Active Raid – 07

She loves big, long…trains?

choo choo, bitches.

I never knew being a “train otaku” was a thing until I started watching anime. Every now and then, I’d come across a series with a character obsessed with transportation. It strikes me as a weird thing to be a fan of because what do you do as a train fan other than…look at trains? Maybe read a book about them? It’s all subjective though since I’m sure a ton of people find it laughably geeky to be a fan of anime. But to me…liking trains sounds like one of the most boring hobbies I could ever imagine. This made the majority of Haruka’s serious scenes unintentionally (or intentionally??) hilarious.

This lady needs to back away before Haruka starts reading out her Thomas the Tank Engine fanfic

Haruka’s introduction in episode 1 plainly stated that she likes trains – and she wasn’t kidding. Haruka not only has a deep passion for trains, but she is extremely knowledgeable about just every aspect of trainology possible. Yes, so knowledgeable she could probably turn trainology into a real field of study. There isn’t much else to her character, but that quirky obsession is enough to make her stand out as an interesting character in the group. I especially dug that her love for trains turned out to be useful in multiple situations, turning what started off as an odd hobby into a useful talent.

She uses her train skills to do some fast-paced track switching, for one. Much like the poker episode, we’re supposed to be impressed by a character just shouting a string of complicated and impressive nouns. This time, instead of Full House, Straight, and Royal Flush, we get the names of different junctions and switches. It’s silly, but when combined with the complicated diagram of the tracks that just made my eyes cross, I appreciated her talents. The message came across well with that simple and quick little scene.

Her second train-related assist was when she realized Kobari was the one who made the diorama. Maybe I blacked out for a bit, but I have no idea how on earth she was able to determine that with such certainty. Anyways, the way she wins him over with nerdy train talk was the best part of the episode because it just added layers and layers of sappiness.

It got ridiculous when Haruka mentioned he had a ~secret~ daughter who needed an organ transplant or else she would die…Classic little girl with a mystery anime illness. Then Kobari was so afraid to speak that he responded to this line of questioning by maniacally screeching that he had no daughter before imploding offscreen. Wow. Real subtle, right? The whole exchange between is full of golden moments like that. Another favourite of mine is when Haruka was spouting nonsense about how hot and bothered she gets by goddamned bridges while a transparent shot of her naked bust floated above a train. The combination of the over-the-top “let’s combine every tragedy into one dude” mess that makes up Kobari’s life and Haruka trying to be heartfelt about the dorkiest hobby ever just didn’t work. Or rather, it worked in a way where it was so bad I couldn’t help but grin stupidly the whole time. Take that as a victory or a loss as you please.

GHOST TRAIN: ON THE RAILROAD TO HELL

As for the series moving forward, it looks like we get a few little hints at what is to come. There’s some Political Shit going down with the competition for the elections being weeded out a little via death. There’s also a lot of hinting that the little sister and the blonde guy with killer winged eyeliner were more than just throwaway characters. They seem to be getting closer to uncovering some conspiracies. Downloading a cracked version of Liko to investigate something lovingly titled the “Fruits of Tragedy” is just asking for trouble! I like where things are going there though, because it’s nice to have some focus away from the same group of people in Unit 8. A change of scenery is nice.

It also looks like Logos is facing some more discord. Dog is continuing to be a hassle as he acts on his own. It looks like he supplied this Willwear without actually asking his buddy if he had permission. It’s pretty obvious it was him, so I can’t imagine Dog will stick around Logos for long without being horribly punished or killed. That’ll be fun!

Active Raid…still goofy as hell, but it has some charm points.

 Don’t leave a guy and girl alone together! They’ll do bad things…like…download illegal computer programs!