Jan 13, 2014
Note: This is not spoiler free. Particularly, all the plot elements of the last episode are discussed freely as a point criticism.
This series has become a staple of my anime repertoire as the perfect example of how good setup can end up in massive disappointment.
It started out incredibly promising. The potential for the development of the three Galileo sisters fulfilling their different niches in their relationship while undertaking an arduous journey ultimately proved unfulfilled, however.
In fact, the only character explored out of the trio was the youngest, Hozuki, who arguably had the least room for development. Rather than playing to the strengths of the two
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elder sisters, Kazuki and Hazuki, it was played on top of a romantic frame between her and her ancestor, Galileo Galilei (thanks to a time traveling plot device that was never explained), making her entire character not only mediocre to watch, but even a little weird.
Here especially, the faults of the show become apparent. The two older sisters were, for all intents and purposes, completely useless. After being introduced in the first few episode, their characters remained stagnant and bland.
Kazuki, being shown doing martial arts in the opening sequence (or was it the ending?), and performing a take down of a much larger man in the early episodes, was never developed along these character strengths. Instead, she remained as a voice of disagreement and home-sickness against the other two, stronger-willed sisters. At the most, her development consisted of a short sequence showing her phone breaking and her finally giving up on her romantic interests towards a character that was never shown for more than 5 minutes in the entire series. I'm not even sure what this was supposed to represent. Her newfound pride and respect for her family? Were we ever supposed to care about her love interests in the first place - so much so that we viewers were expected to feel some sort of emotion during the final episode where he rejected her and viewed her as a criminal? If so, the show failed miserably in this aspect.
Hazuki, on the other hand, is quickly presented as a sort of justice compass for the group. It is also here where she remains throughout the story - simply pointing the direction to the very obvious 'right' choices. We never see why she had such strong emotions towards the idea of 'justice' nor the reason why she'd let her schooling career nearly fail. She simply just is, with no context, the way she is. Honestly, the most important thing she did was bring Anna into the picture.
Ignoring the rest of characters, who all have varying degrees of unexplained motivations, we finally get to the series finale. This episode can be summed up in three words: Deus Ex Machina. We see the mother reveal her faking her amnesia. We watch the friendly sky pirate reveal himself as their senile old lawyer after taking off his facemask. And finally, we are left stunned (in a bad way) as Roberto shoots and kills his father for literally no reason. And that's the series. The final episode perfectly summarizes everything you need to know about this series in a 20 minute package.
Granted, as it was originally plotted out to be twice the episode length, perhaps many of these faults were simply due to the lack of time. This however does not excuse the poorly written story - there have been plenty of excellent anime that have filled out an eleven episode shell.
If there is one good thing I have to say about this series, it was that the art and scenery were colorful, delightful, and solidly above average.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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