First Impressions / FMP! The Second Raid

Short Summary:
A troubled and angry Sousuke walks from his desk onto the balcony and starts calling for Wraith. When he gets no answer, Sousuke starts to shout classified information out. This quickly gets him a phone call from Wraith telling him to shut up. Sousuke questions Wraith about guarding Chidori, since he’s never revealed himself to save her before. Wraith’s answer is that the situation was resolved without his help. Wraith goes on to lecture Sousuke on his own inability to guard her and knack for getting into trouble. Wraith eventually tells him to follow the orders and hangs up. The next day, Kaname goes to school feeling very energetic, happy about giving Sousuke the haircut. Kyouko quickly figures out that something good must have happened. Arriving in class, Chidori notices that Sousuke still isn’t there. She eagerly waits his arrival, but he never comes. He is instead at home packing his stuff away. As he finishes writing his withdrawl letter for school, his cell phone rings: it’s Chidori. He remembers his orders not to talk to her and doesn’t pick up the phone. After school, Chidori walks home with Kyouko and continues to worry about Sousuke. Trying to raise her own spirits, she starts planning a karaoke party. However, she walks by someone who causes her to become very alarmed, though when she turns around, no one is there. She immediately tries to call Sousuke again, but gets a disconnected phone message. She returns home in a panicked state, trying to shake the feeling by watching TV. Every small bump and noise gets her agitated until she gets a phone call with no one on the other end. Completely freaked out, she tries to call Sousuke again, then rushes over to his apartment. She walks in to find her notebook on the floor and the entire place empty.

As I suspected, this episode was devoted entirely to Sousuke’s departure and Chidori finding out. They consolidate all of the Chidori material together up to the point where she discovers that Sousuke is gone. It keeps the story from being too fragmented, so I think it’s a good decision. But aside from that, this episode followed the novels fairly well.
For me, what really made this episode so good are the atmosphere and mood. During the walking home scene, they play a happy song all the way up until Chidori passes Xia Yu Lan. Then the scared, panicked feeling starts and goes all the way she enters his apartment. Finally, there’s silence until the end as Chidori realizes that she’s alone in an empty room. This was very well done, and almost felt like a horror movie at certain points.
We’re getting to the point where Sousuke’s inner struggles will come to light. In today’s episode, he does something as uncharacteristic as question orders, then goes as far as to yell classified information to get Wraith’s attention. The particular pair of novels that the current storyline is drawing from is ultimately about Sousuke’s own growth as a character. We’ve always seen him as a strict person who follows orders, but now we’re beginning to see him question what he’s doing. This won’t be resolved for a long while yet, but it’s good to keep in mind since we don’t actually get a lot of the inner monologues that the novels have.
Next time will most likely cover all the Merida Island stuff that got cut from today’s episode. The preview shows the Arbalest facing off against the same black AS that saved the Wurz team in Sicily. Unfortunately, there is also a note stating that it won’t air until September 14th. That’s two weeks off, three weeks total until we get more TSR.

29 Comments

  11. Probably just to give the crew a break. Animating a series like this can’t be easy…
    On a related note, several shows recently have been taking breaks (Kamichu, Ichigo Mashimaro, Tsubasa). A trend?

    Omni
    Reply

  16. 3 weeks? Whoa, this is evil – especially since the story is REALLY hitting the painful material now. I guess they want to make us feel the pain of something very important missing, too ^_^

    Mentar
    Reply

  17. This means I will wait for three MORE weeks. With so many things in my head and a conflicting TV viewing schedule (CSI:NY is on at the same time in another channel), I completely missed last night’s episode.

    As I expected, Kaname feels edgy looking for Sohs’ke (right at a time she needs him most), finding out late that he disappears. Good show on the summary!

    Nanami Kamimura
    Reply

  18. oh man this stinks… man 3 weeks without anime is hell… so only the wowows are gone right? so suzuka gundam seed and D.C.S.S are still going on? only shuffle and FMP! are taking a break? anyway i would really love to see how the story goes from here.. would be nice to see Sousuke defy orders to be with Kaname(but i highly doubt so)… I wonder how much more angst i can take.. D.C.S.S.=angst Suzuka=angst FMP=angst >.

    cyw1988
    Reply

  21. Oh well. You can always read the books… They’ve been nicely translated up thru the first chapter of COMO… Anyway does anyone know if the author of the novels is taking a break from the main story ATM and doing side stories or has next part of the main story showed up in magazines…

    madcrow
    Reply

  24. well, all in all anice eps cos they finally show emotion between sousuke and chidorii, but to tell us to wait 3 more weeks before we can find out what does chidori do when she discovers sagara gone, that’s jus @$$ man ~~~

    Stellar
    Reply

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