Sacred Seven - Episode 2

The opening episode of Sacred Seven was a pretty fun and action-packed watch, but it certainly didn't feel like it had anything "fresh" to offer, and its closing gambit was so horribly clichéd that I think I literally cringed at it.

Still, there's nothing much I can do about that, so as episode two begins so Ruri Aiba hasn't enrolled in Arma's class, but rather taken over his entire school, giving it a rather nice paint job in the process.  Of course, all of this is in the hope that Arma will help her achieve her goal when it comes to combating the so-called "Darkstones" - a goal we learn the origins behind as this episode progresses, while we're also filled in on the reason why Arma ended up with his reputation as a violent delinquent in the first place.

All of these plot elements naturally trace back to the core origin of the series, and a series of meteors which landed across the Earth before dispersing their various special powers (the "Sacred Seven" of the shows titles) to mingle with and alter human DNA, giving rise to individuals like Arma or, more importantly, his mother.  While Arma is still undecided about how he should react to Ruri's goals, his hand is practically forced by the appearance of a massive Darkstone which causes sandstorms and untold chaos while he also gets to see first-hand just what Ruri is fighting for.  Queue an action sequence which sees Arma face off against this Darkstone in a style more reminiscent of Eureka Seven that Sacred Seven, although it's admittedly nowhere near as cool.

In what seems to be almost its episodic habit, this second episode of Sacred Seven concludes with another cringe-worthy revelation, this time playing the "childhood friend" card out of the blue to send my palm hurtling towards my face at terrifying speed.  It's a generic end to a pretty generic episode - again, it looks quite pretty and the action is decent enough, but there's not anything to really grab your imagination or win over your heart here, leaving the series to feel a little empty in terms of making any kind of connection with the viewer at all.  Given the way its plot has been laid out I don't see that changing, threatening to leave Sacred Seven firmly in that "oh well, it could be worse" category.