REVIEW: ‘Platinum End,’ Episode 12 – “A Fine Line Between Offense and Defense”

Platinum End is a dark fantasy shonen anime produced by Signal.MD. With Metropoliman revealing he is prepared to unleash a virus across the city if Mirai, Saki, and Nanato don’t surrender themselves, the team is faced with what feels like a no-win scenario. Can they find a way out of Metropoliman’s newest trap in Platinum End Episode 12?

This week’s episode has a couple of good moments in it that are unfortunately drowned in a story that mostly focuses on Mirai’s continued unwillingness to kill. The story tries so hard to emphasize the young man’s struggle that it just becomes annoying. If this was the first time that the issue had shown up, it would be fine. It would be enhancing the moment with the young man’s inner turmoil. But Platinum End Episode 12 is far from the first time this series has spent the bulk of an episode relaying the protagonist’s resistance to the idea of taking a life. While I continue to appreciate some of the unique angles and blunt honesty the show imparts upon Mirai’s reasoning for his stance, there isn’t nearly enough new information to make the prolonged showdown that consumes so much of this story anything but repetitive.

The sense of repetitiveness that plagues the main protagonist here works just as hard to weigh down the primary antagonist. Metropoliman is evil. He will sacrifice anyone or anything to achieve his goal. We know. With the character having been established so early on as a force of pure malevolence, the show’s attempt to reiterate this point repeatedly just gets old quickly. Between the two characters, a lot of talking occurs, but little of note gets said.

On the periphery of Platinum End Episode 12’s main personality clash, the episode does deliver a couple of noteworthy moments for some of its supporting players. While these moments provide a break from the circular back and forth of the episode’s main premise, they can’t manage to do nearly enough to save the story from itself.

While the philosophical stalemate that this episode locks itself into is ultimately its great struggle, the visual side of Platinum End Episode 12 does everything it can to keep the intensity from slipping away. The emotion on the characters’ faces is always well delivered. And the placement of the camera is strong throughout the story, helping to keep the viewer visually engaged, even as they may find themselves mentally checking out.

So, when all is said and done, Platinum End Episode 12 finds itself with the same interesting premise it has displayed from its start, but due to its unwillingness to do anything to develop its cast’s perspectives, it finds itself locked into a form of emotional gridlock. Hopefully, the coming episodes may see the narrative take the big step in character development the story needs if it’s going to move past its current struggles.

Platinum End Episode 12 is streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.