Review:
Well, at least someone in Izetta remembered that Jonas died and for half-a-moment that became an actual significant plot point and then we move on because now we have to create a sympathetic Germanian character before knocking him off (sorry, should have prefaced that with a spoiler alert but if you’ve been watching the show you probably saw it coming from the parachute drop). Izetta and Fine are still seeking an alliance and as predicted that is going to be as pleasant as expected. Fine really is a little too idealistic to be running a country and Izetta is completely clueless about politics. The only interesting development on that front was the run in with I’m guessing the pod girl and even that is clearly just set up for future events. The real action happened back at the old castle and while it was pleasant enough to watch, the only unexpected thing was the return of the cart driver at the end of the episode.
Okay, my love for this show died out a while ago and while I’m still hoping for a half-decent finish I’m getting more critical of it by the episode.
Izetta is available on Crunchyroll.
I actually found Rickert’s death to be a poignant message on the atrocities of war, and how the victims of conflict are usually the young. Regardless of affiliation or ideology, there is no true victory in war. When I look at Izetta with some sort of appeal towards an anti-war sentiment, it seems to make a little more sense. True, the action and groundedness of the conflict seem to be loosening on the edges a bit, but I think there’s still a lot of room for this show to present some meaningful message come the end of its run. If it doesn’t, then it would’ve been a waste of the deaths of Jonas and Rickert.
There’s definitely a theme about war being pointless or atrocious but it isn’t particularly affective when coupled with random episodes about girls getting new outfits or eating pies and it makes the whole thing mostly meaningless. Iron Blooded Orphans gets the same message across with far more meaning and still manages to tell a fairly consistent story in the process.
Point taken. I also have issues on how it tends to digress into fan-service mode, and that detracts from the main conflict without adding to the character development in any meaningful way. I honestly think that’s a cultural thing regarding how the Japanese view fan-service as a means of “getting to know the characters more”, and is something we have to deal with when we view anime as an industry.
I think things well get more complicated from here onwards. I smell a lot of backstabbing allies underway… Its possible Izetta may not be the last witch afterall…
I see a lot of criticism for this show, but I maintain that it’s starting to get back to the interesting direction I hoped it would at the beginning of the season.
Elystadt’s royal guard not messing around, a darker side to the legend of the White Witch, and Fine’s allies growing more concerned about Izetta than inspired. The show has some issues, certainly, but I think these things are going well.
Yeah, as I mentioned in my review though, at this point I’ve disengaged from the viewing experience because of some of the issues so now I generally am watching it in critically view mode so it is going to have to actively improve to get me back onboard and I’m not convinced it can. Which is a shame, because there were a lot of things I liked about the first few episodes.
but the feels! they’re…..important?
If this show wanted to work off of feels then it really needed to sort out its tone and pacing.
“bullet proof” Jonas ain’t bullet proof no more. I think that was Koontz – the cart driver.
You are paying way more attention the names of bit player than me.
And yeah, bullet proof one episode when being fired at with machine guns and then dead from a single shot (two if you count the one in the leg).