Punch Line

Episode 11

Apparently, in a slightly unusual move for Noitamina titles, Punch Line is going to be 12 episodes after all. That's good, because as it turns out, one episode would have been nowhere near enough time to wrap things up. After all, not only do the denizens of Korai House have the asteroid to deal with, but they also have the Qmay Group and Guriko to worry about as well.

After Yuta explains everything to Meika, she eventually formulates a plan: the asteroid can be stopped by simultaneously detonating all of the roughly 3,600 ICBMs in the world on the asteroid once it gets close enough (because ballistic missiles don't have enough thrust to escape the Earth's gravity), which means that it has to be done practically at the last minute. Since even a hacker on Meika's level needs an hour or so to pull that off, Yuta must defend the house against an expected mobilization of police forces against them. What they don't count on is that the police forces in question have been riddled with Qmay Group members, which means that Guriko is going to show up in person with numerous already-finished Ws in tow. They also could not anticipate that the local U.S. Army commander has been taken over by the spirit of the Qmay Group's leader. Even though Justice Punch has fully come together to try to save the world (because the others eavesdropped and found out what was going on), and even though Yuta's spirit has possessed Rabura to add another Uberfied combatant and Ito has claimed Meika's mecha, it still may not be enough, as shells and missiles are poised to rain down on Yokai House.

What this basically means is that the series' action component, which has been used only sparingly for the last few episodes, fully takes over for the second half of the episode, with the first half being all about the Korai House residents uniting in common purpose. That this has never happened before in billions of previous iterations seems unlikely, although it could also indicate that Chiranosuke trying to dictate how things should be done may have been the problem all along (even if only inadvertently). The way the Justice Punch members end up playing out their roles is quite satisfying, as everyone has something useful to do, and the cliffhanger ending sets up beautifully for the final episode. The episode even finds way to fit in a couple of minor touches of humor, too.

The one significant negative for the episode – and this is, admittedly, a nitpicky point – is its use of Engrish for the U.S. Army officers. The attempts of the seiyuu to speak in properly-pronounced English result in an awkward cadence with telltale slurring of words, which definitely harms the impression that the production is trying to give about these being American soldiers. Still, at least an effort was made, and on the plus side, an explanation for why Justice Punch is called what it is finally comes out: the “punch” in the group's name is actually a double meaning, as it also refers to the Hindi word for “five” (which is “panch”). Hence the episode doesn't make quite the quality statement that episode 10 did, but it is nonetheless another solid stepping stone towards what should be a dramatic conclusion.

Rating: B+

Punch Line is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.