Feelings happen
(This review contains
spoilers!)
Beneath all the craziness, humour, and
action set-pieces, it’s weird to think that at its core, Space Patrol Luluco is
primarily a love story. And although I didn’t like Nova’s character at all
until Episode 10, it’s actually a rather compelling love story, diving into
themes of young love and what it means to have a first romance.
So this episode picks up right where
last week’s ended off, with Luluco vowing to arrest Nova for stealing her
heart. What follows is one of the most insane action sequences I’ve ever seen
in an anime, especially for one that’s an 8-minute long comedy show. All the
characters get a moment in the spotlight, including the returning duo of Luluco’s
parents, Midori and the Chief, and the secretary character who, despite being
in every episode, has never said a word. All this while, at the same time, Luluco
pilots her mother’s pirate ship through an onslaught of judgement gun morphed
sentries. It really is a sight to behold, and goes on for just the right amount
of time.
But the bulk of the episode is focused
primarily on Luluco and Nova, and her attempt to arrest/confess to him. The
conversation they have is actually a really powerful one (for this show, at
least), and the two of them have absolutely developed into a believable couple.
Luluco confesses that she knows he never once lied to her about his feelings,
but that she forgives him, because he never had any feelings to lie about in
the first place.
I know I’ve said it before, but I
still love the direction they went with Nova’s character. While I didn’t like
him at first because he was easily the least interesting member of the space patrol
crew, but with them turning it around towards the end, saying “yeah, he was
boring on purpose”, is a very clever twist, and with Nova supposedly gaining
feelings for the first time towards the end of the episode, I’m excited to see
what they do with him.
There was lots of wonderful imagery
during this conversation as well, including Nova gaining his own version of
that crystallized heart that was always present in the ending, plus an extended
version of the ending theme playing over everything. I also really liked the
symbolism used when Luluco and the Blackholian were fighting over Nova, with
Luluco being represented in bright pinks and blues with hearts, and the evil
Blackholian in purples and blacks. A simple choice, but it really helps set the
scene for Nova’s turn.
At this point, I’m not sure when the
season finale is going to be (hopefully never), so I’m not going to call this
episode the penultimate one again, because I’ll look really silly if I’m wrong
twice in a row. If it is, however, the showrunners did an excellent job setting
up the end, as I’d say the action scenes plus character development puts this
finale up there with the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist and even Studio Trigger’s own
Kill la Kill in terms of great anime endings. Now all we need to see is if they
stick the landing.
FINAL SCORE
10/10
Legendary
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