Almost anyone could’ve predicted that since him being the traitor was the least significant of the twists of that night alone, but it rode so much on the traitor’s identity this late in the anime that it didn’t reveal the juiciest part of what happens after. If the twist that the directors have was “We’re just going to end it when Akechi shoots Ren and then let viewers wait for an OVA to answer the questions that we left out by not adapting the remaining 25% of the game,” then it placed too much value on the twist of the interrogation being that Akechi was the traitor all along. Did everything Ren plan amount to nothing? Does Akechi ever escape the hallway? Is Ryuji the mastermind? It’s a level of incoherence you’d expect from an original anime with too many cooks in the kitchen, but the video game had its entire story planned out. an anime created to bring the game’s experience to television, so it ends up creating an ending like this that doesn’t take anyone enjoying the anime for its story into account when it’s all so slapped together. It has a hard time distinguishing itself between being an anime created for fans of the game vs. If you’ve played the game, you know what happens next and why Ryuji smiles and says “Just kidding!” But as a standalone anime, having Akechi shoot Ren in the face, walk away to the final dungeon’s music, and Ryuji smile in the darkness comes off as entirely confusing. In fact, it would seem like an incoherent way to end the show considering that, without any of the scenes afterwards explaining how Akechi was never on their side to begin with, it seems like a completely out-of-the-blue way to end it with his betrayal and cutting off the entire section just like that. But without context on anything following the shooting, it is bound to create a lot of rancor with anime-only viewers. I clarify this because the ending of this episode isn’t any of the game’s bad endings, but rather how it normally plays out. The bad endings in the game that result in Akechi also shooting you are either if Ren took a deal with Sae to reveal the names of the Phantom Thieves/Confidants or if you don’t reach the deadline for palace and have Ren give incoherent answers about a hypothetical fail state that cause Sae to walk away without helping Ren. Part of the hazy memory that he has with Futaba and Morgana regarding a plan triggers a response from Ren to have Sae show Akechi his phone, resulting in the scene playing out as it is in the anime Akechi shoots the guard and then triumphantly shoots Ren, ending the Phantom Thieves’ story on a down note, or so it would seem. Yup, that’s how the game ends…Įxcept it plays out like this in the regular good ending of the game and we’re only three quarters of the way through the story. Instead, anime-only viewers have the delight of seeing the part of the game where Akechi shoots Ren in the face. However, they pulled the rug out from underneath everyone by regulating the anime’s continuation towards an OVA at the end of the year. They even animated the second OP after all this time. With the Morgana bus traveling to other episodes hinted at ones much further down the line. I didn’t think I would be writing about the anime ending this weekend.
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