Sakugan

Episode 12

Going into this finale, there were a lot of lingering questions, including if this was actually going to be a finale at all. I mean, it's literally titled “To Be Continued” for god's sake! And depending on how you parse this final title card, that's either a promise for more eventually, or the world's cruelest Borat joke. Because all those hanging threads and remaining mysteries, all the juicy plot and world building details that were constantly being dropped throughout the show? Those are all still there by the time credits roll, and a few more have even been raised in the meantime. There's some sense of closure to this ending, but it is totally and solely from a character perspective.

That's totally fine for me, honestly. The sci-fi world of Sakugan is cool and intriguing, but if I never learn exactly why everyone lives underground, or what precisely Shibito means by humanity being “a rotting corpse,” I can live. That stuff is neat, and learning more about it would most certainly be interesting, but my priorities are always going to be on what a show can make me feel. Can it make me empathize with the characters? Can it make me feel elated at their triumphs and despondent at their failures? Can it create people who are compelling, or relateable, or charming? And this episode answers those questions with a resounding yes.

Granted, there are a few niggles. The final episode centers everything on Gagumber and Memempu, and that means the rest of the cast are once again left to hang out on the margins. It makes sense, and basically everyone gets at least one cool scene to call their own as they help Gagumber chase after Shibito, but it does leave Yuri and Zackletu feeling underutilized. Still, I can't deny it was funny to see Yuri hack the enemy comms from a radio shack display laptop, or see Zackletu blow up both Shibito and Bureau robots because Fuck The Police. But if I had a major gripe with how this ending goes, it's that our extended cast ultimately felt ancillary, and that's a shame.

But for our main duo? Great. Fantastic. I cried at least three times. What few reveals we get about Memempu's origin are mostly stuff that was obvious episodes ago – yep, that dream place was from her first memories as an infant, and she has baby memories because she's a genetically engineered “rainbow child” designed to be the next step of human evolution, capable of surviving in the Labyrinth's hostile environment. And those “princesses” of each Colony are a cover for the actual Rainbow Children hiding (or being held captive?) in those central towers. We still don't know how exactly Gagumber wound up raising Memempu, or what it means that they both seem to have had their memories tampered with, but everything else is enough to knock Memempu down so hard she doesn't want to get back up.

That also puts last week's episode in better perspective. More than just a bittersweet story, it was setting up for our pint-sized heroine's choice to offer herself up to Shibito as protection for Gagumber. If the lesson she took from Sina's life was that you often can't get always what you want, then she'd rather give up now and spare herself the struggle if she'll just be disillusioned later on. And it is heartbreaking to watch her try and rationalize it all, insisting that she's smart, so she's got to make the “smart” choice rather than clinging to some naive dream that's nearly gotten her only family killed half a dozen times. She even tries to push her dad away, insisting they're not “really” father and daughter so he'll give up on chasing her.

And Gagumber is having exactly none of that. He may be a simple man. He may be a fuck-up of a father who struggles to understand his daughter. He may be, as Shibito call him, devoid of ambition or ideals. But you don't need either of those things to understand love. DNA doesn't get to define their relationship any more than sci-fi gobbligook or nefarious conspiracies. The only blood that matters is the blood they shed for eachother. Their tearful reconciliation is a supremely touching moment that brings the pair's dysfunctional partnership full circle, and is absolutely the best way to resolve this story as it stands. Gagumber and Memempu haven't figured everything out, there's still the possibility for tragedy and pain in their future, and there's much about the world they don't understand. But what matters is they can always, always count on eachother when things are at their worst.

So while I sympathize with anybody disappointed or frustrated at just how open ended this all is, I just can't be that upset. I will gladly take a nebulous ending that nails its emotional moments over a neat and tidy epilogue that falls flat (looking at you, Listeners). This show wasn't always consistent, especially in its early goings, but by the end of it I had a damn good time with this cast and world. If there's more Sakugan somewhere in the future, I'll gladly lap it up, but if this is all we get I can earnestly say I'm satisfied.

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Sakugan is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.