After Haizakura stopped Haikagura from starting another war. However, it comes at a cost as all the mechanica are rampaging out of control with nobody controlling them. Haizakura is at her limit. Can she stop them and make it out alive?
From last time, Haizakura appeared to stop Haikagura’s rampage. However, it seems that Haizakura decided to save her friends by stopping all the mechanica all at once with the risk that she overloads her logic systems and causes irreparable damage. Good thing that Karasuba managed to stop the mechanica after removing the jamming device without ill effects. That is while Gekka, Houkiboshi, Retzel, Nagi and the others try to reach Haizakura.
In the end, Karasuba, Gekka, Houkiboshi, and Retzel reach Haizakura, who is at her limit. They sang a particular song together to stop the rampaging mechanica, and it worked. But, of course, Haizakura lost consciousness after her friends passed out.
Several months later, the Black Cat Café was rebuilt, and Nagi managed to repair Haizakura as she woke up. Yes, the same way as the first episode, but most of her memories are gone. She hardly remembers anything. This becomes apparent with Chiyo finally visiting the café after fully recovering.
However, reality settles in when Haizakura can barely produce the Omurice she prepared. It’s not what Chiyo remembered, but it turned out okay as she started crying. While this show had some sad moments, seeing all the Haizakura almost lose all of them really pulls in the heartstrings. When Haizakura tried to recollect all the memories she had made in her diary, they got ruined as they fell into the puddle, and she tried to save them.
In the end, Haizakura thought it was best to reset herself when she first met Karasuba, Gekka, and Houkiboshi for the first time. Sure, Karasuba and Gekka beg her not to, but she made up her mind. At least she will make new memories and remember instead of keeping on the little memories she had.
At least they put on a farewell performance. Of course, Haikagura was there as she requested to see Haizakura one last time. Before she left, she linked up with Inaba as a parting gift before she got sealed away. Haikagura might have backed up some or all of Haizakura’s memories. After all, she was the one that gave Haizakura the memories that allowed her to remember her identity. I guess Nagi will use whatever is on Inaba to restore Haizakura, probably close to her former self. I think we won’t know for sure until the sequel, in the form of a visual novel, about two years from now.
Final Thoughts
Unlike the other three Key original anime, Angel Beats, Charlotte, and the other I didn’t see, Prima Doll didn’t give me mixed feelings. Of course, they played it safe, and it worked well with the theme of dolls finding a purpose after experiencing the hell known as war. PTSD is hard for them to overcome, especially with disastrous results, as seen with Haikagura when left unchecked.
Also, with a setting and setup similar to Gochiusa and some Key/Visual Arts stuff thrown in, it’s obvious this show has appeal. Not to mention, the automatas really have good and cute character designs.
As always, Haizakura is a precious cinnamon bun. Each main automata is based on a main character from Key’s visual novels. Also, they sang cover versions of songs of the respected work their character is based on.
- Haizakura (Furukawa Nagisa from Clannad)
- Karasuba (Kamio Misuzu from Air)
- Gekka (Tsukimiya Ayu from Kanon)
- Houkiboshi (Hoshino Yumemi from Planetarian)
- Retzel (Norumi Kudryavka from Little Busters)
Also, Gekka’s character design looks awfully familiar. I discovered that Hara Yui, the mangaka who created Kiniro Mosaic worked on Gekka’s character design.
Aside from that, Prima Doll overall was an interesting watch, and I enjoyed the music the media projects have available. Either way, it should be interesting to see other stuff Prima Doll media project will come out in the future.
That F’ING DEPRESSING! I wonder if it’s meant to be a “bright side” message for people suffering from Alzheimer’s or something related to short term memory loss but it made me very sad.
Good show regardless but the ending still hurt me.
Yes, this episode was sad seeing Haizakura lose most of her memories and end up with the same fate as Yugiri, but there is some hope that she got fixed thanks to Haikagura. Then again, it wouldn’t be Key without pulling the heart strings one last time.