「桜花幻影」 (Ouka Genei)
“Cherry Blossom Phantom”

After five episodes of going into detail on various aspects of the Super Robot Wars universe, this sixth one marks the first episode where I feel there’s been enough shown that following no real explanation is necessary to grasp what’s going on. For those who are jumping into this series somewhat blindly, this means that the main protagonists and antagonists have been established and you should have enough to go on from simply watching. Any major twists and turns coming up shouldn’t require too much more background understanding of the franchise, other than the ones that I’ve tried to point out in a spoiler-free manner already. From the look of it, the story has progressed to the point that this sequel more or less stands on its own, but I’ll continue to supplement better understanding when deemed beneficial to overall enjoyment.

Continuing from last time, the focus is on Arado and how he survived getting shot down by Latune’s Wild Raubtier back in episode four. While the Hagane crew suspect that Arado’s been brainwashed based on his physical examination, Seolla is getting that very treatment elsewhere, care of Dr. Agilla Setme (Mayama Ako), who’s forcibly making her forget about Arado. Subsequently, Ouka gets some further brainwashing and is later sent out in the Rapiecage, during which she tries to lure Latune to their side. In short, it’s the reunion of The School children that was foreshadowed in the preview last time, with the twist being that Arado’s decided to allow himself to remain a prisoner of the Earth Federation after learning that Ouka’s been further brainwashed by the old hag. Given the preferential treatment that the crew’s been giving him as per Kai’s orders, it should only be a matter of time before Arado starts seeing that things on this side are so much better than the Neo Divine Crusaders. The next order of business should be saving Seolla from her current fate of being a lab rat, which the mere thought of is clearly bothering Arado.

Amidst all The School stuff going on, there was also Archibald’s ongoing search for the Choukijin as well as Lamia connecting with fellow W-Number Echidna, confirming that she’s a spy sent by Shadow-Mirror. The real surprise though was the arrival of Axel in his Soulgain, which was confronted by Kyousuke in his Alt Eisen almost immediately. After the series opened with his battle against the “Beowulf” of his dimension and him leaving for the Original Generation one, I was wondering when he was going to finally show up. Unfortunately, there wasn’t too much to make from their brief clash other than how Axel perceives Kyousuke as Beowulf, since Echidna was quick to retrieve him in his damaged Soulgain and retreat. On the plus side, Irm did give us a taste of his Grungust’s Final Beam, even though it didn’t find its intended mark due to an R-Eins sacrificing itself to protect Axel. For now, The School stuff still needs to be settled, but the late arrival of Axel actually has me looking forward to his grudge against Beowulf much more. In particular, it’ll be interesting to see how he reacts upon learning that the Kyousuke of this dimension isn’t the deranged psychopath who he’s used to fighting against.

 

Preview

28 Comments

  1. I liked the gym scene, it was nice to show some character bonding.

    Also, Axel’s arrival is a retcon from the games since he was supposed to arrive in this dimension much earlier. I like how they did it here though, since it establishes his hatred of Beowulf. Also Soulgain is awesome, so we can see more of that soon.

    fragb85
  2. The best thing about the gym scene is that it felt natural, because when you think about it they’re all in the army, and they also showed the guys, and Lamia’s fake laugh is so hilarious. I was quite happy to see Ouka nee-sama but too bad they only talked. Well I guess if they would have started fighting, ,she would have kicked Arado’s ass even before they could talk. It’s not like in the games where most of the time you have to attack someone to talk to the person. Axel ‘s appearance at the end was a nice plus. And they slipped some hints here and there like Ryuusei recognizing the mechs.

    Rockmanshii
  3. SPOILERS ALERT

    Show Spoiler ▼

    chaos42
      1. In case you haven’t played the other games (particulaly the Alpha series), most of the good guys use units with German names. The bad guys, on the other hand, have units with Jewish names.

        Lurker
  4. Too bad they didn’t show Soulgain the way it first appear in the game, he suppose to total wipe Kyousuke ass due to Kyousuke was confuse who he was not to mention their mech size difference.

    arixx
    1. spoiler ALert

      Show Spoiler ▼

      chaos42
    1. I think it’s more “don’t want to know” than dunno about this anime so many people keep whining about this anime (ex : no bg story-although this is a sequel or too fast!)

      And then? They dropped it.

      Baran
  5. or they said:
    maskman = very gundam-ish
    thrudgelmir’s drill = gurren lagann
    neo dc = neo zeon
    SRX in the op = optimus prime
    for the worse, some stupid people compare this to… power rangers

    Cobray
    1. Well the Gundam parallels is justified, since SRW made quite a few concepts based on the show (Psychodrivers=Newtypes). The Gurren Lagann thing is stupid though, I can name alot of Super Robots who used drills as weapons, all the way back to the 80’s.

      SRW has always been a niche franchise outside Japan, so I always expected that it wouldn’t be too popular. Still the idiocy of non-fans is surprising. The show CAN be understood if they actually payed attention. Obari actually does a decent job explaining things considering how complex OG is.

      fragb85
      1. I agree most people don’t get how good this is series is. I also really dislike the way any thing that involves giant drills gets referred to as gurren lagann -i don’t even like it that much its ok but i don’t think its as great as most people say it is – they probably haven’t seen a lot of super robot anime like getter robo or gravion ect..

        I actually want to see more fights. That brings up a point i wanted to as does anyone know how many episodes this series is slated for. I just hope there are more than 26

        chaos42
  6. I’m new to “anything ” regarding this series..but soo far i LIKE IT! has a very CLASSIC feel to it which a nigga like me can totally roll wit. couple O’questions though… why are some of the mechs SOOOO much BIGGER then the others yet they can still kick each other asses…are BIGGER robots a more elite class??? and the women with the TATOO’s..they’re some kinda android right??

    BROOKLYN otaku
    1. Super Robots (ex : Soul Gain, Grungust, or That drill mecha) are much more bigger than Real Robot (ex : Alteisen, Wild Falken, R series, Gespent, etc)

      Unit Name: Alt Eisen
      Model Number: PTX-003C
      Height: 22.2 Meters
      Weight: 85.4 Tons
      Pilot: Kyosuke Nanbu

      Unit Name: Soulgain
      Model Number: EG-X
      Height: 41.2 Meters
      Weight: 129.8 Tons
      Pilot: Axel Arma

      Unit Name: Grungust
      Model Number: SRG-01-1~3
      Height: 48.7 Meters
      Weight: 357.0 Tons
      Pilot: Irmgard Kazahara

      Baran
    2. Regarding the two chicks with the tattoos (Lamia and Echidna)…Show Spoiler ▼

      Ring_Mao
  7. Unfortunately, Show Spoiler ▼

    Besides, how Axel is portrayed in The Inspector is the out of character Axel, a lot of SRWOG fans argued that the rage he shows and will show in future episodes is more exaggerated than his portrayal in Super Robot Wars Advance.

    But anyway, I hope they follow the ending of the PS2 remake. =)

    Ruu27

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