Short Synopsis: Marina plans to go back to Azadistan, to try to rebuild her country again.
Highlights: That romance is either going to make or break this series.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
The ED of this series is starting to sound better and better, and I finally realized that it’s been done by Ishikawa Chiaki (who also did the theme songs of Bokura no). It’s pretty much the best theme song of this series so far, even though it still comes nowhere near the work she’s done for Bokura no.

In any case, this episode was pretty much about romance(or potential romance, in any case): Alelujah and Soma grew up together, but Soma doesn’t seem to realize this (most likely from the time when people messed with her brain, in the first half of the first season. Of course the removal of these berserk tendencies needed to have some repercussions). Then we have Feldt, who sees the image of Neil in Lyle, and Lyle uses this to hit on her. Meanwhile, Marina asks Setsuna to go with her to Azadistan, while both of them proclaim that they’re not in love in stereo (pretty much THE hint in anime of a future couple). Billy meanwhile is angry because Sumeragi “betrayed” him and started to develop new mobile suits for the enemy.

The thing is, that this series definitely can’t use some badly developed romance at this point. The creators are going to be very careful to actually develop all these relationships right, in the middle of the series. I’ll be happy as long as the romance is used wisely, and doesn’t get in the way of what’s really important in this series, and gets used as character-building. I was glad that the second season removed the teenaged-part from the series, but that doesn’t mean that this has given the light for cheesy romance now. It’s just too late now to turn this series into a romance-one.

There’s also one thing I’m wondering for a bit, but that may be because I’ve been watching the second season raw so far. But if four years have passed already, then why hasn’t the Earth-Federation gotten the chance yet to mass-produce the Solar Furnaces? Why haven’t they discovered the workings of the Trans-Am-system they’ve gotten from Alelujah’s machine when he was captured? Their tactics in this episode were pretty weak: they pretty much knew the position of the Poseidon, and yet they only attacked with a small number of Mobile Suits. But I guess that that was meant to be: to show the ineptness of the new white-haired commander, and push Kati up a rank.

And there’s one thing I’m also glad about: neither Saji nor Louise was annoying in this episode. Saji is already trying to work on the Poseidon (so my big fear of him becoming a Gundam pilot is unfounded), and Louise is growing up much more, although I’d like to see more screen-time of her, since she only appeared in two or three short scenes so far.

Short Synopsis: Ran gets possessed by the snake spirits, and their role on the island gets revealed.
Highlights: Blood? In this series?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
Okay, so after this we’re about to reach the final quarter of this series, and I really wonder if it can pull off a good finale (and what kind of finale ti has in mind in the first place): the next episodes are either going to make or break this series, because it’s going to have to come up with original material, and it’s a bit stupid to close off the series with stories of the same calibre as episodes 8 to 10.

I’m going to be happy if the final episodes can manage the same consistency as the rest of the series; for this sort of anime, that’s good enough, though I’m not sure yet if it has the potential to pull it off. The fact remains that the main characters of this series haven’t been developed that well, so far. The creators have made up for it by fleshing them out really well, and interesting dialogue, and the question remains whether they can keep this up for the final part of the series. But still, this episode at least showed the very first blush on Rui when Ran touched him. Let’s hope that that’s a sign of things to come. I’d love to see the two of them get closer together in the end.

This episode wasn’t among the highlights of this series, but that’s understandable. It didn’t really have to do with the writing: this was meant to be a simple story, which was mostly about its conclusion (and indeed, it was a great conclusion), and it neither had the expressive animation or outstanding soundtrack of its preceding arcs. It was never meant to be an outstanding arc, and so the producers didn’t treat it as one. It’s nice, but I do expect the next arc to make up for it. In any case, the series shouldn’t go any lower in terms of quality than what it is right now. If it manages to do that, then I’ll call this one a success.