Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova - Episode 8

Repaired and refreshed at their island home of Iwoto they might be, but Gunzou and his growing team now find themselves surrounded and with nowhere to run, as Kengou and Maya close in on them.  Their base may be well fortified thanks to Hyuuga's efforts, but can it really withstand this kind of offensive?

However, it seems that Chihaya has no intention of allowing himself to be besieged, or indeed to engage in needless combat of any kind, and thus he does what any naval captain would do in this situation... he invites his opponents for a cup of tea and a barbecue.

Although this invitation extended to Kongou and Maya may seem like mere formalities and politeness gone mad, there is a method to Chihaya's thinking - on the one hand, he wants to learn exactly why the Fog are determined to wipe out humanity ("because they're programmed to" seems to be the broad answer to that one), and on the other he wants to allow the pair to taste human customs (and cuisine) in the hope that it might unravel an error in their logic in the same way that other Fog vessels have come to join him.  Kongou, it seems, is made of sterner stuff however, and any attempts to woo her fall upon deaf ears as she returns to her ship to start an all-out attack that could spell the end for the human resistance.

Given that I hoped last week's events were going to lead into another epic naval battle this time around, you can probably imagine that I wasn't exactly thrilled to see this week's Arpeggio of Blue Steel threatening to descend into K-ON with AI battleship girls, but in fairness events as they panned out did at least fit in with Chihaya's modus operandi and although the whole thing was a little fan service-y (yet again) there were some interesting little points to ponder.  Still, I now find myself looking forward far, far more to next week's episode, where we hopefully really will have some kick-ass naval action to look forward to, which is the main fillip which has kept me watching this series throughout.