天下制覇

  

I’m surprised she can even reach the gas pedal.

Impressions:

15% of this episode was a recap of the previous episode. Not any of the shower stuff, just the things after it. They showed a third of the last half of last week’s episode. I also enjoyed how after being tossed in jail, the first thing that happened to Angst Girl is something crashed into her cell, freeing her and giving her a brand new almost mint condition mech.

The best thing I can say is that there were a lot of smoke and explosions, but it’s hard for any of that to feel the least bit thrilling or build momentum when they keep cutting away from it for talking heads, especially when they start screaming “This is war!” Maybe if you want to actually sell that point, we should quit with the coffee breaks discussing the horrors of it and actually show it. You also can’t unring the bell and go from a parade of super mechs and now create any real excitement from grunts taking pot shots as a source of dramatic tension. It seems to have an almost fetishistic love of keeping characters on opposite sides who have survived for more than two episodes as far apart as possible lest they be forced to interact in any meaningful way. And then the insert songs kick in because this show has taken it upon itself to singlehandedly keep Japan’s idol industry afloat.

It was making overtures of excitement and stuff happening, which is better than it’s done for a lot of episodes lately, but good god, stop posturing and just execute. It was also painfully clear (even after the 3 minutes of recap) that we’re in stalling time now and waiting for whatever “exciting” twist they have for the end of the season, so might as well just skip to the thrilling cliffhanger no doubt coming.