Thursday 2 May 2013

Red Data Girl - Episode 5

The previous episode of Red Data Girl took us to the brink of a showdown between Takayanagi in light of the results of his recent nefarious plans, and the Souda triplets.. or at least, Manatsu and the ghostly Masumi.

While Takayanagi is full of bragadoccio before things start, he's quickly made to eat his words, as it seems that Masumi in particular has little guard for the rules and so-called "covenants" that should govern him.  This means that he soon has his opponent effectively eating out of the palm of his hand and, quite literally, gives him a bit of a slapping about.



With this issue resolved, much of the remainder of the episode focuses once more upon the relationship between Miyuki and Izumiko, which becomes fractious once again thanks to the reappearance of Yukimasa, who has taken it upon himself to start working at the academy as a lecturer.  Although his suggestion that he'll be taking over looking after Izumiko himself is supposed to be a teasing one, Miyuki takes it entirely too seriously and begins to distance himself from Izumiko, much to her clear upset, instead spending his time with the student council and fraternizing with other girls.  Of course, this soon changes when a possibility of Izumiko placing herself in peril arises once again, and Miyuki finds himself faced with what could be construed as a rather strange request from the Himegami that resides within Izumiko.

Once again, Red Data Girl has the knack of taking an average episode and imbuing it with some final scenes that make me want to watch the same instalment.  It would be harsh to slag off the series too heavily, but it still feels like it's missing a certain something - I'm enjoying the way the two leads interact as characters, which is another positive for the series as a whole, but the backdrop to those interaction still feels too wishy-washy somehow.  Still, strong characters and a slowly but steadily developing plot are enough to chew over for now, even if it isn't exactly a shining example of anime at its best.

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