Rinne no Lagrange - Episode 2

From running a one-person school club through to (unwittingly) meeting an alien and going on to pilot a giant flying robot and thwart an enemy attack is quite a leap - then again, we already know that Madoka Kyono is no ordinary girl given her experiences a decade previously.

Having fended off the attack of an enemy robot, Kyono quite reasonably assumes that's the end of the matter and that her impromptu work is done - not so, however, as the organisation she helped out in this instance is looking to her as the new outright pilot of the robot in question, known as Vox Aura.  Never one to let people down, Madoka reluctantly agrees to stay on-board - and not a moment too soon as her second mission is already winging its way to the Earth to take her on.

After getting horribly lost within the base in which she's located and running into another hyperactive yet odd girl named Muginami, it's time to launch again, albeit not before donning the requisite skimpy outfit required of such a position.  In that typical "episode two of a mecha anime" fashion however, things aren't so simple this time around as Kyono's wavering doubts about her ability destroys her connection to the Vox Aura and leaves her dumped in the middle of the sea.  Cue an angry phone call from her cousin to rile her up into action and motivate her once again, although with two enemies to see off now this might be too much to ask of her prodigious pilot.

After going in way too heavily with its fan service last week like a girl who puts out on the first date, this second episode of Rinne no Lagrange felt like a very definite improvement, with tighter writing but still enough time to derive comedy from its scenario as and when was required of it.  That said, this isn't enough to life the series beyond the generic streak exhibited by this episode as it played out almost exactly as you might have guessed it to, from Kyono's loss and regaining of the Vox Aura's powers through to the reactions of others involved in the situation.  I'm not sure this series has anything to lift it beyond the realm of mecha anime also-rans, but at least proving to be reasonably enjoyable to watch this week is at least a positive upturn for a show whose opener hugely disappointed me.