Episode 12 "Absolute Duo"
"Tor isn't thuggish enough to be a main character. That teacher with the bunny suit on should have been the MC. This would have been good if she was," said Santana Cristobal.
To be quite honest, it is a miracle I stuck with this anime series. Maybe it is because the first four episodes of the series were so well put together that I had really hoped the series would somehow find its way back to that and build off of it. But by the end, I can merely say I'm happy that the series is ending.
"Absolute Duo" by no means is absolute trash. There are plenty of notably good things like the animation, certain portions of fan service (here's looking at you mall date scene) and a somewhat charismatic main girl. And even despite his terrible character, voice actor Yoshitsugu Matsuoka makes hearing his thoughts and dialogue easy on the ears.
But ultimately, character development might be the biggest weakness of this series. Some might argue away a lot of these character based problems because they fulfil certain harem or ecchi tropes, but it is indeed a problem. First of all, because of the lack of characterization, on episode 12 I'm still not quite sure why any girl likes Tor besides him being nice. In fact, the problem with liking someone just because their nice in a dramatic form like anime is extremely problematic. So much so, it probably requires its own separate review.
Nevertheless, there's probably not a single interesting character in the series by this final episode which is very sad. If I had one character that I believed actually had emotional potential, it would be Miyabi, but that plotline got cut so quickly that I almost forgot it even happened.
Essentially, even in this last episode, all I can focus on is just how underdeveloped the characters are. Almost every character is a talking head - reading lines just because the lines progress the plot instead of being born out of both plot and character. In fact, this makes the relationship between Tor and Julie extremely unbelievable. I can't recall a single time where they actually had spontaneous bonding. Instead, like this final scene in this episode, they're just falling in together because they're supposed to.
Overall, "Absolute Duo" is a slightly less than average anime series that is great for passing the time in the background, but if you're looking for a good fantasy/action series with harem and ecchi elements, you're better off watching "The Testament of Sister New Devil."
