Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2 – 12
プリンセスコネクト！Re:Dive S2 episode 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Pecorine battles Kaiser Insight (Mana), backed by power from Yuuki. Mana tries to remember how many times she’s gone through this fight. As such, she summons the controlled Labyrista and Metamorregnant to assist her. However, Karyl defends against their attack. Further, she invites her queen (Mana) to a meal. Mana responds by capturing Pecorine and torturing her.

Below the palace, Tomo and Matsuri (Nightmare) find their vice captain, Christina, in a defeated daze. Christina’s attitude frustrates Matsuri, who draws a sword on Christina and threatens her.

Outside the palace, Yuuki attacks Kaiser Insight. In the process, he uses his power to free Labyrista and Metamorregnant. Defeated, Mana decides to allow her Shadow to consume her. Now a monster, the Mana Shadow goes on a rampage. Members of other guilds show up to attack. This includes Nightmare, with Christina.

Yuuki and Pecorine, aided by Kokkoro, open a path for Karyl to reach out to Mana. Yuuki is hurt in the process, but refuses to allow Ameth and Labyrista reset time again. Gourmet Guild rescues Mana from the Shadow. Crisis over, Mana is arrested. Pecorine is reunited with her parents. She returns to the guild so that she can gain more experience to be a good queen.

Thoughts/Review:

And so things end with Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2 – 12, though with room for more series if they want.

Going Through the Motions

I’m not going to lie, everything in Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2 – 12 felt like going through the motions. Or maybe, going through a checklist of how a shounen title should be resolved. As such, there’s a massive battle against Mana, which is then escalated when Mana is consumed by her Shadow. There’s a bit of nakama power thrown in so that Karyl can try to reach Mana. And of course, Karyl, Pecorine, and Labyrista attempt to appeal to Mana on an emotional level.

The problem is that I don’t have enough invested into most of the characters, including our core group, outside of Pecorine. The anime has teased things that have happened in the past, due to Kaiser Insight. (I refuse to use the “localized for your protection” name “Omniscient Kaiser” since that is NOT the term they use in the Japanese.) But without knowing details, or who Minerva is/was, I have no clue what Mana was going on about.

I suspect that were I versed in the lore of this (game) world, things might have felt epic to me. But as it was, we didn’t see Mana defeat Christina. Thus the battle against Mana doesn’t quite have the punch it should have had.

I’ll talk more about this stuff when I do my series review.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I’m behind on blogging, but I need to get back to work. As such, I’ll say that in the end, Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2 – 12  hit all the checkmarks, but I just didn’t feel it. We’ll see if they do a third season or not. If they do, I want to see more fights between Christina and Eriko.