Warlords of Sigrdrifa – 09 – Don’t Be a Baby

In the opening moments of this episode, Sonoka gingerly approaches her Hero Wing as if it were a vicious wild animal about to strike, and finally collapses into a quivering heap from fear and anxiety. My breath was short just watching her, because I knew she really really shouldn’t get in that cockpit. Thankfully she doesn’t, and the guys take off in their modern fighters to join the battle, telling her they’ve got this.

The battle itself isn’t going well, as whatever Miko blows up, whether it’s the Tertiary Pillars or the Secondary’s core, regenerate almost immediately, rendering all their hard work moot. It’s like they’re caught in a time loop. And in Odin’s extradimensional “temple”, Claudia fights of the golems, one of their escorts is seriously injured, and Azusu realizes something and…freezes.

That injured soldier ends up sacrificing himself to buy the others time to flee, and Claudy has to slap Azusu to snap her out of her brain feedback loop. All that matters is that Azusu gets back to Tateyama with the knowledge she’s learned. Back at the base, the Pillars are approaching, but the pregnant civilian woman has already gone into labor.

The doctors tending her won’t abandon her, but try to think of a way to move her out of harm’s way. Sono witnesses these “ordinary heroes” and remembers her big sis Yayoi telling her to look in her charm if things get to be “too much”. Inside the charm, Sono finds a handwritten note with the words Yayoi said to her many times: “Don’t be a baby, idiot!”

Tough love to be sure, but Sono is able to laugh at the words, and recovers her nerve. I’m no psychiatrist, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t how PTSD works—there’s no cure for it in reality, though it can be successfully treated, managed, and minimized—but it works enough for Sono to confidently and heroically stride back into the hangar, hop into her Hero Wing, and join the battle.

Miko is elated to find Sono by her side (better late than never) since she’s almost out of ammo. Sono’s fully loaded, and helps plow the road so Miko can make the most of her remaining ordinance. The thousands of spinning gears around them have been a clue for how to defeat the Pillar all along: they are a clockwork that enable it to turn back time and repair itself.

Once some of the gears are jammed with Tertiary Pillars and Miko splashes the Secondary’s core, the whole intricate Rube Goldberg machine falls apart. The Pillar is destroyed, leaving a big ‘ol tree, and the 909th have their first victory in a long time, and it feels so good.

Claudy, Azuzu, and the surviving escorts make it out of Odinville and Claudy successfully closes the portal; Azuzu saves her from being pulled back in by one of the golems. The four Valkyries reunite to join the celebration of the new birth, which brings light to an otherwise dark and death-filled time.

Their celebrations don’t last long, as Azuzu presents imagery of the murals they found in Odin’s temple, which suggest that while they’ve seemingly been fighting to prevent Ragnarök, the fact Norse mythology doesn’t exist anymore suggests Ragnarök already happened. That means Odin has been lying to them at best. The episode ends with him in the temple, insisting “we have not yet fallen.”

Following a recap, this episode offered a welcome glimmer of hope for our four air maidens and their cause, but their patron god has yet to reveal his true intentions for them. I also can’t help but feel like things were resolved too neatly and easily, particularly Sono recovering from her PTSD enough to fly again…just from reading a note.

Clockwork Planet – 01 (First Impressions)

One of the downsides of choosing what anime to watch, in part, by their promotional art, is that just as a mechanical clock will one day fail, sometimes a piece of art will let you down. Clockwork Planet is evidence of this. The promo art didn’t look that bad at all, but the show’s a dud.

Just to give a quick recap: In a post-apocalyptic world built almost entirely of gears (?) Miura Naoto is a fairly wimpy tinkerer who dreams of becoming a proper clocksmith. Just when he wishes out loud that automata would rain down upon him, one does, a state-of-the-art model named RyuZU. Naoto shows what he’s got by repairing her.

Then RyuZU becomes Naoto’s trusty servant, in a very silly ceremony in which she sucks on his finger (though it’s an efficient way to collect genetic material with which to imprint).

Later, they check into a love motel because his house was destroyed when she dropped in. Naoto can’t help but see RyuZU as a pretty girl and not a mere automaton, because, well, she looks like a pretty girl.

Meanwhile, Marie Breguet, who is some kind of scientific-commercial big shot despite being (or at least appearing to be) very young, laments the loss of an automaton (RyuZU), clashes with the military, and finds out that said military is going to purge the Kyoto Grid, sending 20 million people to their deaths. She also sleeps in the buff…because…

I needn’t go on. World made of gears? Casual military mass murder? Characters who look like little kids? A very low-budge and unattractive production? I believe I’ll pass.