A New Challenger Loli Appears!

Quite an interesting episode of Sky Girls in that it came off as very filler-ish but actually got a lot done in terms of plot and character development. Things look to be moving quite well now, with the WORMs having been introduced into the present time in both real world warfare and a surprise training simulation, the existence of the WORMs which we’ve known about all along has finally been confirmed. Hopefully this means we’re sped right into the first arc that pits the girls against them.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

The episode starts out with the battle for the West Europe Base’s survival, under attack by something which suspiciously resembles a supposedly extinct WORM. We are introduced to a new character, Elise, who is labeled as mankind’s hope, and claims that she has the power to win against the WORM. But rather than sending her out to fight, the personnel are more concerned with her survival and put her on an escape pod to safety, from which she is forced to watch helplessly as the base is leveled to the ground.

The report of the base’s fall is also relayed to Lt. Hizuki, who seems to be fully aware of the situation, noting that it’s playing out faster than he had expected.

Meanwhile, back at base, you guessed it, the girls are STILL training. They are called for an emergency deployment drill where their time from call to launch is well over what it should be. However, the training exercise takes an unexpected turn when a WORM shows up on their sonar and attacks the three. Ichijo quickly adapts to the situation, delegating tasks and engaging the WORM, but Otoha and Karen have a harder time dealing with the surprise attack. After it becomes clear that the girls are fighting a losing battle, Togo hits the emergency stop for the simulator and ends the exercise.

Afterwards he has a word with Lt. Hizuki about how it was way too early to put the girls through a combat simulation and that their purpose is to test pilot the Sonic Divers, not as military fighters. However, upon saying that, he realizes that military combat may be the overall goal of the Sonic Diver Squad, when Hizuki replies coldly with “There’s no time left…”, basically confirming Togo’s suspicions, Togo storms out and goes fishing to calm himself down. There he’s approached by Ichijo who demands an explanation for the training simulation and the purpose of the Sonic Diver Squad, Togo dodges her questions and instead tells her a story of a pilot who loved the sky and wished for nothing more than to fly freely, but no longer able to fly, all he can do is place his dream in the girls.

In the aftermath of the training simulation, Ryohei scolds Otoha for having significantly lower reaction times compared to Karen and Ichijo. But Otoha is spared the lecture by Nanae, who cites data showing that Otoha’s proficiency in firing accuracy, flying mobility and techniques as well as her usage of the MV sword are all on the rise, and not only that, but the relay between Reijin and the command center was lagging, basically shifting all the blame onto Ryohei.

Otoha thanks Nanae for supporting her and always doing her job well. Not only Otoha, but Oto, Ranko and Haruko praise Nanae for always finishing her work quickly and accurately, which in turn makes their jobs a lot easier. Karen chips in with some kind words of her own about how helpful Nanae is not only in administrative duties, but misc chores like sewing and cooking. Ie. Nanae = Mrs. Perfect. Typical of any role Hocchan is casted for.

The rest of the episode was fanservicey filler. While doing her laundry, Otoha finds a bra that someone left, a bra that happens to be rather large. And so begins her quest to find out who the bra belongs to. After scouting around the base and sizing up the female staff, Otoha doesn’t find anyone endowed with a matching oppai. She does, however, find sympathy with Nanae, who Otoha thinks is in the same league size wise because she always covers her chest with paper documents. Karen is a little more observant and manages to calculate her approximate bust size, finding it a match to Otoha’s mystery bra, but can’t bring herself to let her know.

At the end of the episode, just as Nanae is about to tell Otoha the truth, she is dragged aside by Otoha who gives her a special push-up bra that makes even small breasts appealing. But when she goes to size Nanae up and realizes the truth behind her size, she’s left in shock and can do nothing but orz.

Thoughts

I can feel it! We’re almost out of the training arc, the end is near!

Despite his relative lack of lines, I’m beginning to hate Lieutenant Hizuki. He’s one of those characters who has little respect for the lives of his comrades and hides behind the guise of doing what he’s doing for the common good. The girls were obviously not ready for a real combat simulation, let alone one that was held in surprise. It’s understandable that there wasn’t enough time to prepare a full briefing for it, but would it have killed him to give them a little verbal run through before sending them inside the simulator?

Hizuki is well aware that WORMs are not extinct and that the true purpose of the Sonic Diver Squad is to serve as a means to fight them, but I don’t see the need for the secrecy. I don’t have much knowledge of the workings of a military, but I’d assume that knowledge of a threat is the first step in fighting the threat. I see no advantage in keeping the girls and the rest of the team working on the Sonic Divers in the dark. Everyone is military personnel so if they are worried about the news spreading and causing public panic, all they’d have to do is issue a gag order punishable by court martial.

Conversely, I feel a lot of sympathy towards Togo. To the girls, it appears as if everything is being controlled by him, so when things go wrong, it’s Togo that they question first. Ichijo’s interrogation and Togo’s deflection of the questions makes it clear that Togo doesn’t want to worry the girls and chooses to sit there silently and take their frustrations instead. Togo doesn’t want any sympathy, he wants answers as much as they do so he can keep the girls informed and prepared, but with Hizuki controlling what’s going on, that’s just not possible, and it ends up making Togo look like the bad guy.

Contrast to that, Hizuki comes off as a good person to Ichijo, Karen and Otoha. In episode four when they got a day off, it was officially Hizuki who granted it whereas in reality it was Togo who pushed him to give them a break.

Togo’s that guy that works behind the scenes to keep everything working properly but is taken for granted and has his spotlight stolen by the higher ups. Isn’t it sad Togo ;_;

As for the fanservice this episode…I found it a little unnecessary. It didn’t add much to Nanae’s personality that couldn’t have been inferred in other ways and Otoha running around trying to identify the bra’s owner ended up as little more than a waste of time. Sky Girls has enough fanservice with the occasional plug suit changing scene. I still think that the girls should have been DFC D= They may be 16, but they have the bodies of 12 year olds, except when it comes to their oppai.

But I have to admit, Karen using her anatomy and planar geometry skills to pinpoint Nanae’s bust size made me lol. See kids, math -IS- useful in real world situations.

The preview for next episode suggests that the girls will be debuting the Sonic Divers to the public in an air show. So barring a surprise ambush, it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing any fighting just yet, but all in all it does look like we’re moving in the right direction. And the addition of the new loli to the cast has subdued my anxiety for the moment.

~ Shirukii ~