Kita ze Inbou! - キタぜ陰謀!

Verdict: 9.5/10
Overall series review: 85/100

Final Impressions:

Well now, that was quite the ending. I can’t say I’m disappointed in how the series concluded. Though, I almost expected a massive war of sorts between the Union and Deague since it was brought up quite a few times in the last few episodes. But then again I realized that they couldn’t possibly pull it off with just 2-3 episodes remaining in the series. I didn’t really want any more numerous deaths since I think there was enough throughout the series as a whole so I’m glad there wasn’t a sudden series-end purge of the remaining Strain pilots. Ralph in the end died as expected and now Sarah and Emily (as well as the other doll Emily) are together for as long as they live. For my final words, I loved Strain’s story and the concepts of time and human advancement and cruelty. This series definitely earned a spot in my favorite mecha anime series of all time.

Verdict: 9/10

Impressions:

Action, action and more action! That’s what this episode was all about and damn was it all good. I feel bad for Vivian though, she was a hottie and wanted her to live. The big “uh oh” came in the form of when Ralph was rejected by Emily during the episode. He’s officially out of his mind now I think and a person like that is very dangerous on the battlefield. Well, I guess that more than guarantees that good ol’ Ralph will die in the next episode. Or does it?

Verdict: 8.5/10

Impressions:

We’ve got more revelations in this episode and most of them are about Ralph. Such revelations include why he supposedly defected to Deague in the past and the reasons as to why he is doing what he is doing currently. The whole time dilation explanation was amazing since I didn’t really expect them to explain that in such detail. Now with only two episodes left I do have to wonder just what will happen and who’ll survive. Ralph will probably die (he is sick after all) but I’m not sure about the other space squadron pilots or Sara herself. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Verdict: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Holy crap. Now that’s what I call a load of revelations. I mean, sure I had my suspicions of Sara’s Mimic from the beginning but I wasn’t expecting it to be what it turned out to be. Emily is apparently at least 600 years old but Strains are only 150 years old. Not only that but from what was presented this episode basically makes the Union look like utter scum. It just goes to show you how greedy humans can be to advance their own race by sacrificing and terrorizing another race they find different from their own. Also, if it’s possible, Ralph managed to redeem (or destroy? lol) his entire character in this one episode (although I don’t think he had to kill every last person on the crew of his ship…). Still, his intentions aren’t too clear just yet but that’ll change starting in the next episode and on.

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Summary:

Lotti is having flashbacks of her brother before he was killed by Ralph. She then gets pissed after looking at a picture with Sara in it and breaks it. Sara is busy being interrogated while the others are doing their own thing to cope with Carris’ death in the last episode. Back to Lotti who is continuing to trash her room and then manages to spot a gun. Over at the Deague ship that Ralph is stationed on, another sample is mentioned to be on the ship that Sara is on. Ralph is in his room holding a document and then suddenly starts to cough up a lot of blood.

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Summary:

The episode starts out with Sara going off in search of the lost Emily. She leaves so quickly that she doesn’t take her communicator. Lotti, Lavinia and everyone else decide to gather in order to search for both Sara and Emily in the massive city. Carris meets up with Sara and calms her down, telling her that he has connections throughout the city and can help her find Emily. After talking with his younger (now technically older because of lightspeed travel) they set out in search of Emily once more but before that Carris decides to take Sara out for something to eat.

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Impressions/Thoughts:

This episode screams fanserivce. I mean really, it was straight up R-15. What with Lavinia running around naked and breasts (with nipples) bouncing all over the place. I had no other response other than “WTF?!” at those scenes. They were hilarious but I was beginning to wonder if this was the same S-Strain that contained so much angst and death just a few episodes before. Aside from that I also found the scenes with Emily very cute. To her searching for a way around the security doors to stealing Ralph’s coat so that she could travel to the planet where Sara and friends are stationed at the moment. Lavinia’s pranks went a bit too far at the end though and caused the other Emily to be discarded in the trash. I’m sure the next episode will have Sara going to search for her but that also means she’s going to meet the real Emily!

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Impressions:

Well now this was certainly a change of pace. Personally I thought this was a wonderful episode. All of my emotions were raging wild since the first episode and it’s about time they be alleviated some, even if it’s temporary. Sara seems to be starting to accept her new comrades even if she’s still a bit introverted. The party was an awesome idea to get everyone together and on friendly terms in my opinion. Even Sara got up to dance! But alas, the mood was killed when she was reminded of her brother and on top of that the enemy was attacking them again. Funny how they were hiding in the destroyed bridge…but then again they were lacking personnel so I guess they couldn’t detect earlier (that and they seemed to be in off-mode ever since the last battle). Thankfully, no one is hurt bad (even though Lavinia did get beat up some) and the TUMORs were destroyed with little to no trouble. And with that the party continued on! on another note, however, I’m sad to notice that the series is only 13 episodes long (I initially thought it would’ve been 26) but I suppose it’s a decent number for S-Strain to end at given the current pacing. Well, now I look forward to more juicy and plot-thick episodes (which should be after episode 7 since there will be NUDITY! XD).

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Impressions:

Quite the insightful episode. I loved the simulation bit at the beginning of the episode. It goes to show you teamwork doesn’t come together as quickly as one would want it to be, especially when emotions are involved. Pretty much the rest of the episode had me pondering on several things. One of them being just what Ralph’s motivation is to ally himself with the Deague. Well, aside from having an extremely sexy woman to make love to every night anyways…. Another thing was concerning Sara’s current status. Will she be found out as Sara Werec soon? In some wways I hope so but I’m against it if it’ll bring her negative results (as I’m sure it probably will). The rest of the episode had me pissed at those girls for beating up on Sara. Sure, they lost friends but like Lotti said after breaking up the gangbeating, she wasn’t the only one who lost comrades in the surprise attack. Well, although it was a painful experience I hope Sara saw that she has gained some new friends who’re more than willing to look out for her. Lastly, LOL at Lavinia bringing in the artillery after the fight had already stopped. XD

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Impressions:

This was a very intense episode. The battles continue to be magnificent. Also, Sara was wicked awesome in her new Strain. So much so that it seems that because of it she can take on Ralph as an equal. Moreso than Lotti anyways. I find it interesting how Lotti also had a brother who was a Reasoner, although we find out that he was killed by Ralph in a past battle. I wondered what her reason for revenge was during episode 3 and now I know (I figured she had lost someone, just not a brother). She and Sara may become closer or move away from each other depending on how Sara approaches the fact of Lotti wanting to kill her brother. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out. Another thing is that Sara definitely has a lot of willpower to deal with the bullying of others because honestly I wouldn’t blame the girl for beating the crap out of the majority of the morons that gang up on her. And on a final note, the new characters introduced this episode were quite colorful. I’m looking forward to more Lavinia in future episodes.

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