Now she’s ruined for marriage! Thanks a lot, Bizon. And at her father’s funeral too. Geez, dude.
Episode summary: Bizon makes a move on Hina, but she rejects his advances. When Hahn mind-controls Hina into becoming a Coupling pilot for Zogilia, Bizon thus offers himself up to be Hina’s Buddy even though he has laughably poor compatibility with her. Seriously, learn to take a hint, dude. As for the Alliance, now that they’ve lost two invaluable Coupling mechas to the enemy, they will launch an operation to destroy a secret Zogilian weapon. In fact, they’ll even send our heroes their replacement mechas. Aoba and Dio will just have to retrieve said mechas in the middle of a dangerous battle. Strategic planning!
Notes:
• As expected, Dio now believes Aoba’s time-traveling claims. I still sort of think last week’s reckless Coupling attempt was a rather convenient way to make these two characters bond instead of just having their friendship naturally develop over the course of the series. It would’ve been more poetic if, at some point, Dio thinks to himself, “Aoba may or may not be from the past, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s a true friend.” Instead, he’s forced to experience Aoba’s memories, and I think that’s a bit of a cheat.
• After the OP, we are treated with yet another funeral. This time, we’re paying our respects to Hina’s father, i.e. the late Ryazan. Man, even at just a paltry count of two, this anime has had more funerals than a lot of other shows combined.
• Where’s your tact, Bizon? Are you really going to interrogate Hina at her father’s funeral? Yeesh, these yanderes have no manners. Ryazan may not have been Hina’s real father, but still… On the flip side, I’m not exactly sure what Hina’s thinking either when she tries to tell Bizon that she has no particular connection with Aoba. Yo, I was just chilling with an enemy pilot in a random corridor. C’mon, don’t tell you’ve never sat down and had a casual conversation with the enemy, Bizon!
• Oh god, he’s going to snap:
In response, Hina reveals her time-traveling theory to Bizon as if he would believe it. Again, I’m not sure why she doesn’t just think she’s an orphan from this time period. Nothing in Ryazan’s story remotely suggests that Hina’s from the past, so the theory hinges completely on Aoba’s claims (even if we know that they are true). Predictably, Bizon finds all of this ridiculous.
• Hahahahaha:
How do you explain this cat-shaped hairpin then, Bizon? How! Yeah, you can’t! This hairpin that I don’t remember ever owning is irrefutable proof that I’m from the past!
• But man, Bizon’s eyes during these scenes are crazy. Look at all that eyeliner in the previous two screenshots. Someone’s a big fan of Sephora.
• Oh right, only Bizon would forgive Hina’s offense. Uh-huh. Common abuse tactic: isolate the victim from his or her friends. Make the victim depend solely upon the abuser for help.
• Unsurprisingly enough, Hina’s the only Zogilia pilot who has any aptitude for Coupling. But if she’s unable to find a partner, this project will be rather short-lived. And oh no, Hahn gives us the evil stare as he injects Hina with some unknown fluid (not that fluid, sicko). As if it isn’t bad enough that Bizon’s gone all yandere, I wonder if Hina’s gonna get mind-controlled at this rate because she’s reluctant about becoming a Coupling pilot for Zogilia. Ah well, if she does truly become mind-controlled, the power of love will triumph over all and return her back to normal (see: every anime ever). We’ll just have to wait and see how long it’ll take Aoba to rescue our poor maiden if this turns out to be the case.
• So a commenter was right: the Coupling performance in the old-type mechas is stronger than what you’d normally get from the current models. And since Aoba and Dio are the protagonists of the show, I’m sure they’ll find a way to overcome the dangers inherent in this sort of Coupling.
Oh I’m sure they can. Now, if only the old-type mechas weren’t so clunky looking.
• Oh look, Hina does get mind-controlled. And like in every anime ever, being mind-controlled means your pupils are dilated:
And you have to speak in a monotone voice. I mean, you wouldn’t want to confuse the audience, would you?
• So even though Bizon has poor compatibility with Hina, there’s apparently no other option in the short-term when it comes to finding a suitable partner for our mind-controlled lass. As such, our yandere volunteers himself to become Hahn’s guinea pig. Oh dear, his mind’s just going to break even more. I don’t get the rather upbeat music in the background as the guy’s screaming in pain though.
