Impression
As action-packed as this episode was, somehow I can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed by it – maybe it’s because they tried to cram three different battles into a single episode, which I think didn’t work too well in retrospect. First up was Cassie’s fight against Julia – this suffered from more drawn out talking than actual fighting, which was quite reminiscent of many shounen battles in which the combatants stand around talking before dealing a couple of blows, deciding the fight in an instant. That’s practically what happened here – or at least that’s what it felt like, as it was chopped up and delivered around the other battles. Cassie vs Julia was definitely portrayed better in the manga, where it had lots more substance and blood – I remember there were even severed limbs involved, instead of just repeated scenarios of Quadruple Accel against Division Wave. I suppose it’s due to a lack of time as always – I don’t know whether they can conclude everything properly at this rate, which condemns the existence of the Siblings arc even more.
Next was Elizabeth vs Charles, which saw poor Andre shouldering most of the burden. I felt so sorry for him – the poor guy overexerted his Freezing to go up against someone both of them were outclassed against, and paid the price for it. Aside from Kazuya (who, let’s face it, hardly even exists any more) Andre is the one Limiter we’ve gotten to know a bit better, so it was painful watching him go down like that while upholding his ideals and protecting the person he loves. We finally see a guy in Freezing who has a genuine set of balls, and he’s quickly taken out of commission. Go figure. I didn’t really like how Elizabeth mostly relied on Andre to take one for the team – she sort of stood there charging her SSS while Andre slowly killed himself. There wasn’t much to display in terms of actual Pandora skill, although I suppose without Andre, Eli could never have beaten Charles. In turn, Charles’ Limiter is absolutely useless 😀
Lastly we had Satella and Rana against Chiffon, which was admittedly quite engaging. As I mentioned last week, the two of them have a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating her – it’s not happening, no matter what sort of mad skill either one of them develops. Satella initially wanted to test her strength, but she realized all too quickly that she wouldn’t get anywhere by playing safe – and even when they used their wings of light, they couldn’t even give her any visible damage. She might have said it hurt, but Chiffon looks unharmed! I’m not surprised Chiffon’s making light of them at all; out of every Pandora out there she’s got the greatest right to do so. Allegedly, she only stops smiling when she gets serious – meaning that right now, she’s still just messing around. I don’t think that’s too accurate an indicator as to how seriously she’s taking things though… remember, her eyes are perpetually closed. Given her power level, the moment she opens her eyes is the point where shit really starts to go down.