So the expectation from last time was pretty much “Pillars show up, fight them off, character building on the side, if there’s time”. This time, though, we get a downtime episode, more or less, where we see more of these characters and how they fit into their world. This is one of the bit places where the show will determine whether it soars or stumbles, so how does our first outing go?
Well… it’s not bad. We start off
with Claudia being summoned to have a nice chat with Odin. This
tells us few things about the world but more about their
relationship: Odin seems endlessly amused by Claudia, though he does
taunt her with her “Grim Reaper” title. He promises the decisive
battle is coming, she… mostly just acts stern and standoffish, like
she doesn’t want to disrespect a literal god who gave her amazing
powers, swooped in to save humanity, and is busily praising her but
all the same she doesn’t exactly want to be part of that conversation
either. After that, she has a talk with Miko about their discipline
and background and they end up preparing the base’s breakfast
together.
At breakfast, the Commander (who, like
many of the men, seems oddly tired) gives the valkyries (aside from
Azu, who has mechanic work to do) a mission to inspect the area that
the previous Pillar battle occurred at. Miko is initially reluctant,
but then agrees to go after some assurance that we don’t fully
understand. When they get there, reconstruction in damaged sectors
is going well, and the undamaged have already reopened to the tune of
a joyful crowd of people happy to see their Valkyrie protectors.
In fact, it looks an awful lot like
they were sent to have a fun vacation day in the guise of a mission
so that Claudia would go and do it despite the stick that’s usually
firmly up her rear. That latter element is still notable as she
keeps trying to insist they “do their job” and inspect the place
when part of the point is that the Valkyries’ senses should let them
know if anything is off, so just being in the area and interacting
with the possibly affected people should let them know if anything’s
not OK. I’m not sure what she wants to do, but suffice to say she
doesn’t feel like she’s doing it if she’s having fun.
As they leave and take a small rest
break on the drive back, Miko gets a call, and the tone abruptly
shifts. She tears off with one of the soldiers, taking a fast bike
to some destination, and the others follow when they’re best able.
When Claudia arrives, we find out what’s going on.
One of the recon pilots from the
previous battle, who were caught before the Valkyries launched into
the fighting, has taken a turn for the worse as of the previous night
(hence many having not gotten a lot of sleep) and is now on his death
bed. Miko has gone to visit him, in order to fulfill the secondary
role of the Valkyries to see off the dying. We see her chatting
amiably, even though she knows what’s coming, and holding his hand to
reassure him that someone is there even as he can’t see. Azu is
actually very frustrated – she clearly can’t quite take it and is
frustrated with Miko holding to the superstition even though it must
hurt. Claudia, however, is touched, and goes into the room to help
share the burden with Miko, taking the dying soldier’s hand and
singing a fairly pretty song as he passes.
After that, Claudia hears the thanks of
the still living men for that sendoff, and the knowledge that they
won’t be abandoned to die alone, and thinks back on her status as the
“grim reaper” and the degree to which that bothered her,
realizing that she’d only really been sorry for herself, and hadn’t
thought about the others who flew with her and what they felt or
thought. The next day, she goes to Miko and asks how to be strong
like her. Miko probably doesn’t understand, and chooses to pay off a
joke from the beginning of the episode about Claudia not liking raw
fish by insisting that the secret to strength is eating without being
picky, so we can end on a more cheerful note than the fallout from
the scout’s death.
On the whole… I can’t say this was a bad episode, and it certainly had some good material when it got into the Valkyrie’s sendoff, but it did feel a little anemic. It’s becoming more clear that this really is meant to be Claudia’s story and only Claudia’s story – the other girls are there as foils for her, to teach her and show her about life rather than to be explored in their own regards… so I’m not expecting any depth out of Sono or Azu anymore and very little out of Miko, just based on how the story is structured. I could be wrong, and I would happy to be wrong, but that’s what I anticipate. To that end, the “having fun” phase (everything between Claudia’s talk with Odin and the visit to the dying soldier) wasn’t super engaging. I watched it just fine, and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t moving or stirring or hilarious. It was a slice of life episode and in that regard I feel that Yuki Yuna is a Hero, which I keep comparing this show to, did the slice of life a lot better.
But then, I have the entire show of
Yuki Yuna to look back on when I say that, I don’t honestly remember
how I felt when I was just three episodes in to Yuki Yuna and didn’t
have a whole lot of interactions to base my analysis on. I do think
that characters like Fu and Togo weren’t as loudly single-noted as
Azu or to a lesser extent Miko, but then there are other shows in
which I’ve very much appreciated or wished for starting with a loud
note and building complexity off of it. We did get some for Miko
this episode, seeing that she’s not entirely carefree and that she
takes on kindness as a responsibility even as she wears that smile
that stretches from ear to ear… so I guess there is some hope for
the other girls and the cast as a whole unit.
See you all next time!