This episode starts out with Kinji’s home being invaded by Aria. She has decided to live in his dorm until he decides to transfer to Assault and team up with her. Other highlights include yandere moments from Shirayuki, finding a lost cat, and Kinji getting intel on Aria from his classmate Riko. After an episode of following Kinji just about everywhere Aria does get a compromise of Kinji agreeing to do one mission with her in Assault.

Opinions:

This episode helped confirm for me that we actually have a fairly good lead pair for this series. Kinji is a pretty rational guy who just doesn’t want to be a Butei despite his obvious talents for it. It was impressive that he actually used resources at his disposal to investigate Aria and get an understanding about her. Plus he actually has a reason for his issues with girls. If I had that Hysteria Mode there would probably be caution in my actions as well. Having that kind of personality isn’t bad, but feeling not in control of your actions would be a concern.

Aria actually isn’t a bad lead female despite the tsundere loli cliche that some might be tired of. She wasn’t shooting off the guns the entire episode and it was just when she saw our male lead going through her clothes when she was in the bath. While Aria has forced herself into Kinji’s life she seemed pretty rational in letting things be settled with one mission one way or the other. While she has her childish moments (some of which are actually pretty cute) she does show Kinji a pretty good amount of respect and didn’t mind him doing research on her (actually she seemed pretty impressed). I think with these two the series will be in good hands.

At least the world that these Butei are living in is becoming more clear. It’s a pretty open style of learning in some ways when you can go and take on missions after the normal classes are finished. It also seems pretty rational to divide people up to seriously specialize in their skills. At least we know that there’s a medical group, driving, combat, and an intelligence gathering group. At least it makes sense why you would have a variety of character types in these classes since some may not be suited for direct combat, but may have more mental uses for their skills. That’s probably a good thing since Riko is a pretty entertaining girl that specializes in intel. Kind of entertaining that the lead had to buy her Goth Loli items to compensate her for the work.

While we got a lot of information this episode there are still mysteries to figure out. Why did Kinji go to that school in the first place if he doesn’t want to be a Butei? Was he forced into it (which would make it hard to leave anyways ) or did something happen that changed his views? Could also ask why Aria is there since she has enough credits to graduate and was initially from a European school. That background of hers is pretty interesting as well with the mixed heritage. There has to be a reason also why she doesn’t feel any need to have friends. I’m sure we’ll get answers sooner or later, but wanted to get those down anyways.

Overall a pretty good second episode. No real action besides Kinji’s bathroom disaster, but a good chance to get more information about the characters and set things up moving forward.

Score: A-