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「再戦」 (Saisen)
“Rematch”
It looks like I jumped the gun a bit in my predictions last week, because while some of them turned out to be true, one of them I clearly read too much into. Starting with the ones that I hit the mark on, this episode confirmed that Samonji did know Tokimune’s sister, Reika. Building on that revelation, it was strongly implied that he knows what happened to her too. From Samonji’s short talk with Quasimodo, who’s not only an old friend but an ex-comrade of his, we heard mention of the tragedy at Argent Point, which the people of Bellhals have covered up. That’s all fine and dandy, but what I wasn’t quite expecting (but didn’t rule out completely) is that Samonji and Reika may have had some romantic chemistry between them.
Whether or not their feelings were unrequited I don’t know, but the fact that Reika brought Samonji to the sunflower field and blushed like no tomorrow in front of him suggested that she liked him at the very least. Evidently, their past together–romantic or otherwise–helps explain why Samonji’s been so lenient with Tokimune up until now. It also puts a new perspective on the spiel that he gave him about never wanting to let his subordinates die. However, what it doesn’t shed any light on just yet is how Tokimune will react once he learns the truth behind his sister’s death and how Samonji was involved. While the opening sequence foreshadows that neither side will take it well, I get the feeling that it may be purposely trying to mislead us. Whatever the case, the whole conspiracy behind Argent Point is something that’s grabbed my attention in this series (…finally!).
Now as for the prediction that I clearly read too much into, that would be the idea that Ingelmia was transporting some new prototype for Richthofen to pick up from Gorzy. It sure seemed that way from their conversation last episode, but as it turns out, they were just shipping the parts for their current Trail Kriegers and reconstructing them within Bellhals to launch a surprise pincer attack from behind Arandas’ forces. That revelation put a damper on my anticipation of a rematch between Richthofen and Tokimune, plus the fact that Tokimune somehow got his “synchro rate” in high gear at a “Linkage Depth” of 17. All of a sudden, Tokimune was the superior pilot, which seemed odd to me because he was distracted by thoughts of his sister earlier and just scared of dying later. I would’ve thought that he’d synchronize well with Argevollen when he’s calm, composed, and focused, but I guess this series is going for a different angle with their neuro-link piloting system. Oh well. Judging from the preview, we’ll be introduced to some new characters next week and Argevollen will find itself in a pinch despite Tokimune’s improvement, so it looks like he’ll be taking a few steps back as well.
Preview
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Have to say that like Divine, I expected more than just three normal Ingelmia Trail Kriegers being shipped in secret. Richthofen or not, just three standard Trail Kreigers for a pincer attack against what I thought was a sizable force? Really? Meh, best not to think about that stuff too much with this show.
Tokimune did have a bit of a skill power up (more than that 3% software upgrade it seems). He also seems to have “come to terms” with his current satiation (“I’m going to do what I can for a while.” [Horrible subs]). Better late than never. Unlike Divine, his sync level didn’t bother me so much since Jamie told him “Listen, you need to concentrate.” right before the battle and he soon after remarks: “Now’s not the time. Now’s not the time to think about my sister.” Regardless of why or how, Tokimune not getting pawned was a nice change of pace. Sadly, the preview seems to indicate that won’t last for long (or another Argevollen problem or something >_>).
Previously I posted (paraphrasing) “While it seems that Argevollen will be more character driven than action/battle focused, I’d prefer if it was the latter.” After this episode, I’m going to retract that statement. I don’t watch a lot of mech shows, but I have to think that the battle/action scenes for Argevollen don’t measure up to most of the genre. I suppose this battle wasn’t too bad, but I can’t help but think something’s lacking here.
Furthermore, there still seems to be some “odd things” to put it nicely when it comes to the fights. For example, why are they using these giant machine pistols which seem to have zero effect on normal Trail Kriegers let alone Argevollen? I can understand why Ingelmia’s mechs might be armed with them since they might encounter standard infantry as part of the “pincer movement”. However, surely Samonji should know that his mechs will solely be fighting other Trail Kriegers. It’s literally like the one time when you DO want to bring just a knife to to a gun fight if you don’t have enough AT guns (cannons) to go around. Maybe being nit-picky on my part.