• Oh hey, the new-type mechas are already on their way… on their way to the middle of a battlefield. That’s some brilliant military planning right there. Guys, we just lost two of our invaluable Coupling mechas. Let’s, uh, send the replacements to a place where they can also be easily stolen or destroyed. Look, those pilots are talented, so I’m sure they’ll have no problems dealing with whatever random contingency pops up.
• Zogilia has been secretly building a giant fuck-off cannon in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, but the Alliance know all about it because many Bothan spies gave their lives to deliver this information:
The heat map looks suspiciously like a woman’s reproductive system.
• Dio and Aoba have a conversation about the upcoming battle. I have no real bone to pick with this scene. I actually think this is a decent bit of dialogue between our two protagonists. Poor Mayu is in the background eavesdropping on them though. All this talk about protecting Hina can’t be too good for her psyche.
• Are we really gonna watch Margaret bungle yet another Zogilian operation? I guess we will.
• Did Hina just say she’s going to avenge Bizon’s father or is that a translation error?
• I like how Bizon can’t even discern the fact that Hina’s personality has been completely replaced with a potato. For a yandere, he doesn’t know the object of his affections all that well.
• That blast came from the Death Star Gorgon! That thing’s operational! Good thing we sent the replacement mechas all the way out here where it’s safe!
• Uh, I think when you can see the laser beam coming right at you, it’s a bit too late to give the retreat orders, Lene.
• Thanks to the giant laser blast, the Alliance has now lost contact completely with the transport ship carrying the mechas. Gee, how could this have been prevented…
• That’s it for now. Tune in next week for when Hina inevitably returns to normal, but let’s be real: I’m only watching this to see how much further Bizon’s mind will break.
Moe Sucks 
• Did Hina just say she’s going to avenge Bizon’s father or is that a translation error?
yup, that was translation error, use other sub and she actually said her father, also she said otousama that will only make sense she meant her father because Bizon said Mr. Ryazan after that
• I like how Bizon can’t even discern the fact that Hina’s personality has been completely replaced with a potato. For a yandere, he doesn’t know the object of his affections all that well.
I think he discerned, but he just doesn’t care because Hina can forget Watase Aoba and he can have Hina all for himself
well, at least Ryazan was actually relevant to the plot, unlike that Fermi guy they wasted too much time on.
oh, looks like they’re that “stuck behind enemy lines” sunrise drama again. what i really don’t understand is that, for a large ship, Cygnus carries only five mecha. it’s not as if it has plenty of onboard weapons. and they actually throw the thing into the frontlines.
and so, as it turns out, hina is the best coupler in Zogilia’s side, while aoba is the Feds’ universal coupler. heh! no wonder this one is titled “Buddy Complex”, both dio and bizon are forever going to be in the friendzone for this two.
but hey, basing from the preview, the next ep might actually be the part where hina gets thrown back in time.
Maybe the twist is that someone will innovate a “Tripler” system and the good guys can then have a menage a trois on the battlefield.
After watching this episode I can say that Buddy complex is officially my worst anime of 2014. This writing is bad, even for a robot anime. I feel bad for the animators and voice actors who are working on this piece of trash. They just don’t have anything to work with.
@E Minor
At least that would make the show semi-interesting.
You must haven’t watched Wizard Barristers.
Or Nisekoi. Or Mahou Sensou. Or ImoCho. Or half the other shows I don’t care to reflect on. Ugh. This season. UGH.
“So a commenter was right: the Coupling performance in the old-type mechas is stronger than what you’d normally get from the current models.”
told you so. There’s only 3 kinds of prototype robots in the world (to me, at least):
1. the ones that fail from the beginning (explode, not operational, never completed)
2. the ones that WERE good during their time (but left behind by the successors)
3. the ones that are actually better than the new ones (because the new ones were scaled down half-asses due to high costs or features of the original that can’t be controlled completely)
and since SkyNight and FireBrand are still in one piece there’s only 2 & 3 for me to choose from.
God damn, do we even have a chance to see the replacements for Luxon and Bradyon? or are they in pieces by now? I guess SkyNight and FireBrand are gonna show the new bots some old tricks…
“• Uh, I think when you can see the laser beam coming right at you, it’s a bit too late to give the retreat orders, Lene.”
