Ultra Maniac ep.25-26

August 31, 2004 | 6 Comments

Well, here are the last two episodes of Ultra Maniac. It looks like the series tries its best to make up for all of those useless fillers by going all out on the ending. And it certainly doesn't disappoint in this regard. In fact, I'll probably remember the series in a better light thanks to the ending, which somehow manages to surprise me a little bit with a neat little revelation. And as I thought, the ending does end up focusing more on Nina and Tsujiai's relationship, leaving Ayu and Kaji as supporting background characters. On the positive side, this allows for some good interaction between the two. Unfortunately, this seems to give the writer the chance to pull a rather Deux Ex Machina solution for one of the sub-plots.

Continuing from the previous episode, episode 25 shows Maya wreaking havoc inside the school by sending all of her school friends into a place called the dark vortex. Unfortunately, Nina is caught off guard and therefore fails to do anything to stop Ayu, Kaji and Tsujiai from being taken into the place as well. Thankfully for the three, just when they start falling deeper into the abyss, a bright light envelopes them. It turns out the Principal (who was in the chicken suit) purposedly allowed himself to be absorbed into the place so he can save his staffs and students. The problem is, he can't maintain his power for a long time and if they don't get out of the dark abyss soon, they'll eventually fall into the deepest part of the realm. Meanwhile, outside the realm, Yuta appears and tries to warn Maya that if she continues doing this, no one will be able to save her from the darkness. Maya, however, doesn't seem to care about it.

The situation only becomes worse after this. When Nina tries to use magic to help her friends, all of her magical orbs fly away from her computer and land on Maya's own computer. On top of things, Maya then spots the divine orb floating in the sky near the vortex and makes a grab for it. Thankfully, after obtaining all of the orbs, Maya decides to flee away from the scene, thereby weakens the stronghold of the dark vortex, allowing the students who are trapped inside to get out of the realm. This, however, does not mean that the dark vortex disappears completely because it can still be spotted floating in the sky. At the same time, Maya is pissed off because all of the magical orbs that she has obtained for some reason fails to do her bidding. Nina's grandfather then appears inside Maya's house telling her that it's because Maya obtained those orbs using dark magic. Maya is angry of the accusation and ends up activating a powerful dark magic.

By the time Nina and the others arrive at Maya's house, they can only find an unconscious Maya on the floor. Maya's pets explained to them that Maya has used her dark power to send Nina's grandfather into the dark realm. Because of this, Nina and the others decides to go back to the realm to save him. Inside the realm, however, Nina and the others are overwhelmed by the attacks of a root-like tentacles. Thinking she's going to die, Nina admits that she likes Tsujiai, who in return, tells her that he's glad to hear it. Their confession for some reason attracts all of the magical orbs which then surround the two and emit a bright glow that destroys the dark realm. Meanwhile, with the help of her pets, Maya also manages to return to her former, less insane self. The focus then returns to Nina, who awakes to find the others safe and that she now gains all of the magical orbs inside her computer. The episode ends with the arrival of the blonde guy who finaly reveals himself as the Prince of the magical kingdom.

In the final episode, the Prince tells Nina that he's been watching her from afar to judge her suitability as a Princess of the magical kingdom. The prince also tells her that he thinks Nina is the childhood girl who saved his life and whom he fell in love with. Nina, however, can't remember any of this. Never the less, since she's the one who manages to obtain all of the orbs, the Prince believes that she's the one and that eventually she'll remember it. Nina's friends, including Tsujiai then congratulate her success. Nina is sad about the entire thing, however, and asks her grandfather about what she should do. In response, her grandfather tells her that she should ignore his wishes and do what she wishes to do. The truth is, he hopes that his 'selfless advice' will make Nina choose to return to the magical kingdom and become a Princess. His trick seems to work because the next day, Nina has no choice but to tell Ayu about her decision.

