First Impressions / Soukou no Strain

Summary:
Lottie tries to attack Ralph Werec’s Gloire-type, but he dodges and instead prepares to cut her in half. Fortunately, Sara arrives just in time to save her and to draw away Ralph’s attention. Lottie and Carris overhear Sara attempting to talk to Ralph, but he doesn’t ever answer her. Not wanting her kill to be stolen, Lottie lunges between Sara and Ralph’s Strains and separates them. In response, Sara knocks her back and speeds on ahead as Lottie gets hit by an explosion. Onboard the Libertad, the commanders become aware of Sara’s Strain’s battle with Ralph’s Gloire-type and watch in amazement as she’s able to fight him fairly evenly. However, they have bigger problems to worry about because the Deague Tumors are now clinging onto the ship and piercing through the hull.
The commanders realize that the enemy doesn’t want to destroy the Libertad but instead has some other objective. When they fight back with their Gambee troops, the Tumors then start concentrating on the Bridge area. Seeing what the enemy is doing, Lottie flies her Strain towards the Bridge, but is met with heavy resistance that keeps her from getting close. Jessie’s attempt also fails to make any progress. By the time the Tumors break through the top of the Bridge, the crew has been ordered to get out. However, Sara’s Gambee instructor Jake comes face to face with a Tumor and gets sucked out into the void of space. Luckily for the rest of those who fled, Dufarge struggles his way towards and hits the emergency switch that seals them off from the Bridge.
Sara and Ralph meanwhile continue their space battle, and Sara actually manages to find an opening. She’s about to hit it, but hesitates and draws back at the last second. Ralph uses the opportunity to grapple onto her Strain and is about to take a swing when Carris appears and knocks him away. The Gloire-type responds immediately with a stab towards Carris’ Strain, but Sara does a quick 180 and lands a slash. With a damaged Strain, Ralph decides to retreat, so Sara tries to give chase. Unfortunately, her Strain is out of power and Carris holds her back as they watch the enemy Tumors also withdraw. Unable to chase her brother, Sara lets out another scream.
In the aftermath of the battle, Dufarge, Craven, and Melchisedec are discussing Sara’s profile and how she linked with another person’s Mimic. Having declared that he’ll take charge of Sara, Melchisedec returns to the hanger where she’s just now returning to aboard the Strain. A furious Lottie and her wingmen have also come there looking for her. Lottie demands to know why Sara hid her Reasoner status, but since Sara remains silent, Lottie makes it clear that if Sara had gone out earlier, their losses could have been lessened. It is Melchisedec who saves Sara from the questioning by explaining that the Strain and the Reasoner are secret matters that only a few people at the top of the leadership know about. According to him, this Strain wasn’t originally combat ready, but Sara took it out without permission to save everyone.
In the end, Carris thanks Sara and Lavinia takes an immediate liking to her. After making everyone leave, Melchisedec and Carmichael are only able to get Sara to reveal that she lost her own Mimic. Melchisedec tells her that she’ll be admitted into the Space Armored Division and will now be under their watch. He also tells her not to do whatever she wants because she, the Mimic, and the Strain now all belong to him. Around this time, Ralph is returning to the Deague ship commanded by a woman named Medlock. Since her subordinate Barrow notes that they weren’t able to seize their strategic objective, Medlock orders the ship to maintain their distance and continue pursuing the enemy.
Barrow thinks that the way things are going, there’s a possibility that they’ll be late for their next operation. He also wonders if one sample will be enough, but Medlock has heard enough. When she orders him to hurry up and raise the purity of the Mercurion, Barrow protests because the Union and the Deague’s fundamental usage of the substance is different and their equipment is different. To begin with, they hadn’t even thought of using Mercurion to control the fuselage. Medlock leaves it up to him and returns to her room where Ralph Werec informs her that he didn’t find what he was looking for. He confirms that there is indeed another one, and she says that she believes it because he says so. Walking over, she playfully tells him not to fail next time and then kisses him as she takes off her bathrobe.
Back on the Libertad, repairs are underway and Sara is packing her things to move to the hanger. In the hallway outside her room, she encounters Isabella’s friend who angrily throws a water bottle at Sara after she confirms that she’s a Reasoner. When Sara goes to the bathroom to clean herself up, she hears someone inside a shower stall crying out to her brother. That girl turns out to be Lottie and she doesn’t mind that Sara heard her. Lottie reveals that she had a Reasoner older brother and it had been her dream to fight together with him. However, her brother died at Glabella, killed by the traitor Ralph Werec – that’s why she hates him so much. After cleaning up, Sara makes her way to the hanger and into her new, dimly lit room that has Emily in a new red dress sitting in the corner.
Addressing Emily, Sara wonders who the doll truly is and questions why the doll linked with her. She admits that the person they fought today was her brother – the only brother she has in the world whom she treasures and loves. However, she finds it unbelievable that he has changed. He has dragged many people into this while trying to do something, but she doesn’t know what. From now on though, she doesn’t want anyone else to get hurt, and she wants her kind brother to return. That’s why she’s asking now for Emily’s strength so that she can stop her brother, even if that means that she has to fight him.

