IS: Infinite Stratos

[Kraco]

A nice situation for Houki: To get her date (as far as she believes), she must win, but that means the ultimate psycho bitch will win as well. Well, she might not really be winning in any case as I doubt the German one can cooperate with anybody to any extent. We don't yet know if both members of the team need to be standing for them to win. If not, Laura might as well plan to sacrifice Houki to be able to fight alone.

I didn't really get the fight between Ichika and Laura in this ep, though. Wasn't Ichika's sword's main function to bypass any defences? If it stopped at the repel field yet still ate his own shield energy, it's a completely useless piece of junk. A huge weakness yet the strength that was supposed to compensate doesn't work... Some engineer somewhere needs to be fired.

[Ryllharu]

My guess is that it will bypass the shield no matter its remaining strength, but since the repel field isn't actually a shield, it just stops. I was kind of hoping that the weakness of the A.I.C. would be melee attacks, but that didn't appear to be the case. That makes the sword completely worthless. Drains his own shield (as does the speed boost!) and is easily countered. I suppose it is a huge testament to Chifuyu's skill that she could dominate the competitive world with such a terrible weapon and loadout, but it isn't doing Ichika a whole lot of good.

I'm glad Houki finally got some character development beside insisting she is his childhood friend. It sounds like Houki is hiding considerable skill because she doesn't want to fall into the old pattern that Laura now uses. However, Charlotte is still on the top. She managed to fend off Laura for quite some time using her second-gen machine. She doesn't rely on high technology to win her battles, she's a lot like Maya-sensei, who destroyed Cecilia using a second-gen model. They both seem to have a strong instinct for tactics. She might not have hit Laura, but she kept her occupied and unable to fire the majority of her weapons. I like that the second-gen systems rely on more traditional weapons. The highly specialized weapons (Cecilia's bits, Fan's air cannons, Ichika's POS sword, etc.) seem to have as many weaknesses as they do strengths. Machine guns and rockets still work pretty well.

Chifuyu was very cool this episode. She blocked Laura's attack using a weapon alone, no I.S. activated. Makes me wonder if she even still has one.

[Buffalobiian]

It's weird that Laura has to move at all with that AIC - and that such a strong field doesn't seem to deplete any form of energy like Ichika's does. Talk about being overpowered. Cecilia's rocket didn't even put a dint in it, and it was a clean hit. It's only weakness may be that you can't use it while attacking. If it's an inertia canceller though, Cecilia's laser bits should have worked providing she kept her distance.

There's just something about Charles jumping the gun on all of them behind their backs yet not being a deceptive and scheming person herself that makes it all the better to watch. It think it's a mix of an easy, non-competitive character, having a 2nd gen IS, and being forced to stay as a guy that somehow makes her deserving of all this.

I foresee Houki doing a one-on-one with Laura and win - despite having no way to win against that AIC.

You were looking forward to this bitch Ryll?

[Ryllharu]

I was...until she turned out to be a complete psycho obsessed with his sister, stating that only she deserves Chifuyu's attention and training. It was pretty clear last episode that she didn't understand Chifuyu or the reason she was in Germany in the first place at all. It is only clearer now how little she actually learned from her mentor.

As I said, I won't be surprised now if Houki turns out to be a lot better than she's been showing thus far. But if she's paired with Laura, it will probably be Ichika v Houki and Charlotte v Laura. Ichika will have to learn how to suddenly not suck in order to make up for his huge handicap of a weapon.

Personally, I can't wait to see the other girls' reaction to learning that Charles is a she. It's certainly going to happen sometime.

[animus]

Why has no one in the anime heard of changing in the bathroom.

[Kraco]

The real question is why would changing in the same room bother Ichika since he's gay? Or did he become gay because he's mortally afraid of intimate relationships with girls, now manifesting as the extreme density and having no deeper interest in them, yet suddenly becoming all ashamed about seeing them naked. It's rather intriguing psychologically, especially considering he should have only had good impressions of girls (sister, Houki, and Fang) from his childhood.

[Dark Dragon]

Ichika is a bit of layabout and i think those three pushed him to work way harder than he ever wanted to. He seems to have a small inferiority complex concerning his sister, even though he's aware how much she cares for him. Houki won the Kendo national and Ichika quit somewhere in the past. He never really gave a valid reason as to why, maybe he feels like he can't be as good as her and just gave up?

Also, we have Mahou Shoujou transformation scene now. It's definitely what this show needed.

[Buffalobiian]

I just remembered that they said the tandem battle was to "make it more real".

Real for what? IS are used for tournaments, showcases and whatnot these days. Last time I heard they were not war machines - and even then fighting 2 on 2 doesn't exactly make it that much more "real".

Sounds like a convenient, not-so-well-thought-out excuse to me.

[Kraco]

Not that I'd feel any particular need to defend this extremely scripted show, but for all we know, the actual tournaments (outside of this academy setting) might have contests requiring team work - just like great many regular sports do. If that's the case, then I judge the teachers' decision to make this contest team based very wise indeed. So far the students have shown absolutely no real team work, after all, only very intense infighting and competition against everybody. Two single guys (as far as the rest know) thrown into the middle of the host of horny girls certainly made the situation no better.

[Ryllharu]

I concur. From the preview it looked like it didn't solely consist of a straight-up combat tournament. More like a biathlon or modern pentathlon. They had targets set up and a variety of other objects.

