Well, it’s not Yuyuyu unless there’s some impending tragedy. It also looks like the story is heading into the Hero Chapter with the sacrifice so that raises some questions about certain things. Was Aya supposed to be the original sacrifice but it instead was relegated to Togo?
This was a slower slice of life episode. We did get to see the ritual Aya does for the tree saplings and getting a clearer picture of the Sentinels’ mission of reclaiming their old world. The missions are straightforward but there is still danger that comes with each one, and with the Vertex attacks instilling so much fear among the girls, many leave and are replaced. Only for those replacements to also leave, and so on. Mebuki is trying hard to prove that they’re not stepping stones or replaceable cogs in a machine for the Taisha, but in the end she realizes it was all for nothing. Like we’ve seen plenty of times, they are all absolutely replaceable.
They certainly did raise a lot of death flags for Aya this episode. The first half of the episode was cute with Suzume recounting her time actually meeting our main girls, and this episode did a pretty decent job showing the girls bonding with each other. Mebuki got hurt pretty badly in battle and it was really cute when the girls got her a gold heart with their names written on it. We still haven’t spent too much time with these girls, as this episode spent a lot of time with Mebuki and Aya, but at least it’s something. Their banter and interactions aren’t as fun as the main group but they’re sort of endearing. Also I’m not really into the double personality type of characters unless there’s a good reason for it but uhhh…okay Shizuku.
The highlight from this episode was the bond between Mebuki and Aya. So far we’ve seen Mebuki to be a very serious person and haven’t really seen her truly smile or have fun. So it was cute to see how passionate she was about castle and warship model kits and…a hardware store. Probably to buy things for her kits. It was a short moment, but it gave both girls time to bond with each other and actually act like teenage girls. Mebuki seems like a girl that did nothing but train most of her life to be a Hero, and she developed a sort of distant personality so she wasn’t able to bond with most people. And her model kit hobby isn’t something most girls are into, but Aya loved to see how passionate she was about it. Being a really sheltered girl, that outing was probably really fun for her. But man they really laid out the death flags for her. Once I saw Aya chicken out from what she wanted to tell Mebuki, I knew something horrible was going to pop up and lo and behold Aya has to be the sacrifice in order to appease the Gods. There was some good stuff happening this episode, but I do feel like the episode went a little too fast. I’m still not too sure what they’re trying to do with this season, but I feel like they’re trying to cram in a lot of things and they’re not giving us enough time to really digest it. Like really getting to know the girls and seeing how Aya came to be the sacrifice and how she felt in that moment. Small things like that.
Now, does this mean that Aya won’t be the sacrifice, since Togo took that spot? Or will she still have to go through with it? Or…will something else happen? Well, it looks like Mebuki won’t let that happen and she’ll fight tooth and nail to save her so we’ll see how things will go down next time.
NOTE: Episode 4 will be a double post with Episode 5 next week!