If you know the show, you know that the title isn’t hyperbole. Platinum End Episode 19 might have just been the most polarising episode of the show so far, which for this show holds more ground than most. Let’s see what went down in this review!
Platinum End Episode 19 Overview
Platinum End comes to us by the writers and creators of Death Note and Bakuman, Takeshi Obata and Tsugami Ohba. As if that wasn’t enough reason to get excited about this show, it is being directed by two prominent people in the anime industry. As it is a two-cour series, its first part was directed by Hideya Takahashi, who previously directed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5. The second part is directed by Kazuchika Kise, the animation director behind Your Name and Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The series is being produced by Studio Signal.MD, the studio behind several well-known anime such as Recovery of an MMO Junkie and Mars Red. If you’d like to catch up on our review of the eighteenth episode, you can do so right here!
– Platinum End Episode 19 Review does not contain any spoilers –
Platinum End Episode 19 Review- Hard To Process
It’s no secret that this show hasn’t been the most consistent watch. There have been stinkers in the multi-month adventure, alongside some great episodes. However, the general public has generally agreed on which episodes were the good ones and which ones deserved to be left in the dust to be forgotten. The show even developed a horrible reputation with people who dropped it after its worst episodes, which no one can blame them for. It is a hard show to love.
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However, this outing was different because it is one that divides the remaining viewership the show has left. It was a thoroughly confounding outing for the series because of what it represented in the show’s overall structure. The conflict that the show began with and what we know of it has changed dramatically in a way that can’t ever be taken back. We learned about the central conflict of the show and how the players were playing a rigged game from the start.
There are several conversations here about the existence of God and how that affects the general populace of the world. While this platform isn’t the correct one to comment on issues such as this, it can be said that the show addressed all sides of the argument fairly and gave the issue the credence it deserved. While nothing it said was particularly new or even that interesting, it made perfect sense within the show’s continuity and how it has been portrayed so far. The argument did seem to come either too early or too late, depending on where you stand on the metropoliman arc.
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The new character, Gaku, is an interesting one in that he might as well already be a God. He has a Nobel prize alongside a science medal, making him the most intelligent being on the planet. Coincidentally, he is also Japanese and suicidal, making for the perfect final candidate. He serves as nothing more than an exposition dump for the final arc of the series, giving the plot many wrinkles that were somewhat necessary yet came out of nowhere. Platinum End Episode 19 was just one giant conversation between the God candidates and not much else.
The content of that conversation will prove to be the polarising part of the show, as it disregarded a lot of what we already knew and attempted to do something out of the box which would work for some people and not for others. The dilemma between living and dying, alongside religion and God, seems to be a bit too much for a show as unpolished as Platinum End, but the writers seem to be doing the best they can, and the show’s soundtrack remains the best thing about it. Seriously, this episode was just full of fantastic OSTs that matched the mood and tone of the episode to a tee.
Verdict
Platinum End Episode 19 was a great episode that served more as a theological discussion than an episode of a thriller anime, but it worked in the show’s context. The show’s future has become extremely interesting after this outing.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!