The latest episode of Lagrange comes with a ramping up the Yuri content. No, not that sort of yuri – we’re talking about Villagiulio’s thought-dead sister Yurikano, who’s just turned up alive and well (ish) and in the tender care of his arch enemy Dizelmine. It’s enough to break a guy. As ever, though, Madoka thinks she has a solution… What They Say
Dizelmine and Villagiulio arrive on Earth to attend the Intergalactic Conference being held to discuss the conflict between their home planets Le Garite and De Metrio. Soon after, an unidentified Ovid crash-lands near the seas of Kamogawa.
The Review:
Despite reports to the contrary, it seems that Yurikano survived her own encounter with the Rinne – although that seems to be only in the physical sense. Mentally, she’s got the mind of a child – and with it, an annoying tendency to wander off when Dizelmine would least want her to. It’s on one of those excursions that she meets Madoka in Kamogawa – and encounter that gives Madoka an idea. Meanwhile, Asteria has a plan to make Dizelmine and Villagiulio at least talk to each other – but when Villgiulio learns that Yurikano is still alive, all bets are off…
Madoka with twinbraids and glasses? I could get used to that, even though it fails miserably as a disguise. But that’s not the important bit here – rather, it’s the encounter between the boys, former friends turned true enemies. While in theory Asteria’s hosting a peace conference between the two, she knows what they’re like, and settles for setting up a situation where, even if it doesn’t quite clear the air, there’s at least a chance of her learning some useful information. And so Dizelmine and Villagiulio find themselves trapped in an elevator, separated from their aides and left to talk. And it all goes as well as could be expected, until Yurikano makes her unscheduled appearance. From believing she was dead, Villagiulio gets to experience all the emotions that go along with learning that she’s alive, and under the tender ‘care’ of Dizelmine. Oh, and he’s given her a pet name, Yuriyuri, that Villagiulio really doesn’t like.
What we have here is potentially very heavy subject matter, but this being Lagrange it’s all playfully underplayed. It all comes across more as a comedy, from Yurikano’s inept Ovid piloting, through some of Villagiulio’s reaction faces as he learns the truth, and on to Madoka and Muginami’s rather inept plan to get themselves on board Dizelmine’s spacecraft – you’d never guess the fate of worlds was at stake here. But it’s not until the closing sequences of the episode, when you realize that all this has left Villagiulio a broken and angry man, that you begin to feel any sort of threat to go with the unfolding events.
And so we get the ever shifting sands that this series has had since day one of who the “good” guys and “bad” guys are. For a while it was looking like Dizelmine, with his experiments on Lan and his stated aims for the Rinne; now it’s looking like Villagiulio again, with him apparently about to go ape as the episode ends. If the fate of worlds wasn’t at stake you’d tell them both to go hang and leave them to it.
In the meantime, I’m left remembering what I said in my round-up review of season one: that the lighthearted approach of the show was all very well and a large chunk of the appeal, but that it needed to get down to the serious stuff soon. So far this season, the show seems to be trying to have it both ways – between Yurikano’s reappearance and the repercussions of it here, and Madoka’s awakening of the dark side of Vox Aura last episode, the serious stuff is here, but it’s being wrapped in goofy antics, and I’m not sure that’s the best way to do it. There are also things hinted at towards the end of the last season that haven’t really been picked up again yet (like Asteria’s origins), and I have to admit, the first twinges of impatience are beginning to make themselves felt.
But then we get Madoka in twinbraids and glasses, and my inner appreciation of good character design tells me not to worry. Bah, what does he know.
In Summary:
Lagrange continues to have fun with its characters, even when you can’t help but feel that it shouldn’t be. This episode has some nice moments, and continues to hint at Very Bad Things in store, but still can’t get away from that laid-back, slice-of-life feel. I’m starting to wish it would.
Content Grade: B
Streamed by: Viz Media (US), Anime On Demand (UK & Ireland)
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