Where as the series ends with an amazing climax, literally a boom, the franchise, as a whole, with a whimper.
Story - 6/10
After regaining a few of his erased memories, Takizawa returns to Japan to meet with the wife of the late prime Minister Iinuma. Upon his arrival he’s met by the woman who quite possibly is his step-mother and held in confinement until she can can have his DNA tested. Unfortunatly for her, Takizawa has more important things to do, and he finds a way to outsmart his guards and sneak out in order to find and protect the truck carrying his Juiz unit, before Number One can once again try to have it destroyed.
While Taki is off playing long haul trucker, Saki and Osugi agree to try and track down the woman who originally owned Taki’s Mini-Shiba, as he thinks she could be his mother. Through the use of Eden’s crowdsourcing they are able to place the dog at a small restaurant. Although she rejects the idea that Takizawa is her son, some evidence found by Saki seems to say otherwise. Before they can get any real answers, they’re tracked down by the government agency working to stop them, on behalf of another Selacao, and they have to escape.
Separated from the group is Hirasawa, who has tracked down Mr. Outside. He questions him about the game, and surprisingly, has everything laid out for him. Mr. Outside tells him how he met Takizawa, and how he choose him after a conversation between the two where Taki gave his thoughts on how people need to learn that money should come from a hard days work, and not treated like an endless resource.
Meanwhile Takizawa, Sis and Mitchan head to the late Prime Minister’s house, so that Takizawa can finally figure out who his parents really are. There he’s confronted by Mononobe and he decides to make one last play at winning the game. He connects everyone in Japan to a video chat application and threatens take away the youth of the country, therefore destroying the economy of Japan, unless the rich give up their money and start treating their workers properly. This brazenness to tell it like it is catches Mr. Outside off guard, and he decides to end the game, erasing the Selacao’s memories in the process, all except Takizawa.
In the end, Takizawa may not have been the prime minister’s son, but he did make a pseudo paradise for some. Back at the mall, with the help of the Eden team, the N.E.E.T.s started their own self sustaining community, free from the powers in Japan.
They tried to tie up loose ends, with a nice little monologue by Saki, but it all felt a little bit pieced together, without actually concluding anything. Was Takizawa spared from losing his memories because he won or because he already went through the process? Also what did Mr. Outside mean by the Selacao becoming “Latent Saviors” were there memories going to return at a later date or were they just going to become “saviors” by once again being cogs in a wheel? Perhaps a bit taken out of the middle, and a more well thought out ending would have taken this from a mediocre installment into an important one.
Animation - 9/10
By now I don’t think I really have to tell anyone about the great animation found throughout the series. My only little negative point is that they didn’t showcase the ability of the artist this time around, with many of the scenes being in more contained areas that kept the scenery to a minimum.
Sound - 8/10
The sound for this falls right in the middle of the series and the first movie. While voices, ambient sound and background music are all basically the same, it still lacked the great opening and closings, but they did bring back the song which ended the series, Reveal the World, which I think is just a spectacular song.
Characters - 6/10
As with the previous movie, the cast’s screen time, outside of a handful of characters, has been trimmed substantially. Even Takizawa himself seems to be a secondary character, with the stories of his mother, Ms. Iinuma and Saizo Ato driving the film.
Due to the ending I can’t really say much was revealed, because they decide to say everything in the previous eighty five minutes was a lie, which they could have explained in a more logical way by saying saying the test results were actually Juiz’s doing, as Takizawa had asked her to rescind his request to become king.
Overall - 7/10
This is the first time I can say I actually felt disappointed with the show. With so much build up, and so much to work with, you just expected an amazing two hours, but instead it felt like another drawn out episode.
As a whole I did enjoy the series as much as any other I’ve watched, but that’s probably why I wanted so much more. I think they did give us a complete story, but the same story in a Twenty Six or Forty episode series, with much more detail and plot, would have been amazing. But I guess those long series are reserved for mindless drivel that essentially repeat the same episode twenty times over.