Almost there folks, just one more episode and we can cross Pastel Memories off the list of… anime.
I may not be the last person still watching this anime, but I must be in a very slim minority of viewers that made it to episode 11. That, in itself, is an achievement if you think about it.
And you know what? Pastel Memories is still better than Divine Gate.
Although… the edgy part of Divine Gate IS pretty funny…
Looks like the anime is wrapping itself up!
Most of the prior episodes felt meaningless, slow, boring, etc. with no real story progression or anything important happening. The one exception is episode 9, which was actually pretty good because the show decided to show us Maya in a different light. The dragon quest parody episode wasn’t bad either, although from a story perspective it didn’t accomplish anything.
Episode 11 is finally the beginning of the end, the start of a two episode conclusion to the anime.
The girls finally show some concern regarding the fact that Akihabara has changed to a lifeless city, with anime / game shops closing down. They proceed to mope around the cafe a bit, talking about this. I guess it’s only a matter of time before the cafe closes down, there’s no way the owner can afford to keep it going with so many girls on staff and no customers. It only makes sense.
Of course that’d never happen.
Instead, a mecha anime gets infected. A mecha anime that was apparently “mysteriously popular worldwide” and known for “mysterious drama” or something like this. If you aren’t sure what anime this is yet, take a look at this image:
Too funny.
I’m sure you’ve guessed it, right?
Those white gloves gave it away immediately, and of course the characters on the left look close enough to Asuka and Crybaby. I guess the rooster is supposed to be the penguin? And Rei must be blonde in this version, assuming that’s her on the bottom right.
Either way that image made me laugh. Probably better than the actual anime it’s referencing, to be honest. Maybe this version has a real ending.
My opinions on Evangelion aside, the girls appear in Akihabara, in the show. What better place for the final battle to occur than the very city the girls are trying to save in real life?
The mother virus + Maya appear and begin trashing the city, but then the mother virus stops listening to Maya and casts her away. This causes Maya to want to stop the mother virus, and she joins forces with our 3 heroines. Similar to how I predicted things would play out, as I expected Maya to join up with the cafe girls in the end, so I wasn’t surprised at all to see it happen here.
Basically the mother virus proves too strong (which seems lame considering it looks the exact same as it did in every other episode) and after several defeats, the pink haired girl retreats back to the cafe to call in reinforcements. And so all of the girls jump in to combine their forces against the mother virus.
Overall, I’d say this episode wasn’t bad – but it just feels too late for the anime to try to scrape together it’s overarching story and make something of it. After the first few episodes, the anime just devolved into seemingly random virus hunting. To try and come back to the whole “people are forgetting about anime & games” story after all of that seems cheap. But hey, we’ll go with it, because it could have been worse and they could have just kept on with the random virus hunting.
Based on this episode, I’m expecting episode 12 to have a soft ending, where they save the Evangelion world and go back to their real world with renewed confidence. Maybe the cafe gets a customer or two, and they realize that they are making a difference by virus hunting. I’m thinking Maya won’t end up joining them, but maybe she ends up visiting the cafe or something.
Honestly though, who knows. They might just go all out with sunshine and rainbows in the final episode, with Maya completely changing her ways and the virus being stopped forever – Akihabara is saved and the cafe becomes super busy with customers.
I’ve been wrong for most of the anime anyways, so you never know.
As for the anime overall, with this two episode conclusion, I’ve realized that you could actually get away with watching episodes 1, 2, 9, 11, 12, and basically have seen the entire show, in respect to the overarching story.
I wouldn’t recommend it though.
Next week is the final episode, and then we’re done with Pastel Memories for good!
Until next time.
Thanks for reading.
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