Coppelion - Episode 11

Offering to act as a diversion is one thing, but one has to assume that Naruse and company weren't planning on tackling a giant mechanical spider as well as the trouble-making Ozu sisters.

Still, that's exactly the situation that they have to deal with now that the 1st Division's secret weapon is on the scene - thankfully, this mechanical monstrosity has a switch that allows it to turn off, although the trouble is that it requires reaching the highest part of the beast in question.  While Naruse distracts the Ozu sisters as best she can, it's left to Aoi to disable the spider - a seemingly impossible task, until she finally goes Super Saiyan... sorry, I mean until she finally shrugs off her role as a walking slapstick joke and puts her mysterious powers to use.

Although their diversionary tactics haven't proved entirely successful, time is running out and the train operated by the other group still hasn't arrived, leading to Haruto heading over to find out what the problem is.  As he moves to help Gojirou fix the power problem at the heart of their delay, we learn more about both Gojirou and the 1st Division's role in the "incident" and its immediate aftermath - a dark side of humanity which Haruto seems to be learning to ignore as he witnesses the inherent good of those around him, with evejn the 1st Division's chief redeeming himself at a pivotal moment as those aboard the train finally look set to make their mistake from the lethal winds blowing their way.

It's a little odd to watch this week's Coppelion try to shift from bonkers action featuring a giant spider to an appraisal on the goodness of humanity even in the midst of a man-made disaster from which so many other sins have sprung forth - the two elements aren't entirely incongruous, but they don't bolt together particularly well either.  It's also tough to feel anything much for either Gojirou (who hasn't been sufficiently developed as a character beyond playing a grumpy old man role) or the 1st Division Commander, which renders the revelations surrounding them a little impotent, bolstered only by watching Haruto's changing impressions of mankind at their hands.  Certainly, this series remains a decidedly uneven experience in every way possible - its animation moves from slick and fluid to borderline terrible, and its storyline veers from entertaining nonsense to overwrought drama at the drop of a hat.  This is a series that still doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to be, and to be honest it really should have figured that out by now.