Rolling Girls – Episode 10

Fine recovery from Rolling Girls this week – to make up for last week’s slowness, this one kicked into narrative overdrive, pushing pretty much the whole cast along a variety of story tracks. There were some funny jokes, a great fight, and just a general sense of energy that kept momentum high even when the show attempted to dramatically overreach. Hopefully things stay this fun through the end!

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

Rolling Girls

Scientists investigating an alien planet! The Moon Hall! Only accessible once every several centuries!

So of course this must be where both Chiaya and the moonstones came from

So yeah, the President and her daughter are from an alternate universe, and the “Moon Hall” is our earth

Ai got caught by a master fencer, Haru Fujiwara, while stealing peaches

The Okayama Demons taxes are oppressing the town of Okayama

Great backgrounds as usual. I like this rose window behind the Best

The captain is Ura Kukino

Ai just thinks Haru should beat up the Best. Ai thinks all problems can be solved through strength, of course

“Extreme Double Super Moon” goddamnit Rolling Girls

“I don’t care what planet you’re from, but is it true that Otonashi from my squad was the one kidnapped?”

Ah, the stars are used as fuel for the engine units to get Chiaya back

And Nozomi’s looking for Yukina

The assistant sneaking in the pirate den

And now Yukina is just wandering around in the pirate base herself since her sense of direction is so bad, and even putting up Chiaya fliers. That’s pretty great

And Yukina actually ends up getting herself captured trying to stop Otonashi from escaping. Great stuff

“Can we really fight with these?” “I think it has more practical use than a lucky charm.” Again pointing to the way moonstones are less important than personal resolutions

This episode is also low-key, but it has more structure than the last one, at least

“The Mimasaka Peaches have decided to eliminate the ogres.” so they’re riffing on a classic story here

Ura Kukino once protected Okayama from the Ishizukuri Stones

Ah, Momo’s the daughter. So there’s the whole peach thing

Momotaro befriends a dog, monkey, and pheasant. We’ve got a dog and an ostrich, so is Ai the monkey?

The old Hiroshima leader is getting his license beaten out of him by the pirate queen

This is like a hyper-extreme version of Rolling Girls’ usual problem – why do I care about this guy at all?

Kuramochi’s the old leader

AW SHIT THIS BAMBOO FIGHT IS SWEET

Kaguya is the woman. Kick ass

And Nozomi’s trying to stop her

Nozomi finally gets yelled at for trying to interfere, as she needed to

ono they’re gonna cook chiaya

Momo joined the Peaches

Nozomi’s feeling overwhelmed. “I want to eat Mom’s dango… I miss Dad…”

Chiaya’s actually a much better negotiator than Nozomi

These backgrounds are so good. The multilayered cut paper is reminding me of Madoka Rebellion

Aw, she does have a monkey – it’s like a weird sloth hanging around her ostrich’s neck