It makes a lot more sense from this standpoint, as pure singular combat would not be a great indicator of an I.S. and pilot's full capabilities.

i.e. Cecilia is far stronger as a long-to-mid range sniper, and suffers incredibly when she faces an opponent who can close on her. A team mate would allow for a distraction that would let Cecilia operate to her strengths. Conversely Charlotte can distract, harass and menace and opponent while Ichika or Houki could close for that swift victory. Then again, they said it was a tag battle, so perhaps not.

Also, perhaps Laura is great at combat, but is terrible at using an I.S. to rescue someone (something like her manipulators have too much force and would crush a victim rather than saving them).

[Archangel]

Not to be a buzzkill or anything but I'd just like to mention how amazing it is so much discussion can be brought on from such a shallow show

[Dark Dragon]

If bleach can have it's own dedicated forum then just about anything goes.

[KrayZ33]

Real for what? IS are used for tournaments, showcases and whatnot these days. Last time I heard they were not war machines -

from what we've heard and seen so far its more like they *are* war machines, and it was stated tjhat countries use them in their military too.
its just that they arn't "allowed" to use them

[fireheart]

I found it more funny that Laura seem to have gotten away with interrupting two other students mock battle and almost gave them life threatening damage without any kind of repercussion from the school. Considering what she just did you'd expect her to be left out of the tournament with a suspension or even an expulsion. Though Orimura should have gotten a similar punishment as well with him breaking the arenas barrier.

[Kraco]

As long as they fired or fined a couple of teachers as well for allowing such a thing to happen in the first place. However, since this takes place in Japan where teachers are never fined or even much reprimanded, it leads to nobody getting any punishment at all. Just as well, though, considering it's a fighting school to begin with. In a fight hesitation is oft worse than making a mistake and thus they can't encourage the students to second-guess their decisions all the time in fear of repercussions.

Naturally the situation would have been different if they had been in an unauthorised place fighting with the suits.

[Marik]

[Ayako] Infinite Stratos IS - 08 - 720p: Torrent | DDL
[Ayako] Infinite Stratos IS - 08 - 400p: Torrent | DDL

[Archangel]

That is the most useless sword ever in the hands of a retard, he'd do better with a baseball bat. Also lol, dere out of nowhere.

This show sucks, it just plainly sucks.

[Ryllharu]

Yay for shameless beach episode next time. As much as I've become a Charlotte fan, Cecilia needs some character development.

This show sucks, it just plainly sucks.

Yet we all keep watching it. Weird.

a) I felt like I missed half an episode somewhere in here.
b) Mecha turning into goo and then turning into a human-esque form. I swear I loaded up an episode of I.S., not Bubblegum Crisis.
c) Ichika...worst I.S. pilot ever....and then you suddenly don't suck at swordmanship. WTF?

That said, Houki's reaction of "Ha?." when Charlotte reintroduced herself was great. That and her kicking the shit out of him when he said he'd gladly go on a shopping trip with her, followed by Charlotte asking if he is doing it on purpose. That line was probably the most notable of the episode. Harem protagonists are typically so dense, there have to be a few times where they're doing it intentionally.

Lastly, Laura declared that Ichika would be the "bride" of their relationship. Likely very true if that turned out to be the outcome.

That is the most useless sword ever in the hands of a retard, he'd do better with a baseball bat.

Seriously.

I just can't see why that is supposed to be such a great weapon. Ichika consistently loses by running out of energy, because that sword simply leeches it out. Why in all that is holy would you ever pick a primary weapon like that? It is an utter piece of shit, and they proved it in this episode. Guess what? Charlotte's got one too, on her outdated model. It does 350 shield damage easily on each hit...and it doesn't drain jack squat of her own energy. (Laura went from ~489 to 126!)

Ichika's might be an instant win if he could ever get it to hit, but that's simply not going to be possible with high mobility machines like I.S. frames. A complete waste that will only serve to make him lose when he should win were he using any other weapon.

[Kraco]

I just can't see why that is supposed to be such a great weapon. Ichika consistently loses by running out of energy, because that sword simply leeches it out. Why in all that is holy would you ever pick a primary weapon like that? It is an utter piece of shit, and they proved it in this episode. Guess what? Charlotte's got one too, on her outdated model. It does 350 shield damage easily on each hit...and it doesn't drain jack squat of her own energy. (Laura went from ~489 to 126!)

It just occurred to me that maybe it was a great weapon during the first generation of IS. The mecha back then might not have been quite so agile and certainly didn't have repulsion fields and such, and also likely lacked a high variety of weaponry. However, it's safe to say the sword is crap by now, based on everything we have seen.

I guess the other girls will now need to double their efforts with the psychopath included in the harem. Maybe even Houki that thought kicking Ichika in the stomach is the best way to win his heart.

[Harima Kenji]

Best solution for that: stop watching.

Maybe I'm immune for it by now, but at the moment I don't see too much harem in it, the main focus seems to be on the IS fights etc. By now all the cast seems to be introduced and all after Ichika and next week will be the harem-obligatory beach episode. I think that the show only really starts, now that the characters are in place and I hope it will remain focused on the mecha and the growing with it and the harem is a side part of it.
My spider-sense it telling me that the unpiloted IS is a sign that a war with the use of IS is about to break out. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of mechs beating the crap out of eachother.

At the moment I'm not yet sure if I like the series or not, it keeps me entertained and that can be enough... at least for a while.