Yeah, I think so!!!
— The start of the episode makes it seem like something interesting is going to happen, but this is anime so it’s all just a lie.
— Instead, we get wacky hijinks instead. Nice pose there, Tusk.
— Salamander girl is still trying to be all nice and hospital with her extradimensional guests, and this includes free food and lodging. I find it funny, however, that robes are all they get. Whenever Ange and Tusk actually do anything in public, they still have to wear the same ratty outfits that must probably stink to high heaven by now.. In any other story about a bunch of strangers in a strange land, the characters might adopt some of the new culture. Not in Cross Ange, though. It’s not that they can’t draw our heroine in a new outfit. The people behind this show simply just don’t want to.
— Here, you see Ange trying to be all smart and shit. It’s funny, ’cause she’s dumb as a sack of potatoes. Yeah, they have us completely overpowered and surrounded in their territory. If they wanted to kill us, they could have just done so by now, but what if the food is poisoned?
— She even bitterly doubts Vivian’s mom, but she has no real reason for this. She just seems jealous.
— People have commented that they find it entertaining to watch such a stupid, highly emotional heroine. I can’t agree with that. I’m not laughing with her or even at her. I’m just rolling my eyes every time the girl opens her mouth, and there’s nothing really fun about that.
— Salamander Girl proposes a contest: she and Ange are going to play a bunch of generic games from “way back when,” and if she wins, Ange will become her slave. Why does it have to come to this? Because Ange refuses to do the right thing. Embyro is evil, and a countless number of people — including herself — have been treated poorly simply because they are Normas? W-well, you’re just trying to use me! Yeah, that’s Ange’s pathetic argument. Everyone‘s trying to use her, and that is, ohmahgawd, the worst thing ever. She’s one of those hyperbolic people who scream manipulation if you even dare to ask anything of them.
“Can you please not play your music so loud past midnight?”
“STOP TRYING TO CONTROL ME! THIS IS WHO I AM!”
“Can you please take out the trash since you live here and we should share the responsibilities?”
“OH MY GOD YOU’RE SO MANIPULATIVE!”
Yeah, it’s real fun to watch a petulant child whine for months and months on end, just so the other characters have an excuse to turn around and treat her like shit. You guys are right.
— Funny how a game of tennis deserves a change in outfits…
— Man, these sports sure are relics from a past long forgotten! Good thing I still know how to do a pitching windup (albeit an exaggerated one)!
— And bikini twister is obviously one of the many crucial games in this competition.
— Haha, we just wasted half an episode on some bullshit competition, because we need to stretch this series out to fit two-cour!
This is hilarious shit! Let’s do it again next year!
— Now that they’ve had a good laugh, it’s time for the two girls to bond in the showers where they are naked and vulnerable. Salamander Girl still doesn’t understand why Ange is so reluctant to lend a hand when it makes so much sense to stop Embyro’s atrocities. The princess delivers a powerful rebuttal: “…some people are content with that twisted world. So who cares?” Bam! You hear that? That’s the sound of Ange dropping the mic on this bitchass problem.
— All of a sudden, a… something opens up and threatens to kill a lot of people. I guess it’s a singularity? Meh, it doesn’t matter what we call it.
— Vivian and her mom get caught in the chaos, and the latter tries to save her daughter by sacrificing herself.
— As a result, both Ange and Salamander Girl try to stop the onslaught at all costs. The High Priestess even orders Salamander Girl to retreat, so this show’s message is that everyone in power is a shitheel.
— Guys, how are we going to stop this thing! I know! Let’s sing at it until two blurry balls shoot out from our mecha. Yep, that looks cool. Yep, we’ve saved the day. Yep, Vivian’s mom is still alive.
— As the result of Ange’s help, Salamander Girl no longer wants to own her. And Ange replies that it’s not like she cares or anything!!! Don’t get the wrong idea! She just wanted to help Vivian! See? She’s a blonde so she’s tsundere! Hah, classic shit.
— Anyway, the point of the episode is obviously for Ange and her rival to bond. But did this really require a montage of some shitty games and a poorly executed potential disaster? According to Sunrise, the answer is yes.
Moe Sucks 
Vivian refers to her mother as “Mom-san”? Okay.
/quote
— People have commented that they find it entertaining to watch such a stupid, highly emotional heroine. I can’t agree with that. I’m not laughing with her or even at her. I’m just rolling my eyes every time the girl opens her mouth, and there’s nothing really fun about that.
/quote
My thoughts exactly.
Ange has been complaining that she wants to destroy the “corrupted world”, two forces offer a good opportunity, and she denies both of them.
Hell, Sali even explains my point on
– Defeat Embryo + Save Dragon = Save both worlds.
and Ange is content with this shit?
She doesn’t want to be used, but would use others for her own selfish goals.
There will soon be a Gear Fighter Dendoh reference soon in this show.
I wish Vivian would point out to her that Ange has been massacring her extended family.
That would make Ange go full Kira
LOL
By the way, I think Sala’s singing was horrible this episode. It sounded very nice in her debut, but not so nice this time. Anyone agree?
The episode is weak, especially on execution part. It felt like some 70s 80s one week one crisis cartoon, EVA did something like that in one of its epsidoes but done it a lot better.
I’m getting used to the opening song, it’s kinda epic, sadly every character in this show is awful.
Anyway, if Ange had the ability to control Villkiss to her will even when it clearly as a mechanical malfunction, then why it crashed into the ocean in earlier episodes? this anime just contradict itself.
I guess she didn’t understand how the Villkiss works in those earlier episodes. She was only able to unlock the mech’s powers after it got the gold mode in ep 12 (and Jill mentioned that her song was the last key to unlock Villkiss’ abilities).
That’s too convenient, but reasonable.
The show has already pulled quite a lot of conveniences in almost every episode that this one isn’t really that much of a bother.
Wow! Villkiss now has the ability to regenerate itself, that’s a cheat. Unless of course, if the Villkisses that Salia, Eirsha, and Chris are going to pilot also have the same abilities.
And okay, so this show is definitely far from being an example of stellar storytelling, but I kinda wish they slowed the pacing a bit. The events of these and the past two or three episodes just come in way too fast, giving little room for Sala’s characterization.
But I do find that competition thing to be somewhat amusing. And a little detail I did like is that there is a differentiation in the design of the Dragons’ paramail and Ange’s in that the Dragon paramails have actual cockpits, which answered that question of why the mails in Ange’s world have so little in terms of pilot safety (exposed cockpit and all).