This episode was pretty decent although I think I liked the last episode a little more. I did enjoy the flashback which pretty much explained everything about Subaru’s mother and Zest. I thought that Zest would be much too weak to kill that cyborg (since his time was supposedly almost up), but it seems that I thought wrong. It’s a shame that they didn’t actually show the deed as I’d have liked to see that.

The fight against Lutecia was a little ludicrous because of the huge summons that were called forth. Was the production team trying to pay homage to Ultraman or something? I had difficulties watching those scenes without chuckling a little on the inside. Fate’s fight was really good though. The transformation wasn’t as awesome as I was hoping although the end product itself was a work of art. I swear, Fate has never looked so awesomely badass.

It seems that I was robbed of seeing a fight between Vivio and Nanoha though since it doesn’t look like Nanoha’s out completely, there may still be a slit of hope. Given the current situation, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s going to be able to save her (besides Vita who’s actually on the ship), so I’m hoping that if we get any fight scenes at all that it be a good 1-on-1. I mean, come on, the show’s named after this girl and we’ve already seen everyone else kick the asses of their respective opponents. Can it be Nanoha time now? There are only two episodes left, you know. :/

So, it seems like the tide’s starting to get turned around. I’m very eager about seeing Nanoha fight against Vivio in the next couple of episodes. The battle ought to be one of epic proportions although the room itself is probably way too small for anything really cool to happen. Nonetheless, I have to admit that seeing all that energy rage across the screen is already a great sight to behold.

Subaru and Ginga’s fight this episode was short in length but not in terms of awesomeness. I really liked the conversation she had with Mach Caliber. “Don’t make everything a lie.” was a great line and really helped give the device a more life-like persona. Teana’s fight with the three cyborgs weren’t as cool unfortunately since it just seemed all too easy. If you could just shoot someone else’s barrel and make it detonate, why didn’t you do so earlier? Why did Nove just stand there and let Teana lift up her gun? Who knows, who knows.

We got quite a cliffhanger episode here with the conversation between Zest and Regius. Since Subaru’s mother and who is probably Lutecia’s mother are both featured in the photograph, I’m assuming that, as Genya said, saw something they shouldn’t have seen and subsequently got terminated.

Things don’t seem to be looking too good for everyone. I hadn’t expected Signum and Fate to get beat like that, but it seems that they’re not as powerful as I thought they were. In Fate’s case, I was pretty surprised that she couldn’t even beat them back in episode 17, but I guess that the cause is likely because of the AMF. Considering that Fate had problems dealing with two of them, I don’t see why they think the forwards would be able to deal with them. I suppose they were banking on some clever group tactics and formations but we all know that’s not really going to come through anytime soon.

I had thought that Garyu would cooperate with Erio and Caro but it seems like he’s not as intelligent as he looks. I mean, I would like to think that it’s pretty obvious that Lutecia’s not really giving him these orders of her own free will, but I guess not. I have to say that I’m pretty surprised that Erio hasn’t gotten his ass handed to him by Garyu yet given how ridiculously powerful he was when we saw him in the sewers.

I didn’t quite get what’s the deal with the Storm Raider key (or dog tag?) being next to Vice’s bed, but I guess it’s telling us that we haven’t seen the last of him? Or yes, given how severely injured he is. I mean, he’s practically missing an arm and a leg, what can he possibly do? Is he going to pull off an emo line and inspire everyone with courage or something?

It seems like we’re in for some very interesting developments if they pull anything half as awesome as what happened in the end of this episode. I mentioned before that they probably won’t kill off anyone, but I guess I was wrong. On the other hand, it’s a little hard for me to see Vita being the only person to die. It just kind of make things imbalanced. Signum should be strong enough to not get killed by Zest, so I don’t know how things are going to turn out. I guess if Hayate gave her life in some way all the Belka Knights would die too so that’d kind of even things up.

I was hoping to see Teana lead the forwards in a good fight against the cyborgs but that didn’t happen as she’s in quite a problematic situation right now. I think there may be something ticking with Lutecia that may be of some assistance to her though. I don’t know what she saw just then but it looks like we’re getting close to your classic Nanoha scene where you convert an enemy into a friend.

