Well, that was fast. After an unlikely episode that demonstrated Active Raid at its absolute best, we were back to the scrapheap this week, as the show rambled through what was almost certainly its worst episode so far. This episode was bad enough that I’m still not quite sure if it was intentionally bad – if the show has somehow realized its episodic drama could not be more emotionally or dramatically hollow, and is thus leaning into that in the most ridiculous way possible. But there were plenty of scenes here that basically had no purpose if you assume the show was trying to be funny, so no, this was just a really supremely terrible episode of anime.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
“Long Rail Life”
an episode about trains. And the blue-haired girl seems to be a fan of them
Naganuma, a politician with the “Peace Party” who also likes trains
Terao Kazuyoshi, another politician, the current governor
The prefecture refuses to okay their handling of a loose Willwear
The perp wants to punish the governor
“First corruption charges kill his popularity, now this”
So he was using overseas arms…. stuff?
This situation actually favors the current governor. He can ham it up and make his opponent look bad
The perpetrator doesn’t really want to be doing this
Haruka is the blue-haired girl who loves trains. Her moment to shine
the Fruit of Tragedy, a terrorist attack from ten years back
“I’m furious that I had to cancel my tour!”
The governor has not given permission. He’s actually stopping them from stopping the perpetrator, in order to make himself look better
He uses the crisis to debut the anti-terrorism weapon he had personally developed
“He interfered with our work to regain his approval ratings”
There’s a father with a young daugher in all of the train dioramas Haruka is looking at
Unit 8 turns the situation around
“I guess politicians have to be this shameless to succeed”
Haruka launches!
Haruka’s train mastery gives them power over the rails
Kobari made the dioramas
“You love trains!” This is a very silly episode
Kobari was going to get an organ transplant for his daughter, but the condition was that he only speak of this as revenge against the governor
17:30 also works
More train memories. This is a very silly episode. “Aren’t those trains just like you and your daughter!?”
You must travel together on that long rail line known as life!
18:33 also has him staring at the trains
And the Logos dude makes him self-destruct
“Do you think you can trace that program to the source?” “I wish I had investigative authority”
Naganuma Daiza was found dead. Jeez
Apparently he committed suicide after feeling responsible for Kobari’s actions
I won’t repeat my previous arguments about how and why my general outlook towards the show radically differs from yours, which informs and affects my opinion of the latest episode too, but here’s an interesting pattern:
The odd numbered episodes (1,3,5,7) seem to be trying to be more over-the-top and ridiculous than the even ones (2,4,6), which are more or less straightforward in comparison.
That said, I recall how you didn’t like episode 4 either, but it seems you’re apparently the odd one out in that regard.
And yet, ironically enough, I think this week was better than 5. It was far more entertaining for my money.
You may be interested in http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/04/21/better-know-a-train-nerd-36-different-classifications-for-japans-densha-otaku/ here. I once knew a high school student who was an onkyou-tetsu and trust me, this episode is understated if anything. His reward from his parents for acing his entrance exam was a Tetsuko no Tabi-style recording trip along the old lines of Nagano-ken, which was literally the most exciting thing in the world for him.