Kei Madoka and Atari Kou, as well as the Vanishing Age Triple battle just dragged on for way too [radio edit]ing long. I know they are trying to squeeze in all the cybodies and Star Swords, but really, the air times could be used better.

I mean currently, the Filiament Trio completely lack depth, Benio got more development, but George and Tetsuya just feels like generic expendables, so far, they are simply someone who got beat up by Kanako and a perverted voyeur. What about Professor Silver? He's a scientist, he makes stuff, what else is known about that bastard? Stick Star as well, I mean there's episodes featuring the other two, but what does he do aside from simply completing the trio?

Mami/Undine especially, what the hell happened to her? What is the actual nature of the Bougainvillea division? What is her relation to Keito? Does she know Keito is the East Maiden?

I have to agree that Madoka/Kou outstayed their welcome a bit. While it was nice to see psychos in the Crux and they had a bit of an impact on the plot like Wako deciding she liked Takuto, I probably could have lived without them taking up a mini-arc. I was really excited to see Mami, George and Tetsuya get some more love, but the latter two just seem like generic characters Takuto beats at the beginning, almost like foot soldiers to establish he's badass. Mami just gets dropped, which made me mad because she was marked and everything. At least include a scene saying she didn't want to join them or something and why!

Takashi was someone I was sad to see left behind. He didn't get completely ignored, but I think he had a bit of wasted potential; mainly because I wanted to know his backstory like we got to know Kanako and Simone's. It was good to see him with actual morals in VA unlike Madoka and Kou; showed he didn't fit with them at all unlike the more lawful Adult Bank. I'm not saying every character ever has to get depth; Professor Silver just seems like a regular science head to me and I'm fine with that, but with some of the screentime these guys get, and how important they sometimes get hyped up (TAKASHI AND MAMI) it's a bit of a shame to see not much come of it. Stick Star, too. I think I can see an OVA possibly coming up to flesh out these guys perhaps a tad more.

I think while the fighting is the least important aspect, it would be better to try and focus on other characters a bit more instead of constantly reminding us of the ones we know, or entirely new characters. As much as I love Kanako, I could see some of the scenes she has in later episodes being used for greater decisions.

dude i know kyubeey doesnt remember alternate timelines (as far as we know) but he doesnt care that she has time powers. and how do we know that he doesnt have an ulterior motive? you basically ignored me >:(
and ill use the madoka topic once this argument is finisheddd

Iunno Moose, Homura doesn't seem to be getting any more powerful, but her power is just to stop time. There's no "power" involved in that (I assume she can't do it forever, but not once so far has she used it so long that she neared a hypothetical limit), so it'd be hard to tell. She's obviously getting more skilled, at least, due to her experience. That said, unless it's just related to the nature of her wishes, Madoka is getting more powerful for no reason each timeloop, so I guess you could try and apply that to Homura as well.

And it's QB man, of course he has ulterior motives. But frankly his approach seems to be "making Madoka a witch is good enough and I don't need any more energy after that so who cares." After all, in the fourth timeloop where Madoka OHKO'd Walpurgis Night he simply left earth since his quota was reached. He didn't bother trying to wait for Homura or any other Puella Magi on the planet to become witches. Also, he only found out she was a time traveler...in episode 8? Whatever one she shot him in. By then he already knew Madoka was enough so if Homura had any potential there was probably no need for him to bother her.

I found it a satisfying finale. I kinda called the Crux all helping Takuto out, but apart from that it was very unpredictable, and it was very clever when they made Wako's line from the preview completely different from the context everyone expected it to be in.

Also, very clever with how Simone could talk to her Cybody in the 4th phase, where you become 'one with your Cybody', that was a nice touch. I did also like how Wako actually fought Head herself as well. The Maiden Cybodies actually do something! Wasn't expecting Takuto to break her seal of all people though. Nor did I expect Head to get a second, glorious punch.

I'd still like to see a bit more of a definite ending, although Takuto and Sugata watching the sun rise and the stars fade was great and I just prefer seeing everything covered and handled in my endings. XD Bring on the epilogue OVA! /o/

Huge build up, huge build up, huge build up...!!!! WAR WAR WAR WAR WAR!!!!!!!!!

Huh? A small skirmish with Skillout, and it wraps up? What happened to the saint who came in and swooped out Vento, what happened to the war of Science vs the Church, what exactly happened with what Misaka and Last Order were doing...

Uh... Guys? Anything?

...

Index III and/or Railgun II coming soon?

HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AMAZING [radio edit]ING LITERALLY EVERYBODY'S ULTIMATE ATTACKS AND EXPLOSIONS AND BADASS FIGHTS [radio edit] YES ROBOT HORSE.

It does offered some kind of ending, considering they put 60% of their budget on this one episode it's....passable....but only barely. I have some serious problems with it though.

1. Shinpathy, where the [radio edit] did this thing come from? There's no backstory or anything, I mean Ayingott had some backstory at least, being the cybody able to find the maidens. How the hell did something able to CONTROL THE KING get past EVERYONE's Radar.

2. Yes Tauburn, I noted the first cybody you killed was Kaphrat(The following sequence was Reshbal, Quophlite, Ayingott, Lambdos. Zayinas, Gimelclaw, and Hegent respectively, if you weren't paying attention), is this some way to acknowledge Mami being so totally ignored or something? Seriously, doesn't she have a true mark herself, where did she go?

3. Takuto himself, completely lacking development. Seriously, we established he can kick ass already, do we need a whole episode just to reaffirm that. What is there about him besides the fact he can kick everyone's ass? Could have done more there. Compared to most of everyone else, he's quite lacking as a main character with a bunch of questions still unanswered. Why is he in third phase, first off? What was that powerboost when facing Reshbal? Everything there that seem to better his chance at kicking ass are not explained on their reasons to be there.

4. Leon Watanabe, what was the point of his cameo? Yes we know Kanako has a 60-years old husband, the fact we never even seen her boat actually doing the evaculating makes him seem even less signifiant. But seriously, two whole scenes just to show off his mustache? Was that just blatantly playing on the fact they don't know how to fill the slots? I'd at least like a....

5. Epilogue, yes. That blatantly yaoi TakutoxSugata ending had no closure to it. What the hell happened to everyone else?

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

I just realized, Leon Watanabe's "desk" was the same shape as the mark of Shin. So that can potentially explain Shinpathy's controlling nature, symbolic to corporate ambitions and greed, as well as a need to provide ungodly amounts of unnatural abilities to control things. Hmmmm I like that.

In this way we can also link the Keito/Kanako rift with the Keito/Head rift at the end. There's a theme of greed between them, nice to see that get some exposure.