Impression:

This series is actually starting to gain a bit of a plot. It used to simply be about Ichika and his international harem, but we are starting to see a point to the series aside from fan service. An organization is stealing all of the special IS units from around the world and it was revealed that they were behind Ichika’s kidnapping back in the day. I guess that we are going to see some villains that aren’t unmanned IS units this time around.

That spider IS was pretty cool.

Things picked up right where they left off in the last episode. Ichika is fighting the mysterious lady and the staff now knows about the attack. How do they know? There are cameras in the locker room. I wonder how much that footage would sell for. Well, an evacuation was announced and the only people allowed to stay were the representative candidates. Of course the important characters get to stay. Ichika thought he was doing well in his fight, but his idiocy got the best of him. Attacking an unknown enemy head on is ridiculously stupid. Things might have gone gotten pretty bad if it wasn’t for Tatenashi. She showed up and used her IS to fuck things up. She uses nano machines to manipulate water and use it for both defensive and offensive maneuvers. The mysterious lady was taken down, but another strange pilot tipped the scales. M showed up and used the next generation Blue Tears that was stolen from England and that did not sit well with Cecilia. The villains escaped, but that is not the end of things. The group that once kidnapped Ichika is now after the Byakushiki. Oh yeah, and Tatenashi has the crown.

That is a cool ability.

Current Opinion of the Show:

I like where things are going. Is this feeling entirely due to the focus on an actual story? Pretty much. The harem stuff was entertaining, but it kept me from truly enjoying the series. Don’t give us mech stuff and the illusion of corruption if you aren’t going to do anything with it. I don’t think that we are looking at the next great series, but the introduction of a legitimate story will keep me interested when the harem stuff isn’t cutting it. The story that we are getting seems cool. We have an evil organization that is after special IS units. Pretty standard stuff in the middle of an arms race, but the truly intriguing thing is M. She clearly looks like Chifuyu and it seems like she has a picture of the famous teacher in that locket. Could there possibly be another Orimura sibling out there? I don’t know. There is some mystery surrounding Ichika’s family, but I am not sure if they will take it that far. It would be nice to see something like that, but I am not ready to expect much from this part of the series yet.

We all knew that she would win.

Having said all of that, I do believe that the harem stuff is the strength of this series. I know that I have stated my dislike for Ichika and that hasn’t gone away. However, I will say that people like this series for the girls from what I can tell. It doesn’t have to be in a creepy way either. I think that the characters are fairly interesting and I like the international stuff they have going on. Laura getting a bigger piece of the action this season was a great move because the writers have done an outstanding job with her character. Charlotte will always be a fan favorite and making the two of them so close has really added to the appeal of the show. I am pretty happy with what was done with my favorite character. Cecilia hasn’t seen much action, but I do like what I see. Shooting Ichika during the play was pretty hilarious. I am worried that Rin is going to fall behind yet again. It seems like the fan favorites get the screen time like we are watching a popularity contest or something. Rin isn’t a bad character so let her in on some fun. I have no idea what they plan on doing with Houki, but her road is a rough one. At least Tatenashi is cool.

I still think of Gundam Seed every time I see those laser drones.