Recap: Kongou has come to finish off the I-401 for good. After trying to parley, Chihaya and Iona make a desperate dash to escape before she can bear down on them.

Episode 8

I was a little disappointed that this episode delayed the action. I suppose it is coherent with Chihaya’s philosophy so far that he’d try and reason with Kongou first, but we knew where this was going to end up. I did find it funny that Kongou is so oblivious to every human thing she’s doing. As Hyuuga is quick to point out, even the fact that she created a unique Mental Model shows that she had a desire to be a certain shape. The explanation for why all the ships are girls is one of those things that makes a hilarious amount of sense. Still, I find myself wondering why long, somewhat cylindrical objects became associated as women in the first place. I guess I should become friends with a boat captain or something.

It seemed like this was just made to pimp out the girls for another beach scene. We get it, the girls are abnormal, I mean why else would they have a cookout when they don’t even need food? At least Takao’s swimsuit makes more sense here. Ostensibly I imagine it’s meant to impress Chihaya, but the dude wasn’t even around to see it until now. Haruna’s “Shazam!” was cute but that’s about all that I enjoyed. Hyuuga was getting on my nerves by the end of this episode as well. There’s only so much annoying lesbian I can take.

Episode 9

Speaking of unnecessary fanservice, classy job on the completely unnecessary transformation sequences, guys. If anything it makes me more and more impressed with how good this CG technology is. It’s just a shame that fanservice is the only way they can find a good use for it.

Hyuuga didn’t get any better this episode either, but at least she contributed to the action. I don’t quite understand why she’s able to put on such a massive show of defense. One would think she’d need a massive amount of material to create and maintain this fortress and yet she’s able to take two gravity cannons before starting to crack. This base also has some crazy amounts of forward thinking put into it. You had a mine field installed just in case you needed to run away? What if the fleet is big enough to cut you off at both ends?

Boy was I ready for a new fight, and this one ended up being a lot of fun. Admittedly it was more flare than tactics this time, but the sight of two battleships basically locked in a Kamehameha push was awesome. Still I don’t get why they, idno, didn’t just try shooting Maya as she fired it? Worked pretty well against Haruna and Kirishima, and it’s not like they were going to come back to the island anyway. Also, is it just me or the idea of a submerging battle ship is utterly stupid? Submarines are designed for a reason, they’re hydrodynamic, and meant to take the stresses of moving underwater. That huge con tower would only slow Kongou down, so the idea that that would somehow allow her to catch up to them is just silly.

Okay guys, I know you won, but I feel like gloating is the wrong way of going about this. Why not let them continue to think Iona has the warhead? What benefits them revealing they got played? I suppose the team was going to rendezvous with the I-401 eventually, but wouldn’t putting it on Takao make her an easier target for the secondary ships that were attacking? As far as I could tell they hadn’t all pulled away from the area, and even if they hadn’t they clearly would be able to get in the way of Takao as she tried to regroup. I guess I’ll just chalk that up to having to explain to the audience what was going on without breaking up the flow. Even with this escape I can’t imagine they will just take it easy. There’s a lot of water between Iwo Jima and San Diego, and the trip has only just begun.