Before I forget, I just want to bring up how screwed up Arf was in this episode. She’s a lot smaller than usual and was talking in a rather immature voice, I don’t get it. I seem to recall that she was similarly small in the manga but it was such a minor thing that I just shrugged it off. I didn’t think it would come back and haunt me now. Seriously, what’s going on here?

Well, well, it seems that we’re going to be in for some major battles in the next episode. There seems to be quite a few cyborgs on the ground so I don’t know how the forwards are going to handle them. While Signum doesn’t seem to be a part of the strike force that’s staying outside the ship, I think she’s probably going to have her hands full with Zest and Agito. Speaking of which, when is Hayate going to unison with Reinforce II? >:(

I have to say that all this talk about a “limit break” is getting me pretty excited. The killer attack probably isn’t going to be anything special but I’d really like to see how Raising Heart and Bardiche is going to transform. I’m primarily just interested in the design of the final form instead of what it actually is going to turn out to be, which probably isn’t going to be something completely out of left field (unlike how Teana’s revolvers switches “roles” completely into a pair of daggers).

I’ve been really pleased with the progression of StrikerS so far. The pacing has been well-balanced and the plot is certainly at a Nanoha level. It’s nothing great to write home about, but it’s still quite solid. The action sequences have been quite impressive so far and I’m really looking forward to seeing more. The music is good and it always gets a little nostalgic when you hear some of the main themes that were played during the first two seasons. Overall, I’m glad that I’ve stuck with StrikerS and am eagerly hoping to be surprised even more in the next couple of episodes.

Well, that was unexpected. They sure found Scaglietti’s hideout pretty fast. I guess it wouldn’t have mattered even if they didn’t as he’s now got a huge cruiser floating around. We all know they’re going to bust inside and kick some ass, but I find it hard to believe that that’s somehow going to span seven episodes. I’m guessing that we’ll probably spend an episode or two dealing with Zest and Lutecia as the 11th relic has yet to be found.

While the art has been quite good (and stable) recently, they could really stand to do a little bit of work on the eyes when the characters are in some kind of a mental shock. The ones that are drawn in 『ひぐらしのなく頃に』 are pretty good in my opinion and I really think that it’d be beneficial for the Nanoha team to learn a thing or two from them. Those eyes are just way too disturbing in the wrong way.

It’s a real shame that Vice seems to be going out of commission for the rest of the series. He’s been a cool character so far and has a unique accent to boot. I don’t personally recognize his voice and going through his list of roles didn’t really help at all. It seems that he’ll be voicing the main protagonist for CLANNAD, so I guess I’ll be hearing from him again in due time.

Well, this episode brought about a new opening for the series. I haven’t heard it enough times to comment on whether I like SECRET AMBITION or MASSIVE WONDERS more but I will say that while I like the new opening sequence a lot more than the first one. However, I didn’t like how it only features Subaru in the beginning. No matter how you go about it, I think you should still be starting off with the title character. I don’t care if you put both of them there like what’s done at the ending of the opening sequence, but I feel that Nanoha should be on screen.

Maybe I’m a little slow, but I have to say that I wasn’t expecting Subaru and Ginga to actually know that they were cyborgs. That kind of caught me off guard. Their mom must’ve been pretty hardcore if she was able to use two intelligent devices.

This episode was rather open ended so I really can’t guess at what’s going to happen in the next episode. I guess the folks will probably start boarding the Asura in due time, but how are they going to figure out where Scaglietti is? Even if Hayate dug up some dirt on Regius and is able to bring him down, he himself doesn’t seem to know where Scaglietti is anyway…

Wow, this episode was quite a sight. There was a great balance of awesome action sequences as well as plot development. I think there’s still a lot of material to cover but nine episodes ought to be enough to say what needs to be said. They’re probably going to need at least two or three full episodes to elaborate and explain the couple of key things that were revealed in this episode.

Since the cyborgs said that they had three targets, I guess we can safely confirm that Teana and Caro aren’t Project F products. Thinking about Subaru and Ginga’s backstory, could it be possible that their mother gave their life to protect the two of them when cyborgs came to try and take them away many years ago? That sounds believable.

I know I’m going to sound like a sicko but I have to say that Vice’s flashback was both depressing and funny. I think it was probably because of the way they portrayed that scene, it just kind of made me chuckle a little on the inside. I was personally of the assumption that Vice was somehow tied with Teana’s brother, but I guess not.