This was a pretty interesting episode. Especially where they decided to end it. But before we get into that, Anya is having a difficult time with her studies, thus preventing her from earning any Stellas. So in order to remedy that, Loid tries to find something that she is good at and hopefully capitalize on that. Unfortunately, Anya is extremely young and isn’t going to be catching on to things as quickly as Loid had hoped. It will take time for her to hone those skills. But I’m sure with enough practice, she would be able to do those things if given the time and motivation. Unfortunately Loid’s superiors are looking to have Anya get all 8 Stellas in four months which… isn’t a lot of time. Not to mention unreasonable since this kid isn’t a trained spy.
When Anya was planning to finagle her way to the top by cheating off her classmates, I couldn’t help but shake my head. While I know it’s for the mission, having characters cheat their way to the top always doesn’t sit well with me. Though it seems as if Anya might have decided to put that plan aside from that brief scene of her imagining what the others would say. However, I feel like it’s interesting to note that those weren’t kid voices that came from those shadowed figures. I feel like those were the voices of her previous families who eventually sent her back to the orphanage. Which makes a lot of sense as to why she can’t bring herself to tell anyone about her powers in fear of being rejected again. It’s honestly really sad that this poor girl has so much pressure and fear residing in her where I can only hope that this family does end up staying together because Anya deserves all the happiness and comfort in the world T^T.
After being rejected for being able to read minds, from those experiences I feel like Anya has developed tactful ways to both let others know that something is happening without giving away her powers. Which is probably why she stopped herself from straight up telling Loid that someone was drowning in the pool. To which, thinking of something like she did on the fly is honestly really impressive. Especially when you’re panicking. She really covered up her knowing a kid was drowning pretty well. Not only did she find a way to get to the pool, but she also drew everyone’s attention so ultimately SOMEONE would notice and go after her. As I’ve stated before, while Anya isn’t academically intelligent, she is pretty quick-witted and able to think of things on the fly. Not everyone is able to do that, especially in a crisis. Also can we just talk about that camera work while Anya was running and jumping into the pool??? Getting a 180 in a 2D space is HARD.
I honestly got a bit emotional when Loid pulled Anya and the drowning kid out of the water. A part of it might have been due to me always having a soft spot for people saving others. But I think a major part of it was out of sheer relief for that kid because drowning is a TERRIFYING experience especially when no one knows that it’s happening. It was a bit irresponsible for the nurse to leave the kid on crutches to his own devices around a pool where he could easily just fall in, which he did. Thankfully Anya was around and was able to sense his fear and thoughts.
Because of her heroic actions, she was the first to be awarded a Stella in her grade. Bringing operation Strix closer to it’s objective. And while Loid probably still thinks he views all of this as part of the mission, his fatherly side still came out in his pride for Anya. Which was very sweet. Especially since this was probably the first time where Anya felt like her powers actually helped someone. Considering she viewed it as a the main reason for being rejected. So seeing her smile at the end was super heart-warming. I’m glad that Loid decided against fabricating things so that Anya could get more Stellas. Since I would feel like that would make Anya believe everything would just fall into her lap without having to work for it. This way, her achievements would have more meaning to her as a person rather than just a hand-out. Not to mention that this Stella felt well-deserved and something everyone can be proud of Anya for.
Unfortunately she let the praise get to her head as started acting a bit too smug for getting a Stella. Especially since she’s the talk of the school and even she told Becky to call her “Starlight Anya” from now on. And Becky was just so over it even though she still proceeded to call her that albeit begrudgingly. But I did have to laugh at her made-up scenario of accomplishing world peace by finally befriending Damian because of her accomplishment and her narration just made it 100x greater. She even voiced the door opening sound XD. While Damian is still a jerk, I’m sure he voiced all of our thoughts of Anya shouldn’t be getting a big head. It’s fine to be proud about her accomplishment, but you shouldn’t get conceited about it.
She gets quite the reality check from her classmates and learns the hard way of just because she did this one thing, doesn’t mean everyone was going to like her. Children really are terrible. Thankfully Damian surprisingly backed her up by acknowledging the fact that she did get the Stella fair and square. Making it feel like it was a subtle way to discourage cheating. Since I’m sure she would gain no one’s respect through shady means, especially since they already think less of her. Gotta build back that respect, Anya.
After discussing with Betty about getting a reward from her parents and seeing how her and Damian both love their respective dogs, we are then suddenly headed into the Dog Arc… well, ,I guess not quite yet since THEY’RE DOING THE PENGUIN CHAPTER YESSSSSSSS!!! I’m so happy they’re doing the penguin chapter since I didn’t know whether or not they would adapt it. But thank goodness they decided to since it’s literally one of my favorite extra chapters. I’m not sure if it was the best idea to allude to the Dog Arc quite yet since next week is the last episode for the first half of the season. And because they’re doing the Penguin Chapter, we won’t be going into the Dog Arc until the Fall season. Which is quite the rude cliffhanger to leave us on. I loved the insight on Anya this episode and I am excited for the next episode even if it is the last one until Fall.
