In which the title starts to make sense.
So, after the robot skellyman is dispatched, a pair of girls with Engines of their own show up. They finish off its gribbly looking core when that comes back for one last hit, and then get in a senseless fight with Akira and Haruka, refusing to explain themselves about destroying the power Akira has or what have you. Eventually, the fact that one of them is an adult in the room calms things down, and they go and talk it out. Story is, Akira’s shiny new power is not an Engine but rather something called ENIA. ENIA was EDVA’s ultimate weapon, but the warriors of Theia (known as the Vertex, a name their descendants have taken up) stole it. The girls wanted to destroy it to keep it out of EDVA’s hands, but now believe that it could be bait for a trap, or possibly even that Akira could wield it against her.
Thus, the angry American and her calm co-conspirator try to recruit Haruka and Akira to join their team and fight against EDVA, because she won’t stop coming for ENIA and likely intends to exterminate Earth as well. Haruka is a bit slow to accept, having serious pride invested in being Akira’s protector.
This changes when another of EDVA’s attack drones shows up. Haruka isn’t able to take it on solo, and it forces Akira to trigger ENIA (which he’d had trouble doing on command) and learn how to better fight with it in order to survive. The new duo comes in and gives a finishing blow, and after that harsh lesson, Haruka is willing to play ball. Thus, the four of them (with Akira now able to suit up on his own, if not fly straight) head off to find another of their number, with EDVA ever watchful.
I’ll be honest, while we’re still in the land of required beats, this one didn’t feel as strong as the first episode. First of all, the “refusal of the call” beat, while classic, is less obligatory. Akira is eager to have meaning in his life and Haruka was already a fighter, we didn’t have to burn an episode on convincing her that this was her fight the way you kind of need to, you know, actually meet your main characters. The structure of the encounters was also a bit off, and made the American girl seem really nuts. I guess she is supposed to be a top-tier meathead who lives for the destruction of EDVA, but that doesn’t make her behavior forced. There were a bunch of ways that could have been shown.
All the same, this is still a way that the setup can be done well. Depending on exactly how long the recruitment phase takes and what’s entailed in it, as well as what twists the story has going forward, it still has a lot of potential. At least this is using the 3DCG to its fullest with action.
So, as I sometimes do, I’m going to make some wild guesses. In this case, my guess is that the story of Theia’s fall and EDVA is more complicated than we’ve been led to believe. Could the show work if she really is just evil omnicidal robot with no extra depth? Sure, but I think at least having a background or logic to her desire to destroy organic life would both be good and something we could reasonably expect. Certainly, if she’s just evil robot because evil robot, the show will have to work harder in other places to make up for having an antagonist who’s not particularly deep or compelling. I have a good deal of hope on this score, because of how the framing has presented things so far, but nothing can be said with 100% certainty from an outside perspective like mine.
So, that’s what I want to leave this week on: hope. Hope that this show will level out and really soar where it can. I’ll say more when we have more.