What They Say:
Miyasaka High School’s student council president, Kurenai Gekkou, has named Taito and Himea as student council members. Soon after, Taito learns about how Gekkou and Mirai first met, as well as the military which is secretly behind Miyasaka High School. Meanwhile, Gekkou reminiscences about his younger twin brother, Hinata. The student council members believed that the battle was finally over, but then a sinister red rain began to fall.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After an interesting first episode and a second episode that felt wildly disjointed and overpowered in a way, even with the explanation given for Taito’s skill, the series has left me in a place where I’m really not sure if it can pick up with what it’s done and pull it off. It has a lot of interesting ideas to it and some great animation and character designs to give it atmosphere, but the way it goes so big so quickly was rather off-putting. With it trying to get back into a school setting for the cast, it’s at least going to some familiar ground to work with and that’s a point in its favor, even if it is predictable to do so.
With Himea in school now alongside Taito and Hekkou there as well, there’s plenty of tension coming up with things, especially since Mirai is a problem in general and there’s Haruka, the girl that’s interested in Taito as well. That gives us the usual kinds of silly school stuff that’s familiar, especially with the lunch segment as both girls offer him up food, so there aren’t any surprises to be had as they try to blend it all together. In the midst of all of this, there’s plenty of small challenges to be faced on a supernatural level as well as we learn that there are various creatures making their push into this world. Gekkou has his moments of beating down a few and Taito is surprised by how twisted the school is starting to look with all of this happening as the rifts are growing and he’s now aware of it.
The show does provide for some mild action, but it comes in the form of a flashback where we see some of the reasons behind the fight going on between Gekkou and his twin brother. It’s all red hued which certainly gives it an interesting feeling and the action, though brief, is definitely nice and violent. It brings to the forefront that he hasn’t changed much in all these years though because he has the same childhood anger now as he did then and is just ready to below at anyone. Gekkou certainly provides for the serious character of the series, especially in contrast with Mirai, but seeing how the two came together from all of this and that she still manages to be upbeat, chipper and adorable in her own way is nicely handled. Though I would have preferred if they spent the exposition piece actually just talking about it rather than showing it, it does help toc lear up their relationship a bit.
In Summary:
What’s most memorable about this episode is some of the pool related material as we see Taito and a few of the girls hanging out there and the cuteness of Mirai having hers on under her school uniform. The show doesn’t really do a heck of a lot here outside of explaining a few things, which is a positive since Taito needs to be brought up to speed, until the end of the episode where Gekkou is threatened again. The relationship between Himea and Taito is what needed more exploration here though as she’s settled into school so quickly and easily that it feels pretty off. I continue to like Himea a lot though, but it’s largely because she is so undefined at this point and is just eye-candy with some mild emotions behind it. With this episode being a bit more relaxed and setting up the next one, it’s definitely the break we needed after the first two episodes.
Grade: B-
Simulcast By: Nico Nico
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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