スノウボールアース

This feels like shounen level pacing along with the background characters being treated like kids, along with their reactions being exaggerated. I also really didn't like the flashback to a flashback to another flashback in between the action. This is some disjointed direction here, since there's a lot of vocalisation for gag-like reactions, which is a bit annoying, but then in an important moment when Tetsuo decides to turn away from escape and instead lure the monster away, we're allowed to quietly understand the reasoning for his decision without narration, which I appreciated before all of the flashbacks. Maybe this is just the hump to get over before it gets better.

Awkward as he is when interacting with humans, Tetsuo does possess the heart of a hero. Through his experience from battling kaiju, he knew the evolved kaiju was going to perform some special move. Distracting it saved the lives of his potential friends. I look forward to Tetsuo and Yukio teaming up with Nogi. She already has the traits of an important character - quick reaction time (in saving the NPC villager) and an intense stare.

- Oof, that guy got turned into tomato paste. - That’s a good worried face. - Ah, they use these as cover to run away from kaijus then? - That is a good question… - Because it’s all he’s ever been good for… - Oh, those rectangles on his cheeks are machines? – It summoned the pod! - The escape pot itself was another Yukio, huh. - You forgot? - No, this feels more like Yukio’s dad intentionally sabotaged things as a test of some sort. - I was *hoping* for it to be something like that! - Uh, that’s not something to brag about, Yukio. - *Nice*. - What the fuck is *that* kaiju?

Yukio back in action with that clean cut decap! Damn. What the hell was up in that post credits scene? All those floating orbs and impact craters, and then we have that fully human-esque Kaiju swinging his legs like a little kid playing around. I'm thinking those floating orbs might be like some sorta Kaiju eggs. And then they hatch evolved to a certain extent? All the Kaiju from 10 years ago looked exactly the same, and now we've seen 4 different evolved kinds. I wonder what's making them evolve? Just natural progression, or is there some kind of mastermind behind it? That flashback scene where Dr. Kojika "forgot" to oil Yukio's joints definitely seemed intentional, like he was observing for data or something. Wonder if he's still alive somewhere and is performing some kind of experiments.

I hate that the flashback is literally something we just watched a couple of episodes ago. It's like they just create scenes in isolation instead of considering everything as a whole. The flashback could have just been a couple of seconds of still shots and it would have serve its purpose. But instead we rewatch episode 1 in episode 3 because that scene works well with a flashback. It's so lazy. It's practically just begging, "please feel now." Stories are supposed to be evoke emotions in the audience. But it has to be earned. This is not earned. And then there's the personality being downloaded to the escape pod. They want an emotional scene of Yukio sacrificing himself. They want Tetsuo getting sad over Yukio. They want a surprise reunion. All three works well in isolation. But put them together and they are garbage. There is literally no reason why Yukio doesn't tell Tetsuo about this to begin with. But if they do that, everything falls apart and they can't have their emotional scenes. It's so manipulative. They can't write an emotional story organically, so they resort to cheap tricks like this.

Welcome to Snowball Earth, where the Kaiju have mutated into new variants! And Tetsuo is without any means of actually combatting it! And the actual people who have lived here have no idea what to do either! RIP to that one dude that got crushed. Chief Nogi takes protecting her people seriously. She'll put herself out there to save them, and she'll take it personally if she loses anyone...like, smash your head into the ice floor level of serious. But she also knows the only thing they can do is set up a fog machine and hightail it out of there. But Tetsuo knows Kaiju and he knows something is up with this one, so if it means protecting the people who accepted him, he'll distract it and keep it away from them, even upon threat of death. This really seems to impress Chief Nogi. Yet even with his resolve, Tetsuo still doesn't stand a chance against this thing. Just when it seems like Tetsuo is about to get eaten with Nogi powerless to do anything, who should fly in but Tetsuo's escape capsule...except it's not just any escape capsule, it's one uploaded with Yukio's AI and with its own Mecha form! That's right, YUKIO IS BACK! Tetsuo is reunited with his first and best friend, the one person who most understood how incompetent Tetsuo's dad was, and the one person he can best fight Kaiju with! Even if this is the most scaled down version of Tetsuo that Yukio could pilot, he's still got armblades that can slice a Kaiju's head off! And now the people of Snowball Earth can see that their savior has truly returned. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, some kind of...humanoid Kaiju is playing around!?