[kari-no-sugata]

I wanted to wait on commenting some more until I'd re-watched the episode, which I finally did. Looking at the scenes in isolation, I would say I'm happy with about 80-90% of them. There's a number of nice touches, particularly in the first half.

The problems I have are mostly at a higher level - there's a distinct lack of continuity (for story and characters) between eps 1-2 and eps 3-5 and also eps 6-7: it's as if 3 completely different people wrote them with some band-aids attached at the last minute.

I dont know what happens in the novel but it feels like the anime skipped a story-arc or some important scenes/clues that could explain Yui's behaviour in some parts of this episode. Either that or it just feels like the writers ran out of ideas or couldn't be bothered to develop the characters properly or only care more about giving otaku some cheap fan-service than the long term plot or characters. I can overlook some things but I'm increasingly getting the impression that "character development" and "plot" is being driven by short-term commercial interest rather than trying to tell a compelling story. When I get a feeling like this then it's hard to care about the plot and characters.

For example, back in ep 1 we have a scene of the school girls watching some news and reacting to it in various ways - a similar scene would be very useful to see again because we could get a better understanding of how the various characters see the BETA and also to remind the viewers about the threat. For example, we have various characters from countries who have been overrun by the BETA - have they given up and become apathetic about it? Are the Americans (overly) confident about being able to face them? With Japan still on the front lines, how would Yui react? And how would the characters interpret the reactions from the other characters? A short scene like that could be very useful in many ways.

In this story arc clearly we're supposed to see a "softer" and more vulnerable side to Yui. Fair enough. But, the writers could at least use elements specific to her character rather than using generic plot devices (and apparently we're supposed to believe that nobody checked the weather for incoming tropical storms and that the only ones affected were our 3 stranded main characters). For example, when talking about his past Yuuya could have brought up some bad experiences at school and then asked Yui if she'd ever had similar experiences: but Yui's experiences "at school" were much starker - her classmates either quit (we saw one girl leave after someone died in training, crashing their TSF), died in combat or were eaten, and Yui herself was mere inches away from being eaten. I wouldn't expect Yui to go into all that, but mentioning some of it could make for good development: remind viewers (and Yuuya) about the BETA threat, help Yuuya realise that there's much worse problems out there than those he faced while also helping him understand and sympathise with Yui. It could also help fill in the readers about Yui's been up to in the last 3-4 years and why.

I dont mind fan-service to some degree - I find it pretty hit and miss in this series. The wonder-bra pilot suits dont work for me - too "cheap". A few eps ago we had VG joining the women in the shower - while it might be part of a "basic" fan-service scene it at least shows some boldness on the character's side which is rare. Rather different to the cheap and cowardly VG who wants to spy on the same women at the resort. At least Yuuya is "genre-savy" and gentlemanly enough to warn the women, copping an eyeful as a reward. The final scene in this episode was a travesty of cheap exploitation. It's as if someone said and did "Oh no, we haven't met our fan-service budget for the episode, what's the first idea that comes into your mind?" What next for the TSF development team - an idol pop concert? It really feels like a "race to the bottom".

I'm still waiting for an explanation as for why Yui had to do what she did in ep 5 (using her personal TSF to teach Yuuya a lesson) - she got approval/support from others for her action (the captain at least) so surely there is some justification to taking such extreme action. Why did she have to push so hard so fast? So everyone could have a nice time at the beach? In the absence of any proper explanation I'm forced to conclude that it was for plot convenience... which again leads to a feeling of disappointment.