First Impressions / Super Robot Wars OG

「汚れのないその瞳で」 (Yogore no Nai Sono Me de)
“Through Those Untainted Eyes”

It’s been three episodes since Operation Plantagenet was brought up, and it looks like it may be upwards to three more before we actually see the plan to retake North America from the Inspectors take action. The reason being, the fourth enemy faction has made its way onto the stage in the form of Einst Alfimi, further complicating things for our heroes. On top of the Earth Federation switching over to a questionable military rule, we now have Neo Divine Crusaders, Shadow-Mirror, Inspectors, and Einst. It feels like a never-ending uphill battle, and one where everyone has to continue taking it one step at a time as the problems accumulate. To get us up to speed, just over half of this episode was invested in a more thorough explanation of Gilliam, Lamia, and Shadow-Mirror’s origins, as well as Dr. Kobayashi’s decision to put Mai back on the SRX team piloting the R-Gun Powered.

The former delved into the System XN’s Agyieus and Lykeios devices like I already mentioned last episode, including talk about Lemon’s W-Number artificial humans, so Lamia’s formal addition to the team was my personal highlight in that scene. In a similar fashion was Arado joining up, making the first half of this episode primarily about concluding their respective subplots about who’s side they’re truly on. During it all, what I personally left the most lasting impression was Daitetsu’s clearly objection stance towards Kenneth seizing command of the Earth Federation Army, suggesting that the Hagane and Hiryuu Custom crews won’t continue doing exactly what he wants them to forever. Super Robot Wars has always been about a small select group that fights for what they believe in, so it’ll be interesting to see how much longer they put up with Graien Grusman in office.

In any case, the delay on Operation Plantagenet didn’t stop us from getting an early preview of a clash against the Inspectors, as the Hagane and Hiryuu Custom crews fight to reclaim Hawaii. While the animated portion of the battle was fairly brief, it did give us another look at the rivalry between Masaki and Aguija, as well as Kyousuke realizing that his Alt Eisen isn’t up to snuff in its current state. It also marked the first time Aya‘s taken part in her R-3 Powered, alongside her aforementioned sister Mai in the R-Gun Powered. More so than their fighting, the focus was on the discord within SRX Team after Ryuusei and Rai‘s disapproval on making Mai fight again, which is sort of the way I was expecting them to react after finding out that she’s still alive. I am however looking forward to seeing SRX itself formed at some point now that Mai’s back, and how much nicer the variable formation should look in this adaptation. It should be a noticeable step up from Divine Wars, considering how much better this sequel looks.

Other than that, there wasn’t too much to take away from Alfimi’s mysterious arrival in her Persönlichkeit robot, aside from how she sounds just like Excellen (being voiced by Mizutana Yuuko and all) and is interested in Kyousuke. For now, an explanation on that and the way it affected Excellen looks like it’ll be saved for a later episode. Next time, we should see the Kurogane’s liberation of the Tesla Reich Institute, during which Sanger receives his Daizengar (a.k.a. Dygenguar). I gather it shouldn’t be long before Elzam receives his Aussenseiter as well, leaving me wondering when we get to see the “Tatsumaki Zankantou” combination attack where “real men ride each other”. As wrong as that sounds, it’s actually ongoing joke that those familiar with the Alpha or OG games they were featured in will get right away.

 

Preview

28 Comments

      1. I knew someone would say this. Please, allow me to speak: The game in which Alfimi and her Persönlichkeit first appears, SRW Impact, was released in 2002, way before Gurren Lagann aired. Not that I’m blaming you or anything, everyone makes this mistake.
        (Yeah I saw an occasion to show off my knowledge and I jumped on it lol.)

        Rockmanshii
        Reply

  5. Yay for more Ibis screen time! And the Fairlions are packing GUNS!

    Also, Alfimi seems creepier than before. Can’t wait Persönlichkeit utilize its full powers its gonna be creepy awesome.

    fragb85
    Reply

  8. Actually Divine, you won’t have to wait much, Ratsel gets the Ausenseiter just after Zengar gets the Daizengar so we’ll see both nect week, along with REAL MEN RIDE EACH OTHER. So prepare your brains for the awesomeness.

    Rockmanshii
    Reply

  10. Alfimi sounds really creepy, she makes me freaked out. .__.

    Anyway, can’t wait for next episode. Dygenguard–I wonder if they decide to.. ‘Elminate the fourth wall’.

    LittleLoveless
    Reply

      1. I’ll be glad if the anime break the fourth wall once again. In the game, that wan’t just funny for me. That’s… absolutely hilarious.

        I know Alfimi is supposed to be creepy, but I didn’t expect she’ll be that creepy–since I didn’t play OGs (I was playing OG1 and OG2). She was really cute when she said ‘Yes!’ to Kyousuke’s question, though.

        LittleLoveless
        Reply

  13. well the biggest problem with that is the divine wars series is hard to get =not to mention the price of the english version is Outrageous it was 50 per dvd with 3 ep per disk when it came out. I just wish they would make a dvd box set for less

    chaos
    Reply

  14. The thing I don’t get is if Aussenseiter will turn into a horse and let other robot rides it, then shouldn’t him be a lot bigger in size, but somehow I get the impression that Aussenseiter are not much bigger then Dygenguard or does he just magically grow in size when he transform.

    arixx
    Reply

  15. I liked that the intro credits got updated to include Vysaga. Funny thing was after seeing that I was like “so why are there these other upcoming spoilers included like that albino loli”. Then this episode, first seen, BAM! there she is.

    Felt like about two and a half episodes pushed into one episode this time out. I’d have preferred less on the exposition and more for the battle at the end, because Katina looked like she finally got some battle time and she’s one of my favourite non-ATX team characters, who I know is going to get stuck in the background once more of the new mecha and plot developments start happening.

    (I also second the comment about playing the game, I’ve not finished the first game yet so this series is new territory for me, though I’ve at least played enough of OG1 to follow what is going on)

    Sol Fury
    Reply

  16. Where’s my “Katina’s kicking asses” scenes ? From the preview, I thought this episode gonna be more focused on Kai and Katina but all her battle are off-scene T_T. Too bad since she’s one of my favorite pilot in game along with Kai and Octo squad.

    I think we need more moments for Kai and Katina’s Octo Squad

    gespentred
    Reply

  17. I think it’s cool that all the robots have German names. By the way, to those wondering, Persönlichkeit means personality or character. I wonder if the creators just picked cool-sounding words regardless of their meanings

    Bossun
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *