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Impressions:

Ah, I finally bothered to watch the final episodes of Innocent Venus. It’s not that I force myself to watch the series, but since so many of the new shows are more entertaining, I couldn’t find the energy to open up my media player and watch. Buuut, now that I have, I have to say that the ending was a lot better than some other finales I’ve seen. The only problem was the pacing, as the last episode was far too rushed. A lot of insight was given into the character’s past and such, but they weren’t expanded nearly enough. The producers definitely know how to animate war and destruction and I commend them for that. I liked a lot of the diverse angles and shot types used, as well as the clever use of lighting. Mechas using shunpo is pretty cool as well. Some nice commando moves were pulled off by Shiba and Renee too. I’ve seen a few so-called action anime where soldiers and officers only know how to stand, run and crouch (and maybe salute too). The ending does leave me wanting to see another episode to show the aftermath of everything. Maybe a few years in the future (or more), Sana grown up, the civilisations rebuilt, Jo’s long-awaited reunion with Sana etc.

The series really could have done with another episode. Jin’s downfall was expected so that was okay, but Drake’s defeat by Sana was completely lame. It would have been heaps better if Drake went berserk on Jo for a good minute or so before he finally snaps. I didn’t like how they made Sana resolve everything, but that was something that had to be done as it was the entire focus of the story. Jin’s and Jo’s past were explored a bit but not nearly enough. Jo’s lack of emotion still hasn’t been explained. Is he just ‘that type of person’? I kind of liked Jin a bit more in the end even though he was entirely ‘bad’, or at least he’s supposed to be. He should’ve got a more decent fight too. A bout between Drake, Shiba, Jin and Jo would’ve been entertaining, but that would’ve screwed the whole story up. The producers clearly wanted isolated one on one fights. Still, more action on foot would’ve done the show a lot more good. Shiba’s quick performance with his sword was awesome (now why can’t more scenes be like that?) I also thought that Shiba didn’t have enough relevance to everyone else apart from being a former Phantom pilot.

As opposed to a lot of the negative aspects about the last two episodes, I thought the music was really well inputted into the sequence of things. I also said before that the use of lighting was excellent. Although some of those really keen quality-drop-catchers might have interpreted this as a way to save money, the silhouetting gave the show that much more feeling and diversity. I also like how the running is drawn, even though ‘escape’ type running is a lot easier to draw than ‘race’ type running. Once again, the big war scenes were very well done, though I was hoping Shiba’s fleet could’ve done a helluva lot more damage to the cities. There wasn’t even an opposing force for them to play with (by that I mean drop bombs on). However, of course the show can’t be all good. While in the end, I have to say the quality was as good as I hoped, some of the characters are really useless. Apart from Renee who didn’t really do anything spectacular, there’s Gora, who might be a good scout an’ all, he’s just plain annoying. He was probably just thrown into the fray of things by the scriptwriters to make the anime seem less ‘lonely’. All in all, good show, watch it and don’t think too much about it!

Plot Outline:

- Episode 11
- Shiba gets ready for the retaliation attack on Drake
- Jin reveals everything to Sana regarding her and the other children
- It seems that the other children’s nerves were used to control the Phantoms and Sana’s purpose is to allow for mass production of those children
- Sana also learns that they were genetically engineered to suit the Phantom’s needs and were created in labs
- Jin escapes when fighting breaks out
- The next day, Sana and Gora run out to find the other children, if they’re still alive
- Gora moves ahead by himself to prowl the seemingly empty complex
- However, they get caught pretty easily by Jin and taken away by a helicopter

- Jin takes them to a building where he had stashed the information regarding Sana
- Drake catches him and reveals that he had already figured out the key to the nerves’ activation
- By using the notes from the piano that Sana could detect and testing it with a recovered nervous system from a destroyed Phantom
- Drake is about to kill Jin but he persuades him to allow him to live to fight Jo in order to get some more information
- Jo makes his way to a secret stash of weaponry where Jin is waiting

- Episode 12
- After some revealing talk about Jin’s first meeting with Jo and how he hated him from the very beginning, the two start fighting with both limiters removed
- Meanwhile, Shiba and co. make there way to Drake’s headquarters on foot
- After a bit of fighting, Jin breaks down from the fear that the Phantoms cause

- It seems that Jo is the only one who can take the immense fear that the Phantoms are meant to give
- Even outside the Phantom, Jin continues to lose his grip on reality and eventually dies of intense trauma
- Shiba finds a Phantom and uses it to reach Drake, who is in some master control Phantom
- Using Sana, Drake had managed to network all the unmanned Phantoms together to create one big killing unit
- A huge surge of energy is released, putting all the nearby ships and air units under the network’s control (meaning Shiba’s fleet is now under its control)
- Shiba stands no chance, but Jo comes to fight him
- Although it seems like Drake is invincible, he starts to lose his mind as well and gets out of the Phantom, where he is quickly killed
- Jo gets in the Phantom to try and stop the controlling of all the nearby control systems, but falls prey to the intensity of the Phantom
- Sana manages to reach into the nervous systems of her previous friends and calm them, saving everyone’s life by quelling the Phantom

Aftermath:

- Sana goes to stay with Shiba and co. while Jo sets off to wander the world
- Shiba plans to rebuild everything and become its ruler

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