Whelp, RIP Risa. As expected, she wasn’t going to survive this one and was taken out within the first two minutes of the episode. The monster AMAIM that ambushed the camp is none other than Ghost. It is suspected to be an unmanned AMAIM that possesses self-improvement A.I. technology. To make matters worse, nobody knows the allegiance it belongs to, and there are reports that it has a history or also attacking the Asian and North American military. With no affiliation to tie this thing to, we may as well describe Ghost to be an AMAIM gone rogue, which is a terrifying thought considering how it just pops out of nowhere ambushes whoever is on its path. The scary part about it is that it continues to evolve, it has the ability to self-repair by picking off whatever AMAIM parts and weapons from his opponents’ on the battlefield, because it can override the authentication to use it for itself. Gashin witnessed that first hand after Ghost had brutally murdered his father, and extracted an arm from his unit to replace its own. He was able to confirm it was the same machine because it was still carrying the arm-piece Jo Hound (Resistance Custom) from the unit his father had been piloting. We were also able to get confirmations from Captain Watt that yes, Ghost’s limiters were disabled, given its ridiculous speed, it had boosters and accelerators installed. In fact, they go on to mention that the Resistance were lucky to have even escaped death. Ghost’s specs are nothing to sneeze at, and we saw when it was eventually cornered, it looked as though opted for self-destruction, (and according to Kei, it was ready to die), but incredibly after they were able to safely retreat, it didn’t explode, which means it’s still alive and kicking.
But while the prospects of Ghost being an unmanned AMAIM that has gone rogue, I wouldn’t completely take out the possibility of it being remotely controlled out of the picture just yet. Perhaps it could be correlated to Yatagarasu’s mysterious backers, such as a prototype experiment gone wrong, or one that is on-going. Or given how its origins are unknown, perhaps there is an affiliation that has yet to make it’s presence known in Japan (though we are still waiting to find out whether there is a bigger explanation as to why these power houses were so fixed to claim and protect their respective domains). Needless to say, I am interested in learning who is behind the creation of this beast.
We got to see a bit of Captain Watt and his buddy continue their excursion of trailing Kenbu’s battles. Captain Watt showed us just how big brained he is by piecing together the information he extracted by simply observing the battlefield, painting a picture of what transpired. Incredibly he has obtained enough information now to have put together the Resistance’s AMAIMs and Ghost’ specs (which are higher than their Brady Hound and the Asian Military’s Nyurens) for simulations purposes. Sure enough, they have their own hidden card up their sleeve that they are working to perfection before rolling it out.
But while the fights are fun to watch, there is something that has been bothering me a bit. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but after watching this week’s episode, I’m starting to wonder if it’s the script to blame. There is something about the dialogues that is throwing me off and it’s difficult to explain. How should I put it… Flat? Forced? It’s very strange, it’s not flowing as smoothly as it should- or least that’s the kind of impression I’m getting from it. There were also moments in the writing that perplexes me such as at the end of the episode, Amou announces he doesn’t want to be involved with the Yatagarasu. Okay, that’s fair, I totally get it- except he wants to part ways imeaditely, and much to my surprise Gashin lets him.
Look, I get the kid has a lot on his plate at the moment. He just witnessed monster AMAIM killing Risa and her driver, and had a close-call with death again because of it. It’s an understatement to say he is scared out of his mind, however, considering the circumstances they are in, I found it rather bizarre that Gashin allowed Amou to choose to part ways with him before they arrive to the headquarters. I do get that for confidential reasons it’s better not to take him because the less he knows the better, but why even risk having to go back and pick up KENBU when he could have dropped it off himself? Not to mention, Goken already promised to help Amou forge a new ID so he can attempt resuming his life as an average citizen, so there are good reasons for him to take him back with them. But nope, he’s letting him go, and where is does Amou plan to go of all places? He wants to go back to Risa’s hometown to tell them about Ms. Risa as much as he can…. I mean… Uh… He knew her for a couple of days… Okay then…
And since Amou has yet to find his resolve to get involved with this war, it looks like he’s going to have to face more injustice and horrors that is being inflicted across Japan before he finally does.
I don’t know, this show is kind of weird for me right now. I don’t dislike it, but I’m not in love with it as much as I had hoped to be. I guess it would be appropriate to say it’s kind of “average” at the moment. It is on a rocky start, but I’m hanging on hoping it will get better.
