AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline ep9

Hi Another week, another episode largely devoid of robots. Sorry about that Scott…

Hello Irina! :D. I’ve pretty good so far. I don’t really get seasonal depression usually because I am It’s ok, I’ll get used to it eventually Irina. Hopefully not for too long…

It’s starting to get a bit cooler up here. We’re no longer going above freezing which is a bit of a relief. I was beginning to worry that I would have to order a Christmas t-shirt to wear on the 25th.

How are things with you, Scott?

I’m not sure how I feel about you saying not ordering a Christmas t-shirt, because I like wearing mine. But anyway, my week has been ok. I do have a lot of final things to start take care of this week, but I did enough prep work last week to make it easier for me. Almost done with school…again…

Last week was a very good week as far as my seasonal viewing goes. All the episodes I watched were pretty good when compared to the rest. I started this week (yesterday) on a bit of a less positive note. Let’s see how AMAIM did.

I felt the same way about last week, so I hope this one turns out well here too.

The first thing I wrote down is that Gashin is rather adorable when he’s happy. Maybe it’s because he’s so gloomy all the time that the contrast really hits. In any case, I thought it was a good idea to give him an emotional episode. It balances the character out in my opinion.

I agree. He’s such a good kid and it’s nice to see him allowed to be happy or just have good things to him. Gashin is definitely in that best boy category for me possibly. We shall see as things go on…

Also, I don’t know where to put this but Gashin’s brother, The Mayor of the city, was wearing a suit with a hybrid rattail mullet. For some reason, that fascinated me.

Anime hair always fascinates me and AMAIM’s hair is fascinating all around I think.

It’s possible that I have grown cynical in my old age, but the second the brother showed up, I was like, he’s going to be bad news. Like he’s going to betray them, or they’ll find out he was with the enemy all along. The autonomous city thing was just way too good to be true.

I have to admit, when he asked Gashin to stay, I thought for a minute that this was the conflict of the episode. That Gashin was just going to have to make this very difficult decision. That’s not a bad conflict when it comes down to it but it may have been a bit too plain for this show. What do you think?

Oh believe me Irina, I was in that same boat. It’s one of those things where you instantly know that something bad is going to happen because of seeing too many things. This show does play with its tropes in pretty usual ways. In general, I think the execution has just been good.

In any case, I was almost relieved when we found out what was really going on. Like phew, my anime instincts are still good!

I actually enjoyed how the rebels handled the situation. Very smooth. Would you have preferred a bit more action, Scott?

No actually, this episode was everything that it kind of needed to be. The drama carried all the emotional points and that just is very effective. I was almost expecting Gashin to wander into that city with her AMAIM, but I like that this show can actually be subtle somehow.

The thing is, when it comes right down to it, the main conflict of the episode poses a really good question. When living in an oppressive system, what is the best way to go? All out retaliation or trying to work within the confines? An unflinching assault that will potentially get results and will guarantee to get the point across at the risk of your own life. However, will also create violence and casualties. Or a slow, possibly futile but peaceful route that necessitates fundamental compromises.

It’s a pretty complex question with no easy answers. And really it’s a matter of fundamental perspective that can be debated forever and usually only finds resolve in hindsight.

But all of that sort of goes out the window when you’re dealing with such a cartoonishly EVIL antagonist.

That’s where I agree too. I mean, this show has been doing a lot of things right in establishing the conflict in this episode. I just think that not having the villains having something more substantial to them or being more complex laids down so many flaws in what this show is trying to do.

It’s like you have the best actor in the world pulling their heart and soul into a role and it’s beyond oscar worthy. Then the camera pans over and the actor is just emoting to a cold and dead wall. That’s what this episode and conflict is like.

Anyone who has been following along knows that aside from Brad, the entire military is completely morally bankrupt. There’s no point in attempting a peaceful resolution under those circumstances. You absolutely need leverage as neither honour nor human decency can be counted on. So the entire conflict is kind of moot when taken into context. Am I being too harsh?

No, Irina. I think you couldn’t be more on point here. The show really wants this situation to be more morally complex then it wants to be and the only real answer at this moment is just destroying every occupying force that is there for freedom and that is just a massive failure for all of these things there.