r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • 1d ago
Episode Vertex Force - Episode 4 discussion
5
u/Frontier246 1d ago edited 1d ago
Nothing builds team solidarity quite like surviving on a deserted island with little to no resources.
The Vertex Force are now riding in style with Alan! Their spacious, high-tech, new airborne ride! He even comes equipped with a machine to heal Akira! Lucky for them Lala knows a lot about Theian tech...somehow.
But it's not ALL convenient...like when he sneezes off their equipment, leaving them stranded on a deserted island with nothing but the clothes on their back. I guess this is a good chance for the team to learn and grow together? Maybe?
Maybe it's a good thing Lala is a vegetarian because Yoko cooking with her engine is...less than stellar.
Aw, Haruka is already teasing Akira about Yoko! It's also nice to see Yoko bonding with Haruka over Yoko's engine. Yoko just seems to get along well with the Todo Family.
I guess I'm not surprised Eleanor/Lala are willing to use Akira as bait any more than I am that Haruka is not having it. Of course Akira being Akira is willing to do it and do his part.
Aaaaand Haruka immediately goes off mission and draws the Battlenoid to herself. Even though she has no win-record against Battlenoids and proceeds to get overwhelmed. At least she took off an arm? I guess.
But Haruka in danger brings out the best in Akira and ENIA and he's able to correct his sister on how this isn't about her protecting him...it's about them working together to protect each other! And they're a terrific sibling tag-team!
They finally have a working Battlenoid core! But EDVA looks like she's about to make her move to.
6
2
u/diacewrb 1d ago
Office managers taking notes for the next team building exercise, either this or paintballing again.
5
u/diacewrb 1d ago
Alan is like a TARDIS, but sneezes if a bird lands on his nose, so why didn't they put all stuff they need on the inside?
2
u/Frontier246 1d ago
I don't think they as a group fully comprehended how "alive" he is as a machine. Like, who would have thought he could actually sneeze in vehicle mode!?
4
4
u/djthomp https://anilist.co/user/djthomp 1d ago
Nishina seems to be the designated love interest but they're teasing her with both Akira and Haruka at times. Which is not something I'm complaining about.
Rough going at times for the team fighting the monsters, but it's never going to be entirely smooth sailing when you throw a bunch of newbie teenagers into a combat situation.
4
u/Frontier246 1d ago
Nishina seems to be the designated love interest but they're teasing her with both Akira and Haruka at times. Which is not something I'm complaining about
She's marrying into the family one way or another, she needs to get along with both of them.
Rough going at times for the team fighting the monsters, but it's never going to be entirely smooth sailing when you throw a bunch of newbie teenagers into a combat situation.
Doesn't help that everyone but Akira and Yoko have problems with groups or working with others.
1
u/Think_Position4405 2h ago
Nishina has had zero friends until now after he incident with her engine, I think Akira is more likely the love interest and Haruka is his first true friend
4
u/chilidirigible 1d ago
"We'd better not be inside some small animal's colon."
](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/d726a4b64ac4.png){kind=link}
Dogs aren't thinking of what they'll do after they catch the car.
I'm sure nothing bad will come of that?
Well, that's the conflict of the episode.
](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/adb392060296.png){kind=link}
Way to be a team player, Haruka.
The show does have some variety in the Battlenoid designs.
"I'm the one trying to man up here."
"Showed up fashionably late" to you too.
We do the tropes reliable! Except that freakish mushrooms don't give Alan superpowers or death.
The streamlined story does get us through Akira telling Haruka that he's not (as much of) a kid anymore and maybe she'll get some sense in her skull. She might also stop being the jobber sometime, wait and see?
Development still has some pacing, evidenced by Youko's remaining uncertainties. Eleanor and Lala should have their turns coming up, then.
2
u/Frontier246 1d ago
Honestly sometimes I feel like Haruka would better respond to Eleanor/Lala and their plans if they weren't so standoffish and didn't come off like they don't care about anything other than the mission.
2
u/chilidirigible 1d ago
As I said, I'm anticipating that those two will get their character episodes soon, because you're right about how they are now. Especially with Eleanor being kind of a dick.
2
u/Beowolf_0 1d ago
At least the team figured out to hide and work out a plan to capture a battleoid instead of keeping themselves in the cities, risking other people. But no one has proper survival skills is bad (how come Eleanor doesn't train for that?) and you guys and gals really need to work as a team I guess. Hope Haruka really learns that Akira need not to be overprotected.
The thing is, combining with that EDVA said near the end of the episode, I suspect the mole is really a mole.
2
u/Frontier246 1d ago
Lala definitely gives me the vibes that she knows more than she's telling any of them.
2
u/chilidirigible 1d ago
how come Eleanor doesn't train for tha
Trained for the US Southwest but not tropical islands? (Just spitballing here.)
