Keeping up the routine.  Keeping up the routine.  That's what it's all about with my writeups for Vividred Operation.  It's not a bad show at all, it just hasn't caught me the way the other three completed writeup series (Ga-Rei Zero, Rio Rainbow Gate!, High School of the Dead) did.  No, I'm not going to drop it... I'm too far into it to do that.  Besides, it's not like I have anything else to write about right now.  So what the heck, let's take a look at what's going on after the debacle that was Ep06.

It seems like the RHF was out late, defeating another Alone.  How lame must this one have been to not even get any screen-time?  Are there nerdy Alones?  Was this Alone the equivalent of having a bowl cut, coke-bottle glasses and a pocket protector?  Was it picked on by the other Alones, shoved into lockers, tripped in the hallway, that sort of thing?  Finally, it had enough and decided that it'd show all those bullies and took its shot at doing something none of the others could manage: destroying the Phlebotinum Engine!  Then maybe the cute Alone cheerleaders would pay attention to him!  Hope you feel proud, RHF and the rest of Team Aquos.  I hope you're really happy as you drool onto your breakfast.  That Alone was just trying to be loved... is that too much to ask for?  And you guys were just like all the rest, you slapped a "Kick Me" sign on its back, took its lunch money and then disposed of it.  Buncha bullies, that's what you are!  Meanwhile, as "Our Hero" sleeps through breakfast...

...Hot Dark Girl Rei and her kickarse scarf lament their failure to destroy the world.  Again.  Worse, it took another of her powerups, leaving her with six.  More importantly, she's running out of episodes to accomplish her task.  If she ever shows up with a rubber duck, I'm going to just go out of my mind... in a good way, not a creepy way.

Well, maybe it'd be a little bit creepy.  I wouldn't be proud of it, though.



As it turns out, while the whole of Team Aquos has been out late fighting lonesome losers, only RHF has been letting her grades suffer because of it, not to mention sleeping through class.  Now, in most cases this isn't horrible... disrespectful, sure, but in anime you get away with it.  But when your teacher is an ex-fighter jock who knows your secret identity, she's gonna give you a hard time.  While the rest of the team jumps to her defense ("She works in the morning to provide for her family because the government didn't bother providing Gendo Plushyferret with anything for solving the world's energy crisis by inventing the Phlebotinum Engine!"), it is to no avail: either RHF improves her grades, or she'll be banned from working, dooming Lil Sis' Momo to living on the street, and she'll have to stay after school for extra classes.  The solution?  Group study at the Isshiki place on Saturdays!  Obviously, Team Aquos will attend, but Aoi has an idea... let's invite someone else!

D'awwwwwwww, it's so cute!  And the cat's nice, too.  It's clear that Hot Dark Girl Rei is a nice girl, she just hates people.  To be honest, I have a hard time blaming her at that.  Think about it... for all the good things people have done, there's a Holocaust, a Unit 731, a Rio Rainbow Gate!.  Ask yourself: is the bad worth the good?  While Hot Dark Girl Rei feeds the stray, Team Aquos puts Operation Invitation into action, scaring away the kitty.  First up is Aoi...

...who is polite, respectful, and gets totally stonewalled.  If her attempt had been a drag race, it would have been a segway vs Thrust SSC.  Yeah, very much like that.  Hot Dark Girl Rei walks away without looking back...

...right into Attempt #2.  Wakaba uses Intimidation... it's not very effective, though Hot Dark Girl Rei does actually say a few words to the kendo girl.  So Wakaba's got that going for her.  Which is nice.  Still no success.  Rei and her kickarse scarf get away to a corner of the school building and take a deep breath, wondering just what the heck is going on.  And then...

...Himawari uses Stealth.  It's super effective, but not in the way they intend.  Hot Dark Girl Rei snaps, shooting Himawari in the head and leaving her bleeding in the dirt.  She then takes to a nearby bell tower and begins taking pot shots at anybody showing their faces.  OR... she snaps, yells and runs away, drawing a "What a weirdo" from Himawari.  That night, she shows signs of the stress she's under... she just wants to be left alone, and why even bother going to school anymore?

Then, just to make a lousy day even worse, Croooow! shows up to say "nope, you gotta go to school.  THEY said so."  Well, of course, Spunky Hot Dark Girl Rei ain't gonna take that one lying down, and she angrily lips off to the bird.

Not the best idea she's ever had.  The pain forces her to recant her views ("I love school, it's great, friggin' birdOW!").  Eventually Croooow! goes away, leaving Spunky Hot Dark Girl Rei alone in her empty apartment.  Totally alone except for her computer and a towel _{^{buytheblurays}}...

