IS: Infinite Stratos – 03

Although I haven’t seen it, isn’t this show just like Strike Witches? With less loli?

It seems only yesterday that I reviewed episode 2. I felt a little sad because I only then realized how late I was with getting this written. I thought, “No! These readers deserve better!” So here I am, ready to present to you IS – 3 in somewhat fast time! My Hourou post was faster, but I only capped the IS episode at 4am in the morning. And I know what you’re going to ask. ‘So, what happened with that new Childhood friend?’. Well, dear reader. Read on.

As you may remember in the preview of episode three we see rumblings of a new character, a Chinese representative who is also Ichika’s childhood friend. We’ll get to that in a minute, so first, let’s start the episode. We start in midst some sort of training exercise involving the entire class. This would be boring but thankfully (like I mentioned in the first review) you have to wear a swimsuit with some form or zettai ryouiki to pilot an IS. I guess this is where the fan service lies. Chifuyu instructs Alcott and Ichika to call out their IS’s. It seems that if you think about it hard enough, the IS will pop out of nowhere which is kind of badass. The two fly around for a bit and Alcott tries hitting on Ichika. She’s interrupted by Chifuyu who tells them to do a barrel roll. Ichika fails horribly and falls to the ground in no pain thanks to the IS. And before the OP Houki and Alcott have a cat-fight over his well being.

Later we learn that because Alcott is so nice, she stepped down as Class Rep and gave the title to Ichika. We get to see that Alcott has rather obviously fallen for Ichika and she tries to get every moment with him she can. Unfortunately, Houki doesn’t like that idea and at every point she can, she gets in their way. Nothing like a good cat fight. Later on in the confinements of their room, Houki decides to get nekkid and then, (wait for it…) go to sleep. Ha! Got yoooou! The next day there are rumors flying around that a new student took the position of Class Rep for class 2. It’s apparently a representative from China and it sounds like Ichika is eager to meet his opponent. Before long, the new student appears in the doorway, introducing herself as Fan Rinrin (Yeah, that’s her name. It’s AWESOME). To our surprise (not) Ichika actually knows her as she’s one of his childhood friends. Of course. And what’s funny is that Rin seems to be afraid of Chifuyu. I wonder if there’s a story in there?

Over lunch Rin and Ichika get reacquainted with each other while Alcott and Houki watch angrily from the next table. She asks about how exactly he got into the school and we get a little insight into what actually happened that day at the examination. However it seems all a little too much for Alcott and Houki. They rush over and demand an explanation as to who Rin actually is. Turns out that when Houki transfered out Rin was transfered in (So she was ‘In like Rin’!). So that makes Rin his second childhood friend and Houki his first. All the while Alcott is ignored, because she doesn’t really matter just now. Later on, because apparently Ichika agreed to something, he winds up in the stadium with Alcott and Houki. It seems Houki wants to train Ichika (probably because she wants his pants) to get closer to him and to train him to the inter-class championship.

Once again, Alcott doesn’t like the idea so both Alcott and Houki beat the daylights out of him. After his training Rin hunts Ichika down and after learning that Ichika and Houki are room-mates, she follows him back to his room and asks Houki if she would let Rin be his room-mate, rather than her. She disagrees and even attempts to attack Rin. Here we learn of something called ‘Partial Deployment’ where I assume you can summon parts of your IS, rather than the whole thing. After fending off Houki’s attack, Rin tries to reason with Ichika asking him if he remembers some sort of promise that he made years ago. Unfortunately he can’t so she gets all pissy and storms off, swearing revenge in the Inter-Class Tournament. Funnily enough we skip straight to the tournament as Ichika and Rin are preparing to battle. As finally preparations are made, Ichika flies out into the right to face Rin head on. And that’s where the episode ends. Goddamn it!

End Thoughts

It’s super effective!

Without a doubt, this is one of the WORST composed shots in any anime I’ve ever seen. HORRID.

Would saying ‘Rin is about to get Chifuyu’d’ be appropriate here? Or just dirty?

Like he isn’t pleased about this situation. Pffft.

Okay, NOW the whole school-life thing is annoying me. They better start bringing in some good story stuff soon otherwise Hato will be angry. And IS wont like Hato when he’s angry. Also, in a complete turn from last time, the mech designs are kind of growing on me, but only the CQC (‘Impressive CQC, Snake!’) models. Robots ALWAYS look better when fighting with swords, it’s a law. I guess super robot Kendo would be pretty awesome. Also, the fan service has begun. Not only was there that suggestive shot towards the start of the episodes, but everyone is also in swimsuits. It lasted a good two episodes or so, so I’ll give it an O for Awesome at least.

And of course there had to be a goddamn ‘promise’. I always find it annoying how the dudes never remember said promise. I mean, c’mon ladies. If you tell us something in grade school (we don’t have that in NZ, what is that?) and then come back years later, don’t expect us to remember it. And don’t think we’re evil for doing that, it’s just how it works. Alcott’s realization that Ichika is a sex machine was to be honest, a little bit shit. I guess it was what you’d call generic. Even with Rin in the picture now, I’m not holding out for any actual good characters. Though, when some big bad guy shows up, I’ll be happy. Bad dudes are usually awesome. Wait. They will be fighting IS’s, right? So it wont be a bad dude, but a bad chick. Awesome.

Like I said above, the mecha are growing on me, and I will admit, I’m impressed with how well the animation held up during those scenes. The quality doesn’t really drop at all, which was pleasing to see. Then again, in mecha anime, it probably doesn’t. I just don’t watch them. I watch series where a fight consists of one or two fists and even then the animation drops. Is it that quality is just a new sensation? That’s sad, Hato. One last thing before the preview, how does Ichika have such convenient childhood friends? I don’t even have any childhood friends (hurr hurr, Hato is a nerd~), and even if I did, I’m pretty sure their sisters or whatnot couldn’t invent a goddamn giant battle robot.

Because the director is a dick, the preview for the next episode shows, quite obviously, the battle between Rin and Ichika. Her IS look pretty badass (and somewhat Chinese) and both of the IS’s are close-range fighters so expect some pretty extravagant set pieces. I just want to see Rin beat the crap out of Ichika.