We are getting eerily close to the end, and it doesn’t feel right. Platinum End Episode 21 takes some huge steps in progressing the narrative while still ignoring a lot of it. Let’s see what happened at this critical moment in this review!
Platinum End Episode 21 Overview
Platinum End comes to us by the writers and creators of Death Note and Bakuman, Takeshi Obata and Tsugami Ohba. As if that wasn’t enough reason to get excited about this show, it is being directed by two prominent people in the anime industry. As it is a two-cour series, its first part was directed by Hideya Takahashi, who previously directed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5. The second part is directed by Kazuchika Kise, the animation director behind Your Name and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The series is being produced by Studio Signal.MD, the studio behind several well-known anime such as Recovery of an MMO Junkie and Mars Red. If you’d like to catch up on our review of the twentieth episode, you can do so right here!
– Platinum End Episode 21 Review does not contain any spoilers –
Platinum End Episode 21 Review- Interesting Goes Both Ways
The show is now suffering from a very peculiar issue, which I’ve decided I’m going to call “the sins of the father”. The show now is generally higher quality than its beginnings, but due to it being a long series and one that is highly dependent on the setup performed by those same garbage episodes, there is only so much the show can do now to salvage itself. The decisions have been made, and characters have already died, who you can’t really bring back without breaking the laws of the show.
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The show had to drop the characters it was trying to develop in the first half in order to tell a more compelling story. The progression of Mirai and his obsession with happiness? All gone. Saki, her guilt with messing up Mirai’s life, and their dealings with Mukaido (the sole carrier of the show for a long time)? All smoothed over. Any involvement of Metropoliman and any hope for a reduced and low scale plot until the show’s end? Gone, reduced to atoms.
What remained was a plot that should have been his way from the start. The existence of God candidates was a world-altering event that most of the world should have had a say in. Not only were they unaware of their existence until more than half of them were already dead, they never even got to see half of them die. They didn’t get to judge the candidates, and while most of that still hasn’t changed, at least they know that their existence in this world might not be for long. Platinum End even did a great thing in involving some human characters in this arc so that we can understand the weight of this decision.
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The current conflict of the show is between those who believe God exists and those who don’t. It is fairly obvious to anyone who watches the show that Platinum End doesn’t view both sides as equal. It thinks one side is morally correct and should be followed by everyone while calling out the other side as morally bankrupt and apathetic. While the writers have the right to portray whichever side how they please, it is the viewers’ right to call them out on their nonsense when they see it. This is a sensitive issue, so let’s move on from here for now.
Many of the current characters have been neutered or were useless from the start. Everyone from Mirai and Saki to the newer characters has had to give up their spotlights for Gaku Yoneda. While he is a great character, it is doubtful he is good enough to be the show’s central figure. But then again, it obviously can’t be Mirai again, so maybe it’s better than Gaku’s at the top. The show is reaching a crescendo, and while the ending might not be perfect, it would be much better than what the show would have given us had it continued the same path as earlier.
Verdict
Platinum End Episode 21 was a buffer episode that linked the current arc to its supposed final episodes. There was a lot to enjoy while complaining about the usual suspects. By all metrics, it was a typical episode of Platinum End.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!