I’ll guess the bulk of Cygnus is mostly made of Nectar Curtain and lots of boosters (probably why they only have 5 mechs inside), and that the soldier on the steering wheel is specifically trained to “evade.”
Am I also right about Bizon’s pilot suit having bad effects? red and black are never a good combination if they make up a light in the anime world.
I have a bigger question!!! (to me it is) At the end of episode 1 they’re showing a picture of Aoba, another guy, and a girl… Who the hell is that blonde girl?… oh, don’t tell me? she’s got no worth/relevance whatsoever?
I’m making a joke that lasers travel at light speed. Some of the things I say are tongue-in-cheek.
I’m also making a joke… I think?… I’m partially making fun of the soldiers moving the ships. Those ships that blew up, it was around 50% of the fleet, right? I bet some of them, and their commanding officers, just screamed while looking at the approaching beam instead of trying to evade to save their lives. It’s also funny when, during scenes like that, some captains would stand from their seat and attempt to escape.
the characters in end card of every episodes are characters from Buddy Complex mobile game
wow. I’m surprised this anime has a game.
This shitty anime has a mobile game?
No way. I would rather play flappy bird.
:-D
It was originally created to promote the mobile games, the mobage was quite popular in Japan…
This anime has only 13 episode, right? Which makes the next episode the last one. A random giant wormhole will appear in the sky and Hina will go into it, followed by Bizon, and that’s it (?)
Hina will enroll into Aoba’s school as transfer student, and the story restarted from episode 1, in an endless loop.
The concern now is whether Aoba return with her or not.
I bet that he’s going to stay with his ‘coupling’ buddy.
Gay ending suits this shitty anime…
The story’s fair too incomplete for it to not to get a sequel.
do you think a side story without Aoba has a better future?
a story with Hina as the main character would have been a lot better. but, you know, the guys at sunrise are kinda sexist when it comes to their mecha shows.
you called it shitty but you keep watching it, maybe this is not as shitty as you said, or you just have too much freetime?
I want to watch one mecha anime each season, no matter how it is.
I love slice of life and comedy, but there isn’t much choice current season.
so I ended up watching a bunch of shitty fantasy anime as well.
But can anyone deny that this show is really bad written? What kind of army trust a random outsider, with unclear background, to hold the fate of their lives? They are lucky that the guy is a protagonist. What if he betrayed them in the heat of crucial battle? I wonder why such a stupid army hasn’t been obliterated since long ago.
Also, they are infiltrated too easily. There is no suspense at all. I never know that it was that easy to enter an army base and steal their most important technology. LOL.
You know, the only way Bizon can get any worse is if he talks to that Zogilian scientist about what they used to dope Hina up so she does whatever they tell him to and asking them where he can get some. But, as a yandere, all he cares is that she doesn’t think about that other guy and she’s all his. Luckily, we know that she goes for the guy who started out as very dim and naive, but is a much better option as both a boyfriend and a person. Hopefully that starts next episode.
Personally, I do still wish that next week was the series finale, but if we get a second course that consists of nothing but Bizon losing his damn mind every episode because he “lost” the girlfriend, maybe it’ll be fun. It won’t make it any better, because I still look at this as a contender for the worst anime of 2014, but it’ll have a breaking the haughty scenario that people are most likely gonna enjoy.
I also don’t like that the Alliance’s first offensive attack in the series worked like that, and it’s also more annoying that the idea is to have them wait and see about giving Aoba and Dio “new” units because they are deathly afraid of them going near FireBrand and SkyNight. They’re your best subjects, and considering the time the two have worked together, it’s clear that it might be okay to let them use it. They can handle the system those two mechas have.
Also, Margaret’s gonna screw up yet another mission. Considering how Alfried told her that he’ll help her get her job back and admitted that he did use her to get his idea approved (mostly to show that just attacking a damn facility with all your artillery is not the most brilliant of tactics) in an attempt to make things “right”, with Margaret being all pissy and saying “I won’t thank you.”, I expect her to get into a machine or sabotage one of the ships to show that her line of thinking is better than that glory hog! I do not like violence against women in general, particularly when it comes to Sunrise and its general misogynistic approach to females, but you are gonna have to cut off your losses somehow, putting Margaret out of her misery might be the best course. Unfortunately, if the writing has anything to show for it, the show will keep Margaret around just to annoy Zogilia even more.