The path that Ao is on finally hits its kicking point.
What They Say:
Ao still feels conflicted about fighting Secrets, but with a swarm of Secrets descending on all the Scub Corals that have become active again, an ambitious operation is set in motion to eradicate all the Secrets at once.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Events after the last couple of episodes has certainly shifted the balance of power in the world in a way. With Secrets out and about causing as much trouble as they can, they’ve managed to get almost a hundred percent of the Scub Coral active again and pushing back against the attacks. With the way things stand, the world is basically waiting for everything to go to hell in a handbasket based on the way events are unfolding. It’s putting pressure on all sorts of things and we’re seeing more of how the world is reacting to it all, especially as they learn that Generation Bleu has had a Quartz in its possession that could be key to fighting back against it all.
With the way the scale of events has jumped up as millions of people are at risk and countless more from the fallout should things not be stopped, there’s a good amount of action that’s used throughout the episode. The personal side of it is a bit more interesting overall though as we see how Ao is dealing with it all. His recent encounters have started to turn his thoughts from viewing the Secrets as real enemies and that of the Scub itself. But that’s putting him in conflict with others, at least in his personal mental state, as well as himself. There’s so many conflicting things hitting him and so little real information that his youth and natural confusion are certainly understandable.
And of course, it’s also going to lead him to doing some radical things. When he finally starts to take a stand and a position in things, it’s one that first and foremost has him working to help protect his friends and deal with the situation they’re in. It’s amusing though that someone has to remind him that he’s no Eureka, something that this series has reminded me constantly. While it does serve up some strong visuals, something I expect from the series as Bones does great work when it comes to the ships and the action, it just feels disjointed again as Ao realizes he really does have a powerful weapon in hand to deal with everything. The shift is so abrupt in what happens from the last episode to this one, and his state of mind, that it really keeps me from connecting with it even still. But I love his action sequence in the second half as a thing of visual beauty.
In Summary:
With each episode, I keep finding myself at the end of it hoping that it all flows and works better when marathoned. With this episode, we have a sliver of interesting character material than then turns Ao into something that you knew he would be but it’s not done in a way that really felt natural. His progression was pegged from the get go so it’s not a surprised. What does work well here though is all the action, even if the meaning and depth of it doesn’t connect well because of the poor storytelling and structure so far. These scenes are bright, engaging and just a hell of a lot of fun to watch. It makes me wish they’d just do twenty minutes of the ships flying around in combat and leave it at that. It may not have much story, but it’d be more enjoyable.
Grade: C
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
