hontou ni sou omou?

For summary and analysis: Dav, Hopeless Sensei, Omni, Problematic, Washi and of course, Mentar. Now others have done all that hard work, I can just enjoy posting 50 screencaps of Erstin Ho or Ers (Eh-ru-su)-chan, our favourite blonde lesbian of this series. Seems almost customary for anime protagonists to have two friends as supporting cast. Erstin and Irina fill this role for Arika, with Nina as peer-rival-friend. The Coral Gang of Four. Especially appropriate since their patron, Nao, is a Gang Leader in her own right.

The planned division of labour seemed pretty good - Arika helping with the baggage train if need be and Erstin doing the cooking. Of course, the plan goes straight to hell later.

Just had to include this. Mashiro apparently has access to Akane Tendou’s Hammerspace. Yeah, crush Nagi for great justice! Though I did think the pattern, of the one-eyed one-horned ghost, for his holiday clothes was hilarous.

Two things. Why the hell are they hiking in gym shorts? And snakes don’t just spring out and bite people out of the blue as our footsteps are like an earthquake to them. (Puts both down to anime plot convenience.)

Erstin doesn’t have Arika’s burning ambition to become an Otome. So why did she join? Not out of parental expectation I hope. Her parents are certainly wealthy enough to pay for her academy fees - as opposed to Irina and Nina being on scholarships provided by their respective states. And Erstin’s father is apparently some kind of technologist, maybe like Yoko-sensei’s, as Irina had borrowed a book of his through Erstin. Ers-chan must be under a lot of pressure from her background as well as not wanting to let her relative weakness drag Arika and her dream down. When assessment is done on a group basis, this tends to create enormous pressure in the weaker team members not to let the others down and push themselves to the point of collapse (usually from heat exhaustion). Ers-chan’s condition brought back many unpleasant memories of my times as a conscript.

Arika gets major points for being concerned for Ers-chan’s welfare first and foremost and for comforting her - which must have been quite a surprise for Ers-chan given the competitive environment of Gaulderobe. I wonder if this is part of a larger building up to more ominous things e.g. Ers-chan being forced to choose between Nina and Arika or even worse Arika and Ers-chan becoming close only to have Ers-chan being Akane-Kazunified to blow Arika’s naive innocence away.

Apparently someone on the script writing staff has been reading too much Jin Yong whose novels often have characters fall off cliffs without dying and, in fact, often re-emerging later with new powers, skills or friends - like, say, a giant condor. Quite touching that even as Arika was falling off the cliff, the first thing to flash into her dutiful mind was Ers-chan.