Hi Irina! How has your week been going? Mine, well…let’s just say that it’s mid semester week right now and I think that says enough probably. I don’t know, just lots of things to do that keeps things interesting and a bit chaotic. Especially when working a bit too.
My week is great. I haven’t had midterms in a while. It’s super stressful, I sympathize. Although I’m a little jealous as well. I miss school. It’s so much fun although it’s not always easy to see that in the moment!
Anyway, I am ready to dig into this episode. AMAIM certainly went a few places sense last time didn’t it? I suppose that more cast members had to be introduced but well…I suppose that is digging into it a bit too fast.
I’ll get my shovel!
Well, speaking of too fast, did this episode feel a bit rushed to you? Like it rushed out a lot of its content. I mean, the ending of the fight from last episode was just put into a flashback. Same with having another conflict between that one captain we don’t know of vs some other forces in the opening? It was great establishing stuff, but didn’t push into it all as much as it could.
I did think, sheesh, things are really happening fast. It seemed like a minute ago Shiiba was an ordinary kid and now he’s already well on his way to becoming a hardened terrorist. And I do agree, I think the hostage negotiation particularly went by in a flash. Although it did srve to set up that Gai…isn’t human. As in, at the end of the day, he probably doesn’t understand Shiiba’s concerns. That’s a decent setup for potential upcoming conflict.
I realize that this is a very long shot but if they are slowly building a sort of HAL 9000 situation with Gai, I would absolutely love it!
That being said, the story and interaction with the Amou and the oldman was great. Same with that old couple just trusting him because of how honest and kind of he was despite being a terrorist. The old cop was even convinced too it seemed. I honestly feel like Amou could have stayed there for the entire show and the fishing boat would have been ok. What do you think?
Think the cop was just giving them a break. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have lasted if they chose to harbour a criminal in the long run. My impression was that he was turning a blond eye this one time for an old friend.
That said, I’m always up for a nice farming show with no animals involved! Mecha farming is a terribly underserved niche.
Also, the interactions between Gai and Amou seemed very much like Vivy and Matsumoto still. Gai is helping Amou, but he is definitely pushing Amou into uncomfortable terrorist positions. I mean, I suppose that is the position of where Amou and Gai are placed into all of this here. I suppose that might be just what has to be done.
What has to be done as determined by whom? The thing is, we had at least a vague story for Matsumoto’s motivations but why is Gai acting like this? He obviously has an agenda. He has had one from the start. Right from their first interaction, Gai pitted Shiiba against the military. And you may say it was to save Shiiba at that moment but why? Why would he want to save Shiiba, why not get picked up by the military forces. They certainly would have taken very good care of such tech…
Seems like Gai was always programmed for a specific function is what I’m saying. Cough, HAL, cough.
That last fight was definitely full of a lot of character interactions, wasn’t it? Not just Gai and Amou with the Kenbu against the Asian forces, but that captain being obsessed with him and then the sniper AMAIM and the user at its end. Another instance that made the episode feel a bit rushed, but not bad too bad I suppose.
It was an ok faight sequence but I think line of sight wasn’t the best. The action felt crowded on the screen and I wasn’t always sure of where I should be looking.
I thought this episode looked great. From the stand alone scenes at that farm to the quick boat scene to the fight scene at the end, it all felt well composed and put together. There was a lot of good mecha choreography too and very expressive characters. Just very well put together in general. Sunrise has just made a lot of good looking shows recently. I also like how the four sides in Japan seem to have very distinct units and colors.
I do enjoy the production of AMAIM. It’s consistently more cheery and innocent looking with the rounded design and bright colours, than the actual subject-matter but I liked that about it.
So, I felt this episode was about as busy as last episode and was well directed to the point where it didn’t feel like it was too full of everything. It was all understandable and looked great so I don’t have as many faults with it. Some questionable vibes still going on, but it is still early in the show.
I would say it was consistent. I like the first episode a bit more as for everything that happened, I don’t think much was established this week. I’m looking forward to meeting those two other characters we see in the OP. I have a feeling this is going to be a show about forming friendships and trusting people and all that.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
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