Recap: Our heroes infiltrate the downed Wulgaru ship on Mars.

Iro’s Thoughts:
This might be MJP‘s weakest episode yet, and the fact that it was still decent is a testament to the show’s quality. Team Rabbits has to infiltrate the Wulgaru ship with a strict time limit, led by Daneel. And… that’s basically what happens. The tension mostly comes from the ship collapsing faster than normal as Izuru and Asagi creep through it. Although, I feel like Tamaki flying so fast that her unit starts to fall apart is mostly artificial drama, since it hardly seems to matter much to the episode’s plot. I’d like to think it’s foreshadowing for later, but we’ll see.

On the better side of things, MJP takes the opportunity to push the characters forward during the relatively slow action. It seems Izuru is pretty shaken up by the fact the Wulgaru look pretty much exactly like humans, and Daneel drops a bunch of exposition on how the Wulgaru’s extensive use of cloning causes them to treat their forces as highly expendable. It strikes a little close to home for our heroes, considering they’re also essentially just creatures created to be nothing but mecha pilots for this war.

I really appreciate the efforts MJP takes to stay consistent. There’s an aside in the front half of the episode devoted entirely to explaining how these people can eat Japanese food and get drinking water in the middle of space. Beam weapons don’t work well in the middle of a sandstorm that’s flinging iron particles everywhere, and they have to make a path of clear air. Radar and sensors are jammed as well, since they’re in the middle of a giant sandstorm. This sort of attention to detail really should be in more anime.