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Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

I expected this to have no story progression at all, due to the preview from the last episode, which was a naïve assumption considering the number of episodes in this season (12). There’s absolutely no time to waste, and with my expectations beforehand, this episode turned out to be a rather good surprise. I liked the little Saito vs Julio in order to defend Louise thing as a standalone, though with the sudden war movement, this episode turns out to be entertaining and eventful. Already, the guys at the academy have been recruited, along with the girls in training. Saito, Louise, and others have already been placed in a new taskforce. Things are running pretty quickly…

For some reason, the initial actions Anies took to ‘take over’ the score really pissed me off. I hated her for that in the beginning, but then it sort of wore off after she begins training with Saito. The way she points her sword at the teacher like that, along with commenting on how she hate fire mages, which is really bad stereotyping—kinda like racism, is just sickening. She even handles Montmorency like shit, which appalled me. Like I said though, my resentment for her faded quickly, though the brief flashback which suggests some kind of tragedy involving fire mages did not make me change my mind about her at all.

I mentioned how things are progressing pretty quickly before, and one of the reasons is Henrietta’s quick recovery. Although it could’ve been a long time in the timeline of the anime, from the viewers’ point of view, it would seem to be an instant comeback. Aside from that though, the way Saito speaks to Louise in the way he does now also influences my thinking slightly, pushing me into thinking everything’s been happening too quickly. I can also attribute this feeling to the new characters. Speaking of them, none of them have my liking at all yet (I spoke about Anies already, though I don’t like Julio either). However, next week should be grand due to Louise’s sisters…

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