Not what I really expected. A pretty long chapter but not too much happens. It's about 6 days in-game. December 17th to 23rd.
Overall I didn't enjoy it as much as the simply amazing Episodes 6 and 7. It feels like all buildup for the immensely high expectations Episode 9 anyway.
Sumika being the brain/spine in the 'Kasumi room' was not very surprising.
What was surprising was that Alternative IV's main plan involved making a complete "inhuman human" to destroy the BETA. Because BETA don't see humans has living beings (even though humans and the BETA are both carbon-based lifeforms) Alternative IV decided it was best to use Alternative III's ESP work and Alternative II's BETA samples to create a body that can possibly communicate with the BETA.
Although Sumika has an
intense blood thirst for BETA. Korosu korosu korosu
The fact the BETA take human prisoners is pretty interesting. They rip their brain and spinal cord out and keep them technically "living" somehow. Sumika was of course a victim of the Yokohama Hive and was the only surviving brain when the Americans came knocking...out of hundreds I think? Pretty darn convenient.
conspiracies cough conspiracies
Since Squad 207B has joined A-01's Unit (which are pretty much Yuuko's lap dogs) we got introduced to a
butt load of characters this chapter as well. Our Unit has expanded from the core six to a staggering twelve.
Besides Captain Isumi we also have three First Lt. and three Second Lt. They're all fresh faces except for Second Lt. Suzumiya and Kashiwagi who are the in the Lacrosse Arc in Extra. They were also in Squad 207A before being commissioned...and they're the last two survivors from Squad 207A as far as I know.
They're also all female...Age I know you like harem shit but...it would have been nice to have at least a male soldier or two.
Hayase's hair just reminds me of a blue color swapped Sachi from Sharin no Kuni. Do I need to stop making comparisons to that?
Anyway they're not too bad overall. None of them stand out as
bad in any way and I'm pretty glad to see Kashiwagi again for absolutely no reason. One thing that Takeru seems to note is that he hasn't been in his original harem for quite a bit now. Which is a nice break really.
I already mentioned this but to add to it: yet another reason that the Yokohama Base was built in the Hive was to keep Sumika alive (since they don't know how the BETA did it) which was necessary for Alternative IV really.
One thing pointed out is that Yuuko-sensei most likely did release captured BETA which caused that complete tragedy in Episode 7.
I don't know what to think of that. I know it was a strategic ploy to harden the soldiers at Yokohama Base up and even if she didn't expect Marimo-chan's death she had to except quite a few people dying. I also think it was to showcase how powerful the XM3 is which would cause the rest of Japan to want access to that technology as well.
It's a complicated mess.
I like this CG. There, short comment.
Aww yeeah. Isumi talking about our enemy, after so long it's nice to know how the BETA behave. I really enjoyed this.
I looove diagrams.
Looooooooooooooove.
My heeeeead.
We also get some simulator practice but Age decided it would spoil the fun too much and cut the scene down severely and every scene afterwards isn't even shown in-simulator. Also a lot of "post-mock battle" scenes, oh well.
In fact I noticed Episode 8 was very low on action scenes. Which is sad because Episode 6 and 7 had quite a few intense moments. Though 7 was kind of special...
I guess Age decided they wanted to use this chapter as a break (finally) and to also establish all these characters who will probably die horribly to the BETA at Sadogashima.
Wow I'm talking a lot aren't I?
Kashiwagi gets a bitchin' one eye closed sprite. That's all I really took this image for. (since idle sprites blink she constantly winks like this)
I'm glad they at least dedicated a scene to each A-01 member. Although it's clear Isumi, Hayase, and Suzumiya are getting the most attention. With Isumi being the most obvious because you know, leader.
Nearing the end of Episode 8 I started getting a tad sleepy. The BETA lectures were awesome but afterwards was spent on a whole lot of...socializing? Sumika (you won't believe how many times I type Sumika as Kasumi first) being all ARR KILL BETA ARR I'M NOT TECHNICALLY HUMAN ARR is cool but they probably could have done it quicker. At least her tuning came very quickly. By the end of Episode 8 (the last scene even) she was pretty much behaving like the original Sumikas fine. I use plural there because the Sumika in Alternative is basically a huge mass of memories from different Sumikas.
There's the memories she takes from Takeru's original Extra world.
There's the memories she takes from the twisted Extra world.
And there's the memories she originally had in this world.
Also I guess she copies a few things Kasumi does too. Kasumi is pretty messed up too...
I just took this because I wanted to show the date stamps that appear before a day starts. Fate/stay night probably has my favorite looking still but Alternative's is okay. Alternative uses the exact same appearance Unlimited uses.
...And that's about it for this chapter.
My favorite part was definitely Captain Isumi's speech about the BETA. That was really entertaining. The chapter ends on a sour note sadly with a very boring speech with Yuuko-sensei. It's no Kotomine lecture. And worst of all you could sum it all up as "Yuuko planned on Takeru removing Sumika's memories so that when he came back tuning Unit 00 would be a lot easier".
Also glad to see Suzumiya and Kashiwagi are alive. Kashiwagi is chill as fuuuuuck.
Episode 9 is called The Unending Fight. It probably has my highest expectations yet. If it's not better than Episode 6 or 7 I
will be disappointed.
I mean we're going to be fighting fucking BETA at
Sadogashima with a crazy psycho Sumika and a huge ass harem. Come on!
Author
Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3077915 times)