<3 Eika

Sky Girls was awesome. Alright, that’s out of the way… Why was it awesome? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know that Eika was tasty from episode 1 to 26.

Whoever came up with motion slit suits deserves our praises.

I don’t know how many times I started a Sky Girls entry, only to stop writing after typing less than 100 words. When I would sit down to type, a new episode would come out and my views changed, forcing me to scrap whatever was written down. With the series finally over, I’m out of excuses. That’s for sure. I did my fair share of complaining to various people and rolled my eyes during each episode at least a few times. For as much drooling I did praise that I would give tasty Eika, I probably ripped apart Elise equally. And for every moment I cheered, there were an equal number of moments when I yawned at reused footage. But in the end I’m grinning like a figure collector does when the mailman comes and asks for your signature. Those 624 minutes of my life wasted on devoted to Sky Girls was worthwhile.

Ranko and Haruko + Motion Slit Suits = This OVA episode must happen.

I didn’t jump on the loli at war bandwagon until late August when I got sick of School Days and other crap that was airing at the time. I had watched the OVA that came out over a year ago and was entertained enough by that to want to at least give the series I try. There was no turning back after episode 1. The first 10 episodes of Sky Girls were very good. They came across as a bit generic in the “we’re training for war, but not really” way, but at the same time felt original and refreshing in the sense that it didn’t take itself too seriously. For all the techno-babble and mysterious Hizaki bishounen moments there was always Otoha genkiness, Karen cuteness, and Eika tastiness. It was balanced and progressing along. The beginning of the series did have it’s share of filler episodes and character intros, but for the most part it didn’t feel stagnant. The filler served a purpose and you knew that the peaceful times wouldn’t last forever. In a way the first 1/3 of the series made things fun, but never too silly that you lost sight of the fact that war was coming. The threat WORMs presented was there and no matter how much the cast didn’t want to acknowledge it, but we knew they would have to enter battle sooner or later, whether they liked it or not. There was anticipation to go along with the fun.

And then Elise happened. Why did Elise happen… Were not Otoha, Karen, and Eika lolilicious enough? Did Konami and J.C. Staff have to dump an overly tsundere blonde nekomimi loli foreigner into the mix? Were they hoping to sell more Sonic Diver models? The OVA had 3 Sky Girls… we didn’t need another one. For me, Elise represented the cliche thrown monkey wrench (haven’t I used enough cliche in this entry already?). It’s not like Sky Girls needs another moe character in there. Tossing Elise into the mix did only one thing for me–kill Sky Girls’ momentum and pacing. Otoha, Karen, and Eika were starting to mesh with one another, as well as with the rest of the cast. However, when Elise was introduced, that was halted. Not only did she have to be introduced, but she also had to blend in the with the rest of the Sky Girls feel. It was like starting from square one all over again. What made it worse was that it all happened around the time when the series took it’s first big step forward when they all bored the Kouryu. Although things were moving forward, it was like a 500 pound cement block named Elise was hanging off the rear bumper and dragging along the pavement. And Sky Girls wasn’t any sort of 4-wheel drive beast. No HEMI power here folks. Fortunately the Elise slowdown eventually straightened itself out and in the long run it was more of a large bump in the road than a full deterrent.

Asymmetrical docking?

But putting Elise aside (who did manage to blend in, though it took longer than it should have), Sky Girls had a number of positives. For a series that didn’t seem like it would have a plot that was that serious or even engaging, I was fairly impressed with what Sky Girls offered. The story doesn’t possess the complexity of Gundam or even the drama of something like ef, but for the most part it was worthwhile. Simple, yes, but not contrite. Enough was presented to keep keep you both entertained and engaged. But it was never overly complex or dramatic that you needed to take breaks from it (or need 40 seconds of recap before the OP sequence). Also, the plot never dropped any over-the-top gimmicks on us. You could look at Aisha as a plot device, but she didn’t seem forced in there. Sky Girls never really forced anything. Although there were hiccups in the pacing, the series progressed forward from episode 1 until 26. There were no “You’ve got to be kidding me” or “Where did that come from” Mai Otome moments here. For the most part Sky Girls was fairly consistent (again, except for dropping the blonde loli in the middle of the series). There was direction and an end point and it managed to get there in just 25 episodes and an epilogue. Some plot points were less explored (Aishia and Suou) or left untouched (Hizaki), but they weren’t any big holes leaving me saying, “Is that is?”

Character-wise, Sky Girls did leave a few memorable ones. Both Eika and Karen stood out in my mind and I give some credit to both Itou Shizuka and Goto Saori, respectively, for that. Itou Shizuka did a great job injecting some grunt and authority into Eika’s character, but still gave her a girlish personality as well. Personally, I found her to be the strongest of the characters in the series. Plus, her relations with other characters were all unique in a way. The way she clashed, yet respected Colonel Togo, and how she related to Elise were both very different relationships, yet they still had that Eika-feel to them. As for Goto Saori, I thought she did a good job making Karen a strong and growing character despite her timid and petite personality. Her breathy and high voice really added to it. As for the rest of the cast, Kawasumi Ayako was pretty much the same. I didn’t think she stood out that much. It might be a result of having heard her do so many roles similar to Otoha in the past, but Sky Girls was far from her best role–just average. Horie Yui sounded like she has in the past 2 years pretty much.

At the end of the day, Sky Girls was much better than I thought it would be, despite it not blowing me away. It was consistent (save for Elise’s introduction), which isn’t that common with a series that has filler episodes and a number of character introductions. But most important, Sky Girls was entertaining from beginning to end. Whether training, fighting WORMs, hunting ghosts, or pondering Nanae’s three sizes, Sky Girls was fun to watch not because it was gimmicky or because it had some pull. It was fun because of it had fun characters and stuck to the plot. All the other stuff just fell into place.