As stated last time, it appears that we are in the final weeks of the winter season for anime, and we must say goodbye to another anime on our list. This week, Encouragement of Climb will be bowing out with its final episode. Before we say goodbye to Aoi and her friends however, we must first discuss some other shows.
We’ll start today with Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East, with this week’s episode True Self. It continues the story from last week involving the blonde woman who has taken quite a liking to Shino. Due to that connection, the man who very much resembles Souske accidentally unleashes a hidden power that Shino seems oblivious to during a near death experience.
While I have constantly mentioned that the quality of the show has risen over the weeks, this particular episode seems just able to make the standard. It is very captivating and events that happen in the latter half are very gripping, but it just doesn’t feel very concrete. It does however lead into something that could become a good conclusion for the show. One big problem though is that much of the supporting cast is very forgettable as is their names (notice how I only put descriptions for these characters). If they had given them more of a character or something to latch to, then maybe it would have felt stronger.
Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East - True Self gets six stars out of ten.
Next up is the finale for Encouragement of Climb, the final episode titled To The Next Landscape. The plot is pretty simple here: the four main girls throughout the series have a picnic day at the Hannou River.
It’s an odd episode to do a sendoff on to say the least. For one thing, it feels pretty much like filler and it wasn’t quite the ending that they had been promised from the beginning (Hinata and Aoi going to see the sun rise on the mountain top like they did when they were little) but that doesn’t make it a bad episode. Instead, the finale energy comes from a final monologue that’s just as heartwarming as the show.
The best part of the episode is seeing Aoi’s participation in everything in general. To things she would have cowered at during the first several episodes are now something that she embraces. She has not only conquered her fears, but she has also ceased being a recluse person and is participating in the world. In those actions alone, it is a very good and satisfying conclusion.
Encouragement of Climb - To The NextLandscape gets eight stars out of ten.
Finally, we have Mangirl with The First Volume. It seems that their manga magazine has been around long enough for their main artist to get their first few chapters put together into a graphic novel. However, there are a few problems that they must overcome before they can send it to the printers.
To be frank, this is basically several plots of past episodes put into one, the most prominent one being episode four. It seems that they are just trying to hold out as long as possible before they reach their final episode, which will be next week. It does show that there was a lack of effort, especially in the jokes that just fall flat.
Mangirl - The First Volume gets two stars out of ten.
