Note: we’re labelling the recap of the first season episode 12.5, making this episode 13. Click here for season one reviews.
Nearly a year after the events of the first season, Kyono Madoka is still in the Jersey Club, still waiting tables at her uncle’s restaurant and seasid cafe, and is weary of making plans for the future. Lan is undergoing Vox trials at a La Garite starbase that is ambushed by De Metrio, led by Villagiulio and Muginami. Lan returns to Kamogawa and begs Madoka to fight beside her in Vox Aura. Aura has remained dormant the whole time, but when Muginami arrives and fights Lan, it wakes up and Madoka races after her dueling friends.
This is the seventh Summer anime we’ll be watching. It puts us right back into the thick of things, with a Sweats Club that is back down to only one member, with the other two at each others’ throats, paralleling their civilizations’ animosity. Nearly everyone Madoka talks to in Kamogawa is worried about her being frozen in time; that she needs to move on and think of college and a career. But she can’t stop thinking about Lan and Muginami. She wants everyone back together; one happy family keeping the town safe.
When Lan returns, it’s not a social visit. She’s spent the better part of her time away being poked and prodded by scientists under the command of her cold brother, King Dizelmine. Lan wants Madoka to pilot Vox again. Muginami seems devoted to ensuring that doesn’t happen. We were surprised Vox Aura was back up and running by episode’s end; we thought the series would continue to handicap its heroine with relative powerlessness. But Midori wakes up and she’s back in the game. We’ll see if she can calm her two fiery friends.
Rating: 7 (Very Good)
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