Sacred Seven - Episode 5

After covering the inevitable school culture festival last week, it's time for a beach episode this time around as Sacred Seven hits its fifth instalment.

Not that there's actually much time for playing in the sea and surf over the course of this episode, as a geology club field trip brings the group (courtesy of Ruri's luxurious camper van) right to the base of a mysterious pyramid-esque mountain - more importantly, it's a structure that immediately gives Arma some seriously bad vibes.

While Kagami is left to deal with the Darkstone sensed by Tandoji alone while the others enjoy their trip, it doesn't take all that long for things to get out of control as the Darkstone in question proves to be more powerful than expected - a state of affairs which leaves us with a massive hole in the ground, and one which both Arma and Ruri fall straight into.  With danger everywhere within this cavernous pyramid, and the aforementioned two individuals separated in their fall, is there any way they, or even Kagami, can survive?

I think it became clear pretty clear early on that Sacred Seven wasn't going to be breaking any boundaries or exploring new frontiers of narrative from its set up, but I do have to give it some kudos for remaining a polished and largely well-animated affair.  As far as this episode itself goes, it worked well enough within its simple, unambitious framework, and at least it didn't drift off into a full-on fan service beach episode which can only be a good thing.  Truth be told, it was all quite enjoyable as undemanding anime viewing is concerned (even if Arma's multitude of powers are increasingly becoming a deus ex machina for the show), so provided you don't mind the only ground-breaking aspect of this instalment being a big hole that opens up underneath Ruri, it isn't a bad way of whiling away twenty minutes or so.  If that isn't damning with faint praise, then I don't know what is...