Amaim Warrior at the Border Episode 10: A Return To Arms

Hi Irina! I’m confused about the weather right now because its supposed to be winter and yet…I don’t know what is happening half the time. The Pacific Northwest is such a weird place where it can be cold one day and then warmer and rainy the next. Or in the same day. That’s just how it is.

It’s the same here. We yoyo from winter to a mild spring from day to day. I mean we have snow but you never know when you’re going to get a 10 degree day…

I’m assuming that you are probably in a normal area where the weather can make some sort of sense. Other than that I can’t really say that I’ve had the most exciting week. Just one project after another to work on and it certainly keeps a person busy. At least the holidays are here :). 

Oh not at all. Montreal is in the middle of a couple of whether channels so we get some pretty wild fluctuations. A 30 degree jump in a day is not that out of the ordinary. Apparently that’s a 54 F jump.

I’ve been wrapping presents this week. I really like wrapping presents. I offer to do it for everyone who doesn’t want to, around me.

Speaking of holidays. That’s kind of what this episode was about. A major switch in location as the resistance is changing locations. A struggling one at an island needs some help and so Amou, Gashin, and Shion visit an island. So obviously it’s vacation time! Yay! Except…not.

Oh but robots, Scott! Robots! In case some of us forgot that this was in fact a mech. And you know, It was nice to get back to the action a bit. I did enjoy the slightly more relaxed episodes we have had. Not that i would call last week relaxed exactly but it was more of a suspenseful slow burn rather than an all out action week. 

I will give AMAIM that. As much as I think the pacing is off, and specifically way too fast, it does vary the episodes a bit to create some diversity in the narrative and I think that helps a lot.

They did a very interesting job of introducing the main villains of this episode. This time we see Eurasia (or Russia) come in. I mean, they are still very clearly evil. Obviously, they just sent their entire waves of mecha towards the resistance without even looking at the battle at hand. I think they are brother and sister and the guy isn’t shy at all. There was also a lot of animation spent on the making of tea and that was a choice. Not a bad one.

They were introducing a slightly unhinged blonde easter european who’s explicit policy was quantity over quality and honestly, I felt a little called out… 

Jokes aside, I do get what you mean. A lot of the antagonist characterization in this show has been paper thin and very flat. By comparison this guy was a lot more developed and that was nice to see.

Then of course our main crew come in and stomp with their AMAIM units and it breaks their normal routine of just slaughtering people as usual. Plus, Gashin is still sad after all that happened last episode so clearly this episode is slightly about his bit of recovery or at least some hope. The resistance group on that island seemed pretty ok with whatever our three protagonists wanted. I guess they were just happy to be alive.

You know, a lot of anime tend to sort of reset their characters unless it’s a major development. So it was nice to see some continuity in Gashin. He’s not a brand new person or anything, but what he went through with his brother did have an impact and those little things eventually add up to growth or bitterness. Some type of change. That’s good to see.

I really enjoyed the ending fight. I had some positive Gundam Wing vibes that I don’t get very often these days with the brother fighting in his mecha against the three. Plus, there was a lot of interesting trickery with the AI using some hacking. I love these kinds of reveals even with some small hints on how they might play out later. Strategy in mecha anime is just such a cool thing to watch.

I do think they skipped over a bit of the plan. It felt a little wizard did it at times but I also liked it a lot. The fight itself was fun to watch. It was an overpowered enemy but balanced out by the 3 on 1 dynamic and it didn’t feel like someone was just getting pounded on the entire time which made it more interesting to watch. 

I also thought it was a genuinely good plan. I liked that it had a modest goal. Lay down cover fire, get a sneaky stealth operation and get the people to safety. That’s all. And that felt more realistic and therefore easier to get involved in. 

Besides some mecha action after who knows how long, this episode really felt kind of “yeah that happened’ and unimportant to me in some ways. I don’t know if this island group will ever show up again or the random friendship that Shion formed with one of the girls will really amount to much until who knows when maybe? It feels like a massive set up for some plot devices.

I think I see what you mean. I guess it did come off as a bit of a filler episode. But I think that what they’ve been doing for the past 3 or 4 weeks is trying to really establish the general political situation of the universe. They’ve introduced us to a lot of different sides with a lot of different goals and I think that’s what they did here as well by establishing Russia and showing us that there are rogue terrorist groups here and there not directly affiliated with the main protagonists. Basically, I think it was a general world building episode. But maybe they’ve put too many of those in a row now.

So yeah, this episode was ok with me. Had some cool action including that last battle. I also want to see the Russian duo again. Especially after what happened with the brother’s mecha afterwards and probably some vow for revenge. Still as deep as a puddle, but there is something intriguing about this pair that I want to see more of. Those are my thoughts are. Hoping to get those positive Gundam Wing vibes again that are just so rare.

I liked the episode. My mind wandered a bit but I also didn’t dislike any of it. And now we don’t really know what’s going to happen next week!