Angelic Layer Episode 25 (La Fin!) I’ve already watched this series plenty of times, so there will be no surprises for me, but this will be my first time reviewing the whole series episode by episode. And I’m sure there will be some fine details that I’ve forgotten or never noticed in the first place. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this anime, so maybe it will be a little different from what I remember. A quick run down of the series. This is a slightly futuristic anime by Clamp, the creators of Card Captor Sakura, XXXHolic, and Magic Knight Ray Earth. The story begins with a country bumpkin moving to the big city to go to middle school. The main character sees a robot fight on TV and immediately becomes a fan and buys her own robot to join the battle competitions too. So, this is a fighting robot anime like Metabots or Gundam Build Fighters, only with a Clamp flare. Last Time on Angelic LayerLast time on Angelic Layer, Misaki finally has a reunion with her mom, but it’s not all hugs and happy tears. There’s a lot more emotional baggage heavy lifting and sad tears to go around. After Shuko drops the bombshell that she’s Misaki’s mom, Ojiro tries to arrange a meeting with the two, leaving Misaki alone with her sad thoughts in Shuko’s private room while he goes to get her wayward mother. Being overwhelmed with emotion, Misaki bolts. She ends up getting lost in the rain, but with help from Ichon, her mom eventually finds her. They finally have their reunion on a rainy Tokyo street corner, but it isn’t a happy one. They retreat to a cafe to get out of the rain, but they don’t have much to say to each other. It’s Misaki that reaches out and tries to bridge that divide between them. She starts talking about Angelic Layer, the one thing she knows they have in common. After a much needed apology from Shuko, they return to the stadium to find that everyone was still waiting for them and their match. The End!This is the last episode and probably one of the most epic of the series. The match between Athena and Hikaru is finally here, and even though Shuko is fighting against her estranged daughter that she has wronged for seven years, and they have just build a very fragile relationship after their reunion, the champion is not holding back. At all. Like not even a little bit, for a middle schooler, that’s her daughter, that she had abandoned. This episode had a lot of touching and heartwarming moments, but when I actually think about it, Misaki’s mom is maybe not the nicest person. The match starts out without any of the new terrain that has become so common at the national games. The two opponents start their battle, but still no sign of terrain. Then as Hikaru and Athena’s fight really starts heating up, the arena bursts into a field of red roses. Though roses are seen as a purely romantic flower in the western world, in Japan roses are actually known more for their thorns. In fact, their Japanese name means thorns. And roses tend to represent the pain of love, or a complicated love that causes heartache. This sub-meaing of the terrain fits perfectly for the match. The two Angels are trading blows, hard and fast with Shuko not pulling any punches for her daughter. After Hikaru smacked Athena with “Rolling Thunder” kick, Athena grapples Hikaru and slams her into the ground, wiping out most of her hit points. Things are looking pretty bleak for Hikaru. Then Shuko decides to end things quick and blasts Misaki’s Angel with a “Kill Everything” fireball. The entire field of flowers is burned to ashes, leaving only a scorched earth. Hikaru is down and not getting up. The computers are still calculating the hit points but no opponent has ever survived Athena’s blast. As the moment drags on and the computers are still calculating, Misaki starts getting really worried. She starts calling to Hikaru to get up, she cries and calls Hikaru to keep fighting. Soon Hatoko joins in, then Misaki’s cheer squad, then more and more of the crowd is chanting for Hikaru to not give up. Finally, the data is in, Hikaru has just a fraction of a hit point, but she gets up! The battle continues, and Athena even tries to us another “Kill Everything” fireball, but it ends up being her undoing when Hikaru deflects it right back at her. And just like that Misaki wins! After the match is over we finally get our running into each other’s arms and hug scene between mother and daughter, and it’s well deserved. During the end roll, it’s the holiday season, and everyone is out with their sweethearts. Misaki and her mom seem to be going shopping, and there’s Ichon sneaking around a corner spying on his crush Shuko. Ojiro starts scolding his older brother until he spots Misaki and then joins Ichon in his spying! My end thoughts on re-watching this series after so many years is kind of mixed. I remember loving this series, and there are still so many things I really like about this anime. The main character Misaki is still the sweet, kind hearted character that I remember. A lot of the characters are still really fun and likable. Like Tamayo and Ringo. But there are other problematic characters that I don’t remember them being this bad. Like Kotaro is really not a nice boyfriend to Tamayo. He treats her pretty badly over and over again. By the end of their romance arc I kind of felt like Tamayo deserved someone better. Mr. Ichon gave some serious Stranger Danger vibes in quite a few scenes, and it felt like Misaki really shouldn’t have followed him. Hatoko was really not a great friend. She mistreated and nearly bullied Misaki simply because she wanted to fight differently. But I think the character with the most problems was Shuko. She shrugged off responsibility for seven years, and even when she finally decides to gather up some courage and talk to Misaki, she dumps most of the emotional baggage on the little girl to carry. It’s funny that I don’t remember seeing any of these problems the last time I watched this series.