From the looks of things, it seems like the training arc is finished, or at least coming to a close. The preview for episode six suggests that it’s going to be a filler-esque episode which will give us some background on Nanae as well as introduce a new loli into the mix. But the plot is hinting the imminent return of the WORMS, so it shouldn’t be more than a couple episodes before we get into some real combat, which I anxiously await.

Episode Ratings: 7.5/10 & 8/10

After a month of hard training, the girls get their first pay day and a day off thanks to the recommendation of Commander Togo. The girls take the opportunity to go into town and get some shopping done. Otoha ends up buying every morsel of food in sight and eating through the whole day. Ichijo, on the other hand, has more refined tastes, eyeing some expensive looking chocolate, but backs down when she sees Otoha and Karen staring in amazement at her reaction.

The day takes a turn for the worse when Karen drops the fountain pen her brother gave her when taking out a handkerchief for Otoha. It’s picked up by a seemingly random passerby, but he loses the girls in the crowd before he has a chance to return it.

Karen doesn’t notice losing her most precious possession and the day goes on like normal until the three sit down for some tea and Karen offers to show the pen to Otoha and Ichijo. When she realizes it’s missing she runs off to look for it right away.

After running around town, Karen manages to calm down for a second and remember where she dropped it. Back at the scene, the boy who picked it up had been waiting for Karen and returns the pen to her, causing her to cry tears of joy. But when Otoha and Ichijo show up, they think he’s harassing Karen and Otoha knocks the poor guy out. When Karen explains the misunderstanding, the two apologize and offer to treat him to dinner as an apology, after which they watch the sunset while lamenting on the losses suffered during the great war, and how humanity managed to dust itself off and keep on living.

The next day back at base, none other than the boy who found Karen’s pen shows up and is introduced as the Sonic Diver Squad’s communicator, Hayami Takumi. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Karen manages to gather up the courage and thank him for the other day, and even manages to shake his hand.

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With their training progressing well, the higher ups think that it’s time to evaluate the utility of the Sonic Diver Squad as a military weapon. Hizuki informs Togo that if no results are shown during the evaluation, the squad will be disbanded, unfortunately, Ichijo shows up at just the wrong time to overhear the threat.

The flight demonstration is scheduled in a month’s time, giving the girls plenty of time to practice, and do they ever need it. Aside from Ichijo, Karen and Otoha have a lot of difficulty adapting to the tight formations and complex maneuvers, often crashing into each other during the simulations.

Knowing that they face disbandment if they fail this evaluation, Ichijo pressures the two to get it right and take practice seriously. Seeing this, Togo takes Ichijo aside and tells her not to put any unnecessary pressure onto the girls, and to emphasize their movement and dynamic as a team, rather than technical skill. With that in mind, Ichijo lightens up and starts training Karen and Otoha with a constructive and gentler demeanor.

After noticing that Otoha in particular, is very comfortable with swimming, Ichijo brings the team to a swimming pool and adapts the aerial maneuvers into a synchronized swimming routine. The results are great and the three master the flight demonstration formations with time to spare.

However, things never go that smoothly, and with mere days left until the demonstration, Togo informs the girls that they’ll be putting on an armaments demonstration as well. Targets will be shot from a battlecruiser, which they’ll have to destroy, much like a large scale game of skeet.

As usual, Ichijo scores a perfect, with Karen not far behind, only missing two targets on her first try. But Otoha, not fond nor proficient with long range weapons, misses every single target on her first attempt. Discouraged and sure that she’ll never be able to do it, it’s Ichijo that has to step in and give Otoha a confidence boost and some extra training. With only one day remaining before the official demonstration, Otoha finally manages to nail it and hit every single target in the simulator.

The aerial demonstration is flawless and both Karen and Ichijo clear the armaments demo without a single missed target. But when Otoha’s turn comes around, everything falls apart. When the targets are launched, Reijin’s weapon system suddenly goes offline. When Otoha cries out to Reijin in desperation, he drops the gun and switches to a different weapon mode instead, choosing to equip the MV (Material Vibration) Sword. Otoha’s synchronization levels reach a new high and she takes out all the targets with blinding speed and accuracy, much to the surprise and delight of everyone looking on.

The episode ends with yet another mysterious conversation with Lieutenant Hizuki. The report given to him suggests that the a base in west Europe has been attacked by WORMS.

Thoughts

I still think the pacing of Sky Girls is too slow, but again, it might be because we’re bring spoiled with the pure awesomeness that is Gurren Lagann, which hasn’t gone a single episode without blowing shit up in spectacular fashion. I know it’s not fair to compare the two, but I really want to get to the main plot of Sky Girls and see some battles with the infamous WORMS.

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like it’s that far off. With the military assessing the combat capabilities of the Sonic Divers and Lt. Hizuki’s conversations confirming what we’ve known all along, that the WORMS are not as extinct as they had thought, it probably won’t be long before the girls are thrown into battle.

I wonder how they’ll handle that though. In the OVA the first deployment of the Sonic Diver Squad was against a WORM cluster that appeared while the girls were aboard a sea bound aircraft carrier. Seeing as in the anime they’re considered test pilots more than anything and haven’t been given any indication that they’ll be reassigned to an actual military base of operations, will the anime play it out differently?

I’d tsun her dere, if you know what I mean

One thing that is progressing at a great pace is character development. Ichijo and Otoha in particular are developing a strong and supportive relationship. Ichijo is always there to give encouragement and offer extra help to Otoha, whose emotions sway so easily, and her piloting skills with them. And in return Otoha’s unorthodox techniques like showing affection for her Sonic Diver remind Ichijo that there’s more than technical proficiency to take into account when piloting Raijin.

Karen isn’t getting as much attention compared to the other two, but at least with Takumi joining the Sonic Diver Squad, her ability to talk to boys is improving ever so slightly. Her piloting skills seem the most shaky out of the three, but instead of having an epiphany that suddenly lets her pilot with perfection, Karen strikes me as the type of character that achieves her goals with hard work and effort rather than natural ability.

Poor Togo always comes off as the bad guy, haha. That scene in the train where Karen suggests that it may have been Togo that was responsible for their day off and is promptly dismissed by Otoha and Ichijo was pretty cold of them. Togo doesn’t even seem like a harsh commander, unlike a certain Takamachi Nanoha.

Nothing much to speculate in regards to where Sky Girls goes from here. They’ve forged a solid foundation for a decent mecha plotline, and have somehow incorporated the use of lolis for pilots decently. Whether it turns into a training hell a la Nanoha StrikerS or a buffet of explosions a la GL remains to be seen. I’m hoping it lands somewhere in the middle for the best of both worlds, but can’t say I have the grandest of expectations based on what we’ve seen so far. In short, Sky Girls has a ton of potential, but has to speed things up if it doesn’t want to end up as a train wreck series.

As a lot of you may have noticed, yes, I bear a lot of spite towards StrikerS for getting off to such a slow start. Though, admittedly, it has been getting a lot better in the past couple weeks.

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~ Shirukii ~