Recap: Argos Test Flight celebrates their victory and prepares for an upcoming TSF tournament. They encounter the ace of the Chinese test group as well as Yuuya’s old squad mates.

Jel’s Thoughts: After a one week hiatus Total Eclipse returns with two weeks worth of pent up mediocrity. I don’t even know where to start.

I guess the biggest issue is the current direction of the plot. Why are they having this TSF tournament? I mean when you’re characters in-show are even questioning the value of it something must be wrong. I’m sure there will be more sinister political reasoning they’ll try and pull but it’s probably just an excuse to see more mecha on mech action. That’s all well and good but unless we are fighting giant aliens at this point I just DON’T CARE. That includes you, Chinese girl and old American squad mates. The show is struggling enough to develop the characters they have, we don’t need more cast members eating up screen time.

Speaking of struggling to develop characters, the “romance” between Yui and Yuuya is just painful to watch. Yui can’t even be in the same room with him without turning into a quivering mess. I just can’t believe any adult human being, especially one that is so guarded otherwise, would act like that. She couldn’t even make it down the hallway in one scene just because she thought about him! And it’s not like either one of them has any personality, so other than physical attraction it’s impossible to care about their relationship anyway. Cryska and Inia (who actually appear this episode!) don’t fare much better, although they are clearly not meant to be normal so they get a bit of a pass.

Perhaps the only interesting bit is at the end, leaving me to speculate what exactly his old buddies plan on doing. I’m assuming the other hot shot dude is planning on challenging him in the tournament, but is there going to be some kind of wager or something to get him to return? I would not be surprised if they go that route. All I can hope for is the wrap this up in another episode or two and get back to that Savin’ the World business.