...which is how she's dressed when she FINALLY makes the connection that Gendo Plushyferret Isshiki is RHF Isshiki's grandfather.  I had to pause the episode at this point, as I had facepalmed myself so hard my beak flew off my face

Yeah, like that.  It only took six and a half episodes to say "gosh, Isshiki sure isn't a common name."  Slow Spunky Hot Dark Girl Rei has suddenly discovered that she's got something to do this weekend...

...study session with Team Aquos!  Aoi is smug, Rei is uncomfortable, RHF is beside herself with joy.  Let the epic study session begin!  Or, really, let the epic small talk begin while studying goes by the wayside!  As you can imagine, Slow Spunky Annoyed Hot Dark Girl Rei has no time for this sort of frippery, and quickly excuses herself in search of the loo.  This clever ruse fools Team Aquos, leaving Rei free to begin searching for Dr Plushyferret's lab... which, of course, he blew to kingdom come back in the first episode, and turning himself into Gendo Plushyferret in the process.  Thwarted before she could even begin, Rei is almost back to the studyparty when she notices a big, high-tech piece of equipment with Plushyferret's name on it... maybe it's his newest invention?

Nope, it's the freezer Team Aquos is keeping his body in while he tries to figure out how to get back into it.  Her scream is a scream that will pierce the heavens.  Unfortunately, Wakaba's palmstrike is a palmstrike that will knock you out and make you forget everything.  Useful trick, that.

When she comes to, they tell her she slipped in the bathroom and hit her head.  Man, if I had a dime for every time I heard that....  Meanwhile, somewhere in town...

A giant Duncan Butterfly is attacking!  A Duncan Butterfly with spikes.  And tribal tattoos.  It might be the coolest yo-yo ever!  I used to be a practitioner of the Art of Yo, and I always thought that Butterfly-style yo-yos were cheating... "Imperial" style was where you showed your mad skillz, yo.  Anyway, the Yolone promptly begins "walking the dog" through power yards on its way towards the Phlebotinum Engine.  Meanwhile, back at the Study Session of Legend...

That is NOT what it looks like, I swear.  They were eating fresh cucumbers from the garden behind the house, and the RHF had her bottle of mayonnaise with her, and she put it on the cucumbers, and the girls were eating them and they're frickin' middle schoolers what the heck is the Production Staff thinking???  Rei is rightfully creeped out and heads for the hills in a hurry.  As Team Aquos stares after her, their cellphones ring: Alone Attack!  On the other hand, Hot Dark Girl Rei just gets a visit from Croooow!  Both groups of combatants go off to do their thing.  Meanwhile...

...the military has to try and hold back the alien on their own while waiting for a team of teenage girls to come save their bacon.  And for the record?  This looks nothing like a scene from Evangelion.  Also for the record?  They work just about as well.  But then, just as everything seems lost...

Step aside, we've got some badasses comin' through!  Very quickly, they begin to kick the Alone all over the sky, until they realize that, hey, they're over a city!  It'd be bad if they kill it and the pieces wipe out a square mile of apartment building, right?  Right!  That means it's Vividyellow and Vivid Collider time!

Some distance away, Rei has just finished climbing 50 flights of stairs to get to the top of a skyscraper so she can get a clear shot with her feathery powerup-bow. 

The two opponents fire at the same time... what are the odds?  Which will prevail?  The Feathery Powerup or the Giant Laserbeam of Friendship?  Who could possibly win?

Yup, it's another curbstomping for Team Aquos.  Everybody's happy and the world is safe for another night.  RHF is hungry, everybody laughs, fade to...

...whatever the heck that is.  As it turns out, it's a piece of the Yo-lone with Hot Dark Girl Rei's powerup arrow stuck in it... and you know what that means!  You don't?  Well, me neither.  As it turns out, the Yolone has stopped being yo-yo shaped, and now looks like...

...this.  Lemme tell ya, it isn't happy about it, either.  Fortunately for it, all four members of Team Aquos are clustered together, laughing about how easy it all is when you're a Magical Girl.  They don't even notice something that looks like a giant eyeball shooting beams of death at them until it's nearly too late.  RHF is the only one who can react, and while she blocks the shot...

...we discover that she's lousy at defense.  Her combat suit is zorched, she's unconscious, and now she's plummeting earthward.  Fade to black, roll credits.

Oooooh, cliffhanger!

Next week: more zombies!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:13 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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