...Okay, that was...disconcerting.
First off, I have to say that I agree with virtually everything Yuuya says right up to the 8:30 mark. But the entire episode really sets forth the difference in design philosophies in the two countries, and it runs a lot deeper than the difference between "ranged" versus "close combat" or "anti-BETA" versus "anti-TSF."
It's the difference between a culture of
warriors and one of
soldiers.
In which case, either it's by lucky accident or a case of raving genius on behalf of the writers that in this Alternate History setting, Imperial Japan still exists, because that's one of the transitions that got made in the post-Meiji era in Japanese military culture, and it seems like in this universe that didn't happen.
What Yuuya's talking about
: the ridiculousness of designing a TSF that only veteran pilots can use efficiently, that's "soldier" thinking. Armies are not made up of warriors, but made up of soldiers. An individual warrior, an elite-trained fighter, often steeped in a centuries-old culture and philosophy, will almost certainly kick the ass of an individual soldier. Because being a soldier is not about individual combat. It's about being a member of an army/brigade/platoon/squad/whatever. It's about fighting in a group, about being a disciplined member of a fighting force. A soldier culture will win on the battlefield in an army-versus-army combat virtually every time, unless there's a huge numerical/technological/tactical advantage to the other side.
(Witness ye: Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. While the English ended up losing the Hundred Years' War due to the fact that victory in war is not at all solely about victory on the battlefield, these historical examples show the difference between an England transitioning to a culture of soldiers training for army battle, and a France where the ruling social class of warrior knights had their sociopolitical ethos embedded in their military strategy.)
The Japanese TSFs are being designed for a warrior culture. They're not, fundamentally, interested in making sure that Mook Eishi #237 can best combat the BETA. They're interested in making sure that Imperial Guard Eishi #2 can be a superhuman fighting machine. They're maximizing the combat ability of the elite warrior aces, not in making sure the troops on the ground can function better. They'll kill off many troops and trainees to make Yui better able to survive.
(Yep, Yui, the design philosophy of your unit's TSFs was designed to maximize
your chances of survival at the expense of Izumi and Shimako and everyone else's. Just sayin'.
)
For example...exactly how many Takemikazuchi's even
exist? Can you think of any real-world military machinery (excepting naval vessels, of course, which don't operate on anything like the same kind of principles) where the government orders a certain minimal number of top-level machines, then reserves them for a "special" unit determined by social class? There are, of course, cost/performance analyses (can we buy X of these planes versus Y of those, and which will more greatly increase our overall military ability?) and obviously older weaponry is rotated to reserve or training units while being replaced by newer, more advanced equipment among frontline combat units.
So that quite frankly, whenever Yuuya and Yui are clashing, it's not really over TSF performance issues, it runs right down to the roots of how each of their respective cultures treats the underlying
concept of battle, not just in terms of TSFs or of BETA or whatever, but right down to the very roots of any kind of combat. It's no wonder they can't find common ground, even without their respective personal issues clogging things up.
(It also shows that everything Yuuya says about the Type-94 Second's performance and what Yui says about the test pilot trying to put his stamp on the project,
are both completely accurate.)
Yuuya actually
being an ace-quality pilot, in this episode we see him start to catch on to the Shiranui's abilities and be able to use them to their highest levels.
(In fairness, I have to note that, from everything I've read here at AS, the Japanese philosophy of TSF design might actually be better-suited for one particular aspect of anti-BETA combat: attacks on BETA hives, where AFAIK anyone less than a top-class elite is going to get waxed in seconds anyway, so the most viable strategy is to maximize the performance of the TSFs that have a chance of survival. Just pointing out that I'm not oversimplifying this into "America good, Japan bad.")