Very little to report for this episode of Active Raid, unfortunately. The show itself is in a holding pattern of sorts (aw yeah, dunking on the episode by making use of its title, classic critic trick), slowly elaborating obvious relationship beats and generally just idling until its main narrative can actually start. Active Raid’s episodic stories are just not interesting, and that becomes a real problem when any given episode fails to entertain in other ways. Hopefully the characters actually learn to work together soon, because their bickering is not particularly engaging, but they’d probably work pretty well as friends. Or failing that, just give Asami and Rin the spotlight again – they’re way more interesting than this episode’s leads.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
“Asami’s an even bigger troublemaker than you, but at least she tries”
The grey-haired dude asks for the brown-haired guy’s help in getting Asami up to speed
A plane stuck in a holding pattern due to trouble at the airport. Some high-level public servant trying to get back for his daughter’s wedding
Dietman Gouhara. And there’s a bomb threat on the plane
“Orochi,” some government project they’re trying to hide
the bad guy eating popcorn while he watches this play out is amazing
Right, Sena is the grey-haired guy. Really gotta remember these names
And Sena gives a status report… on getting a rare sandwich, and going to eat a souffle
The bombers are demanding the aircraft stay within a specific airspace, so Sena’s going to disarm it in midair there
Most of the villain’s nonsense remains within its default silliness level
Kuroki’s the other guy
He’s their “quick decisions under fire” guy
Ooshikoushi Miho arrives, from the USDF. She apparently has a history with Sena, or he just knows her involvement means bad stuff
Apparently there’s some important data module or something, so they’re not revealing the existence of the bomb
“You’re pretty loyal for a Unit 8 member” ouch
“I’m glad we broke up.” Referring to his former employment, I assume
The rivalry between Sena and Kuroki is pretty childish
And he’s thrown out of the plane by a giant inflatable mascot
“Now isn’t the time to turn on me, you defense ministry flunky!” “It’s because of people like you that our division gets a bad rap!”
“I had no intention of letting the police have Willwears!”
Mythos is the main schemer dude
Not too surprisingly, part of what I’ve mentioned about this being such an episodic series is already coming true. You thought this episode wasn’t as good as the previous ones, yet I’ve actually seen a few people online who reached the exact opposite conclusion and felt this was probably the best so far. The plane crisis seems to have worked better for some folks.
In my opinion, I would argue this episode serves as a direct prelude to the main narrative. Which won’t be starting right away, of course, but I do expect the show to come back and expand upon several of the elements introduced this time around (Orochi, Miho, Bird). That’s what I found particularly interesting about it, rather than the character dynamics.
In any case, Active Raid will continue to shift gears and next time we will get something completely different. It might not be more interesting, who knows, but it could be more entertaining and probably focus on other characters.