Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo - Episode 14

As Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo carried along its merry path, episode fourteen gives us many important and memorable moments, but I suppose my first mention must go to the return of Pizza Hut product placement to the world of Sunrise anime series... and how! For several minutes, the restorative powers of Pizza Hut's cuisine are given our full attention in what might as well have been a commercial for said food chain.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, the last episode of Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo left us with Honoka about to throttle some oddly dressed old man, with Akiha and company still well and truly stranded on Earth. Perhaps inevitably, it turns out that this man is Leopard's creator, Professor Friedrich Otto Noblemain, a man still fighting against Nerval in his own way but arguably not having a lot of success, although thankfully he does still have the odd trick up his sleeve.


Thanks in part to the introduction of the Professor to this episode, many of the dots that have been scattered throughout this series start to join, pulling previously disparate elements together to explain Nerval's desire to kidnap people, the origins of Honoka, the importance of Leopard to everything that is going on, and even just what's going on in those odd dreams Akiha has been having on occasionally.

Meanwhile, Tsutsuji and Benkei find themselves all but foresaken by Nerval, and Nami's importance back at the now occupied colony is being very talked up in this episode - Expect some interesting sibling rivalry in the next episode.

While I've often found myself "not sweating the big stuff" while watching this series, and instead letting it wash over me like some kind of bizarre sea made of inexplicably tasty pickles, now we're finally starting to get to the heart of the matter and figuring out exactly what the Hell is going on in the series, and it actually does its part to enhance rather than detract from the enjoyment I've derived from it so far. Sure, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo is hardly looking likely to blaze new trails even now I know what's happening, but it remains an entertaining way to spend twenty minutes or so every week, and with enough likeable characters for me to at least somewhat care about their fate enough to continue watching with interest. This show thus remains a guilty pleasure for me, even though I'm not entirely sure what I'm feeling guilty about.