Rinne no Lagrange ep20: the real Jersey Club

Episode 19

Soooo, it’s been awhile. I haven’t touched this series in (looks at calendar) – GEEZUS! Seven and a half months! Wow! If this series was gonna get a movie it would be almost animated by now! But I’m determined not to leave my work hanging. And since I’m actually invested in this series one way or another, I’m gonna push through and finish Rinne no Lagrange. Good thing this is one of the more laid back and inconsequential episodes of the series, at least until the end.

If memory (and looking back at my past posts) serves me right, we’d just learned that the head of Novumundos, Asteria was actually the reincarnation of Queen Maycun, the woman who was actually responsible for the disaster 20,000 years ago. Now from a sci-fi perspective, just the length of time from then until now brings up a plethora of questions in my mind. Twenty thousand years is enough to possibly see a small divergence in species. But I don’t have time to address these questions and neither does the show. The episode is a bit more personal, and down to earth. I’m speaking quite literally here. This episode focuses a bit on the Jersey Club and why it even exists.

I was given the impression early in this episode that the events from the previous one would come back to haunt the characters, as it seemed they had a stalker in the school. Well to my dismay it wasn’t some intergalactic bounty hunter, spy or ninja stalking them, it was a member of the student council who was quite nervous about giving them the news that their club would have to vacate their designated clubroom. Turns out that the school is no longer allowing the Jersey Club to fly by as the only exception to pretty much universal school club rule: YOU MUST HAVE AT LEAST FOUR MEMBERS!

The girls end up deciding to recruit a new member, and surprisingly it doesn’t take all episode and a plethora of shenanigans. The Jersey Club actually has a bit of a bad reputation. I guess all the robot mess and the fact that they have refugees (or former refugees) from other planets in the club has lead to rumours. Heh. Go figure. Despite all that a young girl named Reko joins club. At first it seems a blessing. But everyone quickly learns that she’s an absolute clutz. And say what you will about the Jersey Club, they’re all still amazingly adept at filling in when needed. All Reiko manages to do is injure and embarrass people. Though for that I’m actually rather grateful. I was at least given the opportunity to imagine a naked Muginami. For this, I will be grateful.

In more upsetting news for the club, we find out that Reiko thinks that by joining the club she gets her own giant robot. I’m going to avoid the Te’o joke and just say that this chick is pretty naive. Cute, but understandably naive. Lan and Muginami wonder how Madoka is gonna handle this misconception, and she does so by enlisting the help of the three useless guys from De Metrio. At the local festival that night, the Jersey Club seniors reveal to Reiko that the Jersey Club isn’t about piloting giant robots and protecting Kamogawa anymore. It’s about protecting the happiness of the people around them. Madoka sends Reiko the message to find her own happiness, and she’ll help her in anyway she can.

To which Reiko responds by quitting the club and starting her own club in dedication to robots. The end.

Oh not quite, I skipped a few scenes. The was the scene where Youko and Machiko got together to talk about the Jersey Club and its relevance, or lack of in Madoka’s world. It seems the clubs origins are far more than about Madoka’s sadness.

Then there’s the scene with Youko and Asteria talking. Some things about the relic they found last episode bother Asteria.

And that leads directly to Moid popping up again. I guess somehow he comes in contact with the relic miniaturizes it and delivers it to Prince Dizelmine. Oh those Le Garite people never learn. I’m pretty puzzled by Moid’s statement that he’s 20,000 years old by the way. Is he a robot?

I started this episode thinking that it would be a complete waste of time. I never gave a crap about the Jersey Club, and always felt it was a distraction, or a cheap way to keep the series interesting with high school high jinks while robots weren’t fighting or blossoming (only this show). But for this episode, it really helps send home a nice message about how the girls want to move on with their lives past the fighting. These three girls really are living good lives at this point. And all they do in their spare time is dedicate themselves to helping others and bringing them happiness. Sure it’s probably simple and cheap to do things this way. All the lights and balloons, and the new girl popping up out of nowhere because practically no one at this school has been slightly developed at this school, besides the three girls and a teacher that used to friends with Madoka’s mom. But I’ll fall for it. Moments like the scene with the balloons at the festival have basically kept me watching this show for as long as I have. It sure as hell isn’t the action.

As for the screwball craziness that’s bound to be around the corner involving Moid, Asteria, the relic and a bunch of hidden history, I’m gonna leave that alone for the next episode. I should’ve known a good scolding from a bunch of chicks wouldn’t be enough to avoid multi-planetary apocalypse.