Miss Kuroitsu From the Monster Development Department

Episode 12

"Companies don't necessarily stay the same forever" is the wisdom dispensed as Miss Kuroitsu and the Monster Development crew sit on the precipice of potential change here in this final episode of the show. Superhero stories like the ones this show riffs on are usually built on some sort of stock status quo, but everything needs to get upended in time for a finale eventually. Obviously this isn't the actual ending for Miss Kuroitsu; the original manga is still ongoing and the episode makes it clear that the odd antics will continue (with several plot threads, such as this series has had them, still very much unresolved). But still, this season-ender plays at the idea of shifts in series like these, and the big climactic finishes that can come as a result of those setups. It is pretty much the exact kind of ending I could have asked for from this show.

One of the more clever elements of this finale is how they fully integrate the 'business' and 'super-villain' gimmicks for this one. Mergers and Acquisitions are an expected part of corporate business, but you've probably never seen a takeover quite this hostile! The story isn't even singularly oppositional to the idea of Agastia getting absorbed into Zet Arc at the beginning either; points are made about the benefit of resources they'd receive, something we know the Monster Development team has struggled with all season. Instead, the main contention comes down to the subject of attitude we've followed before: Agastia may be evil, but they try not to be jerks about it, while these Zet Arc guys are downright unpleasant. Every good business has principles they've got to stick by, and as we find out later in the episode, Zet Arc doesn't even have any respect for monsters or the fine craft behind them. Truly unforgivable.

This is all brisk setup in service of a big final battle that can bring together all the disparate players, hero or villain, from this series to unite against Zet Arc. Even as average-looking as Miss Kuroitsu has always been, the spectacle is still sold well enough this episode (and it looks a damn sight better than last week's), mostly on account of just how much is getting thrown on the screen. It's got that strong 'Everyone is here!' sense, with the magical girls, Black Lore, and eventually Blader himself jumping in not out of any aligned agendas, but simply because they're all in agreement about how much Zet Arc sucks.

There's an appreciation here for the motivational relationship between heroes and villains in toku-style shows among all the other elements that Miss Kuroitsu has lovingly embraced about the medium. Good or Evil, those sides are ostensibly both loved by the audience regardless because they're both essential to the entertainment. Apart from the main characters on display here, this final battle takes an extended period to montage across all the Local Heroes, and their accompanying villains, that the show has touched on across its run. It's a fine indulgence in a finale like this, coming off like a genuine tribute to the very institution of tokusatsu action this series is founded on. Those sorts of live local suit-action performances are often reliant on eliciting audience cheers throughout them, and you get the sense the creators of Miss Kuroitsu here were trying to get that sort of reaction even from the kids and adults watching along at home.

Not only does it succeed as a parade of real-life character cameos, but it relates back to its own story as well. Anybody who follows shows like this knows it's a big deal when a character gets their own new transformational toy, and who else but Miss Kuroitsu herself would obtain such a thing for the big finish here? It even ties in with the mechanics of the show, what with the power-up item is itself a 'monster' that we saw the Development Team working on earlier, and what else would we expect from a villainous group's final plan than an evil version of the hero they oppose? Maybe Kuroitsu donning the Black Blader suit herself wasn't the original idea, but any good toku show knows to just run with whims that occur thanks to production weirdness. And as intended, it comes off as a total fist-pump moment when she actually teams up with Blader here instead of fighting against him like they always have.

That overall celebratory metatext is what does it for me with this finale. The leader of Zet Arc decries the stylings of these monsters and heroes as 'inefficient' and belittles the smaller budgets they're forced to work with, but we know that those 'limitations' are a lot of what make tokusatsu what it is. Those outlandish costumes and overt posing for attacks may be 'inefficient', but it's also dang cool, and having to work within the limits of budget constraints necessitates a lot of creativity. "Monster development has infinite possibilities" is the wisdom Miss Kuroitsu works with, and to the end, this has been a scrappy little show that proves that. It's hardly perfect, but it 'gets it', and appeals to fandom appreciation in that very earnest way.

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Miss Kuroitsu From the Monster Development Department is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freelance writer who appreciates anime, action figures, and additional ancillary artistry. He can be found staying up way too late posting screencaps on his Twitter.