Preview:

Well, that was about what I expected in terms of story development – not that that’s a bad thing. Sara and Lottie did indeed fight over who got a shot at Ralph, and Lottie was clearly outmatched. Sara, however, was fighting a lot more on the same level as him than I thought she would. She even got a chance at a potentially deadly attack, but opted not to take it at the last moment. It’s a shame that her brother didn’t seem to show her the same consideration when he counterattacked.
This episode finally shows us a little bit about the Deague side of things. I’m not sure what Ralph is trying to accomplish by allowing Medlock to have her way with him, and I assume that he’s not really in love with her or anything. Heck, I think he showed a lot more emotion when Emily hugged him at the end than in that scene with Medlock. As for the one sample that Barrow mentions, I would guess that that’s the real Emily, and that the other one they’re after is Emily’s Mimic.
I also have to wonder if Kira YamatoCarris – both voiced by Hoshi Souichiro – is going to be Sara’s love interest for this series (not counting her older-brother fixation) or if he’s just more cannon fodder. Come to think of it, his character design looks quite a bit like Cedie from the first episode, except older. Maybe this time the guy won’t croak before he can reveal his feelings to her. And finally, I have to say that out of Lottie’s other friends, I like Lavinia’s character the best and I think Martha’s character design makes her look too much like a guy. Oh, and Emily is really cute in this shot.

27 Comments

  1. I have to wonder why Deague ship seem to be in power saving mode? where’s the light?
    There’s also a 4 manga chapter that have came out before the anime, and it talks about event in Lotte point of view up to ep 04

    Yuki
    Reply

  6. I understand the necessity of manual switches for closing some airlocks and other stuff but you’d think that an advanced spacefaring race would have some sort of automatic provision for a hull breach.

    Otherwise, looks great and can’t wait for more Sara action!

    Squabie
    Reply

  7. …what I don’t understand is why an advanced spacefaring race still find it necessary to conduct battle control operations on the ship’s exposed bridge…

    …even today’s waterbound warships usually have dedicated control rooms buried deep inside the ship’s belly where it is safer and away from distractions…

    …I mean is it really that necessary to always have a ginormous veiw of space…

    …and nobody important died this episode…are they going to alternate episodes for that…

    Zzz...
    Reply

  9. It’s interesting you mention that Medlock was all over Ralph. She treats him like he’s her little toy; a prize and a plaything. Makes me think Ralph either been brainwashed or is under some kind of mind control. Maybe Ralph was captured, tortured and then subjected to some kind of weird Deague mind control. Whether he knew about Emily before the Deague caught him, or they used him to rescue her is unknown as yet. There’s lots of possibilities here. Strain really is one of those surprising shows that make it hard to predict what’s going to happen next…

    Sonhex
    Reply

  10. I just hope that Lottie and Sara don’t wind up at each other’s throats; if I look at the preview for next week, Sara will need all the friends she can get. But if this story is really going to follow some of the plots threads of “A little princess” until the end, Lottie and Sara are destined to become enemies …

    Aebliss
    Reply

  11. The main website for S.Strain certainly seems to hint at SaraxCarris in future episodes.

    Quote from Carris’ character profile on the main website: “He seems to have a thing for Sara?”

    Shinji103
    Reply

  14. Its simple Chi …

    Emily is the exact same image as the girl Ralph “liberated” back in episode 1, we see her in episode 4 dressed exactly like Emily in the Deague ship, that is why you think you seen Emily moved as what you seen is that girl moving.

    Drakron
    Reply

  17. The fansubs actually have both names abeit mispelled. I’ve enjoy the series so far. Its getting a little slow and I certainly would appreciate to keep the pace its been going at so far. And I am happy to see that they decided to kill off the annoying characters immediately for reality sake. Yep. Isabella is no more. I’m glad its just animated… otherwise I’d be sad.

    Zaero
    Reply

  18. It’s also funny to note that Cedie back in episode one was voiced by Sai Argyle’s VA of Gundam SEED. So we’ve got a little bit or inter-series irony, in the possibility that Carris could end up stealing Cedie’s would-be-girlfriend like Kira basically stole Fllay from Sai, albeit not “stealing” per se since Cedie’s dead. XD

    Shinji103
    Reply

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