Anime / Last Period

Center: Haru. Clockwise from nine o'clock: Erika, Gajeru, Liza, Choco, Campanella, Kikazaru, Iwazaru, and Mizaru

Last Period (full Japanese title: Last Period: Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari) is an anime based on a mobile gacha game produced by the company Happy Elements. The anime aired in Spring 2018.

Set in a fantasy world which incorporates elements of mobile gacha games, the story follows the Arc End 8th Squad, a group of "Periods" — heros who fights monsters called Spirals. The group finds their existence perilized when their treasury is stolen; and to make matters worse, their attempts to find paying jobs are continually foiled by a rival group called Wiseman.

The series is available subtitled on Crunchyroll.

Last Period contains examples of:

• Artifact of Doom: Luluna's pendant turns out to be one, crystallized from the despair and resentment of all humanity. It messes up the probability of gacha rolls, causing her to always call five-star summons while others can only get one-stars, and also has the potential to super-charge Spirals.
• Back for the Finale: All of the five-stars summoned by Wiseman and all of the one-stars summoned by Haru return to help the heroes in the final battle.
• Beach Episode: Episode 8 has the heroes go to the beach. This time, instead of being on a quest to fight Spirals, they're working ordinary part-time jobs like lifeguard or food vendor.
• Breast Expansion: In episode 9, Android Sonya's breasts increase in size over the course of the episode, with them becoming massive at the end. When she is defeated at the end, they explode, a reference to the Samsung Galaxy phone's problem with exploding batteries.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Episode 3 has Liza encounter a ghost girl in a haunted mansion. While she's spent the episode scared of ghost stories and the fake ghosts she's encountered, the only actual ghost is a cute girl that doesn't scare her at all.
• Determinator: According to the series's synopsis, Haru apparently failed the Period admittance test 38 times before finally succeeding on his 39th try. Wiseman later identifies his greatest virtue as the fact that no matter how much the odds are stacked against him, no matter how impossible things seem, he just will not quit. Ever.
• Emergency Food Supply Animal: Choco regards Miu, the team pet, to be "emergency rations". Erika officially approves of classifying Miu this way, in order to get around the "no pets" policy of the building they're renting.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "The Happy Elements Episode", a showcase of four of the company's most well known titles (the Ensemble games, Merc Storia) while also getting a parody in for each.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Episode 4 has the broke heroes win a massive fortune from the lottery. Due to their profligate spending, they manage to end up back in bankruptcy by the end of the episode.
• Homage:
  • Episode 3 features one to Higurashi: When They Cry, with the Higurashi cast, as well as Ryukishi07, appearing as collaboration event characters.
  • Episode 7 features one to Kemono Friends, with the conflict being a reference to Tatsuki being fired.
• Hot Springs Episode: Episode 2 has the heroes take a quest at a hot spring, which has been losing business due to a Spiral blocking the water.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: All of the town mayors who give the Periods their quests look identical.
• Little Bit Beastly: The Animal Realm, one of the setting's six realms, is inhabited by humanoids with minor animal traits.
• Microtransactions: An in-universe example, as Last Period's setting is based on a gacha game. The Luna Stones used for summoning can't be purchased with the standard currency, Zel, but require a rare and mysterious type of money called "Yen".
• Mood Whiplash: The Happy Elements episode really shows you the difference in perception between Ensemble Girls! and its brother game Ensemble Stars!. The Girls! segment is rather short, being a cutesy slice of life in high school and very little plot going on. Stars!, however, follows right afterwards and is a full blown Melodrama.
• Monkey Morality Pose: This is the basis of Wiseman's theme. Their names are based on the Japanese translation of the phrases, and each has an appropriate fashion accessory: Mizaru's hat covers her eyes, Kikazaru's headphones cover her ears, and Iwazaru's bandanna covers her mouth.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Campanella's "diguise" as Blackpanella consists of nothing more than a domino mask, which completely fails to conceal any of her distinguishing features. Despite this, Erika and Choco are the only ones able to see through it; everyone else is completely fooled.
• Sarashi: In episode 11, the army of Android Sonyas claim that they've been patched to solve their breasts inflating and eventually exploding. This is represented as them binding their chests with sarashi.
• Shout-Out: In Episode 2, Wiseman talks about some big name animators they have connections to, including "Mr. Miya, Mr. Makoto, and Mr. Mamoru". Then Choco chimes in, "The problem is, which Miya is it? The father or the son?" respectively Hayao Miyazaki and his son, Goro Miyazaki, who is director of the rather contentious Tales from Earthsea.
• Team Pet: The 8th Squad's team pet is a small fuzzy creature called Miu. He is apparently an Art, a type of loot that is sometimes dropped by Spirals when they are defeated. While the team accumulates many additional Arts over the course of their quests, Miu is the only one who normally accompanies them.
• Translation: "Yes": Iwazaru speaks only in muffled exclamations, which Kikazaru translates — sometimes into phrases which are far longer than what Iwazaru said.
  Iwazaru: Uhh, uhh, uhh!
  Kikazaru: "You used to see stories about androids taking over all the time in old sci-fi, but I never thought it would happen to us," she says.
  Guru: No, that was way longer than what she said, guru.
• Translator Buddy: Kikazaru acts as one for Iwazaru, translated her unintelligibly muffled speech.
• Trap Door: The haunted mansion in episode 3 features one, which takes out all the heroes except Liza.
• The Unintelligible: Iwazaru. In keeping with her "speak no evil" theme, everything she says comes out as an unintelligible mumble. Kikazaru translates for her.
• Whip of Dominance:
  • Android Sonya is a haughty, domineering and authoritative villainess who wields a whip in combat and is clear Dominatrix. She often cracks her whips to intimidate her subordinates, talks to them in a demeaning matter, saying she'll make them work "like pigs" and forces them to serve as furniture for her. Soon enough she even takes over Wisemen from Campanella, because she refuses to have anyone lording over her.
  • Subverted with Erika, The Leader of Arc End who always carries a whip with her and wields it expertly in combat. but she's a Reasonable Authority Figure who doesn't fall for the stereotypes of whip users. When she fights Sonya, she actually expresses disappointment that they both fight with whips, claiming types like Sonya give whip users a bad rep.
• Winged Humanoid: The race inhabiting the Sky Realm is the Angels, who are humanoids with wings.