Category: Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen

「亡霊」 (Yuurei)
“Ghost”

I may have jumped the gun when I thought Richthofen was going to get a new prototype Trial Krieger back in episode seven, but seven episodes later and we have just that.

「青と藍」 (Ao to Ai)
“Blue and Indigo”

In a series with too many characters in insignificant roles already, XEBEC somehow felt the need to introduce a new main/sub character in the second half of Argevollen. Enter Natalie Namie Portman (Uchida Maaya)—a talented pilot in training but inexperienced with real-world combat.

「ナンジョウ・レイカ」 (Nanjou Reika)
“Nanjou Reika”

While it was easy to tell what emotional response the writers were going for in this flashback episode, I unfortunately can’t say that it worked that well on me.

「拳（いかり）」 (Kobushi (Ikari))
“Fist (Rage)”

If there’s one thing that Argevollen’s done well so far–whether inadvertently or intentionally–it would be how it’s almost impossible to tell what’s in store every episode.

「不在の果て」 (Fuzai no Hate)
“The Limits of (His) Absence”

Rather than fight the pace that Argevollen is trying to draw me into each week, it seems a lot easier and enjoyable to just go along with it.

「約束」 (Yakusoku)
“Promise”

I don’t know if Oonishi Saori simply wasn’t available for recording this episode, but the fact that Jamie didn’t have a single line in it echoes my sentiment two episodes ago about how her character’s role in the overall story feels like it’s diminishing.

「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.

「陸繋島 （ベルハルス）」 (Beruharusu)
“Bellhals”

For an episode that will probably only be remembered for its orgasmic spa experiences, there was surprisingly a fair bit of foreshadowing. In addition, we finally see the face of Tokimune’s sister–Nanjou Reika (Hikasa Youko).

「走れ、ジェイミー!」 (Hashire, Jeimii!)
“Run, Jamie!”

While Argevollen still fails to depict the gravity of war–largely because Samonji manages to keep all his subordinates alive somehow–it did make some positive strides this episode. Surprisingly, the most notable stride was the jump in animation quality.

「奇襲」 (Kishuu)
“Ambush”

When it comes to a series that hasn’t done anything to particularly stand out, it was nice to see Argevollen do something different this episode, even if it was just Jamie trying to avoid one of the many pitfalls that anime heroines tend to get sucked into.