So here we are at the end of Absolute Duo. It wasn’t anything new or amazing, but somehow I stuck with it till the end.

Here’s my final review.

So I’m in the midst of starting to read the Absolute Duo light novel (by that I mean I’ve read the prologue) but I’m guessing the events of this final ep aren’t what happened in the original material. Anyways, lets take a quick overview of what happened.

Last week we ended with Tooru smashing up K pretty well, which led him to believe that that battle is over. But as we saw in the post credit scene (okay more like the during credit scene) K killed the Equipment Smith, stole his pocket watch thing and gained some final form which he would use to fight Tooru once again.

The majority of this ep is pretty much K fighting Tooru and Julie, so there isn’t much to talk about and I don’t feel like recapping their every move. Tora and Lilith got knocked out of this fight early as both were taken down by K right off the start. So much for Lilith being that amazing. And if you’re wondering about Tatsu, well he was still no where to be seen. Literally ran off as his friends are getting their ass kicked all over campus.

So the three of them fight away for a while, K taking a shot at destroying the whole campus, but Usa-sensai is able to deflect his shots away and keep the students safe, even if she got pretty smashed up in the process. Seriously, the students were just going to sit there and die without even trying to save themselves. What happened to all their training and such? Did they lose their will to fight?

lol

Grainy JPG pics look amazing.

Things take a turn for the interesting when K manages to get behind Tooru and run his blade through him, seemingly killing him. Okay what I didn’t like about this is that if K actually wanted to kill Tooru, he stabbed him in a place where there wasn’t the highest chance of him dying. I mean in every movie or TV show where someone get stabbed through the back, it’s always in the upper chest as there’s a higher chance of said person dying. Even more so if it’s where their heart is. So I’m not sure what exactly K was thinking when he decided to stab Tooru in the place where he did. Alternatively he could’ve just cut his head off, which would be 100% guaranteed to kill him. And yes, I was actually thinking about all this during this part.

Obviously Julie is bother by this and that activates her dark energy, which she uses to absolutely destroy K with. Ha, where’s all that big talk now? Following this Julie turns her power on Tooru, not on purpose, but because she’s clearly not in the right mind frame and has no sense of control. Using the classic tactic of hugging her in motion, Tooru is able to bring her back to her senses, where they go on to use the power of hand holding to withstand K’s final attack. It’s worth noting that the OP, Absolute Soul, is playing during this part. Also there are random panty shots of Julie for some reason. I guess they figured they should throw a couple in for the final ep. Pics below if that’s something you like. So with K defeated and I guess the rest of the Libers also taken care of, things are back to normal as Tooru visits the hospital to heal up. Tatsu also shows himself once again. That lazy bastard.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The last bit of the ep has some info on Kevin Wayfair, or as we know him as K; we learn he was recruited by the Equipment Smith after his older brother died. Honestly his back story wasn’t anything that I didn’t expect. I did however find the final scene with Tooru and Julie interesting as we learn that Julie, while being an Avenger, is also an El Awake. What exactly is that? Light novel people, correct me if the anime description is wrong, but according to Julie it’s when a person awakens their power without the use of Luciful. Julie would go on to be picked up by the Dawn Agency as her powers were quite unstable at this point. I’m guessing her dark energy mode is where she fully lets loose and goes all out, and in this state she’s super crazy powerful.

In the end they both apologize and make up, continuing to be Duo partners till the end. Saying their vows once again (this was strange as I was just at a wedding the other day) they affirm their partnership, before we fade to the end credits, which is the ED1 Believe X Believe. The post credit scene is just them drinking tea and looking happy, which is accompanied by a nice piano track.

Final Thoughts

So after watching all 12 eps, I’m left wondering if there will be a season 2. I mean there feels like more story should be told, and that there still is a lot we don’t know, but even if they did make a season 2 I’m not sure I’d review it. All in all Absolute Duo isn’t anything that new or exciting, and personally I think I’ve had enough magic school stuff for a while. I should check my spring list to make sure I’m not signed up for anymore. I wouldn’t call Absolute Duo terrible, but it honestly wasn’t great either. It’s right down the middle, neither good nor bad.

Story wise, like mentioned it’s nothing new just another magic school plot that’s been done a few too many times before. I felt that the first few eps had promise, but things didn’t go where I was thinking/hoping they’d go. I did enjoy the fan service bits, they were pretty decent. But as I learned from a reader of my reviews the story has been altered greatly from the original light novel, which isn’t as annoying to me as I haven’t read it, but I’m sure to the readers of it this must have been pretty bad. That’s also why I’m not sure about a season 2 at the same time as I’m guessing they’d run away from the material once again and do their own thing. Whatever the case is though, the story wasn’t ground breaking but it kept me barely there for all 12.

Character wise I think I’ll settle with Lilith being my favorite. Tomoe was pretty good too I guess. Aside from that, everyone was pretty standard. Tooru was the usual guy I’d expect, Julie wasn’t anything that amazing, Miyabi was just boobs, Imari wasn’t even there for most of the time, Sakuya still has lots of mystery surrounding her so I’d like to know more about her. And I could care less about Tora and especially Tatsu.

Overall what this is looking like is a very down the middle score and that’s exactly what I’ll give it. Absolute Duo gets a 5/10 from me.

And there you have it, Absolute Duo. Thanks for staying with me for all 12 and thank you to that one guy for the commentary about the changes between this and the light novel. With the end of this review marks the end of all my winter anime reviews. All that’s left are my three wrap up posts which will be going up soon, then it’s on to the spring season.

I hope you’ll join me for the spring season as I’ve got 3 anime I’ll be reviewing and I’m pretty sure they’ll be great. Well then be sure to leave a comment with your final thoughts of Absolute Duo, what you liked, didn’t like and so on.

That’s it for me, I’ll cya later!

-Nick

Bonus Pics!

Follow Anime Corps on Twitter!!

Do you have an anime blog, site, Tumblr or Facebook page? Want to exchange links? Stop by my Link Exchange page and leave a comment, I’ll add you to the growing list!

Got this anime that you think I’ll enjoy? Leave a comment on my Recommendations page and I’ll check it out at some point. I may even review it too!

Want to blog about anime too? I’m always looking for talented writers who want to share their passion about all things anime and manga related. If you want to be a writer on Anime Corps, drop me an e-mail and we can chat. Check the Contact page for my e-mail.

I’m always on Twitter tweeting about all kinds of stuff. If you’ve got a Twitter account, why not follow me?