The Geology Club goes to the beach where they find a giant pyramidal structure (in Japan?). Naturally, there’s nothing interesting inside the damn thing but a Darkstone for Arma and company to kill.

Again, what happened to the main plot?
Another week, another one-off episode about nothing. I just don’t understand why studios so often pace anime series this way. Why build up a potentially interesting plot thread (in episode three) then completely drop it for the next two weeks? It’s almost as if we’re in an anime college where there are pre-requisites to a proper storyline. If you want to get to the meat and potatoes of the plot, you must first complete “High School Festival 101” and “A Trip to the Beach 1A.” Oh, you have? Gold star! — you may now sign up for “Main Plot 201.” Oops, most of the students have already dropped out.

No fall damage turned on
So Ruri falls into a cavern at a great height and appears before Kagami with no injuries whatsoever. Hm.

Ruri and Arma magically end up in different places.

Arma falls into the same hole and ends up in an actual cave. It’s like Sunrise isn’t even trying.

Where did all the good mecha anime go?
I used to remember mecha anime featuring multi-national conspiracies, plot twists and turns every few episodes, and thinly-veiled symbolism up the wazoo. “RahXephon” was so endearing in all its pretentiousness.

All we can get nowadays is a show where the maids outnumber the (ugly) machines.

Duty, duty, duty
So what passes as character development in “Sacred Seven?”

“Sacred Seven”

“Little Nemo”

Kagami remembers the day he first met Ruri; he took an elevator and saw her and her sister chase after a ball. That’s it; this entire scene is supposed to explain Kagami’s utter devotion to his ojousama. “Little ‘freaking’ Nemo” did a better damn job at executing the same scene more than two decades ago.

Fanservice Efficiency
At least the anime knows where its bread is buttered: while the male characters are off discussing important save-the-world stuff, we get to see the girls frolick in the beach.

This is what we call efficiency. One of these days, we won’t even get to see the fight scenes; we’ll just hear it while maids jump up and down on a trampoline.