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:
Content(warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Argevollen has spent the last couple of episodes setting things up and that carries on into this week. However where the last couple of episodes have dragged a bit, this one finally delivers on some much needed payoff and there’s a much clearer picture of where things are headed. All the show’s cards have be put on the table, and it makes for some good stuff.
On one end of things there’s a few new developments. The Inglemians now have their own mass produced super Trail Krigers called the Strum Beta, and thanks to that Arandas has been driven into an even worse corner than before, with the danger of self-destructing the longer they try to hold out. They’ve also managed to get some leaked intel about the Perphevollens and the threat they posses by being unmanned so they’ve turned their sights on Samonji. Susumu and the rest of Unit 8 take a bit of a back seat but it appears that Reika’s residual effect on the U-Link is what’s keeping Susumu from getting killed by the Argevollen, so it’ll be interesting to see how long that holds up.
The real show stealer for the episode though, turns out to be none other than Cayanne who moves forward with his agenda. He devises a plan for a counterattack, but when the higher ups reveal that they’re moving forward with their peace talks he finally snaps and decides to call them out on their cowardice. One of Argevollen’s strengths has been that it’s war commentary, and that comes into full effect here as it raises it’s biggest debate. Cayanne believes that surrendering and giving into false peace is a betrayal to the soldiers who’ve fought the battle for so long, and that any military that does so shouldn’t be served. However, while it’s clear that the higher-ups are mostly looking out for themselves, they also raise the point that fighting a losing battle comes at the expense of regular citizens, and that it’s more important to look towards the future.
Reality of course tends to side with the latter opinion as pretty much any nation has to make compromises in order to survive, but seeing that reality from the perspective of the people actually fighting the war makes it a bit more of a bitter pill to swallow, and one that’s hard to ignore. It’s tough to say exactly if the show itself agrees with Cayanne’s opinion or not, but it’s a debate that’s likely to carry the show straight into it’s climax. In the meantime though, many of the soldiers certainly seem to agree with him, as he encourages them to raise a rebellion against the military higher-ups, and sets out to end the war on his own terms. In the midst of all this it’s hard to say exactly where Samonji’s own goals lie despite his involvement, but it’s a mystery that should hopefully be solved sooner rather than later.
In Summary:
Argevollen finally brings an end to it’s long set up over the last few episodes and in a pretty big way. Cayanne’s pulled out all the stops this time around and he’s proven himself to be a pretty interesting villain as his cause seems somewhat understandable morally but logically unwise in the grand scheme of things. With things heating up it should be fun to see where it all goes and exactly how the show decides to answer the question it’s just raised.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
