Hundred (Episode 11) – Garden’s Crisis
Vitaly has made her move and she’s using the cleaning robots as part of her attack, transforming them into mechanical bees that explode at designated points. Will Hayato be able to stop her or is Little Garden doomed?
Hundred (Episode 11) – Garden’s Crisis
What happened?
So, while most of the people are busy enjoying the concert, Erica and Reitia have come across a strange mechanical bee. Erica tries to restrain it, but it explodes. Soon after they stop another from attempting to blow up an electrical terminal. Before long, Little Garden is littered with small explosions, each one taking more and more of the ship’s functions offline. Claire receives a report which showed one of the cleaning robots turning into a mechanical bee and orders that all remaining ones be stopped and destroyed.
Meanwhile, Vitaly has found the renegade Slayers and used her mind control device to bring them in line with her plan. Then several planes crash into the runway and an army of mechanical Savages march out of the flames, determined to break into Little Garden. Finally, another plane crashes into the shield protecting the city and an enormous mechanical Savage emerges. It begins to pound on the shield, quickly weakening its power. Hayato and Emilia volunteer to take it out.
What did you think?
This episode was pretty much entirely focused on setting up the final episode. As such, it didn’t really do too much to stand on its own. I would have liked to see a little more chaos and shown that things were really going wrong. As it was it felt like a little bit of a nuisance. Sure, there were lots of mechanical Savages but they seemed to be dealing with them just fine, much like the regular ones. I think that’s probably my biggest criticism of the series.
The first time we saw the Savages they were pretty dangerous and almost killed Erica and Liddy. Since then, they haven’t really been much of an issue and that’s without a noticeable power up for everyone. Sure, Hayato has learnt a lot in his brief time there, but that’s not been enough. I know this is an action harem romance comedy, but I think the action could have been a little more intense.
What have you learnt?
From a story perspective, this should have been the darkest point. Everything should have been going wrong. It should feel like all is lost. Hayato should be a wreck, unsure of what he can do to help. However, things haven’t really changed. Everyone is still confident and it doesn’t feel like anyone is in any real danger. Even Mei Mei who was shot by Vitaly doesn’t seem to be in too much trouble.
As with everything in storytelling getting the stakes right is essential. There needs to be a reason for the characters to act that way. You want something to push them to greatness or show their fall into despair. If everything is too easy any changes in the characters doesn’t feel earned. Now, that might be fine for a slice of life story, but that’s generally the exception. Without consequences, there is very little incentive to learn or adapt. I love this show and the characters, but I would have liked to see more dire stakes.
Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – Little Garden
- Episode 2 – The Invincible Queen
- Episode 3 – Variant Awakening
- Episode 4 – Bodyguard
- Episode 5 – Imitation Girl
- Episode 6 – The Diva’s Love Song
- Episode 7 – The Captured Sleeping Beauty
- Episode 8 – Night at the Lake
- Episode 9 – Dragon Type
- Episode 10 – School Festa
- Episode 11 – Garden’s Crisis
- Episode 12 – Friends
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