Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Rating: 7/10

God there was so much hubhub about this episode licking balls and such, but I didn’t think this was that horrible. People cry when there’s too much action, then more people cry when there’s no action. The writers just can’t win it seems. I felt they did a decent job, and I’ll try to explain why without rambling too much.

Although I enjoy the fight scenes of this anime, I watch it mostly for character interaction and development (not necessarily art or action). So, when I see Panda-kun rape the shit out of a tank, I view it as the writer’s way to contrast his gentle behavior and cast seeds of doubt into the hearts of his comrades as to what kind of man he truly is (and gives him dependability). Also, since Panda and Alice have gotten the majority of the screen time up until now, it was probably a good time to start developing the rest of the cast. So, we got to see a little bit more of Marchis and Oreld, to understand what more they can offer to the anime.

The major issue this episode was more suspicions of 901-ATT and if it really existed. Oreld seemed to be indifferent as to what Panda’s past was and even embarrassed Marchis to show him why. He made a good point, kind of conveying that the past is important, but it doesn’t dictate who you are. Judging by how Panda’s acted since he joined P.S. III is all they need to know in order to decide if he belongs or not. I thought this was pretty deep on Oreld’s part since he seem more like a womanizer than a thinker so that was a nice surprise.

I’ll admit that they overshot the scene on the rooftop just a little bit. The dramatic speech was a little out of character but it got the job done. This absolutely meaningless episode couldn’t have been more meaningful for the P.S. III crew and their relationships with each other. Hell, we even got some Alice tsundere action in this episode.

Was this episode a failure? Not really. Was it a good episode? Not really. Overall, it got the job done in resolving some issues and advancing the character development. We can now sweep the bad parts under the rug, forgetting it happened, and move on with the story. Only now we know a little more about Panda and his schizo-lantern, and we can see the P.S. III crew developing stronger, more accepting friendships.

I’m not giving up on this THAT easily, especially since I still enjoyed this episode more than most of the crap being released right now. Plus a minor decrease in art quality isn’t that big of a deal to me on episodes like this, where its mostly character development and not much action/movement.

-Retsgip