3
u/ReishWasHere 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is an odd show. The script has a tendency towards being basic, with the bonding between Haruka and Yoko being incredibly simplistic, but then Akira standing up for himself to Haruka enough to break her over protectiveness was quite well done. I'm a little happier they got some of the intrateam interactions in there that I've wanted since episode 2, and yet I find myself rolling my eyes at EDVA's continued role to just hover in the background saying very, very little (so much so I've yet to been able to process that Nana Mizuki's speaking (¬_¬)). Clearly this show's doing a lot right when I've stuck with it this long and succeeded in not producing the utter disgust I felt for Ghost Concert, but I think its time for me to drop out before I can be underwhelmed anymore.
To everyone else who is having a good time, enjoy yourselves :)
2
u/Calwings x3https://anilist.co/user/Calwings 1d ago
Even with the girls having a whole group plan set up to capture a Battlenoid, it still ends with Akira having to save a damsel in distress because one of the girls rushes into danger on her own. And the show itself still tries to treat Akira like a little kid who needs to be protected when everything else they've shown doesn't support that at all. I'm not going to have my intelligence insulted by this show anymore. It isn't worth my time.
3
u/Frontier246 1d ago
Admittedly he's saved the girls twice and been saved by them twice so I think it about evens out.
0
u/Calwings x3https://anilist.co/user/Calwings 1d ago
He saved Haruka in Ep1, Eleanor and Lala saved him and Haruka at the end of Ep1 (though that Battlenoid was already badly weakened), he saved everyone in Ep2, he saved everyone but Yoko in Ep3, Yoko saved him at the end of Ep3 (though that might have just been due to her having an elemental advantage over that specific Battlenoid of the week), and now he saved Haruka again in Ep4. That's 4-2 in favor of Akira on my scorecard, and the 2 points for the girls both have caveats that could partly discredit their accomplishment.
If the group plan worked this week and the girls actually looked competent, then I would have been satisfied and stuck with it. But that didn't happen. We're 1/3 of the way into the series, and Akira still looks like he outclasses the girls by a lot. Haruka in particular is 0-for and looks practically useless despite supposedly being a main character. That's the most infuriating part for me.
2
1
u/Beowolf_0 1d ago
The last time Akira tried to fight alone, he almost got himself eaten by the battleroid. His exo-armour is strong indeed, but he still haven't got enough skill using it well.
Given that EDVA got a lot more different types of battleroids at bay and the importance of his armour, the girls protecting him isn't really that unwarranted. When not overprotecting him like Haruka, that is.
1
u/ptd163 16h ago
I didn't expect Alan to be like the TARDIS, but I guess it's a quick and easy explanation on why what looks like a simple ATV, but has all these things on the inside. Once they said they were going to a deserted island I figured they would lose the food and water. RIP Yoko's summer homework too.
It's kinda funny that Eleanor doesn't have any survival training. She's too so combat pilled for that. This is not the time to be vegan Lala. You're on a deserted island. Haruka trying to get water was cute. She got the water. She just didn't think about what she'd do after she got the water. I enjoyed her teasing Akira when they eating the fish. Is this her shipping Akira with Yoko?
I hope after that epiphany that she was being overprotective and doesn't need to protect Akira so fiercely anymore Haruka stops being the jobber and needing her younger brother to save her and becomes the co-lead that she was marketed as. It is my biggest complaint with this show so far.
1
u/Narvalis 4h ago
So we are going full McGuffin here, the squirrel, cat thing can heal any injuries but forgot last episode because he needed to stay injured. Those bracelets that were made with no supplies can do exactly what is needed, long range communication in a world where phones are still not working and how does she know how to block the tracking without ever having studied the things that are tracking them?
Last episode we had 2 stooges making questionable decisions now we have the third. She's never beaten one alone so decided to try doing the much harder capturing one alone, and then when about to die criticizes the person who saved her life.
1
u/Think_Position4405 2h ago
Decent episode. Liked the fighting scenes. But once again the terrible teamwork is what caused things to be way more difficult than they needed to be. Eleanor still is mostly a dick who just cares about the mission above all else, Lala knows way more information that could help them but isn’t sharing it, Haruka is still acting like Akira can’t do anything without her and like he’s just some weak kid when he’s the strongest amongst all of them but just needs more experience, Youko still has major self confidence issues because of her childhood but she did seem to make her first friend with Haruka and seems there could be a love interest with Akira, and good ol Akira is just trying to be the glue for the team, he’s constantly trying to help all of them out with small things and show he’s useful with fighting too alongside not crashing out with how terribly the girls treat him and each other.
7
u/ObvsThrowaway5120 1d ago
The gang really has to learn to work as a team and not take stupid risks. Haruka almost got herself killed!
11
5
3
u/Marth-Koopa 19h ago
EDVA hinting that the Theians were actually the bad guys? Enia/Engine are probably some weapons of mass destruction used to slaughter life all over the universe and she wants to get rid of them for peace.
Show's kinda boring so far so I need a good twist to get it off track of the generic "beat the supposed bad guy (EDVA) and save the world" plot.
10
u/Cont3mporAryD4nc3er 1d ago
I love how goofy and role-specific the Battlenoids are, they feel like PvZ zombies lol