Thought Mamika was all sunshine and rainbows? Not in this post-Madoka climate.
What They Say:
The true identity of the Military Uniform Princess is Altair, a secondary creation of the character Shirotsumekusa from a social game called Eternal Wars Megalosphere.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
By this point, everyone knows that the Military Uniform Princess is in fact Altair, a character from a doujin creation that took her from her original commercial product and turned her into something completely different. This information alone doesn’t necessarily accomplish much without discovering the true identity and whereabouts of amateur creator Setsuna Shimazaki, information that Sota continues to keep to himself along with the overwhelming guilt that comes with it. As the series will run for 22 episodes, we’re still fairly early in the process, so if we’re this deep into Altair’s story now, it’s very interesting to think of how the series will progress throughout its second cour. Hopefully it won’t rely on some ridiculous end-of-season twists to drastically change the status quo for the second season for that purpose alone. Hiroe doesn’t seem the type to fall on that kind of crutch, but this is a different enough effort that it’s hard to know for sure.
As various characters dig up information around him, Sota’s state of mind is negatively impacted more and more, and who better to inflict a potentially lethal blow than Magane, the psychotic Creation who manages to be everywhere she needs to be, gathers all the information she can use, and attacks with her words at a level that all the physical attacks of those around her couldn’t come close to accomplishing. Sota’s speech to Meteora was a fairly cliché exposition spill that tells us more or less what we initially need to know about Setsuna Shimazaki and Sota’s relationship with her, so considering Magane appears to be the savviest of the Creations on a number of levels, it’s actually not such a stretch to believe that she could deduce what she needed to for the purpose of attacking Sota’s insecurities. That was almost definitely unintentional and wouldn’t forgive some of the eye-rolling aspects of his conversation with Meteora even if it was the point all along, but I can appreciate it on more of a meta level because of those factors.
All in all, the episode didn’t have a lot to offer until the end. Mamika, despite her status as the most naïve and innocent character due to coming from a seemingly kid-oriented magical girl series, has shown more humanity than a lot of the other characters, and is even able to reflect on her own evolution since coming to a world in which people think on a very different level than she’s used to. Of those outside the initial main group of good guys, she has definitely been able to analyze the events around her and become something of a moral compass to take what she’s learned and recognize that the one she followed was the true enemy all along. This leads to the first major scene of Altair in some time, even though so much of the story has been revolving around her, and she makes sure we all know how much of a villain she can be, albeit in a much more emotional manner than the psychopath that is Magane. Dialogue is often much more effective than action, but the action at the end of this episode is definitely the highlight, both because of Altair’s powers and intent and because of Mamika’s surprise answer to it. This is just the way magical girls are these days, and it’s a hell of a climax to finish up this intense conflict.
In Summary:
For an episode spent almost entirely on the revelations around our primary antagonist we now know as Altair, much of that material wasn’t especially compelling, especially as Sota becomes more obnoxious. Thankfully, Altair herself makes up for it, and Mamika even more, at the end.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Anime Strike
Review Equipment:
Roku 3, Sceptre X425BV-FHD 42″ Class LCD HDTV.