For whatever reason, I just don’t find the battles thus far satisfying. Shame that’s the case. Fortunately, the conspiracy behind Argent Point did provide some food for thought along with some of the other dangling plot lines and conspiracies. The show is gaining a little traction for me, but I do wish it would pick up the pace a bit.
I liked the “rematch” between Richthofen and Tokimune, especially the way Richthofen was easily outclassing Tokimune despite having a worse machine.
I wonder if the “Linkage Depth” resets after each battle? If it does (and that seems very likely) then the best strategy would be to just rush and defeat Tokimune before he can reach a high enough “Linkage Depth”.
Well, we’re getting closer and closer to some sort of main mystery behind this plot.
Otherwise it’s just:
Private Tokimune got a nice and shiny high tech trail krieger (that only works with the assistance of the heroine), has a sister who died of mysterious causes, and is overly impulsive.
Well….this sounds like a slower Eureka 7 without the Coralians >.>
Looking more and more like the main point of conflict in Argevollen will revolve around the testing ground within Bellhals and what transpired there. Hopefully we get something more tangible relating to that soon because it’s getting to be a chore just waiting for these small little tidbits. Almost wonder if Argevollen would have been better served by being condensed into 12-13 episodes rather than two cours because so much of it is slow and tedious due to the lack of any good eye candy or characterization able to fill the gaps during story progression.
Not to mention the “tactics” rear their ugly heads here once again. A major offensive (likely involving several divisions) called off because a flanking attack by three mechs was thwarted? It’s like Germany’s invasion of Poland was cancelled because the men sent to impersonate Polish soldiers attacking a radio station were caught before it could happen. Three intercepted mechs (like a few apprehended radio station “raiders”) is not going to stop a preplanned offensive with days (if not weeks) of preparation. Won’t even get into how unlikely those three mechs are to impact the course of events at the front line.
Meh maybe I should just turn off the brain when watching this, but the lack of any solid filler just makes it too easy to poke holes in Argevollen’s world building and military logic.
I’ve been putting off watching this series for some unknown reason. Anyone here able to give an unbiased opinion on whether it’s worth watching or not?
Just wait for both cours to end.
It’s moving soooo slow right now. 8 episodes in and it doesn’t even feel like there’s a real antagonist.
I didn’t find it all that slow, but then I didn’t find the male lead that people were raging about earlier all that annoying either. The show can be kind of clumsy at times (animation wise and otherwise) but I feel its been coming into its own with some of its recent episodes.
I liked the show from the beginning though so I probably don’t qualify as an “unbiased” source.
Seeing both SFX mechs and normally drawn people moving in the same scene is rather jarring for me, as it was the PEOPLE that were (to me) stuttering instead of the mechs.
That being said, only Jamie didn’t change into her usual outfit for the operation…Civilian techs have it good…
Man those trees such are strong able to takes hits and take no damage….
Im surprise the ground battle movements is equally better for both party than i expected thats must be reason why cgi tend to be lower for budget cost.
Japanese lightning advance in the start of war always prefer infiltration at night through the gaps in Allied lines using only small individual units to harass around the flank and rear to create confusion. This tactics only effective against inexperience troops. Philippine, Burma, Malaysia are the example of Japanese quick victory. But later US Marines already known of their tactics using also a small patrol team and wait for them for long hour to ambush them.
Well…. at least Gilgamesh got some screen time.
And this episode really drives in the fact that our protagonist is truly incompetent. The only thing that saves him is his machine.
I think Richthofen was just caught off guard by the near tripling of the sync rate (if it’s a linear attribute). He managed to see the improvement from the software upgrade, but I think the lack of knowledge about Argevollens control system made him a wee bit overconfident.
After reading some comments here, it seems I’m the only one that likes the Mechwarrior style combat of the normal Trail Kriegers. (Admittedly, those troops running in the foreground were painful to watch)