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):
Last week’s episode was pretty slow moving and a bit uneven with some of it’s lighter content, but still seemed to be slowly marching things along towards a conclusion. The slow march continues on this week as there’s not much progression here either and mostly seems to be another small transition. Thankfully though, there’s a much better balance in tone than in the last one, and things work a little better as a result.
On one side of things, having made his decision, Captain Samonji (now Lieutenant Samonji) has already started putting the Perphevollens to good use and decimating the battlefield with them. Despite some glowing news reports though, it’s pretty clear at this point that people are tired of the war and some of the commanders think they’re a hindrance in that regard. Cayanne of course isn’t really interested in peace but Captain Samonj seems to be silently following along, and separates himself from Colonel Izumi as a result. There’s not an entirely clear picture of what’s going on in his head at the moment but he determination he showed from last week’s episode is holding strong, and he’s serious about ending things.
Beyond that, much of the episode is spent on Unit 8 dealing with Samonji’s absence. Since he left, they haven’t seen much in the way of combat so a lot of the members have gotten pretty bored. There weirdly doesn’t seem to have been too big of a fallout regarding that as they feel that he was too talented for them and that they only survived so long because of it but they do feel somewhat betrayed. More interesting though is Suguro telling Jamie and the other mechanics that he’s more or less finished with the Argevollen since it’s served it’s purpose. He is however, still interested in Susumu and wants to keep getting data on him.
With all of the restrictions off, Jamie decides to unlock all the information regarding the Argevollen and decides to run a system check on her own, activating the U-Link system which invades her mind and makes her pass out. After waking up in the infirmary she tells Susumu about the experience and apologizes for making him pilot it, after seeing first hand what he’s gone through while she was on the sidelines. Susumu of course doesn’t quite feel that way and is grateful for being able to pilot it since it’s brought him closer to everyone, with the scene coming across as a bit more genuine than last week’s similar display. Back with Samonji, Suguro tells him about the decision regarding the Argevollen and remarks that part of the reason for his interest in Susumu is that he should be dead at this point after what’s happened to him while piloting it, and while Samonji doesn’t give much of a response it’s pretty evident that he’s not pleased with the idea of Susumu still being a tool for them.
In Summary:
This week is another slow grind but it’s a bit more balanced and less tedious than the previous episode, as some of the lighter material works better here. It’s too early to say exactly what effect Samonji’s new allegiance will have in the grand scheme of things, but it’ll be interesting to see where that goes as well as Suguro’s plans for Susumu. There’s only a few episodes left before the end and still quite a bit to be done so hopefully things rev up sooner rather than later.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
