Active Raid drifted back into the good lane this week, pulling off an episode that starred an understandable conflict that built off the show’s core political themes and also illustrated new things about the main characters. And hey, waddayaknow, just executing on those obvious storytelling fundamentals resulted in a much better story than the episodes that are about basically nothing. It seems weird to be offering criticism that boils down to “stop making bad decisions, instead try making good ones,” but that really does seem to be what it sometimes takes. Active Raid made good decisions this week, and was rewarded with a satisfying episode for it.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
oh god no the title is a maid pun
A tanker truck is out of control
A mysterious Willwear user appears and saves the day
aw dang, the old boss is putting on a Willwear
And the Willwear saves the day again
It’s called the Ulti-maid, named that by the public
“Why does it get a fan club, and we don’t?!?”
Asami’s fully integrated into the team now, which is nice
Strong banter across the whole team as they discuss the Ulti-maid
Kuroki asks Sena to go out for drinks
“There’s nothing less credible than the promise of babes at a drinking party.”
And they end up just meeting with Asami and Haruka
Baba Michii seems to be some celebrity Sena is into
They meet Miho, the woman from the jumbo jet incident
“You wore that brand on our first date, too”
They were in the same year at the defense academy
“Why did you break up?” jeez, Haruka
“He always strives for perfection, and has the same expectations of his date”
Aw dang, a construction robot’s gone mad
Kuroki and Haruka are too drunk to go into action
Ulti-maid is Miho – the USDF’s prototype
This is a fast-paced episode
It’s a power play. They’re trying to get sole Willwear rights
Ah, it was Sena that dumped Miho
“You didn’t have the guts to tell me it was off”
“You can insult me all you want. but don’t badmouth Unit 8!”
Awesome, Miho’s just a spurned woman character
“This time I’ll dump you. Then maybe the stain on my life will disappear”
Now Unit 8 is being told to cooperate with the USDF. But this is also a potential demonstration of either team’s worth
“Apologize to me more!”
They’re having a great time. This is actually great stuff
“Could the perp be trying to collect Willwear data?”
“No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t be perfect for you”
Miho’s mech has been taken over
The USDF refuses to shut down their mech because they don’t want Unit 8 to have it. Stupid politics
Even the direction of this episode is pretty dramatically effective