English Dub Review: BEM “Wishing to become human someday”

Overview:

Vega puts her plan into action.

Our Take:

This is the final episode, and it went… well, a lot of things happened.

It turns out that Vega’s true aim was to die, and to experience the creation of something as she dies, namely a destructive force that will wipe out all of Libra City. In the end, everything culminates in a battle between Vega on one side and Bem, Belo, and Bela on the other. You can really tell that most of the budget went into these scenes, because it was definitely pulled from everywhere else. The scene where the Doctor is monologuing was a time to watch. As for the fight itself, it was a clever, okay fight, and seeing the monsters clash was fun. Still, it felt like it went on for a bit too long.

Harazy felt like something that shouldn’t have really been there in the first place. I couldn’t figure out what her narrative purpose was. Why did Vega really want to adopt her, besides pure interest? Why was it so important that she change her mind? I get that her opening up to Bela and realizing that there are people in the outside world that can accept her is important for Harazy herself, but what did that have to do with the final battle? The three monsters already want to live with humans, so why is Harazy’s revelation important? And since when does Bela trust Summers, for that matter?

There are a lot of ends that aren’t really resolved. What happens to Summer’s place on the police force? How is Daryl going to lead the Unseen Council? What exactly is the Unseen Council now that Vega isn’t around? Where did the Doctor go and what was his purpose? Was he hired by Vega or was he hired by the police? I know that, like many noir series, the ending is supposed to be an open-ended one to show that things will continue, but I can’t really get a grasp on how things will continue, just that nobody died. I guess Libra City has seen that they need to work on some things, but it doesn’t feel like the general public was particularly pushed into changing.

Altogether, a rather clumsy finale. Not the worst I’ve seen, not by a long shot, but it felt like it could have been a whole lot better had there been more setup given to some of the plot beats.