Hard to do character development analysis with all those fine distractions during the character development. Hard to take it too seriously when the two girls are in swimsuits and Yui is in Tsundere full-drive, but yet this character developments are very real...
We start off with the end of last episode. By the end of the episode I figured the boat would have been useless anyway, the rain might have simmered down, but I kept having the "tides are still fierce" vibe on the island all the time.
Straightaway Yui feels threatened when Cryska wants to know about Yuuya. She relaxes a bit when Cryska said she was only interested in him as an Eishi, but was quickly back on the defensive after Yuuya's merits were bashed.
I don't see this as an immediate sign of "luv" though. She doesn't really know of Yuuya's past YET, and she just taught him Yamato Damashii in episode 5. This can easily be taken as she finally sees Yuuya as "Japanese" (as much as Yuuya detests it, she doesn't no) and now is actually defending the "Japanese Pride" as opposed to Yuuya as an Eishi.
But, she ran out of arguments, and chose to deflect by redirecting the question to Yuuya (go ask him yourself). Tragic mistake for her love-wise, but hey, she puts the pride before the love I suppose.
Then Cryska points out its Inia who's interested, and as her protective big sister, she's going all-out to extract information. Those hairpins must be pretty powerful, considering she didn't opt to just read the information she wants to, and thinking too much puts strain on her brain (hence making her collapse and look so frail these episodes.) Cryska, in this scenario displays the very thing she is afraid would happen to Inia (Inia doesn't look that way because Cryska protects too well, but Cryska knows Inia's delicate.)
And then Yuuya comes back with the "useless boat is gone" news and then the trap Yui set for herself triggered.
Yuuya-Cryska Q&A time. Applause to Yuuya mentioning Stalin and Lennin. Cryska bluntly throws the Inia card at Yuuya and quickly redirects to Yui (although it is true she asked Cryska to ask Yuuya), which then slowly comes out from that hidden closet (not to us, to them) about Yuuya's hatred for the Japanese. I was upset Yui wasn't around to hear that at first, she's the one who got Yuuya half-figured out without that information. (But turns out that worry was unneccessary later.)
I love the contrasts they put on Yuuya and Cryska/Yui. Yuuya is all about me first and Cryska/Yui is about country/mission first. I immediately thought BACK TO NATIONLIST ISSUES.
Then we get Cryska/Yuuya fanservice, and then when I saw that slipper, I went DUN-DUNNNNN.... the Tsundere feels threatened already. Certainly enough, we got the cold war for a few minutes in the cave after that.
And then Yuuya, you just had to poke her with "Sulking child who got left out." Congratulations, you triggered Yui's Tsun-full-blast mode. "I didn't say anyone in particular" Yeah, there are like three of you in here, and that's a crowd. "Is that how you see yourself?" Wow, Yui suddenly felt off key after that "Sulking".
Cryska fixes the problem. "We have a worthwhile discussion". "WHAT?" in unison, yay. And then Yui finally touches on Yuuya's unfriendiness towards her (as a Japanese). Touche for Yuuya. But Yuuya fires back with "You wanna get along?", Touche back to Yui, who did a very poor job of covering it up with "the mission". Not everyone can pull that off like Cryska, you know. But after turning around I couldn't stop laughing at Yuuya's shock at Yui suddenly turns around to retaliate somemore.
AND THEN FINALLY, YUUYA SPILLS THE BEANS ON HIS HISTORY! And most importantly Yui heard all of it. But Cryska steals all the thunder back with "At least you had a parent and knew the other one abandoned you."
After the TSF resuce (yay for Su37-UB!), the rest is pretty much fanservice. Yui's Tsundere mode just doubled, if that was possible. Yuuya-Yui is now doomed to be the on-deck shipping for everyone on Argos, and if Cryska wasn't so worried about Inia, she would be shipping too (at this point of time, I don't think she developed any romantic interest yet, she's still the Kuudere in Kuu mode now, especially with the ending.)
But the best part is the flashback of Alternative III when Cryska collapsed outside. Too bad it was too generic to classify as "Alternative III flashback", but its a step forward.
I hope Yui doesn't carry that Tsundere attitude too much into future episodes (which will be back to serious, and possibly BETA.) Some Tsundere is fine, but too much undermines her authority for serious episodes.
5/5 for this. Fantastic character development. Fanservice continues. MLA:TE has done the unholy merging of both of them in the same situation and while I believe I feel its awkward, its due to the unnaturalness of the formula itself rather than the composition of the episodes.
And lastly, for those who are on the verge of quitting MLA:TE, we get back to FIGHTING next episode. Besides, if you watched last episode, you should have been mentally prepared for the nature of this episode. |