Another great episode. Spoilers below the fold.

The reunion was contrived as hell, but you know what? I didn't care. I felt so good seeing everyone back together again that I didn't care that it didn't make any sense.

There is one thing that bothers me: after all they went through, they couldn't find it in themselves to give Lynnette and Yoshika commissions? They're still NCO's? Oh, well.

So the 501st is officially back in business.

As to Sakamoto's shield? It's still weak. Back in Fuso she stood on a beach, raised her shield, and ordered Hijikata, her aide, to shoot at her. Two pistol bullets, and one went through and almost hit her in the head. Her shield is now useless, and she's accepted that.

So she found another way. In the first episode we saw her living in a shack in the mountains, forging a sword for herself. Turns out she was pouring magic power into the blade while forging it, and she can stop Neuroi beams using it.

Looks like we're turning up the power dial in nearly every regard this time. The Neuroi are stronger than before, and have some new tricks. On the other hand, I think Hartmann's attack this time wasn't anything we ever saw her do before, and it looks like Lynne's shooting is more destructive than before. (Not a weapon upgrade; almost certainly her gaining more control over her power. In the first series she says that she uses her magic to control the bullet.) And Sakamoto is using a new kind of striker unit that's faster and more maneuverable.

Now if I were in charge, the first thing Miyafuji would do in ep 3 is to visit all the wounded witches from the 504th and heal them all up. I wonder if that's going to happen?

UPDATE: Pete asks, "Also, among all the retelling I failed to understand if Mio’s Striker failing was a defeciency in her magic or not."

Sakamoto's Striker is a prototype that hadn't even gone through flight testing when she took it on the plane. The problems were teething issues in the new model; they had nothing to do with Sakamoto's magic.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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