Holy shit. Episode 9 isn't even done and I've just went through two full blown war movies.
This was quite eye-catching. The break in the middle of the two big 'events' was probably too long but we'll get to that maybe.
This covers December 24th to...29th. I've noticed Episodes like covering a week period so I'm probably jumping the gun here but whatever.
It's not 18+ unless we say masturbation.
I like when the translators draw the letters out, it's pretty nifty.
KiiiiiisaaaamaaaaaaaaaOBJECTIVE 21 OPERATION, FUCK YEAH
Sumika (00 Unit) gets this absolutely ridiculous "mecha" called the XG-70 which has a lot of backstory that's not worth repeating. Basically it's an American death machine that was made obsolete by G-bombs however if the 00 Unit can use it well we can easily wipe out hives with "100 times less casualties" which is pretty amazing.
The early early morning before the mission started we talked to Isumi, then Meiya, and then
Kashiwagi which was a bit shocking. It was pretty sweet and we got some more info on Isumi and Kashiwagi...
however, thanks to a certain fact that happens latter this feels slightly too convenient writing. Oh well it was nice.
And obligatory bitchin' back sprite from Kashiwagi. I think Isumi and Kashiwagi are good characters anyway. And Meiya is okay now. I don't even want to look at my Extra post...
ANYWAY
LET'S INVADE THAT FUCKING HIVE YEEEAAAH
NAVY ADMIRALS
AWESOME
CONSTANT STATUS REPORTS
AWESOME
DEAD BETA EVERYWHERE
AWESOME
ZERO MORTALITY RATE INFILTRATION MISSIONS
AWESOME
;_;
AWESOME
FUCKING ENEMIES EVERYWHERE RAGRAHGRHARA
AWESOME
CGs EVERYWHERE
AWESOME
So yeah. That was an awesome six hours. I did it all in one session. Six hours sounds about right. Six hours on nonstop mission shit.
Two things I can't show off:
1. The Honor Guard (Tsukuyomi's Unit) had a Leader Unit in it with a really cool blue mecha. Also they sounded male. I wish we saw more of them...
2. Auto scenes everywhere. Auto scenes are basically animated scenes but with just sprites moving (not that there aren't actual animated scenes I can't share) and Takeru is voiced in them a lot which is awesome.
I was actually expecting them to infiltrate the hive but we'll get to that...
Kashiwagi died guarding Isumi. Isumi had to detonate the Susano'o after we secured Sumika...while she was in it.
That means two of the three people we talked to before the mission started died. Tsk tsk tsk Age I thought you were better than that.
Not that it wasn't really sad. ;_;
Also Sadogashima was wiped off the
fucking map.It gets kind of weird from this point on.
Sumika freaked out piloting the XG-70 because she read an image of us having sex with Meiya...it's complicated. Pretty much Takeru is getting memories of the many different time loops he's experienced so Sumika suddenly reads these bizarre delusion like scenes which caused her thinning ODG(sic?) to thin out and she went into autistic mode to save her brain.
Also we see these guys again. I thought this was a really nice surprise. What Takeru tells them was really sweet and the two of them remind him of Lt. Irma who was a foreigner fighting to save her country as well. Except these two UN Soldiers didn't have the TSF Aptitude so they were stuck being infantry. :[
And then Sumika joins A-01 and a lot of shit happens. It's all a blur to me honestly. Shirogane Takeru talks with a ton of people (everybody in A-01, Tsukuyomi, Yuuko, Kasumi, etc.) about a ton of shit and just geez.
At the very least the General makes announcements of the Objective 20 Operation which will commence in two weeks. It's to take down a Hive in the Korean Pennisula. Thanks to Alternative IV (Sumika/00 Unit) we were able to take down the Sadogashima Hive and get ALL OF THE DATE on the other Hives. All of it. So A-01 will be infiltrating H20 with a near-perfect route. It's mainly to save face with the only half successful O21O.
Hour long lectures?
Naruhodo naruhodo...good thing this pillow is comfy.
Boop boop beep boop lots of talking about romance and psychology and fallen comrades and motivation and stuuuuuff.
What's most important is that Sumika remembers what happens to the original us in this world...and also what happened to her before becoming a brain and spine.
It was not pretty. We were eaten up just like Marimo-chan...and Sumika was raped constantly. The BETA seem curious enough to pleasure humans at least. IT WAS LIKE A NEVER ENDING EJACULATI--okay we're done here.
So after that we finally get our first "real" H scene and it was pretty short at least. Sumika has some odd lines on her body thanks to being not real but whatever. Her Eishi suit is pretty odd. It's very very pink, it's okay to look at.
Either way it's like the morning of the 29th, at around 2:30am, a bit after having sex with Sumika finally---
BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOThere was most likely BETA out on duty for Sadogashima before coming home to a missing Hive. To accommodate that they've started heading towards Yokohama Base/Hive for their own little invasion.
