English Dub Review: Knight’s & Magic “Heaven & Earth”

Did that dragon mecha just go Super Saiyan?

Overview (Spoiler)

It’s the Vyver vs. Ikaruga, now supported by the Silver Phoenix’s own airship. Ernesti takes the airship into the upper atmosphere and unleashes a volley of specially-modified missile javelins from the airship. As they each get shot down by the lightning field of the Vyver, they release a viscous black fluid all over the flying weapon… Oil. The Ikaruga casts a fire spell, lighting the Vyver on fire and nullifying its ability to use its turrets. Instead, the Vyver’s designer unveils his new secret weapon, the Maximizer! Suddenly, the Vyver is sheathed in a dragon-shaped field of mana. This makes it invulnerable to ranged attack. Fortunately, Ranged weaponry isn’t all that the Ikaruga has, and it lunges in with its sword. Once within the mana field, Ernesti is able to do considerable damage to the Vyver’s external systems, until it can no longer fight. Instead, its commander takes direct control from the silhouette knight cockpit in the Vyver’s forehead, sending it on a collision course for the Queen! The Ikaruga can slow it down but lacks the thruster torque to stop it entirely when it flies at full speed. Then, Kid in his Tzendribble jumps out of the airship and takes out the ship’s commander, allowing Ernesti to change its course. On the ground, a tag team of Edgar and Emrys takes out Kristobal Zaloudek and his forces, while the Azure Hawk opens the drawbridges. The day is won, and Zaloudek is routed. Queen Eleonore takes the throne, both by right and by popular vote. With the kingdom of Kuspercha on the rise, there’s only one thing left for her to want… Kid. She clutches to his back and promises to visit him in Fremevilla. In the meantime, Ernesti is given control over his very own Silhouette Knight Laboratory, but Horatio Cujal, the designer of the Vyver, is still at large. But that is a story for another day.

Courtesy: Funimation

Our Take

Well, here we are in the final episode. Everything is wrapping up with what looks to be a happy ending for everyone except the bad guys. Sounds good. I mean, that’s kind of what we all expect from shows like this. The emphasis here was on the combat, and a quick wrap up after that, but I just didn’t feel satisfied. Yes, everything was resolved, and all that jazz. Thing is, I don’t know if it’s because it is at the same level as the rest of the series or what, but I just felt like this was another episode. Like the series could keep on plowing on right after and all you’d have to do is take off the “The End” sign. That isn’t to say that the action isn’t great. I wasn’t expecting the Maximizer’s effect, and I’m glad the Knight on the Vyver’s head wasn’t just for show. After all, it looked stupid. It’s just that I was expecting more to the final battle than Ernesti jumping in to beat the crap out of the thing. Especially when most of the beating happens off screen.

However, there are a couple of choices made in the ending that I found refreshing. For one, the finishing blow was not made by Ernesti, but Kid. Just about every show would have had the main character defeat the main enemy weapon. Having Kid get that glory is a good change. Further, the show doesn’t go and have Ernie and Addie kiss, or finally, confirm their relationship. I mean, it’s no secret Addie digs Ernie, and it isn’t like he’s gonna go for anyone else. Still, the show doesn’t give us a scene dedicated to stating it, and that’s a move I respect. Ernie just doesn’t care about stuff like that. Instead, the romantic confirmation goes to… Kid again! The dude spent most of the series as a background character, and he’s beaten the baddie and has the affections of a queen. Total baller. I liked these choices for the story because they aren’t what you’d expect.

The animation was… CG. And it looks like the project was starting to get a bit low on funds. Not that the quality of animation dipped at all, but that the direction avoided showing some of the more animated sequences that we could have had. Like the Ikaruga laying waste to the outside of the Vyver. We never see this, instead of getting more of talking about it happening. Yeah, it was cheaper, but it contributes to the whole anti-climactic thing it’s got going on. Since this episode is all about the giant robots fighting, most of the episode is watching them fight, which is why we have so much CG. That is, until the ending, where it’s mostly traditional animation, and most of that is talking. So, while the episode wasn’t bad in its animation, its script and direction steered us away from anything exciting, except for the Maximizer’s effect.

The same sort of thing is happening in the voice acting, unfortunately. Outside of the fight, we really don’t get anything from the characters. The closest we get is Queen Eleonore’s scene with Kid at the end. Even then, not much going on there. The writing just didn’t leave any room for it. Why do you ask? I just don’t think that’s what this show wanted. After the credits, we get a shot of Ernie on the Ikaruga, saying that robots are a man’s romance. This show just didn’t care about character development or drama, and that’s okay. It doesn’t hurt it, it just doesn’t help it either, especially when the series spent most of its time talking about technological evolution. The subject matter becomes detached, and without characters, we can relate to, it comes off more as a mechanics seminar at some points of the series. Here, we should feel like much was accomplished and something epic happened. We don’t have much to celebrate alongside Ernie because we don’t have much care about the human element.

Score

Summary

Because of how it left me feeling unfinished, with its writing, direction, and events simply not giving us enough epic to wrap it all up, I give this episode six Maximizer's out of ten. Even though there was some interesting choices with Kid that went against the conventions, I just didn't feel like this was the final episode.

6.0/10