Friday 25 October 2013

Turnabout Storm Part 5/4 review

Again, can't find it to embed, so here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIwsXWPr8ew

It's here, it's here, it's finally here!

And it's better than I could have imagined! I always liked Turnabout Storm, but before now there were things that held it back from being great. But this finale is easily one of the best things I've seen all year. It's wonderful. It's amazing. You all need to see it now.

Now, some might be daunted by Turnabout Storm's sheer size. This one episode was over two hours, and there's five more where it came from. However, it's entirely worth it. The conclusion to Turnabout Storm has fantastic animation, voice acting, writing, and editing. It's almost perfect. At no point in these two-and-a-half hours did I feel bored. Just about every moment was engaging. It kept a constant forward momentum until the ending, where it delivered an emotionally satisfying ending. I don't want to spoil it, but it's amazing.

The writing on this finale is also brilliant. It keeps the best of its two sources, and even if it stumbles a bit-stupid moment here, over-long scene there-it's usually fantastic. At first, it seems there's some forgivable plot holes, and some characterization issues. But by the end they're all ironed out with perfect explanations. It makes full use of those two hours with a great twist-again, not gonna spoil it-that is only obvious because of when it happened, but makes perfect sense in hindsight. The aforementioned "plot holes"? They're actually foreshadowing.

The ending proper is a bit too long, but it's filled with great, emotional moments and plenty of laughs. One or two references-notably, one especially terrible appearance by Lyra-do hurt the ending, and by extension the video, a bit, but the rest is so amazing that it isn't too much of a problem. The way that the writers tie up all the loose ends in positive ways is genuinely heartwarming. They make you care about the characters enough that, when they've all found happiness in the end, you're happy for them. In fact, I was so happy that I cried a little.

Of course, it's also great on the technical side. Though the few out-of-court sequences have a lack of lip movements-to fit with the style of the games, of course-the in-court animations, which take up most of the video, look excellent, especially in 720p HD. The sound is also good for the most part, with the vast majority of the performances being great. The musical choice is good too, helping establish the mood.

There's probably even more to say about it, but I don't want to ramble. Simply put, this is one of the best brony videos of the entire year. The only excuse you have for not checking it out is not having seen the other Turnabout Storm episodes-in which case you should watch them NOW-or not having the time. It's the best conclusion that this series could have hoped for-in fact, I daresay it retroactively justifies some of the worst moments of earlier parts. All in all, a great video.

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