Had to wait a bit for UTW subs, but it was worth the wait; another good episode to finish off this first arc. Fear was summoning torture devices, or I should say becoming torture devices, to kick some Peavy ass, resulting in a loss of an arm. The action scenes were done quite nicely. A lot of blood is good, too. Though Peavy was quickly taken away by her Auxillary, the fight didn't end there.
Out-of-control Fear is kind of fun to watch. From what I've seen, I'm assuming that she reverts back to her moe loli self when her cube is knocked away from her. Her plight is pretty basic: My existence is meant to kill, but I don't like it. It's really odd that the makers of such a torture device would give her a conscience. Her being the form of a loli, however, shouldn't odd at all; it works very well for otaku pandering purposes.
I wonder how many "mechanisms" we're going to see throughout the series. It appears that Fear can slightly regain control of herself when she's faced with someone she knows. Even though it has only been a short time since she met Kirika, She was able to avoid "hearing her scream." I'm really interested in what part Kirika will play in the series. She's likely connected to these curses in some way. She didn't have your typical I-almost-got-drilled reaction. How would she have responded if it was a real confrontation?
How about some fanservice? There was a service shot of Konoha earlier, too. Again, very nice use of color in this series. You can take one look at a random scene, and you can tell the mood of the scene without context. And rather than being faceless, the Auxiliary is revealed to have quite a cute face. I'm interested to know what connection Auxiliaries have with the Knights of Gathering. Are they separate entities from the Knights? Or are they tools that just help the Knights get their jobs done?
I felt that this was a rather heartwarming scene. It reiterates the attachment Fear and Haruaki have for each other. Fear is welcome to stay as long as she wants because our main character's gimmick is that he can't be cursed. When Fear said "hopes and dreams" earlier in the episode, I assume that it referred to leading the life of a normal girl. Of course, even if she tries to do so, Peavy wouldn't be so inclined to let her be.
The next episode is likely to be more on the slice-of-life side of things with Konoha moving in at all, but more craziness is definitely welcome. I hope to see more on Kirika and maybe on that shady-looking math teacher. Looking forward to next week.
-Bern
