Snowball Earth

Episode 13

This is the end, beautiful friend. Or is it? Well, we already had this first season drag things out with a final boss fight that randomly came out of the woodwork. Now a second season is coming out. Meaning the episode is allowed to continue pad itself out so we can get an epilogue that overstays its welcome while mildly setting events up for next season without giving us any real reason to get excited for it.

I said in my last episode review that I was fine with there being one last baddie we have to thwack on the head before wrapping this fight up. At least in theory. Too bad the fight ends with the villainess getting decapitated before things can really kick off. Really, the fight is not even four minutes long, and at the very beginning of the episode, too. There are a few laser beams that look quasi-Kawamorian with how twirly they are, coupled with a few explosions here and there, but ultimately, everything feels weak. Not that I was expecting an investing final fight (do I really need to relay how much the CG ruins everything for the bazillionth time?), but if you're going to include one as a means of capping off the season anyway, it would have been a good decision to evenly pace out the events leading up to this final fight, and then maybe have the fight happen after the first five or so minutes of the episode so it could end midway through. After complaining so much about fight scenes that go on longer than they should, this is actually one instance where I would have preferred that. Not by much, though. Expand it to about 45-to-60 seconds and you're good.

If you can't do that, then even better: get rid of the fight. The big emotional climax should have been when Tetsuo confronted Sagami about his savior complex. My problems with it would have been more or less the same, but at least it would have made sense in a sort of sequential sort of way. Sagami could have died right after Tetsuo yelled at him, then all of the other characters on the battlefield would have been given a moment to breathe before Tetsuo's gang heads back to the mall/school to celebrate their victory, which in itself could have been trimmed to maybe 10-ish minutes instead of 15-to-20. It might eliminate the need for a thirteenth episode altogether.

So the evil kaiju lady is slain right as the episode is just starting. Meaning we have to fill up the other three-quarters of this episode with...something. Quick! Make things slice of lifey! Have everyone heal up, drink, eat, pay tribute to fallen survivors via a memorial, and pad it out until we reach that 24-minute mark. To give credit where it's due, this memorial feels appropriate given all the carnage that occurred throughout the show. And Tetsuo is shown to be a better communicator than he was at the start of the anime. Hooray! Character development! Sagami is honored with his own special grave right behind the memorial, which...*sigh*...whatever, I guess. Still, there's a part of me that feels you could have saved the celebration for the next season. The debauchery would have made for a nice opening for a season premier that jovially reintroduces Tetsuo and Yukio, as well as their survivors' squad's plans to move out West. Having it at the end of the final episode after such an anti-climactic start awkwardly removes any genuine feeling of catharsis.

Hideaki Anno himself was said to praise the manga. It ended up being one the worst anime of the season. The paradox amuses me.

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Snowball Earth is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.