
Why? That's nonsense. "Wiping Elystadt off the map" does not equal winning WWII; consider that the anime had already established that they had conquered the alt-France and Benelux countries, as well as alt-Austria. Elystadt was a tiny country in the Alps and much less important; that they had a heroic defense comparable to that of Finland in the Winter War before losing was not going to change the overall contours of the war other than a pause. However, the "pause button" meant that they failed to invade the alt-Britain (a failure as big as what the Dunkirk movie will explore.) The entry of the alt-US Atlanta into the war, combined with the foolish breaking of the alliance with the alt-Soviet Union, and the loss of the Germanian Witches of Mass Destruction program spelled certain doom for the Germanians. Remember that the existence of Izetta was repeatedly stated to be the one thing keeping the US out of the war (in this alternate world where Japan wasn't involved and didn't attack Pearl Harbor.) Certainly in the short run Elystadt would be overrun, but Fine was certainly already positioned for a government-in-exile by being at that meeting. It would have been utterly inconsistent with everything stated in the show for the Germanians to win in the long run. If you want to complain about that ending, you should have been complaining throughout most of the previous episodes, since it was the only natural conclusion from all the foreshadowing and plot commentary. It doesn't seem like you were, though. I did like the Berkman as Wernher von Braun scene, very nice. (A little different than how von Braun was treated, of course, but still meant to note the US relying on former Nazi rocket scientists.) |
||||
|
||||
|
Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24092 |
|
|||
Ha ha, you're awesome! After seeing it play out, I think the best version would be to start at the point where Sophie closes her eyes as she says, "I see." and then ending it very shortly after the Nope! (before Sophie takes off). It's the contrast between Sophie's calm eyes closed face and her evil grinning face being pushed forward that really cracks me up. I'd do it myself but I literally don't know how. |
||||
|
||||
|
invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2476 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
|
|||
Take 2 (with a 400ms pause between loops, because it's incomprehensible otherwise): 
Meanwhile, it looks like Good Smile is making an Izetta nendoroid. 
Would be nice if they had a pose of Izetta riding the gun and flying… maybe we'll see that when the full product page lands on Right Stuf, Tokyo Otaku Mode, the Crunchyroll store, etc. |
||||
|
||||
|
Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18396 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
|
|||
Actually we don't know that they didn't attack Pearl Harbor because, except for the "three years later" epilogue, the entire story is set prior to Pearl Harbor. Japan's motives for Pearl Harbor were largely unconnected to what was going on in Europe (it had to do with the Americans being uncooperative on oil access), so it might still have happened. OTOH, the Japanese also partly attacked because they didn't think the Americans would put up a fight. That they got to see the Atlantans involved in fighting in Europe might have made them think twice. But we'll never know since that's utterly outside of the scope of the story.
Yeah, I agree that, in retrospect, the series was always oriented towards an ending like what it got. I consider that consistency of orientation a positive. |
||||
|
||||
|
Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24092 |
|
|||
|
@ Invalidname - you are my new favourite poster! I hope Sandy Claws is good to you this year. Sophie's evil grinning face bears a resemblence to The Grinch.
Oops, just one more question - does anybody know how I can save that gif so that it plays? I'm using a Macbook Air and I tried saving it as a .gif but that only shows up in Preview as a series of still images. How do I get it to "play"? |
||||
|
||||
|
Treecko Tempo
Posts: 158 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2476 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
|
|||
Drag the gif into Safari or Chrome (either the dock icon or an empty window) and it should play. Preview is trying to help you by showing you each of the frames, so you could edit or copy just one of them. (Also, since you seem to be a Mac person like me… I make these gifs by just playing full screen with Crunchyroll and capturing with ScreenFlow [QuickTime Player might also work] and then GIF-ifying with GIFBrewery, although I have the old paid version of that and it sounds like the new one is kind of spammy) So, my own thoughts on the Izetta finale… I think what I ended up liking most about this show was its unpredictability. Like, how it lures you into caring about Jacob by building his character for two episodes, leading you to think that maybe he's going to have a side plot that shows the war from the trenches… and then he gets killed off. But that element of surprise may also come from the plotting being a shambles, like the clone stuff that comes out of nowhere, or Sophie's woefully under-developed character. It kind of has the feeling of something adapted from another medium and shoehorned into 12 episodes, but it is AFAIK anime-original, so there's really no excuse. Also kind of interesting how the fanservice elements completely fell away once Eylstadt was invaded. Looking back, the show does progress through a series of moods, from the rah-rah "let's stick it to the Germanians" fun times early on, to a sense that we've completely broken the world (and need to go through the pain of making it right) in the last two episodes. Random thought: the show seems fond of the morally ambiguous Berkman, who's basically on whoever's side is winning or at least not predisposed to kill him. Interesting contrast for me with our other recent batshit-crazy-alt-Euro-history anime, Schwarzesmarken, in which the clearest villain (of many) was Axmann, the one who was most resolutely on his own side and loyal to no one. Maybe Berkman gets a pass in Izetta because, in the end, he helps Eylstadt, even if his motivations for doing so are utterly base. Same goes generally for America… um, I mean "Atlanta"… which as is often the case in anime, is portrayed as having self-interest as its only moral compass. Also, thanks as always to Theron for being our weekly reviewer. This show seemed perfectly suited to his tastes. Last edited by invalidname on Sun Dec 18, 2016 12:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
|
zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
|
|||
|
^Well I think the USA comes of better in Izetta than the real one at least in terms of nukes. They get to be the ones to decry the strategic foolishness of nuclear weapons (though not the ones that decry the horror of its use) before they even develop it, possibly leading to them not developing it at all, barring opportunistic hypocrisy, though considering they defeat Germany early and (possibly) don't fight Japan at all, it may not even need to be developed in the US military opinion. And the ones that do complete it are not-Nazi Germany, so all in all the US gets to be the good guy on the issue of nukes at least and the evil of those weapons gets pinned on the group most people consider the worst most evil regime ever (though there are other candidates).
|
||||
|
||||
|
Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24092 |
|
|||
|
@ Invalidname - thanks! The "drag to the Safari icon" thing worked like a charm.
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group