TWEWY The Animation: Episodes 11 and 12

 Episode 11

So the last episode left off on Day 6 of Week 3, Neku and Beat heading into the Shibuya River. They run into Miniamoto, who reveals that Konishi’s in Beat’s shadow. Konishi lets him through the barrier up ahead to fight the Composer. She then takes on Beat and Neku.

The fight was pretty similar to the game! You’re up above the city battling Konishi and her red duplicates. Then Beat basically rips Rhyme out of Konishi, and they all team up together to take her out. I thought it was a super inventive way of portraying how they get the Rhyme pin in the game, and it was overall a pretty cool battle.

From there, Beat and Neku end up in an all white room. They find the defeated Miniamoto and the white room shatters to show the Room of Reckoning and Kitaniji. Shiki’s also there, Neku has a cute and awkward explanation of how she was made his entry fee. It’s adorable.

Then it’s boss fight #2 with Kitaniji turning into the red serpent and Shiki being mind controlled. It ends when Mr. Mew replicates himself and then Neku chains them all together to squash Kitaniji. Beat and Shiki are knocked out as a result of the battle, and Neku intends to go on alone. But Kitaniji reappears, reveals that he also has a countdown clock on his hand, and turns into the gold serpent.

Episode ends there, what a cliffhanger.

So it looks like we are still on Day 6, which confuses the hell out of me. The Game Master can’t attack until Day 7, so none of this should be able to happen. Not to mention that I have no idea if they’ll even be able to tie up this loose end with only one episode left. But let’s just move on from that.

Other difference is that the anime took out a battle. After defeating Konishi, Neku and Beat end up in the Dead God’s Pad, the bar area that Reapers have been shown talking in. There they fight human form Kitaniji and Possessed Shiki. After defeating them, Beat and Shiki are KO’d and Neku goes on alone. He gets to the Room of Reckoning and faces Kitaniji again. By then Beat and Shiki have caught up, and they all fight red serpent form of Kitaniji again. After that is when the gold serpent comes out, absorbs all of Neku’s past partners, and finally he fights Neku.

I have no idea how gold serpent is going to work here. I’ve suspected that the ending would be the hardest part for the anime writers to tackle and I guess we’re seeing some of that now. One thing for sure is that I’m so excited for next week, it’ll be strange watching the wrap-up but so cool!

Episode 12

The final episode was so good! I was actually super happy with it. It starts with the final fight with Kitaniji. Neku, Beat, and Shiki all team up to take him down. This all happens before the title sequence haha. 

After that, they end up in a corridor covered in CAT's graffiti. Neku yells for Mr. H to come out, but Joshua appears instead and reveals that he is the Composer (gasp). Joshua starts to explain things, he's the Composer and he's been playing a game with Kitaniji for the future of Shibuya. Also he killed Neku to get him into the game. He then asks Neku to play a game with him for Shibuya.

Neku is holding the gun and crying. He then drops it instead of shooting Joshua, saying that he trusts him. Joshua shoots him (again) in response.

It changes to Neku at the Scramble Crossing, revealing that he's alive. He finds Beat, Rhyme, and original Shiki. It's super cute, they introduce themselves to each other again, and Neku removes his headphones. These scenes of them heading to Udagawa to look at some new graffiti and running into erased friends (Nao, Sota, the entirety of 777's band, etc) and interspersed with Mr. H and Joshua talking. It's different from the game because it doesn't have Neku's monologue anymore, and the focus is more on them than on Neku. It does make sense though because this is how they're incorporating the Secret Reports. 

Mr. H talks about how he makes graffiti that imprints on people which is more democratic than using pins like Kitaniji. And about how Joshua didn't destroy the town because Neku trusted him. It's a more clear cut ending than the game for sure, and it hits all of the important points. I do wish that the focus was more on Neku as the protagonist.

And that's the end! I still can't believe it's over. I'll be playing the demo of NEO: The World Ends With You all weekend if anyone needs me.