Farewell, Newtopia! Amphibia Midseason Finale
Amphibia Season 2, Episode 10A/10B Review
If there’s anyone out there who’s not watching Amphibia, then they are doing themselves a great disservice. It’s one of the best cartoons on TV right now, and last night’s midseason finale reaffirms that for the umpteenth time. Not only did it give us plenty of callbacks to past adventures, but the show gave us some of the biggest clues about the overarching mysteries to the show. The secrets behind the Music Box; the powers that the human trio seem to possess; and hints as to what King Andrias’ plans are. They all get touched upon, and I ate it up!
In fact, I’m dedicating part of this post to just going over all the hints and clues we got. Hop into the adventure, people, because this is going to be amazing!
The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers
Its the night before King Andrias tells Anne and the Plantars what he and Marcy managed to learn about the Music Box. So, Anne and Marcy decide to invite Sprig and Polly over for their first sleepover! The quartet vow to do whatever it takes to stay up all night, whether it’s by causing mischief around the Palace, or coming up with the scariest dare they can think of. So what do they do? They decide it would be a great idea to head into the basement that’s been locked off from the rest of the Palace! Nothing could go wrong with that, right?
Yeah. Spoiler alert: they wander into a crypt and get attacked by these ghosts whose mere touch can melt things like acid.
I won’t lie: I’ve seen the idea of the haunted crypt before, and it’s a good thing that it never gets old. What’s new is how these ghosts look: they remind me of these deformed, otherworldly jellyfish. It if weren’t for the fact that they melt things by touching them, they’d be cute. I also like the way that the gang managed to defeat the ghosts. They used a bunch of mirrors to make the ghosts solid and proceeded to wallop them all and lock them in the basement.
On a side note, I think that we should point out Anne and Marcy’s actions in this episode. When Anne first came to Amphibia, she had a skewed idea on the concept of friendship thanks to Sasha’s toxic influence. Season One more or less saw her overcome that, but we see that Anne and Marcy are still influenced by Sasha’s controlling behavior. Case in point, they remember not to do dumb things on a dare.
A Day at the Aquarium
Picking up right after their sleepover, Anne and the Plantars meet with King Andrias and he confirms what we already knew. The music box is magical, can take people to other worlds, and recharging it is the key to getting home. Thus, it’s clear that the next step is to return to Wartwood and get the box. There’s only one problem, though: Marcy thinks it best that Anne stays in Newtopia, meaning there’s a chance she may never see the Plantars again before she goes home.
None of the Plantar family takes this revelation well, and they try to spend what may be their last day together at the aquarium, trying not to think about the fact that it may be their last day together. Here’s how well it goes over.
This episode serves as a testament to just how close Anne and the Plantars have become. The Plantars are essentially her surrogate family, with Hop Pop even calling Anne her “adopted granddaughter” in an earlier episode. She’s practically a big sister to Sprig and Polly at this point. So, the separation anxiety is real. And it doesn’t help that everything they see at the aquarium reminds them of their adventures.
Which is another great thing about this segment: all the call backs to their adventures in Wartwood. There’s even groups of coral that resemble things from past escapades!
In the end, the Plantars get involved in their normal shenanigans and get thrown out of the Aquarium. As they go to leave, though, Marcy realizes just how attached Anne’s gotten with them, and ultimately lets her go back with them to Wartwood, leading to an emotional reunion that almost left me in tears. And that msuic
The Bigger Mysteries
Now that all that’s out of the way, let’s dive into what I really want to talk about: everything that we learned about the mysteries of Amphibia!
Who’s In the Painting?
While the bulk of what we learned came in the second half of the episode, there’s one moment in the first part that I think is worth mentioning. While the kids are running from the ghosts, they find this old, torn-up painting. As they run by it, the camera lingers on this one shot:
If I’m right about this, then that fragment of the painting shows a younger King Andrias. Or at least one of his ancestors. As for the other being there, are they a frog or a toad? My first thought is that it was a younger Captain Grime or something. I don’t know, but something tells me that this is going to be important later on.
The Calamity Box’s Secrets
As I said before, this episode confirmed what many already suspected: the Calamity Box was designed to transport people to other worlds. Andrias’ ancestors used it thousands of years ago to travel to different dimensions, only for it to somehow end up on Earth. And those gems on it? They’re the key to its power, and have to be recharged at three separate temples in Amphibia.
What was most interesting to me wasn’t the box, though, but the gemstones on it. Take a look at the symbols and writing underneath each Gem: “Mind”, “Heart”, and “Strength/Will”. Each one corresponds to one of the three girls: Marcy is the mind, Anne the heart, and Sasha the strength and will. As I stated in my review of the season premiere, it appeared that Anne got some sort of power from the blue gem on the box. That power manifested itself as blue eyes when Anne was in trouble. When we saw Marcy save Sprig, her eyes glowed green.