Nina then reveals to her friend that once she returns to the magical kingdom, she can't go back to the human world. Furthermore, the days Ayu and the others spent together with Nina will be wiped out from their memory. Ayu is saddened by this revelation and tells her friend that she refuses to forget their days together as friends no matter what kind of magic might be placed on her and she thinks Tsujiai and Kaji will feel the same as well. Despite her protestation, Nina decides to return to the magic kingdom and spend her last moments in the human world with Tsujiai. Tsujiai gives her a photograph of the four of them together as a memento to Nina and then tells her that he will never forget her no matter what. Unfortunately, Ayu and Kaji didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to Nina because by the time they arrive at Tsujiai and Nina's meeting place, Nina is no longer there. Ayu becomes sad when she realises that she never gets the chance to say goodbye to Nina.

Meanwhile at the Prince's castle in the magic kingdom, Nina meets with Maya and gives Maya her magical computer back. Maya then walks out into the garden and reminisces about her childhood, where it is revealed that she was the one who actually played together and eventually saved the Prince as a kid. The Prince, however, didn't know her name and when he asked a chibi-Yuta, Yuta thought that the Prince was asking for Nina's name so he gave him Nina's name. Back to the present, Nina tries to tell the Prince that she has to refuse the offer to become a Princess. She also tells the Prince that she can't remember ever saving the prince whatsoever so she believes that someone else must be the one who saved him. The two eventually figures out that Maya must be the one who saved him. The Prince then goes out to the garden and finds Maya dancing on her own while holding a key that he gave to the girl who saved him when he was a kid.

Maya is surprised to see the Prince in the garden and begs his forgiveness and tells him that she'll leave the castle immediately. The Prince, however, stops her and tells her that he now knows that she is the one whom he fell in love with when he was a kid. Maya cries and tells the Prince that it's too late for her because she has committed a wrongdoing using a dark magic. Therefore she thinks she's evil and should not be a Princess. The Prince, however, asks her to look inside her computer. Maya therefore opens her computer and finds all of the magical orbs settle neatly inside of it. Maya doesn't understand why the orbs are now in her computer because she thought they belong to Nina. The Prince tells her that the orbs are never wrong. They choose Maya as the Princess and that means she's not an evil girl. The Prince then asks Maya if she'll be willing to dance with him. Maya nods so the two then dance together just like they did when they were kids.

Meanwhile back in the human world, Ayu has been having a nightmare of forgetting her memory of Nina or finding Nina missing from the picture that they took together. Ayu is depressed and wonders when the spell to take away her memory will happen. She wants to see Nina again and thinks that she is delusional when on her way to school she hear Nina calling her name. She, however, is surprised when she sees Nina in front of her. Ditto with Tsujiai and Kaji. Nina tells them that the truth is, Maya is the girl that the Prince fell in love with. The three, however, has a blank look on their faces when Nina mentions Maya, suggesting that their knowledge of Maya has been wiped out from their memory. Anyway, the three are happy to have Nina back although Tsujiai pretends to not remember Nina, much to her annoyance. The series end with Nina and Yuta attending a royal wedding of the Prince and Maya. And oh, it appears Luna has a crush on Yuta now and Yuta seems to like her as well.

Impression:

Some of the scenes in these episodes turn out to be tear-jerkers. And strangely, it's actually not Nina and Tsujiai scenes that feels that way. While they have some nice scenes in these episodes, the stand out turns out to be Nina and Ayu's friendship. The series does a good job of showing Ayu's unwillingness in letting go of her friend. And as result, her reunion with Nina turns out to be quite emotional. This is quite surprising to me because the series started out with Ayu obsessing about Kaji and not concerned that much about her friendship with Nina. To see the series end with her realising that she doesn't want to lose her friendship with Nina gives an impression that in the end the series is about the friendship between these two girls. Another surprising twist here is Maya's story. It's good to see that all of these times her obsession in getting the orbs has a reason behind it. I, however, think the reason is a bit weak. I guess I find it hard to believe that kids can fall in love for real at that age to the point that they obsess about it when they become a grown up.

© memento 2003