Okay, here we go... we've reached double digits on this show.  I totally didn't mean for that to rhyme; now I feel like I need to make this intro paragraph into a bad song or something, and I think I'd rather saw my leg off with a rusty nail file than do that.  To be blunt, this show doesn't deserve the effort.  It's not as bad as some people have made it out to be, but there's no real way to say it's been good.  Having said that, it's a lot better fodder for one of these writeups than, say, Girls und Panzer.  That was a good, entertaining, well-written series (the OVA I covered notwithstanding), and the recent ending was excellent.  I've not seen the ending of Vividred Operation yet... actually, I haven't even seen Ep10 yet... but I can't imagine it's going to be as good as GuP's.  What I'm saying is "go watch Girls und Panzer, it's really good."  However, I'm not telling you to leave here... we've got to finish this show together.  And we will, before the next Formula 1 race on April 14th.  On this I swear to all that's... um... swearable.  But before we get to Ep11 and Ep12, we need to get through Ep10, and the first step in doing that is this:
I'll admit, there are times that it's easier to do these reviews than others.  Hot Dark Wet Girl Rei is in the shower, providing us with a handy recap as to her motivation to destroy the Phlebotinum Engine: in her "parallel world," it went nuts and destroyed everything.  The infamous unseen THEY promise to restore it good as new, as long as Hot Dark Moist Girl Rei succeeds in destroying this world's Phlebotinum Engine.  Sure.  Makes sense to me.  Then her parakeet starts screaming like a little girl that had her American Girl doll taken away and in this show, we all know what that means.

Croooow! is being a dick again.  It knows that the parakeet freaks out when it's around, so of course it parks its feathered butt right on top of the cage.  Oh, and for the record?  While Hot Dark Damp Girl Rei stalks over, we hear the parakeet screaming and flapping its wings frantically... but there's no movement inside the cage.  Mmmmmm... you can just smell the quality animation!  Croooow! notes some... shall we say disobedience? from Hot Dark Drying Girl Rei, and does that trick with the eyes that it does.

Suddenly, there's a glare of light across the camera and Hot Dark Nekkid Girl Rei is on all fours, making the sort of noises you'd associate with a Japanese porn video, and the towel falls off _^buythedvds.  It's good to be the bird... until it goes too far.  It threatens to kill Hot Dark Towelless Girl Rei if she doesn't swear obedience to it, and she calls bullhockey.

Sure enough, it's just a servant of THEM and can't kill her.  Score one for the Dark Girl.  The scene ends with a standoff... Hot Dark Girl Rei explains that she'd use all her remaining arrows on the next Alone if she could be there when it first appears, and Croooow! prevaricates on whether or not it can tell her.  Sounds like her plan could work, and work big.  She's got this in the bag, yay for her!

Except for that whole "she wins, our world dies" part.  That's kind of... a bummer.


Oh, and let's not forget that Team Aquos is actively trying to stop her plans, too.

Himawari, in our first non-shower/non-towel related screencap, was messing around with video of the Alone attack that turned the RHF into a shallow but wide smear on the ground and found evidence of the outside influence that Gendo Plushyferret had hypothesized... one of Hot Dark Girl Rei's arrows in flight.  And now that they've got proof of such influence, they can try to prevent it in the future.  Things look grim for Hot Dark Girl Rei and her kickarse scarf...

...who is apparently visiting RHF's house.  Turns out she's come to... wait.  Why in the world is the sunlight leaving purple-tinted shadows everywhere?  What sort of atmosphere does a planet have to have for that to occur?  Gaseous iodine is violet in color... are we supposed to believe that there's a substantial amount of iodine in the air now?  Flying bikes, sure.  Technomagic girls, okay.  I can even believe in Rei's kickarse scarf.  But an atmosphere high in iodine vapor?  Bah I say, BAH.  Anyway... Rei is visiting to apologize for her behavior back in Ep07 back when she left in such a rush.  Had to go feed the cat bird Alone, dontchaknow?  Of course, RHF forgives her and invites her in for dinner.

