Recap: Haruna awakes to find herself in Makie’s mansion. As the I-401 is getting minor repairs after their battle, they take this opportunity to stay low and investigate the mansion of the man who built mankind’s new weapon.

Another breather episode after a big battle. I suppose I can live with these but I wish there was a little more action inbetween. I suppose it helps to give Battleship Harem Member #3 Haruna some screentime since all we saw of her in the fight was stoic looks and dictionary quotes. I was a little weirded out by how much fanservice there was this week. I thought we were done with it by the end of the first act but then bath scene out of nowhere. Doesn’t help that apparently every part of the Mental Models must be made of erogenous zones. It does beg the question how these shells they use can replicate human skin so well that it feels like the real thing, or why they would be made with pleasure sensors in the first place. I feel like nanoparticles are being used a little too much as carte blanche for every new sci-fi technology, but considering this is a shounen manga I suppose I can let them get away with it.

It was a bit jarring to see the way Haruna and Kirishima acted this episode. I learned afterwards that apparently the jacket Haruna wears apparently contains some of her power, so I guess that’s why she acts so weak, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. Kirishima is able to walk around in a teddie bear despite being next to nothing. Also, we know Kirishima is the hothead, so having her do something stupid is in character, but eating a carrot for no other reason than it was presented to her? A real lighthearted episode, at least up until that ending.

Wasn’t expecting the Makie reveal. I suppose in a tough world its easy to write in the story of science getting desperate when its back is up against a wall. There’s still a lot of vague properties to her creation in general. Is she just like a super-soldier, engineered to be as mentally gifted as possible, or is there some nanomachine component to her body as well? They implied that she wasn’t human, but that wouldn’t make sense if all they did with her was genetically engineer her. I suppose it all comes down to your definition of human. With the human/robot interest story out of the way it looks like we’ll see the I-401 finally headed out on the high seas.