In anime, glowing eyes are a sign of hidden powers. 
It all adds up: Anne, Marcy, and Sasha got magic powers from the Calamity Box. As to why, we don’t know.
Was the Box Abandoned for a Reason
So that music box is important, after all. And dangerous 
We know that the Calamity Box allows for interdimensional travel, but there’s still something that we don’t know yet: Why did Hop Pop’s book say it was dangerous? And why was it left on Earth?
If you’ll look at the page in King Andrias’ book, you’ll see the diagram showing how the Box can transport someone to other worlds. Amphibia’s in the center, surrounded by five other worlds, including Earth. But while the other four connect to Amphibia, Earth isn’t. That can’t be a mistake.
My conclusion: the Calamity Box was deliberatley abandoned on Earth in order to cut it off from Amphibia. The only reason anyone would go to such drastic measures would be to prevent something sinister from happening. Now that the Box is back in Amphibia, though, whatever calamity someone was trying to prevent may already be in motion.
Then there’s King Andrias. On the surface, he seems like a jolly giant, but I don’t fully trust him. Marcy’s introduction episode showed us that he knows more than he’s letting on. He has some sort of big plan in place, and it involves the Human Trio and the Box. As to whether it’s for good or evil, I don’t know.
The Story’s About to Change
I don’t when Amphibia will return with new episodes (aside from a Halloween special), but I do know this. When it does, I’m expecting some serious stuff to go down in the process. There’s a storm coming to Amphibia, and Anne and her friends are going to be right in the center of it.
THAT IS AWESOME!!! This is the kind of mystery and world-building that only the best shows can pull off! I am so glad I got into this show, and I can’t wait to see what the writers do with it next.
I Give “The Sleepover to End all Sleepovers” and “A Day at the Aquarium” a 4/5 and 4.5/5 each.
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New World! Goodbye Sword Art Online Alicization
Sword Art Online: Alicization-War of Underworld Episode 47 Review/Recap
Well, everyone, I did what I set out to do. I said that I was going to review every episode of Sword Art Online: Alicization, and managed to do just that. Was the season as good as I hoped it would be? At times, it was. But it had its fair share of moments that made us cringe. And pacing problems, to be sure. But for all its faults, I think that the Alicization arc manages to stick the landing with an emotional epilogue.
LINK START!!
Recap
The morning after he finally comes home, Kirito gets a call from Rinko, who says that Alice has run off somewhere! Just when he’s about to go search for her, though, he gets a box delivery. And guess who’s inside it?
Alice missed Kirito so much that she snuck out via the mail service. After getting herself situated, Alice then berates Kirito for not telling her he could be stuck in Underworld for good. She would have stayed behind to help him if that was the case, which is why Kirito didn’t tell her. She’s the hope for Underworld’s future. After talking things out, Alice gets to stay at the Kirigaya house for the rest of the day and bonds with Suguha and Kirito’s parents. Later that night, though, Alice wakes Kirito up and tells he she got a mysterious message through the Internet.
It takes while, but with Yui’s help, the two figure out that the message is giving them an IP address. One that will allow them to log back into Underworld! The three then call Asuna and head to RATH’s Office, where Rinko confirms that the address works. Thus, Kirito, Asuna, and Alice don’t hesitate to log in. And it turns out, the Underworld has been busy!
In the time since Alice left, the people of Underworld have developed space travel, and the Integrity Knights fly in starfighters and protect the planet from monsters in this big, sci-fi, Gundam world. As fate would have it, two Integrity Pilots, descendants of Ronye and Tiese, are locked in combat with a giant monster. The trio use their swordskills to make short work of it, though, letting the Underworld know that its heroes have returned at last.
Review
I won’t lie to you: I legit had tears welling up in my eyes as the episode came to an end. This wasn’t just the end to the longest arc in SAO. In Reki Kawahara’s original web novels, this marked the end to Sword Art Online. And it was going to stay that way for a long time, until Kawahara decided to give it a new ending with the ongoing Unital Ring arc. It may take years for that to get an anime adaptation, though, so there’s no telling if I’ll cover it. In the more immediate future, though, the series is getting a spin-off.
According to source on the Internet, SAO: Progressive is a soft reboot of the Aincrad Arc, one that sees Kirito and Asuna clear the game at a much slower pace. I admit, it will be nice to see the cast in their early days again, as Aincrad was one of the best arcs in the series.
As for how SAO: Alicization ended: I’d say it did pretty good, but that it’s not as exciting as it could have been. You can’t win them all, though, and I’m just glad that we got to see the anime version of this story. Getting my hands on the Light Novels was so hard! It’s too bad it’s over, though: that last scene of them all in space had me hooked!
I Give “New World” a 3.5/5. Good Ending, ’nuff said.
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Putting the “Pop” in Pop Culture!
