Some time off for our group brings some much needs changes
What They Say:
The National Federation of Ingelmia has declared war on the United Kingdom of Arandas in its conquest of expanding its borders. Susumu Tokimune is a new pilot for the Arandas army and during a mission he encounters an armored vehicle containing a robot called Argevollen as well as a young girl named Jamie Hazaford. After saving Jamie’s life, Susumu becomes the pilot for the Argevollen and uses it to battle against the Ingelmian forces.
The Review (please note that portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Content: After the gang makes it back from The Gate of No Return, the higher ups in the military are given a bit more information as to the situation regarding the Argevollen and decide to let Captain Samonji decide its fate while they contact Kivotos. Meanwhile the rest of the group is given time off to hang around the suburbs. Susumu on the other hand spends his time inside the base sulking after what happened in the gate and staring at a picture of a woman on his phone.
The main highlight of the episode arrives when one of the other soldiers in the group decides to call Susumu out on his reckless behavior and gives him a much needed punch to the face as the others try to hold him back. Afterwards the guys all sit down and discuss some of the moral aspects of Susumu’s attempts at heroism with a lot of them noting that they understand following orders is most important but that they weren’t quite sure what they’d have done in similar situation. They do mention however that Susumu’s behavior could get him killed someday and it’s a lesson that sinks in a bit. The lesson is sunk in a bit further when he goes to apologize to Captain Samonji who explains to him that his actions could have gotten him court martialed or killed and that it was the wrong thing as a solider but that he himself doesn’t feel as though Susumu was completely wrong and has faith in him, adding a bit more characterization for both.
Jaimie in the meantime gets her own dose of reality when a representative called Suguro arrives from Kivotos and attempts to settle the situation regarding the Argevollen. Since both Jaimie and Susumu are linked to it, he decides the solution is draft her into the military as an engineer for the time being and while she tries to get out of it at first, the situation ends up being an offer she can’t refuse as she’s threatened with having to pay them back for its usage. As she laments over what happened she runs into Susumu and follows him into a cemetery where he goes to visit the grave of his sister. He vows that he’ll find his sister’s killer though what he intends to do once he does is left vague.
In Summary:
After a mixed first three episodes Argevollen seems to have finally found its much needed groove. Susumu’s punch to the face wasn’t quite enough punishment but the lesson that he needed to learn seems to have finally gotten across and his talk with Captain Samonji toward the end made the latter a bit more interesting as a character and I’m curious to see where both are headed given the revelation at the end. Jamie’s current fate also looks like it could spin things in an interesting direction and the show now taken some much needed steps towards being something worth watching.
Overall: B+
