A

Recap: Chihaya is dying as the I-401 sinks and its life support systems start to fail. Faced with drastic consequences, a tough choice is made.

The old “What is this strange feeling?” card got played a lot this episode but it’s a show about AI so that’s par for the course. For how little the Chihaya/Iona relationship has really been built it was still a really cute moment. There’s a lot of implied history between the two, especially considering this show takes place two years after their fateful encounter. I always thought it weird that Iona acts so hollow, so it’s nice to see her break out of that shell here.

With the I-401 in dire straights, I’m not surprised we had a sacrifice happen, I just don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense in the context of this narrative. I’m finding it really weird that Kirishima can survive as just a core, but Takao can’t. What’s stopping Takao from just devoting some nanomaterials to supporting both of their bodies? It just seemed like a contrived reason to both create some drama by killing off one of the ships while also removing Takao from the obvious Gunzou/Iona relationship dynamic. Rule of cool seems to be the dominant theme of the new Blue Steel, as the ship somehow looks like a cross between a battle ship and a sub, which in all honestly feels like it would have all the disadvantages of both with the advantages of neither. I guess I’ll give them an episode to explain how their new ship works.

Not content to stop with the pseudo-death of a major character(that I don’t buy for a second), the story brings us back to the beleaguered flagship of the Fog. Kongou’s betrayal is like How to Be Evil 101, but this is a shounen series so I will forgive its villains for being blatantly obvious. You’d think if you wanted to prevent your ships from going rogue you’d try and not openly antagonize them. I don’t know if they’re trying to make a point that a lack of emotions gives rise to horrible decision making or something.