「She is Rana Linchen」

The other main heroine of the series makes her debut, earlier than expected after Ingrid’s backstory was glossed over last time. Hailing from Tibet, Rana Linchen and her bubbly personality is portrayed surprisingly well by Hanazawa Kana, more so than I was anticipating anyway. In addition to kicking ass with her hand-to-hand abilities and looking damn cool doing so, she’s already made strides towards wedging herself between Kazuya and Satellizer. It felt like the worst possible timing considering Satellizer had finally decided to make Kazuya her Limiter sans a baptism, except Rana’s different from all the other Pandora who are out to make Kazuya’s life difficult as well.

In terms of introducing Rana and showing how she decided Kazuya’s her soul mate, this episode did just that albeit in a slightly different way than the manga. Rather than having Kazuya, Arther, and Kaho on a day off out in the city and running into some punks, they emphasized the senior hazing aspect yet again by having the second-years who Satellizer utterly destroyed during the Carnival — Audrey Duval, Takeuchi Aika, Toris Mackenzie — stirring things up. The end result was more or less the same, but notable omissions include both Rana and Kaho being force to strip, and the latter getting tortured with gunshot wounds. It was likely another means of toning down the fan-service and violence in this adaptation, and one that worked well by bringing in the characters seen in the anime-only first episode. I just didn’t like how it made the bullying theme even more prominent than it already is.

There should be plenty of that in the coming episodes when Attia has her way and sends some of the third-years in, namely #4 ranked Arnett Mcmillan (Asakawa Yuu) and #5 ranked Creo Brand (Kitta Izumi). With all the extra hazing going on, even I’m going to feel that it’s a bit overdone by the time that rolls around, so I can only wonder what anime-only viewers will be thinking. Still, it did serve as some good build-up towards something that’s been foreshadowed for some time now, and already showed #2 ranked Elizabeth Mably (Kaida Yuuko) among them. Thus far, the series has done an impeccable job of making every senior Pandora seem like a horrible person, but overshadowed is the fact that Chiffon is rank #1, and Ticy Phenyl (Uchida Aya) who’s always with her is rank #3. I love how two of the top three are actually the nicest ones and don’t seem to be as strong as they really are. Anyway, some of my favorite parts of the manga are coming up, so I’m looking forwarding to seeing how it all plays out animated.

 

Preview

42 Comments

  1. I really wanted Rana to atleast humiliate those 2nd years when she appeared. But I was glad to see that this arc/story is more than one episode and hope it goes for atleast 3-4 before the main arc ending.

    Shadiic
  2. Awe man, they changed up the episode. I was looking forward to seeing some good ol’ Rana vs four goonies butt kicking. This fight wasn’t all that great. 🙁 Who would have thought that Hanazawa Kana would voice Rana. She really fit the character persona. 🙂 Good episode nonetheless. looking forward to next week’s episode though. I hope the animators don’t chop the fighting. >_< I want to see a good match between Stella and Rana!!!

    Nimmy
  3. You’d have to feel sorry for Arthur for screwing one of the best moments of his life.
    And I didn’t even know Chiffon was even powerful until I read it in your summary and saw a sly-faced shadow behind her in the ending.

    But yes, kudos Arthur, kudos.

    Kirino
  4. I guess Hanazawa Kana is getting more roles this year and they really are showing how her characters are developing beyond shy, quiet girls. This bubbly personality in Rana as well as Nessa in Fractale are really bumping her up in my view.

    Also, Arthur: extreme failure. /headdesk

    1. Yup, her role recently Tsukiumi kuragehime and Cleo on break blade 3 was awesome but Charles Dunois role aka The Reverse trap still not suitable with her Soft Voice.
      This episode Sure looks like Clash of the Soft Voices seiyu, The Queen of Soft Voice (mamiko noto) Vs the Princess of Soft Voice (Hanazawa kana)XD

      tama
  5. WTF, I would presume screening potential pandoras would exclude those with sadistic tendencies… and here we got a veritable psycho squad.
    Hazing in a military is something that destrosys cohesion of the units and its fighting spirit. Ask Russian army…
    If US Marines can teach teenaged boys to behave responsibly when armed with rifles, then Genetics school is complete failure of discipline, and the idiotic “power level” rankings are even more absurd as they tend to induce fights. The fact that one Pandora intended to cripple potential limiter just to stop another from becoming more powerful is best proof. Plus , in real combat, it is teamwork that counts. Aces can be good, but it is squadrons and airwings that win the wars. Of all shows, Infinite Stratos shows this aspect…