This is not very good news for the weakened state of us.
Also noteworthy is a few hallway scenes during this were very dynamic which was nice to see. It was like I was actually walking with them. Age's production values are wonders.
We also got ourselves the Susano'o Type 4. But that won't help with the out-of-commission Sumika (plus the engines aren't tuned) and also...the BETA were intelligent enough to create a diversion with their laser types and they're fucking up shit at our Secondary Defense Line. Victor Unit noooooooooooooooo
SMIRK
...it won't last long
Also the Honor Guard Leader was oddly missing, he didn't die at Sadogashima or anything. That blows!
So so many poor TSF Eishi.
DEFEND THE BAAAASE
We have so much money to blow on CGs like you won't even believe.
Actually that kind of hurts me. Because Age put
so many auto read scenes in this "arc" I had a very hard time grabbing images.
I also had a hard time even reading what was happening, because Muv-Luv Alternative thinks it's an anime.
PINK DOTS EVERYWHERE
Here's one such image I grabbed that was an auto read scene. I just kind of print screen'd blindly.
It's worth reminding that I have to read Hayase's line here in like...less than a second. The auto read scenes tend to move VERY FAST so I find myself not even trying to read and then looking at the back log while I ogle at the very pretty effects.
And yes auto read scenes are very very cool to watch. The sound effeects the noise the visuals the DIAGRAMS aaaah over fucking load.
It can get pretty confusing after awhile.
One thing I
really liked was that UN Soldier 1 and 2 were part of Suzumiya's escort squad. That rocked pretty hard. I suppose Age
did give them a scene recently but it still completely took me by surprise.
I also enjoy how missions never go how they're planned. Failure is a very large theme in MLA. A very large theme. They adapt and usually manage to avoid BETA getting a guaranteed victory but humanity still suffer
HUGE losses. It's like constantly being in check mate but making up an excuse why their call isn't right and then diverting their attention just enough to place a pawn to block the check mate...for one turn.
Every image is going to look like this, corpses everywhere.
Takeru does get voiced when he's trying to contact Hayase through the static-y receiver which just pissed me off a bit. Fully voiced man keep him fully voiced. :[
It's only been
four days since Objective 21 Operation and we're already losing HUGE chunks of more people.
Alpha 3 being wiped out was very upsetting for me. It hurts it hurts it hurts
;_;
Specifically, when they had the BETA Soldier Class holding onto UN Soldier 1's head, that hurt my soul. It even makes it ironic because in Isumi's lecture she mentions just that fact. And then Suzumiya was slaughtered... Fuck.
I love delusion scenes don't you.
Mission...
successful?No, mission definitely not successful.
We lost 95% of Yokohama Base. We beat back the BETA yes, but
THERE'S NOTHING FUCKING LEFT.
I do admire Shirogane Takeru's sudden rebound (and it's one reason I'm cutting this in half to two parts) but seriously.
Every unit but Tsukuyomi's was wiped. A-01 is more than half gone. That's about it for their TSFs. I suppose Sumika and the Susano'o Type 4 were saved but...
1st Lt. Hayase died
1st Lt. Suzumiya died
1st Lt. Munakata was severely wounded and sent to the imperial hospital at the capital
2nd Lt. Kazama is the same as Munakata but less severe
2nd Lt. Suzumiya is severely wounded, also eye wound
Kind of oddly enough all that's left of A-01 is Squad 207. The original crew. I would chide Age for doing that but it's not too bad...nah I'll still chide them. It would have been more fresh to kill a core cast instead of a supporting.
Pretty much every single infantry is wounded or dead (;_;). And there's about...10 Eishi left that can pilot a TSF currently?
They started with around 215 I believe? It was over 200.
THERE'S TEN LEFTYou know how the BETA took advantage of the weakened Yokohama Base in the first place? Well
it's completely defenseless now.
Ah right that's one very interesting thing brought up.
Yuuko-sensei and the General talked about the possibility that the BETA were actually just testing humanity to see how they reacted and after the Objective 21 Operation they finally decided Humanity was a real threat to be eliminated. In other words the BETA weren't tactically stupid at all...they just didn't even see trying to fight Humanity for real as a thing. It wasn't bothersome. But our invasion of Sadogashima might have started causing the (frankly not too many) BETA that attacked us now to use real tactics.
This of course means that against an actual Hive now there's no way we'd stand a chance unless we try the Susano'o Type 4 but again, if the BETA have stepped up their game Alternative IV might at best just draw it out again...
That's probably why Yuuko-sensei is forcing the General to act now on...
somethingI don't really know yet because since the action slowed down for a second and Episode 9 is already long as fuck I decided to do this now.