Cecilia's character sure has underwent a complete 180 when it comes to Ichika. While as much was certainly to be expected (and foreshadowed), i still find the degree of change to be a case of too fast, too soon. Ah well ... i guess with the amount of heroines they have to introduce (and each new introduction siphoning away the screentime of each) they don't have much time for character development if they intend to have a plot along with it. Ah well ... considering she annoyed the hell out of me previously, i can live with this sudden turnabout. If nothing else, was funny seeing her barreling Houki out of the way as she rushed to Ichika's side after the crash
That aside, this episode has finally delivered something that was sorely missing for me personally in the first two - a likable main female character. Rin left a quite good impression on me - colorful, interactive and while she does seem to have a bit of a wild streak, it is much more restrained and reasonable than Houki's. Was quite amusing seeing her instantly want a room switch with Houki - girl knows what she wants
Seems to have some issues with her father though ? Well, we will find out soon enough i guess.
I am a bit worried about the upcoming fight though - Ichika's performance with IS this episode was quite inconsistent with what we saw last week (dodging Cecilia's shots and slicing up her remote weapons compared to failing at basic maneuvering this time), so i only hope it doesn't turn in to a case where we are supposed to believe Ichika is a newbie at piloting (by showing us him failing at practice lessons), but suddenly developing abilities to do well against opponents he has no business doing well against. For all intents and purposes fighting against a melee opponent should be quite hellish if you are inept at controlling the basic movement of your machine, so lets see how that goes. If the partial materialization is any indication, Rin should know her way around the IS quite well.
Speaking of which, what was Houki thinking, exactly - actually trying to hit a person with the wooden sword ?
I know it served as a plot point to give Rin a reason to show off her ability to partially materialize her IS, but err ... that girl has some seriously violent tendencies.
Overall ...an ok episode i guess. I quite liked Rin, but i liked everything else considerably less. And Ichika proves to be as dense as a dried fish (well, that much was to be expected from previous episodes) ... for once, i would kill for a more interesting male lead - only thing setting Ichika apart is having an attitude to stand up for his thickness, so at least he isn't a rag. But really ... i wish the author had used a wee bit more creative solution than the test and tried method of making the male lead thicker than concrete in order to allow him to coexist with half a dozen females in an endless loop. Continuous interactions based around the interaction subject standing there going "huh?" aren't particularly engaging. Ah well.
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