    ewok40k
  6. If you watched Claymore (great series) you saw the same thing. Claire was ranked #47. The lowest you can be. Those with higher ranks made fun of her rank and treated her like shit. Of course by the end of the series the things that Claire experienced and went thru made her into a much stronger person then her rank #47 indicated. In fact towards the end of the series she was the ONLY Claymore still fighting a very powerful awakened one while the rest of the squads were all busted up and trying to recouperate. IMHO she was probably #1 by then.

    I bet we will see the same thing here. Kazuya and Satellizer are probably going to make the most powerful Pandora team. They are only now starting to see Kazuya’s potential and Satellizer is holding her own and beating upperclassmen almost every week.

    Karmafan
  7. Man, its like this shows throws so much T&A at you but then shows so many girls who are just…. b**ches!
    I mean out the forty we’ve seen only like 4 of them are somewhat likable, thank goodness for Rana.

    Omegan
    1. I believe it’s only number 1 for the Juniors. I would of thought revealing it was more of a spoiler than anything. When I read it in the manga I was surprised by it since she showed she was scared when talking to the untouchable queen.

      Silentcid
      1. Yeah, it’s a bit of a spoiler, although anyone who gave it some thought should realise that the student council president in a school like this wouldn’t really be a wimp.
        Show Spoiler ▼

        Znail
  8. Yea, Chiffon is suppose to be the most powerful character so far, but it’s hard to tell that from her attitude in the first few chapters/episodes.

    When the three 2nd years appeared in this episode, all I could think about during the introductions was how nobody will ever care to remember their names since they are just fodder material.

    Also, I like how #2 Elizabeth likes to skinny dip at the pool compared to all the other 3rd years. lol.

    xcswmboy
  9. I am confuse about this series to be honest

    The manga doesn’t show that much nake boobs and stuff but here in the anime we get some sort of nake boob fan service in each episode. But then the part where the manga actually show some fan service with the 4 goons and stuff they change it to some anime original.

    So when theres no boobs in manga they show boobs in anime, but when theres suppose to be boobs in manga they change it. Just plain weird.

    arixx
  10. I wish I could just marathon this. D’x Satellizer is ripe for the pickin’! Get ‘er Kazuya!

    Did the singles for the OP and ED come out yet? I can’t get those two songs out of my head. Next to Kimi ni Todoke’s OP, they are my favorites this season.

    Shirt
  11. I would have preferred that they stick to the manhwa plot concerning Rana. The scene was more violent (gun shots to each (? I think) leg), but not any more ecchi than the usual. Substituting another “upper classmen must teach lower classmen respect” battle just made the episode all the more repetative.

    While I understand that the manhwa story line need to be compressed a bit to fit into 12 eps, things are a bit too rushed – a little dis-jointed IMO. Maybe it’s just me, but as a fan of the manhwa, I can’t help but feel a somewhat dissappointed so far.

    Re: Pres Chiffon & #3, that’s actaully following the manhwa accurately. You don’t see her true strength until near the end of this last manhwa arc. I kind of like the fact she’s a stealth bad-ass.

    daikama
  12. Sadly, as usual, that’s what happens when they produce an anime before the manga is (anywhere near) finished; they end up being forced to cut out or even outright change things from the manga in order to fit them and whatnot, especially if it’s being produced as a shorter 12-13 episode anime rather than a 24-26+ episode one.

    Anyway, glad to finally see Annette/Arnett in an episode (even if a short, but REALLY sweet appearance; just gotta wait until next episode =\ ) besides just the ED (damn sexy look).

    Despite her, from the translation-reading anyway, lack of any backstory so far, her personality has already won me over to her alongside Rana (both can be cute, sweet, and outgoing a lot of the time, then suddenly hot, sexy, and/or scary the next). Also, as said, still like Ingrid along with her backstory.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    1. It’s totally up to the animation company how they will do it. There is enough Freezing material for 50+ anime episodes complete with finished story arcs. But I think we should be happy that they haven’t changed anything major so the story can keep following the manwa as much as it has so far.

      znail

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