English Dub Review: Anime-Gataris “Minoa, Katharsis”

Minoa is nearly consumed by anime in the madly meta finale of Anime-Gataris.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The final episode of Anime-Gataris opens with a narrator recapping the events that have led up to this moment. Pretty run-of-the-mill, right? Except for one thing: the characters in the show can hear him, too. So begins the end of one of the most metaseries to ever grace the screen.

After Minoa rejects joining the anime dimension permanently, she manages to escape and save her world in the process thanks to some help from her friends. Even the Arisu mech (from their club short) gets to step in and help get the gang to their goal. Safely back in her own world, Minoa meets the anime club members again and finds the secret door now leads to a treasure-trove of anime merch.

Our Take:

Anime-Gataris goes out on a relatively high note, with plenty of the meta-humor that viewers have come to appreciate: while running to escape the anime dimension, Minoa runs smack into the mid-episode eye-catch. There were even a few final lines mentioning tweaked titles parodying real-life anime series that the show has come to be known for, my favorite of which was August Comes In Like A Reindeer, named after the excellent March Comes In Like A Lion. Even Aurora’s motivation for betraying his friends is appropriately ridiculous: he made a deal with the director because his desire to change his name was so strong.

With the craziness firing on all cylinders, the finale was awkwardly-paced and a bit hard to follow at times. But because of this, I was definitely kept guessing about what would happen next. That’s one of the things I’ve come to love about Anime-Gataris: it’s impossible to predict. I’m definitely going to miss seeing the anime club geeks nerd out together over their shared passion for animation.