After last week’s build up, this week was a bit let down. It started with no new Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but every other series reached a low point if you could call it that. No new episode of Darling in the FranXX either, so there are good sides to that as well. Still leaning in the negative direction though.
Space Battleship Tiramisu Episode 9
This episode felt a lot about what the show was like before Subaru’s brother came onto the scene. Still, I feel like this show was just meant for people like me because I laughed as hard as I could. The fact that the typical mecha mascot character had an evil setting is a genius idea. Also, the little drama that happened in Subaru’s cockpit when his universe sense came back was overly dramatic and great as well. Ok, maybe that is a little spoilery, but whatever. The comedy of this show is playing around with settings that most mech anime don’t ever touch. There are highs and lows of that, which this episode would be considered a low, but it’s always going to click for me. Looks like next episode is going to be slightly more dramatic. Can’t wait to see how the drama is ruined.
Gundam Build Divers Episode 9
This episode was a repeat of last episode in its thematic elements and whose backstory gets hinted at. Last week was a festival episode where the Build Divers where playing against another team for a prize, but then the weak character on the opposite team engaged their hack, and the opposing team was defeated. Similar thing here, except this was another match against a team that the Build Divers fought in the first set of episodes. The only big surprise here is that Ayame was called in mid combat to not help out Riku, who was fighting a hacked machine. Not that surprising, considering that she a mysterious character who we don’t know anything about yet. She literally showed up in a jeep. Still, this show’s fun factor hasn’t waned on me yet. Can’t wait to see the story appear more next week to recover from this low.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes (2018) Did not have an episode this week. ☹
Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Episode 4
Since Legend of the Galactic Heroes didn’t have an episode this week, so I was hoping this episode would more than make up for the lack of weekly space opera. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I will say that it was a good episode with solid character interactions and everything, but it didn’t make up for the hole that I was lacking. I mean, the episode was centered around the Yamato escaping the Earth’s atmosphere. While there was solid character drama and everything, even involving characters that didn’t get focused on in 2199, the goal of the episode was very singular. It was very exciting though. I love escape scenes. One of my favorite moments in all of Star Trek history was when the Enterprise escaped space dock in Star Trek 3: Search for Spock. This escape is only slightly lesser then that one. Can’t wait to see how this escalates next week. Episode 5 is going to be exciting!
Fullmetal Panic Invisible Victory Episode 7
Wow, this episode was great. I loved it because I like it when super powered robots are taken away. It helps FMP to create more realistic character drama. I also liked where the story was going and the characters as well, so it’s just all around good stuff. We got to see Sousuke battle in his illegal match, then all the craziness happened from there. The show jumped from one interesting thing to another, so it was just a blast to get through. Reminded me of an episode of Yamato 2199 in that way so I wonder if a director from that show helped out in Full Metal Panic here. I mean, it is the same studio. I think my favorite part, besides seeing how awesome the M9 is again, is the reveal of what Lemon was actually doing by hanging around Sousuke and crew. It left on a good cliff hanger ending so can’t wait for more.
With the return of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, I hope everything returns to a more quality direction next week. It’s all good, but I would like to see how everything can maintain greatness. See you guys next Monday.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
Having watched mecha shows since the 70’s, I have to say that they’ve reached a point where the tropes are dominant and the entire genre is in decline. The parodies also peaked, back in the late 90’s, early 00’s with Nadesico and Fumoffu. FMP has been good, at first, but it just gets more emo and less enjoyable to watch. It can’t be helped. There’s an audience so they keep rebooting and rehashing. Even the shocking bits in Gasaraki was overwhelmned by the weird parts, and the anti-mecha tanks of Heavy Object seems more plausible than most mecha shows.
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