On the whole, Rei's a little freaked out about the whole thing.  She came to apologize so she can kill the world with a clear conscience, and now she's being given dinner by someone that's the biggest roadblock to her success, except she probably doesn't know that?  The world is a strange place, and the writers even moreso.

At this point, I'd like to stop this Episodic Writeup and ask a quick question to you, the readers.  What do you think has just occurred here?  Is it A) a mayonnaise maker malfunction; B) a giant incontinent bird has flown by; C) overexcited fanboys; D) none of the above. 

While the real answer is A,  you cannot begin to tell me the Production Staff didn't have something else in mind, something much more nasty, when they demanded this shot be included in the episode.  Or, more correctly, you can tell that to me, but I won't believe you.  I've lived with this show for too darn long for me to think any other way.  Oh, and of course, now that they're covered with mayonnaise, they've got to get clean.  Shared bath time!  In the bath, RHF notices Hot Dark Girl Rei's feathers-on-her-neck, which she explains as being "proof of who she is."

RHF, misunderstanding, points out she's got a birthmark, too, right on her butt _^buythedvds.  There is something very, very wrong with the Production Staff.  I mean, even Pedobear thinks they're a little weird.  Hot Dark Girl Rei accepts an offer to stay the night; RHF wants to talk with her some more, and it's getting late.  The look on Rei's face leads one to believe that that her parakeet, while a pretty bird, isn't much of a conversationalist.

Much to Hot Dark Girl Rei's surprise, she finds that Team Aquos all want to be friends with her, which of course goes against everything she's been telling herself.  Why make friends when all you want to do is destroy the world, after all?  Too late, she's got friends whether she likes it or not... and she does.  It's actually kind of a nice scene, this.  Makes me wonder what the Production Staff is going to do to screw it up.  Mayonnaise explosion, most likely.  The next morning, RHF wakes up to do her morning newspaper deliveries... when she returns, Rei is gone.  She's not in class either.

Where she is, is out wrapping up her affairs.  The next Alone is tonight, and one way or another, it'll be the last one for her.  She even releases her parakeet into the wild, where it'll last for approximately three hours before some hawk has it for lunch... or about 18 hours, until the world comes to an end.  Probably would have been better to keep it in the cage, but it's all about the symbolism, man.  Gotta go right for the feels, y'know?  I'm sorry, I really apologize for typing that.

Actually, it may not even last that long, as the final Alone has just appeared, and it appears to be wearing spatterdashes!  Well, if the world is coming to an end, at least it'll be destroyed by something with a sense of style.  I used to have a pair of leather spats, back when I did a lot of welding... added extra protection to the tops of my shoes.  Nothing so fancy as the Alone's, though.

And here's Hot Dark Archer Girl Rei, all ready to power it up and end the world, ready and waiting.  She quickly takes the shot, the Alone boosts to red-form, and as she's getting ready to kick it to Stage III with another arrow...

...oh sh*t.  See, once the defenders of the Phlebotinum Engine kew that there was a source of external interference, they figured out a way to detect it the next time it was used.  Detect and trace it.  There were flying robots waiting for this, and a company of marines on standby, and Himawari and Aoi are tasked to help capture the enemy, while Wakaba and RHF deal with the Alone.  She manages to escape the robots for long enough...

...just in time to see Vividgreen dispose of the Alone.  Oops.  Oh dear.  That's gotta suck... you work yourself up to win or lose today by your actions, and suddenly neither is going to happen.  Instead, you're just gonna lose.  She fights, of course, and destroys the two robots that have cornered her, then attacks what appear through the smoke to be a third...

...only it isn't.  Hot Dark Girl Rei screams at RHF, accusing her of lying... she knew Rei was the bad guy all along, and she was just trying to be friends to keep an eye on her.  Then she's tased by the marine unit, and down she goes.

She gets one more chance to scream liar at RHF before we fade to black, roll credits, and there's the sound of a gunshot.

...what?  Are we supposed to believe that the marines just shot her?  I mean, yeah, that'd be correct thing to do, I guess, but it's not THAT kind of show.

Either way, excellent episode.  Plenty of melodrama, action, and lets face it, Hot Dark Girl Rei in a towel. 

Next episode: more zombies!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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