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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Sunday, 27 January 2008 16:00 |
 End of the line for Jinki:Extend - but does that mean the end of the line for Akao as well, or will Aoba be able to thwart the plans of Kokushou and Shiva? Only one way to find out...
10 - Red and Black
Michelle has joined up with the others - feeling responsible for Akao's kidnapping, she wants to join the effort to retrieve her, although first she wants to know why Akao was so important to Shiva. Akao, meanwhile, is finding out - it's Shiva's plan to somehow 'become one' with her, although what that involves is still a mystery - and spending time with Shiva leaves Akao a little confused about just who the bad guys are - at least for a while. It's not long before Shiva reverts to type and brings Akao before their father - Kokushou. Shiva and Kokushou are well aware that Akao has no memories of her past, but they're quite prepared to fill in the blanks for her, if she'll only fight Shiva. The truth may not be something she really wants to know...
11 - Family
Rui does us all a favour by explaining who Kokushou - real name Hakuya - is, and why he's the twisted individual he is now (a fairly typical tale of love, betrayal and revenge, natch, with Genta being the target of all the hate). None of which helps Tokyo, which has been thoroughly trashed by the Jinki that Akao is piloting. The efforts of the other Angel pilots to get through to her have so far failed. A combined attack forces Akao's Jinki to withdraw temporarily, but they're all aware that if the Jinki attacks again, they won't be in much of a position to stop her. Aoba's arrival, however, could be just what's needed to tip the balance of power in Angel's favour...
12 - Red and Blue
A few last moments of peace for everyone, which is broken when Akao and her recharged Jinki emerge once more from Tokyo Bay. Rui's not at all convinced that trying to save Akao is the right thing to do - better to get the job done the easy way and just kill her - but Aoba's determined to do what she can to save her 'other self' and defeat Kokushou's plans. Fortunately, Shizuka seems to have installed a hidden program in Aoba's Jinki that may be just what she needs to bring Akao back from berserker mode...
13 - And Then...
There's some de-cluttering going on at the temple, but with so much stuff lying around and so many people in the place there's not much progress being made in getting rid of anything, much to Rui's disgust - although the promise of a large wad of cash does at least push Aoba into action. One of the items she uncovers is her grandmother's old camera, which contains an undeveloped film. When Aoba has it developed, she finds a photo that persuades her that maybe it's time to try and patch things up with her mother...
This disc comes in two parts, really - episodes 10-12, which close out the story and the series proper, and episode 13, which was an OVA-only story released some time after the TV series aired. With that historical note out of the way...
Shiva and Akao's 'joining' in episode 10 was unexpected, and brings Akao's new form into conflict with her former friends - Shiva's desire to get her to operate a Jinki meant that you knew something bad was going to happen when she did, but I was expecting something a bit more stereotypical, and certainly not Shiva's self-sacrifice in the name of Kokushou's cause. With all the hype that's been placed on Aoba's piloting skills, there was no surprise in her turning up to be the one to deal with the problem - it was just a matter of how it was to be done: follow Rui's suggestion of a simple kill, or allow Aoba to follow her instincts and see if Akao could be turned back.
More surprising was the shoujo-ai that suddenly seemed to blossom between Rui and Aoba come from - as with quite a bit of the second half of Jinki:Extend, it seems to have come out of nowhere (for those of us without access to the original manga, anyway), and feels like it was tacked on as a fanboy lure - we all know how anime fans love their yuri. I suppose I've seen worse filler out there - I just wish there had been more pointers to it actually happening.
"Could be better" also applies to the ending in general. You get an explanation about why Kokushou went off the rails and became the Bad Guy™ which could have come out of an agony magazine (his mind went after he killed Akana, the woman he loved - she was seeing Genta, so Genta became the object of his hate. Akao is a clone of Akana, Shiva was a clone of Aoba's mother ("sacrificed to create me"). Aoba is "the other half of the devil" - the only person who can stop Akao. Confused yet? Me too.) Too many clones, not enough clarity to the "why" of the situation, and I was just left wondering why someone hadn't just slapped some sense into him before he got as far down the road of wanton destruction as he did. The final battle between Akao and Aoba was also a bit of a cop-out, ending with what amounts to a "let's just be friends!" scene. Colour me unimpressed.
Jinki:Extend has done a fair amount of jumping around, storywise, with things left unexplained and the story in general being just a little bit messy. The characters are what make it, though, and save it from being consigned to the "wtf?!" pile - they're likable enough to make it worth the effort to try and make sense of the story. I can't help but feeling this is one of those stories where you'd be better sticking with the manga - if only ADV Manga would ever get around to finishing releasing it...
The final OVA episode is as much "what happened next" as anything else, with a look at the characters and what they've been up to since the events of episode 12, and none of it's initially good, leading to quite a few long silences while the girls concerned think over what's happening to them. When spirits are down, though, what better way to raise them than to have a party and give everyone a chance to work out their problems? That's exactly what you get here, and there's even a sort-of feelgood ending to it all. Aoba's still the real centre of the story, and it's her feelings towards her mother that are the focus of the story here. After a lifetime of really not getting on, there's some work to be done there, but with her mother in a somewhat different frame of mind now than she had been during the main series, there are some possibilities for reconciliation. It's all quite heartwarming, in its own little way.
Overall, Jinki:Extend is a strange beast, and it's not helped by the way it was adapted from at least two different source manga. Watching it through at least twice definitely helps it all fall into place together, but if you don't have the time or inclination to do that, you're going to find yourself awfully confused by the way the story hops about the two different timelines here, and that would definitely spoil the experience. If you can put the time in to figure it out, though, it's worth a look.
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