Category: Soukou no Strain

You know, this series actually turned out pretty good. This episode really convinced me to that. The fact that this anime is so incredibly intense did require me to get used to it a bit, but right now, this anime is turning better and better. Also, if you thought that the first episode was intense, just wait till you get to see this one. 😉

We start the episode with Sara, kicking Lotti out of the way in order to fight her brother. It seems that both of them are using special Strains, which means that nobody can really keep up with them. There’s one thing I disliked about this fight: at one point, Ralph Werec has used his Strain to grab Lotti’s Strain. He hits her, but surprisingly, her Strain remains intact, opposed to all of the Strains he wiped out in the first episode with just one blow.

Still, the fight was only meant to introduce the episode. At the end, Sara manages to deliver some small damage to Ralph, forcing him to retreat. She actually wants to go after him, though another Strain pilot stops her (I forgot his name for a bit). She then cries in the same way she did in the first episode, pretty touching. Still, things get even better afterwards, when Lotti meets up with her.

Sara must’ve felt pretty horrible. She’s probably hated by almost each of her fellow-students after this incident. After all, she appeared like she didn’t have a MIMIC, so she had to train extremely hard in order to catch up with all of the Strains. She was already seen as a show-off, but now that she actually appears to be able to fly a Strain, it must seem to the other students that she’s making fun of them.

Lotti also seems to have a very good reason for hating Ralph Werec. She also had a big-brother complex when she was young, just like Sara. It seems that Ralph killed her brother at one point. It’s probably the reason she decided to be a Strain Pilot. We also get to see Ralphs allies for the first time, and our first hints to why he changed. He does work for people, it seems. Whether this is forced or not, I’m not yet sure.

I’m also glad that more blogs have started to speak about this series. Code Geass seems to have gotten a contender of best “mecha-series of the season”. Still, there’s one problem with this series: it’s abundance of fanservice. It seems to do this in order to please the otakus, while it doesn’t even need this. In my opinion, it only hurts the series.

Okay, so This series has been out for a week, even the subs have appeared after only two days, and I’m still the only one who blogged about it? Okay, sure, it isn’t the best series out there, it has its flaws, but it’s not bad, or anything. Ah well, time to give this show a bit more attention.

This series tries to bring an epic tale in only thirteen episodes. If the creators will actually manage to pull this off, the future episodes might get very interesting. Like I said in the quick first impressions: the first episode tried to make us feel sympathy for a one-dimensional character by making her brother kill off her three best friends. Only afterwards, she gets interesting. It may have ruined that moment, though it set a nice base for the future episodes.

I’m not sure whether I agree with Shinsen-Subs’ decision to spell the main character’s name as “Sara”. To me, it sounded more like “Seira”. In any case, I like her. Ever since the incident with her brother, she estranged herself from society. It’s like she’s become afraid to make any friends, in fear of losing them again. Well, that plan failed, as she starts talking to a doll, Lotti got interested in her, and the two technicians (whose names I unfortunately forgot, they were quite difficult ones) started to get familiar with her when she kept visiting Emily, who just happened to sit right next to one of their projects: a huge strain.

Well then, there were quite some things that I liked during this episode. The fast pacing, for example. I know, fast pacing isn’t good for series with a big plot and only 13 episodes, but it definitely does add its good points, as Good Witch of the West showed us. At least this anime doesn’t make the mistake of excluding important explanations. Lotti and her companion were also very good during the fighting scene. Lotti seems to have some kind of grudge against Ralph Werec herself, which does make her an interesting character, who’ll probably end up alongside Seira in the future. Her companion will probably get caught as an innocent bystander, due to the fact that she always follows Lotti around. This episode also showed that she isn’t entirely helpless. Isabella’s death also showed lots of potential, as it’ll be interesting to see how everyone reacts when she’s gone.

Still, there were a number of bad things as well. I still don’t get the use of the MIMICs. They’re supposed to be bound to one person, they were made when that person was born, and can’t ever be replaced. You would think that the person this MIMIC is bound to is the only one who can fly it, but episode 1 showed Seira, who just borrowed the Strain of one person, without any problems at all. How did she manage to make it work? Same with Emily, though that might gave an explanation: Emily is a second MIMIC of Seira.

Still, that doesn’t explain what Emily was doing inside the mecha-pilot-academy. And why did Seira choose this academy, of all possible academies to choose. And why did the two technicians start working on their Strain in the exact room Emily was in. And why they didn’t remove her. I’m somehow fearing that some of these questions will never get an answer. Another thing I didn’t like was the useless fanservice which appeared once in a while.