Oddly, the reset button worked for me because it really highlights that Mashiro just pulled off a 300+ year Xanatos Gambit.
Effectively, she was not only willing to win the previous Festival(which consisted of eliminating an entire previous set of Hime) but wait 300 years in a tiny
little crystal waiting for the off chance that events would conspire to release her power early before it went to the next winner of the Festival, at which
point she pretty much gets to use the godlike power that gave her to end the Festival once and for all.
And she does all this under the immediate nose of a Big Bad that knows pretty much everything about her actions from day one.
Admittedly, I liked the cast, and so seeing them actually get a happy ending was a viable enough reason in and of itself. But the sheer magnitude of what
Mashiro managed to accomplish makes calling the ending "just pushing the reset button" seem entirely like accentuating the negative at the expense of
a rather impressive plot twist.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
Effectively, she was not only willing to win the previous Festival(which consisted of eliminating an entire previous set of Hime) but wait 300 years in a tiny
little crystal waiting for the off chance that events would conspire to release her power early before it went to the next winner of the Festival, at which
point she pretty much gets to use the godlike power that gave her to end the Festival once and for all.
And she does all this under the immediate nose of a Big Bad that knows pretty much everything about her actions from day one.
Admittedly, I liked the cast, and so seeing them actually get a happy ending was a viable enough reason in and of itself. But the sheer magnitude of what
Mashiro managed to accomplish makes calling the ending "just pushing the reset button" seem entirely like accentuating the negative at the expense of
a rather impressive plot twist.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."