
If they already knew, it wasn’t shown, so it was odd for them to not be relieved that the guy they claim to love isn’t dead after all.Ī gift?! Tabane thought Chifuyu would appreciate her putting her students, her best friend, her little brother, and Chifuyu herself in danger? I cannot get across my disappointment enough. Did Ichika get another bullshit mid-battle upgrade from Byakushiki, or was it just to show his resolve to not give up? I’m not sure, but weirdest of all was how the girls showed no reaction when Ichika showed back up. I’m still not sure what the point of the whole dream-death scene was. That was a nice moment, and I don’t necessarily blame Ichika for getting distracted, even if it was still damn stupid to do so. I doubted for a second – for just a second – when Char picked up that bomb and then it exploded. One second they’re damsels in distress so that Ichika can save them, then they’re back to being badass when he’s gone? Keep them badass all the time, please. I like them being competent, but that made me realize how much they’re shanghaied by the plot.

Secondly, the girls’ competence skyrocketed whenever Ichika got knocked out of the battle.

It doesn’t feel important, so why should we care? The protagonists had stakes, but where were the stakes for the antagonists? They won no matter what happened, or at least so long as they all weren’t captured or killed. So the entire battle was so Phantom Task could collect real combat data, and they escaped at the end? Ties aren’t satisfying, and when they come about because of such a mundane plan like “gathering data” it’s uninteresting. A lot of the beam attacks and whatnot were cool to watch.

Tatenashi using her water clone to get away from Squall was good, and also appropriately foreshadowed.
