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.
I can’t believe you’re the only one who both blogs Seikou no Strain (which I watched last week with back-to-back episodes) and Sasami at the same time. BTW, haven’t you blog the latest episode from Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club? Because it seems you haven’t.
They pronounce Sara as Seira, because that’s how we pronounce Sarah in English. After all, we don’t pronounce it as “Sah-rah”, but more of “Seh-ra”.
Good job choosing to blog Soukou no Strain. I’m sure there were some people waiting for someone to blog it.
Umm.. I think it was in episode one but on one of the computer monitors in the show actually showed that her name is “Sara”
Agh… so it’s Sara after all. These English names in Japanese keep confusing me.
Nanami: you’re right, I haven’t blogged the latest episode of Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club. I just can’t seem to find a raw version of it. If you know where I might find it, I’d be very grateful. ^^
Xellos at the Animesuki forums pointed out that Soukou no Strain loosely resembles the childrens story A Little Princess, in which the main character is named Sara Crewe, and lives a lonely life that she keeps to herself. And she has a mouse she talks to named Melchizedek 🙂
I was also confused about her piloting the other Strain — but getting out of it you see that the MIMIC was cracked, so I guess we are lead to believe that she quickly retriever her MIMIC or brought it with?
Either way they should really put that MIMIC culture in a much stronger casing then — if we can make black boxes that survive plane crashes today, then why couldn’t they make a virtually indestructable MIMIC casing then? 🙂
Its a really good anime and there are alot of viewers , just that no one blogs about it. Its not really ignored 🙂
Psgels, glad you picked up Strain. Looking forward to your posts on the show. BTW, if I may, can I correct you regarding Sara’s use of the STRAIN in ep 1: Look really closely – Sara carries her MIMIC from her own STRAIN at 16:45 and then see it placed on her belt at 20:00. Ergo she uses it to activate the stricken STRAIN at the lab. Then we see it smashed at the end. MIMIC’s are irreplacable.
we don’t pronounce sarah like that in english and they usually don’t pronounce sarah that way in anime. they sound more like they’re saying sailor.
it was funny when isabella got pulled out of her little hole thing. i laughed
and sonhex’s right, she plugged her mimic into the second strain but then it was destroyed when ralph stabbed that one. i guess emily is a special mimic, we still don’t know what the mimics are or how they’re made. they might be made from that girl ralph took.
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