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Akiba'S Trip The Animation
Episode 12

by Paul Jensen,

How would you rate episode 12 of
Akiba's Trip: The Animation ?
Community score: 3.9

Things are not going well for the members of Electric Mayo at the beginning of this episode. Tamotsu has lost his powers after a run-in with Mayo's sister Urame, and now Mayo wants to send him home for his own safety. Arisa has been called back to the US to help an old friend save his company, leaving Mayo as the only person capable of fighting Bugged Ones in Akiba. As the group starts to fall apart, the government ban goes into effect, and uniformed goons start clearing all the otaku stuff out of the city. With the vigilante groups powerless to stop them, only a reunited Electric Mayo can save the day.

Last week's episode introduced the big final conflict for the end of the season, so this episode is largely dedicated to letting the characters decide what to do about it. That's not such a bad thing in theory, but in this case it just leads to a lot of predictable fussing and fretting. Tamotsu questions his ability to do anything useful, Mayo struggles to continue the fight on her own, and pretty much everyone goes through a crisis of confidence. The writing isn't strong enough to make this process all that compelling, so what we get is essentially Akiba's Trip without its usual manic energy. In a series that thrives on going as far over the top as it can, that's not a great way to go.

There are at least some points of interest mixed in with the more generic material. We finally get a sense of who Grandma, the ominous woman in the black hat, really is. There are hints of family drama to be found in the battle between Mayo and Urame, which could provide some extra emotional impact if the two of them get a rematch next week. Unfortunately, by the time the episode gets through the standard-issue plot points of bad guys locking down Akihabara, there's very little time left to explore Mayo's family history.

For the most part, this episode feels like a detour that the series didn't really need to take. The issue of Tamotsu's powers feels especially poorly handled; they're gone for so little time that the loss barely affects the overall plot. The right moments are all there, from the initial shock to his timely return to help Mayo fend off Urame. The problem is that the clunky pacing undermines any sense of danger or personal growth that the process might have delivered. Much like Arisa's very brief trip to the US, the whole thing lacks the impact it needs in order to be worth the audience's time. At the end of the episode, the characters are in more or less the same situation as when they started.

While last week's episode did a respectable job of setting up a big conflict, Akiba's Trip struggles to maintain that narrative momentum here. Too much time is spent on obvious plot points, and the attempt at testing the main characters' commitment is hasty and underdeveloped. It's not a complete disaster, and there is some decent incidental humor to be found, but it feels like this episode could've been put to better use for the most part. The best thing the series can do now is let it go and start fresh for next week's finale.

Rating: C

Akiba'S Trip The Animation is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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