Sora no Woto - Episode 9

It's autumn in the world of Sora no Woto, which means sunshine and fresh vegetables all around - A blend of good times which makes for a pretty cheerful mood amongst the 1121st Platoon, to the point where even Rio breaks out with a little jazz on the trumpet. Then again, is her music really intended as a sign of happiness?

While the rest of the gang don't seem too worried, Kanata is quick to pick up on Rio's rather sombre mood, and of course she's right on the money, as we go on to see Rio fretting over her behaviour towards her father (for it was he she spoke to) during their telephone conversation last episode. Clearly, there are some forces and pressures at work against her, and when Claus turns up in the middle of a typhoon with a package for her, things don't seem likely to get any easier for her any time soon.


An opportunity soon appears for Rio to forget her immediate troubles however, as the typhoon brings with it bad news in the form of a missing orphan - A nightmare scenario which brings the platoon out alongside the rest of the townsfolk in the search for the missing child. Eventually, this search and rescue operation puts Kureha in grave danger, although thankfully she has her hero "Miracle Claus" on hand to protect her - Although is he really everything that everyone seems to claim that he is?

All in all, this was another solid episode of Sora no Woto - Again it can't hope to scale the dizzy heights of episode seven and nor does it try to, but for all of this instalment's tendency towards a bit of fan service in places it does succeed in blending the everyday joys of the girls with Rio's inner turmoil before throwing us a dummy by entering a sequence of events that managed to do a surprisingly good job of ramping up the dramatic tension in places. It's this ability to blend the fun with more serious topics and one-shot scenarios with wider plot and character development that is making Sora no Woto so entertaining to watch, and this particular episode is probably as good an example of all of those balls being juggled as any.