“I was recruited by some weird people with guns…”
Summary
Yura-chan meets Sonora for the first time, not realizing that her room mate is the president of the C3-bu. Meanwhile, the other girls get up to all sorts of weird antics in a futile attempt to recruit Yura-chan, who remains somewhat scared yet intrigued by them at the same time. Karila then proposes a game: if Yura-chan and Sonora manage to outwit the rest of the club, they won’t try any more forced recruiting.
Impression
I will admit, I’m largely in this for Yura-chan (or Yurara, Yura-pyon, Yuracchi etc.) who continues to be adorable beyond belief. Seriously, she’s like…the cutest thing ever! And that applies to no matter what she does – from shooting a gun to hiding in the bathroom to eat her lunch. Gotta get away from those shady recruiters! Anyway, Yura-chan spent a lot of the episode confused over her feelings towards the C3-bu – while she did admit the Rambo game they played last episode was fun, she wasn’t sure of whether she wanted to commit to that on a regular basis. And here’s where Gainax’s genius comes into place once more – their really poignant usage of “show, don’t tell”. At this point, most shows would probably have an internal monologue for Yura-chan, describing her mental conflict…but Gainax doesn’t do that. They don’t need to – her insecurities are written all over her face. We can hear her heart beating louder, and we can sense the excitement she feels from playing airsoft. We can tell what Yura-chan is feeling without her spelling things out for us, and that’s something I really like about this show. It’s similar to Yura-chan’s admiration for Sonora too – at one point, I was even wondering whether she would join out of senpai love for Sonora instead. I’m glad she didn’t end up developing a bad case of “I hope senpai will notice me” issues.
I have a feeling Sonora didn’t participate in the recruitment because she realized Yura-chan was already willing to join by herself – and wanted just a little more time (and maybe a bit more prodding) to sort herself out first. And maybe a war game to help. In contrast to last week, I found myself really enjoying it this time. Maybe I was just slightly more awake today…but anyway, I loved seeing Yura-chan learn and get to grips with things despite being inexperienced. In particular, that stunt with the anatomy doll – I genuinely thought it was Sonora’s idea to trick Honoka and Yachiyo into knocking each other out, so it made me so proud to see it was Yura-chan’s idea. Remember guys, firmly but not stiffly xD
Even as I’m writing this, I’m feeling sceptical about whether it’s realistic to blog this in the long-run. I’d be more than happy to if there’s some sort of tournament arc a la Girls und Panzer. Things are looking pretty good so far though, especially with a new set of battlegrounds turning up next week.