Show By Rock!!

Episode 12

The grand finale of Show By Rock!! feels much like the ending of a magical girl series. While the show certainly had its share of mahou shoujo elements—from the dark monsters to the villain who feeds on the negativity in his victims' hearts—they were never the strongest part of the series. They also didn't receive enough focus throughout the show's run to pay off emotionally here. (Nevertheless, that was largely to the series' benefit, as it was stronger when it focused on the musicians' musical journey.)

Episode 12 gets some things right. For example, shifting focus away from Darudayu and Shu☆Zo, who were secondary characters at best, was a smart move. Once Shu☆Zo uses his powers to free the rest of the musicians in Dagger's captivity, albeit temporarily, Cyan draws on the encouragement of her bandmates and close friends to free Criticrista from the dark monster spell. Although predictable, that makes far more sense than her forming a bond with two characters she'd hardly spent any time with. However, the fact that Cyan never even noticed Rosia's hatred for her diminishes any emotional punch her former rival's tearful apology was meant to pack.

Of course, it's not until the final battle that Cyan is able to summon the power to take Dagger out once and for all. Through sheer will—and a little help from the perpetually-shadowed Grateful King/Strawberry Heart—Cyan is able to transform into a bow-wielding angelic being. If she's supposed to be drawing on confidence from the friendships she's built in Midi City, the show needed to properly highlight Cyan's journey from real world loner to beloved Myumon rock star. Instead, what little there was to support that narrative has been lost among the jumble of too many plot threads.

Since Show By Rock!! can be really funny when it tries, the comedic interludes found throughout the finale are a welcome inclusion. However, one racy joke involving the buxom Angelica and pint-sized Maple seemed out of place until I remembered the "adult male" target demo. (It would have helped if Angelica had more screen time to begin with—and if that sequence had more of a point to it.) The throwaway gag about Maple's handsome human appearance at the end raises more questions about the show's other principal characters. Most of the time, they appear as human beings with animal ears, but when they're onstage, they look just like Midi City's other chibi-sized denizens. At times, it seemed like the key players were always tiny anthropomorphs, and the audience was simply seeing them as people. However, Maple's impromptu transformation would suggest that the characters were able to change their appearances at will. Still, the joke was meant to elicit a quick laugh, and in that respect, it succeeded.

Considering the sheer scope of plotlines this series ambitiously tackled, the final episode does a passable job of wrapping things up. However, it's both confusing and unoriginal at times. Who—or more accurately, what—was Dagger? (Really, guys? Just because he turned into a squishy white thing, you're all cool with letting him go?) Why were Cyan, Darudayu and Shu☆Zo so special? Why did Cyan have to come from another world, and how did she gain deus ex machina archery powers? Show By Rock!! doesn't care that its viewers don't know. Cyan gets to embrace her bandmates and perform an extended version of the show's opening theme with them before returning home. Gaining the confidence to join the somewhat-similar-to-Plasmagica girls in her school's band club is apparently Cyan's grand reward for saving an entire world. "Believe in yourself" seems to be the show's main takeaway, but it's been done before—and it's been done better.

Rating: C+

Show By Rock!! is currently streaming on Funimation.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for two decades.