So before I begin I’d like to say that I’m currently watching yesy’s subs and not DamagedGoodz’s as they are now on hiatus. It’s unknown as to when this’ll end, but that’s that. I hadn’t blogged a single episode from this series since work started as we are not to use peer-to-peer applications on our notebooks and since DamagedGoodz doesn’t have bots, I had no way to get my hands on the episodes. yesy does have bots so I was able to pick episode five up and here we are.

I know I shouldn’t keep complaining about the art quality with StrikerS when you consider the first two seasons, but when you’ve just completed a series like sola that really had little issues, it does irk you a little. I’d say that it’s generally acceptable but there are some places that just makes you wonder how they managed to approve the shot.

Art aside, I think the small bits of fighting that we had in this episode were handled quite well. It’s still a little hard for me to get used to the fact that they’re fighting machines instead of, let’s say, regular humanoid objects. I know it’s probably all part of some grand plot and everything, but I can’t help but think that they brought in machines instead of “real” enemies because there are just way too many protagonists in StrikerS and that it is not realistic to create an antagonist counterpart for each one of them.

I’d say that this has been a good episode amidst the “nothingness” that occurred in the last three episodes. The preview seemed to imply that there’s supposedly more training next episode, which isn’t horrid as that translates into action. I’d be happy if we could get just a slice of the awesomeness that we had in episode 1 but that probably isn’t going to happen.

Okay, so I was pretty off in my episode count prediction for this arc since this episode was the last one when I was expecting there to be another one or two after this one. In a way, I guess I’m glad I’m wrong since I really wanted to get going onto the last two answer arcs. This arc has shown us quite a few things but a lot is still left in the dark. It is a little frustrating since it seems as though every episode is a little teaser but I think it’s worked out quite well. I mean, it’s certainly kept my attention and I do feel that it’s a good series.

So we get to see Rika get murdered by the bad guys in this episode. If we tie it back to the disaster that killed everyone, I guess her death was supposed to be a message to the villagers that Oyashiro-sama was angry. They then would’ve released some toxins into the air to make some people go crazy to make themselves seem more credible and hopefully take control of the village again. One thing I don’t get is what Tomitake and Takano’s death has to do with anything. I guess Takano’s death makes sense if you factor in the events of “罪滅し編” but it seems weird for Tomitake to die. I guess they may have, amidst the chaos, revealed that the two of them had entered the locked chamber and that they got what they deserved as God’s punishment. I’m curious as to how their deaths triggered anything though since Rika was saying how nothing had changed after her conversation with Tomitake, hm.

Anyway, it’s going to be fun finding out how the protagonists are going to avert disaster in the last two arcs. The act will likely put the bad guys behind the bars but of course, it’s the “how” that we’re all intrigued about. Where are they going to get the evidence and how? Takano’s notebooks are nice and all but I don’t know how well that’s going to stand in court against a bunch of skilled lawyers.