Asterisk 11-12 - Mid-Season Finales are the Devil's Work

Apologies. I wanted to have this up much earlier, but Christmas is a busy time for the year. 

Plus, there was book stuff to do; a book which, by the way, is now up on Amazon! 

Now that the shameless advertising is done, let's get down to business. 

We get to know more about the sisters these episodes, appropriate as they are the Final Boss, kinda.

As it turns out, there are plenty of people willing to take advantage of a Regenerator, because, well, regeneration.

Their parents were not too keen on protecting the younger sister when faced with lots of cash so it was up to the Vampire sister to protect her. That's how she ended up in Fat Guy's employ.

There is also this whole thing where Ayato saves the younger sister and the Vampire sister invites him to dinner in order to makes things even.

Dinner and exposition in order to not feel guilty about her upcoming task of inflicting grievous harm on him. Sounds legit.

I'm not really invested in this particular sister pair. Nothing about them really jumps out. Fat guy looks more interesting to be honest.

On the upside, we also get more Claudia. Claudia has been a big unknown for most of the season. Her attitude toward Ayato. her whole scheming in the background, etc.

We have been getting bits and pieces, but now we finally learn something solid. 

Her Ogre Lux is crazy.

Seriously she sees her own death every single night? That's insane.

It also begs the question: Why does she put up with it? What's so important that she needs to keep using that weapon?

Speaking of crazy sentient weapons, that's also the case for Vampire Girl, and Ayato plans to destroy that thing during their fight.

Animation-wise the fight was okay and it even had some neat moments.

However, it was not a fight I had strong feelings about.

I might have called the sisters the Final Boss, but really they are barely a mid-boss. They are just another floor boss you have to go through in order to get to the relevant plot stuff.

I know it sounds harsh, but it's the truth.

When did we meet Vampire Girl? End of episode 9? That's just way too late for a proper bad guy. 

Worse still, there are no personal stakes at play here. These two are not really tied into the greater plot beyond being yet another pair of tournament participants.

Now the two robots, those were proper Final Boss material. They have been hinted since early on and the plot has really been building up to them. The tech school has been behind a lot of the things that have happened so far. 

Not seeing them fight the protagonists is kind of disappointing.

Ultimately, this episode only contributes one thing to the greater plot.

Ayato's Limiter is revealed. Ayato will now have to deal with the fact that his future opponents will know he is working under a time limit.

Never been particularly fond of that plot point since it is just a cheap way to create tension, but if this contributes towards Ayato finally getting rid of the thing, then I'm all for it.

Final Thoughts: Asterisk is not a perfect anime, far from it. It has plenty of downsides in presentation and execution, however it is entertaining enough to keep watching.

Plus. I really want to see Saya's dad.

Until April, Asterisk.

Also, Merry Christmas, all.