|
|
Home
|
R2 DVD Reviews
|
|
Written by maehara
|
|
Thursday, 10 April 2008 16:00 |
 End of a Dream, says the title of episode 24 but for whom? Will the Claw see his dream of transforming the world? Will Van see his dream of avenging Elena? Or will the dreams of all concerned simply come to nothing? Time to find out...
24 - End of a Dream
With the Claw ready to begin the next phase of his operation, Fasalina retreats to join him. Keen to keep her within reach, Carmen and some of the others try to follow her, leaving Pricilla and the Eldora to cover their back against the horde of automated Armor that has been sent against them. As time goes on, the Claw's plan seems to become clear - he's started re-terraforming Endless Illusion, a process that will likely kill all life on the planet. Carmen and her group can see where the Claw is operating from, but if they want to stop him they need to get to him - and that's proving difficult...
25 - Fool Comes by Armor
On his way down from orbit, Michael was separated from Van - whether he was destroyed during re-entry or has somehow survived, he doesn't know. Having Van possibly on the loose is the least of the Claw's problems, though - Ray's actions may have only caused a temporary delay to the Claw's plan, but they still need to be put right, and with Van possibly still around and Carmen and the others on their way, his time is running short. Within the base, Carmen comes across a room containing vast numbers of the flowers they'd encountered back in Trinolia - and another reason for stopping the Claw makes itself known. Outside, meanwhile, Van arrives...
26 - Tuxedo Blowing in Tomorrow
Facing defeat by Van, the Claw finally explains his plan: the use the Prison Planet Destroyer System to compress and rewrite the history of Endless Illusion. One side effect of that would see the dead coming back to life - including the defeated members of the Original Seven, and Van's dead fianceé. Van's not about the take the Claw's word for it, though - but with the Claw's Armor so much more powerful than Dann, he's got his work cut out for him if he still wants to take his vengeance - and the memory of Elena proves to be just the motivation he needs. Wendy, meanwhile, goes to face her brother one more time, to see if she can talk sense into him, but when he refuses to even listen to her, her patience with him comes to an end...
It's the all-action finale three episodes of pretty much non-stop action scenes, where all the main characters get to play their part to some extent or another, and where both sides get their fair share of success and defeat. If you're looking for character-based scenes, you'll probably be disappointed, as they're contained to a short epilogue sequence towards the end of episode 26 that tries to redeem some characters but that, in keeping with the theme of the final fight between Van and the Claw, leaves most of the characters short of being able to live out their dreams. The real theme here seems to be that you can't always get what you want, so there's a certain bittersweet feel to how events play out, but at the end of the day everything is properly tied up in a way that's very satisfying to watch.
With Van missing-in-action for about half the disc, the focus to begin with is firmly on Carmen99, Ray and Pricilla, as they fight to make their way to the Claw's base, with Fasalina and her horde of automated Armor standing in their way. These scenes give the fringe cast their big chance to make an impact on the story's outcome, and it's not wasted as you'd expect, there are moments along the way when all appears lost, but of course nothing is settled without Van being back on the scene.
When the tuxedo'd one and Michael arrive back on the surface, the focus shifts to two main confrontations. In the foreground of the story there's the Claw versus the Idiot (that's Van, in case you were wondering the Claw's description, not mine!), which is all shouting, insults, explanations and action. After waiting the whole series to see these two together, I was hoping for a bit more from it but as the Claw points out, Van is rather simple in motivation, so maybe I was expecting too much from him. Finally getting the explanation from the Claw about what he's really trying to do was worthwhile, but otherwise this battle was a bit anti-climactic.
In the background, meanwhile, there's Wendy's confrontation with her brother, who she still sees as the traitor for choosing the Claw over her. This is the nearest that Gun×Sword gets to tugging on the heartstrings, and there are a few moments where Wendy behaves in ways you wouldn't really expect from her definitely one of the best scenes on the disc.
Gun×Sword has been thoroughly enjoyable throughout, and while not all the main characters get what they want following this disc's various confrontations, the series ends in a way that leaves nothing left unanswered and that shouldn't leave anyone with too much cause for complaint. In an ideal world, a little more character work and a little less fighting would have been nice, but at the end of the day the series has done what it set out to do, and in the process produced a show that's well worth picking up.
|
|
