What They Say:
The Earth Forces are on the retreat after the Vers three-pronged attack. Meanwhile the relationship between Slaine and Lemrina grows in tense.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Honestly, much of the apparent action in this season recently has been a bit underwhelming. In the end it tends to amount to more of the same, with Inaho’s robotic eye and matching personality swiftly navigating the Earth Forces out of a bad situation against some Vers mecha (which are now spelled “Kataphraktos” or “Kataphraktoi” for the plural form since last episode had this new spelling on screen) after some kind of setup teasing a much more substantial battle. It’s actually a little nice to see the Earthlings having to run away, even if it’s pulled off in much the same way as their usual winning battles, just because it’s some of the rare glimpses at imperfection we get without having Slaine himself attacking. But more importantly, this allows the episode to move on with the main story as the brevity of such squabbles often do, and at this point that’s a far more interesting angle to explore.
Inaho may actually be more relevant in this episode than in many of this season, but almost entirely indirectly. His one big contribution aside from shaking off any Vers attacks that may come was planting the seed to reconnect with Asseylum – the real Asseylum – after all this time, and Mazuurek has been doing his best to execute his part of the plan despite the massive changes to the landscape of his origin in the brief time he was absent. Mazuurek may actually be the most interesting character to watch throughout this episode, a pleasant surprise after it seemed that he was hitting a wall in some ways while attempting to follow through on his word to Inaho. He already showed himself to be a worthy ally during his time on Earth and his talks with Inaho therein, but seeing him use every trick at his disposal to confront the most powerful people and test Inaho’s theories builds upon his character a good deal more. In the end he succeeds in his goal without drawing enough attention to himself to be immediately taken down, and even if it all comes back to bite him, the damage has been done, for the better.
I feel like I say this every episode, but it seems like things can’t possibly stay calm – relatively speaking – after this development. I suppose that’s really the goal for this series, especially in this season that seems to be hitting the big twists a little less but has enough volatility in place that the slightest adjustment can imply massive impact on the status quo, but that also makes it that much more disappointing when everything seems to quietly work itself out at the beginning of the next episode. At any rate, there’s bound to be some big explosion of plot development before too long and hopefully it can live up to this setup. It’s not just the matter of Asseylum regaining memories by any means, as the relationship between Slaine and Lemrina is getting more and more strained and while the former is suffering from enough anxiety over the state of each player thanks to his decisions, the latter is making her own moves that serve to clue her into what’s really going on enough to provide what seems like it should be something of a backup just in case Asseylum doesn’t initiate the big changes immediately.
In Summary:
Another episode somehow seems only to do more setup, again ending in a way that implies big movement next time. This is getting a little repetitive and anticlimactic, but in the process we see Mazuurek cleverly manipulate the situation in a way that lends him great character development.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.
