I… I think I’m in love with Rinne.
Impression
Her line about not knowing which one was Sara was too perfect. Rinne, you’re the best. I’m going to propose with a ring that looks like Scuderia. You’re all invited to the wedding.
I wasn’t expecting the first half of the episode to turn out as it did. It’s as if one of the writers decided that Rinne didn’t suffer enough last week and decided to have her come close to being raped by some random faggot and his faggot friends. Fuck. This is why we can’t have nice things. Plus I didn’t even think the flashback would continue, so I had to bear the full force of this unwelcome surprise after having initially begun the episode with my guard completely down. It’s starting to feel like a weird masochistic form of therapy – at first, you sit through the despair together with Rinne, and then it’s followed by a sudden catharsis through violence. You feel vindicated. All these negative emotions disappear, and what remains is an increasingly firm belief that violence solves everything. Violence is always the answer. Violence is justice.
Rinne being kidnapped and beaten up was a horrible scene. Seeing her sad and lonely from being bullied and taunted was one thing, but the terrified expression in her eyes when she was being restrained in the car made my heart break. Of course, I shared in her anger and disbelief when that piece of shit dared to say that the bullies were just teasing her and didn’t do anything wrong. Is this asshole actually retarded? Did he not wonder why the lawyers on his side decided not to press charges in the end? Did someone drop him on the head as a child? Did he not stop to think, for a single moment, why his cunt of a sister’s nose and skull were broken in the first place? Oh wait, maybe it’s not something he’d bother doing because the two of them are fucking scum anyway. I’m not surprised that they’re related. Although, speaking of that – as someone with younger siblings myself, I will admit that it’s not like I don’t know where he’s coming from in wanting to get revenge for his sister. But wanting to rape her attacker before breaking their skull is ridiculous. It just makes him the lowest of scumbags. So regardless of whether Sara lied about what she and her whore friends did to poor Rinne, he’s not that much of a better person either.
Anyway. The second half was a lot more reminiscent of ViVid, not least of all because we were treated to glimpses of past characters like Mikaya and Chantez. I totally couldn’t recognise Fabia by the way – I probably would have struggled if she was dressed as anything other than a witch, so her Yukari outfit really didn’t help. From Fuuka’s brief exchange with Mikaya, I think the implication is that she’s slowly improving. I have no doubt that she lost (I’m not sure if she can beat any of the girls who were at the sparring session, let alone Mikaya) but she’s getting better. The only question is whether her progress is fast enough to achieve in three months what Rinne did in four years, but the Winter Cup (presumably) starting next week will be revealing that very soon. I also can’t help but feel that Fuuka got the short end of the stick as far as devices have gone, even if she both practices Kaiser Arts and has taken Einhart as her master – Huracan just feels like a repainted Teo (which is essentially what he is, actually) whereas Rinne got a beautiful Scuderia.
Will Strike just reduce itself to a tournament-style plot from now on? I say ‘reduce’ because it’s currently a lot more than that, and I want it to continue along that trajectory as much as it can. An extended tournament was essentially what ViVid was, and after taking so many pains to distance itself from ViVid it’d be a shame if Strike gave up and fell in line with its inspiration. I think my second conspiracy theory about Jill being evil is unlikely to bear fruit at this point (and I’m hoping it doesn’t as I now think Jill is pretty cool) but I still want something more adventurous. Something that keeps it firmly set apart from ViVid like it’s done so far. Hopefully copious amounts of Rinne will help with that.
“All these negative emotions disappear, and what remains is an increasingly firm belief that violence solves everything. Violence is always the answer. Violence is justice.”
That’s what Nanoha has been teaching us all these years. Violence makes friends, cures depression, fixes brainwashing, finds family members, ensures career stability, removes worthless scumbags from the story… truly an all-purpose tool useful for any occasion.
At the moment there doesn’t actually seem to be anything shady going on with Rinne. Jill did a good job of reducing suspicion against herself this week, and Rinne’s parents showed that they really do want to be good parents to her. Right now it looks like the only real problem is that RInne’s mental state is tangled in a way that’s destructive both to herself and to the people around her. And that’s something Fuka can probably help with via some aggressive communication.
Nanoha was right all along. I’m a loyal devotee of the Church of Nanoha now. Rinne’s vicious expressions make my heart skip a beat.
Jill is cool now. I’m sorry I ever doubted her. After this sort of setup I’m really hoping that the 7-8 remaining episodes offer us something more than just a tournament (and that there isn’t too much of an emphasis on the ViVid girls, who have thus far been supporting characters for all intents and purposes) but the main aim is definitely to have Fuuka confront Rinne and… ‘cool her head a little’.
The white devil is a wise girl :v
Its like Death Wish the Anime! Except Paul Kersey is a cute little girl. Seriously, revenge is one of my favorite genres. Nothing better than watching a deserving soul receive the Hard Goodbye.
It really makes me think about the family life of this one bully girl. The school is obviously a classy school for rich kids, so is our named bully part of a mafia family? How does she end up having a shady brother with a gang of sycophants ready to play bad end H-doujin with a 10 year old? Doesn’t sound like people the board wants in their school. And how is he so ready to molest a CHILD so quickly? In fact, that makes me wonder if this fucktard was maybe hurting his sister in the first place.
Fuuka… yeah, I dunno. Her ‘osu’… why not just wrap her bewbs up in cloth & give her a pompadour at this point? I did enjoy her comment about clogged drains. That gives me a bit more personality, but still she’s pretty flat. No pun intended.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. My first thought was rape (no doubt inspired by having played and read my fair share of eroge) but they wouldn’t do that to a little girl, right? Lolis are for hugs, cuddles and headpats, right? And then her clothes were ripped.
I doubt we’ll ever learn the origins of either Sara or her brother, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their family was involved in some shady shit. They’re cut from the same cloth after all. Rinne really should have broken his arm too and called it self-defence. And she was right. I don’t know which one Sara even is, but I think it’s the one who got her head crushed after Rinne gave it an extra stomp for good measure.
I still like Fuuka. Not enough to want to propose marriage to her, but she’s fine. She’s neither as complicated nor as troubled as Rinne, but she’s direct and hot-blooded and makes for a good protagonist. I was kind of waiting to see her get beaten up by all of the Inter-Middle girls, but alas the episode ended.
I hate how those bitches are still lying… those fucking bullies.
I was hoping that she’d kick them too.