Recap: The arrival of Laser Class BETA forces the Soviets to change plans, giving the Zhar battalion an opportunity to rescue Yuuya. Months later, Yui and Yuuya see the fruits of their labor as the Shiranui is ready for production.

Jel’s Thoughts: OK let me get this out of the way first: Seriously, THAT is what the Laser Class BETA look like???? The most terrifying force on the battle field looks like a rejected Jim Hensen puppet from the 80’s???? I wish we never saw them honestly, so I could keep imagining them as huge hulking beasts meant to be feared. Now every time the get mentioned I’m just going to chuckle, and that is definitely not the intent here.

That aside, the real problem I had was how they handled Fikatsia’s presumably last stand. We sat through all those episodes, dragging out this base escape WAY longer than it should have gone, and get ZERO payoff. They didn’t even give Fikatsia the honor of dying on screen. I don’t necessarily have to see the killing blow, but I would have at least liked to see Fikatsia putting up a fight. And what are they trying to do with Cryska? You can’t go back and try to paint her as this mysterious, dangerous monster on the battlefield, we already know who she is and to some degree, what she’s capable of. It’s all just bad storytelling all around.

As the new season begins and I finalize what I’ll be covering, it’s going to be real hard not to drop Total Eclipse. The episode did end with a slight time skip, so I’ll give them another chance to get their act together. I just don’t think I can keep putting up with episodes like this though. Maybe Fikatsia didn’t actually die and will come back with a robot eye or something. Now THAT I would watch.