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Rating: 7.2/10

Impressions:

At last, some well needed Mana character development, even though it really only acts an affirmer of previous information given about her personality and background. Her relationship with Suwa is going pretty smooth, though I’m surprised it’s still where it’s at now. It’s also a bit of a concern for me, since I like relationships a lot and hate when they fail, is the probable reasoning behind Mana being so caring for Suwa being his resemblance to the previous guy Mana had to protect. I’m sure she has her current feelings for Suwa, though it’s disappointing how the basis of this relationship is probably the previous guy.

Suwa in turn is pretty intent on helping Mana, and I can’t discern whether the reason leans toward a sibling love or romantic love. He’s still very young so it’s hard to tell. I initially though his running and training were for his piloting, which I thought was stupid. However, it seems that ever since he’s seen Mana fight, he’s bent on getting stronger to protect her. This I guess would be a good thing for the sake of their relationship, though his behaviour is seen so many times in anime that it’s a bit of a bore. His easy acceptance of his job to pilot Sussano is also highly cliché (certainly no normal boy would do such a thing).

This episode as a standalone is pretty good, but being fairly ‘detached’ from any main storyline that’s progressing makes it a lot less effective when viewed as part of a whole series. Unlike, for example, Darker then BLACK, Gigantic Formula doesn’t allow its main characters to intervene in the stories that are told. Most shows that tell short tales would usually have some kind of relation to the primary plot or characters. But as so far I’ve generally liked the episodic stories, I don’t want to complain too much. I wonder if one of the stories will actually NOT be sad or touching, as they have been so far.

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