Score: B+

The war against the Midnight Circus continues and as expected the automata are whittling away at the shirogane forces as they go along. No surprises really came up in this episode. It was a given that Narumi was going to take some hits and the automata were going to try and limit the amount of threats that would make it to the end of the line. And that worked out pretty well for them all things considered. Narumi is badly injured and might not be doing much fighting for the first part of the coming showdown. I’d expect things to get pretty rough for those that can fight. Really the Commander was the only one of the robot shirogane that looked really powerful and he’s effectively dead. Lucille has her plot ready to roll. Ashihana is also about to arrive on the scene so things might get interesting.

I swear Shirogane and Masaru were supposed to be main characters in this story. There’s some need I have to keep reminding myself of that since they’ve been MIA for a while now. To be sure I can’t imagine Shirogane signing up to fight with these guys considering her past so maybe this is for the best. But right now we don’t know where Masaru is or really what he’s actually doing. Instead of two plots going on at the same time it feels as if those two have vanished from the story right after Narumi’s story crashed into their circus. I’m sure they will get back into it eventually though. And maybe Ashihana appearing might help with that since he sure as heck should have some reaction to seeing Narumi again. If nothing else it’d be nice if something in all this might jumpstart his memories.

This episode was full of flashbacks for characters that either died or probably will end up dying in the next episode. No judgment on Tor. People have weird and unusual interests. If being stepped on by an unfeeling genocidal robot lead to him thinking she was beautiful for an instant…sure that’s fine. I mean she was designed to be beautiful so…kind of mission accomplished on that front. So long as he’s determined to destroy her and the other automata I don’t think he needs to let it eat at him so much.

The Commander at least had a pretty solid backstory. My condolences to the guy for everything he went through. Although I am a bit surprised at the weird angle of his wife being taken away to be married off to…an automaton. Is it common for some of these robots to just want to get married? Regardless I can at least buy that he went through a great deal of trauma. And I get that he is the type that can’t help but act like an idiot to cover up what he’s feeling or going through. There’s no doubt that a lot of these guys have personal reasons to want to wipe out their enemies. I don’t love that he went ahead and turned himself and others into robots. Most of them have just lost the human emotions they need to thrive.

I’m still rather curious what direction the show is going to take here. We’ve got the big showdown coming with the Midnight Circus and yet the story is only a third of the way through. What is clear though is that a big fight is about to kick off. The big threats of the Midnight Circus are assembled with the creepy and quiet Francine overseeing it all. And this really is the last chance for the shirogane to accomplish something. They are out of Aqua Vitae so it’s now or never for them. Things could get crazy though with the potential for Lucille and the others to jump in on this part way through. And if a combination of Francine’s face and Ashihana’s reaction can spark Narumi’s memories…this could be pretty memorable. If nothing else the action should be good and crazy.