Note…do not mess with a magical girl, she’ll nuke you back to the stone age! Seriously, the strongest impression from this episode was that Akari was one hell of a badass. She might not be a fighter in the conventional sense, but messing with her has some serious risks attached.

It was actually a bit refreshing for a damsel to come to her own aid. Really you wondered how she’d get out of that mess, but in the end she had the skills to help herself. If the plan had just been to outright kill her then she would have been dead. But they made the stupid choice of trying to use her skills without appreciating what she was capable of. Was just nice to see Akari not need rescuing and being able to get out of there with her own power.

For all the laughing done at her expense, I wouldn’t say anything bad about Akari considering herself a magical girl. I mean she can wipe out all life on the planet if she puts her mind to it. When it comes to results she can do just as much damage as any stereotypical magical girl. I do kind of wonder why she is so obsessed with the title, but I guess everyone has their quirks. In the end if the Kiltgangs consider Akari the weak point of the team that’s one heck of a powerful weak point.

While things turned out ok the situation was actually pretty tense there. Akari getting captured and held at gunpoint for most of the second half of hte episode. If things had gone differently or if they had decided she wasn’t worth keeping alive…Akari would definitely have gotten killed in this episode. The chase just reflected how scared Akari was. When she’s away from her tech she is just that vulnerable.

The action itself was pretty good once again. Good effort made by the “Captain” in this one. Also pretty glad they at least dropped the pun. It took a desperate attack at the end to win, but it worked. Goes to show the potential and power of the livlaster though. Seemed to power up by a gear there. Makes you wonder how powerful it can become by the end of the series.

Again focus was put on Teppei and his feeling of not being useful. Have to think the next episode will let him finally do something big since honestly he’s been left hanging around mostly in the last few. I thought they might have him play a key role in rescuing Akari, but she took care of that on her own. He sacrificed a lot, but right now that sacrifice is all he has to hang his hat on.

Of course a key focus was on Ai who became the next member of the planetary gear’s group. I did feel a bit worse for this girl than the last guy. She did seem to have a pretty stable personality and was working towards things. Sure, she had a serious lack of confidence but that didn’t mean she was completely empty either. This personality that’s jumped into play definitely has more kick, but again you can see the base personality in her actions.

It does make me wonder how things will turn out with these characters. Whether the Planetary Gears will just lose their ego blocks and become regular humans or something else. On that point I wonder what will become of the original personalities. Right now we’ve seen how these people change once woken, but Teppei didn’t seem to change that much. He had a lot more knowledge and worries, but he wasn’t necessarily a different person. Wonder if the original personalities can still come back or whether it will be a mix between these awakened people and the core personalities of their human bodies.

Another solid episode to be sure. I guess we’ll be continuing a pretty similar pattern until all the planetary gears are woken up. I do wonder though where things will go past that point. Right now we’re getting a feel for how the girls will play their roles as well as Daichi, but curious about Teppei. If things continue to escalate they really will need the ability to have both Daichi and Teppei fighting at the same time. Maybe next week will clear up how that is going to work out.
Score: A-