AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline ep13 - An Actual Cliffhanger -

I’m not sure if it was planned from the start but it turns out that AMAIM is going to be a split cour now and we will have to wait until March to see the rest. Now Scott, when you first told me this I thought, ok, that’s fine. A single-season break is not too unreasonable. However, at the time I had not watched this episode yet and didn’t know it was going to leave us literally on the edge of a cliff. Hmmph…

Yeah…insert nervous laughter here.

But before we get to that, how are you Scott? Did you enjoy the Holidays?

I did enjoy it quite a bit. Not a lot of heavy or dramatic celebrations with some annoying snow that I am terrified of driving through. Did you know that I fell twice while shoveling snow to get the car out of the driveway on Monday. As of writing this, I’m still hurt from it. Not in a debilitating way but in a way but in a very annoying way that makes me feel old. But minor complaints…

Episode 13 of AMAIM was basically a perfect textbook season-ender. It was the climactic second half of last week’s confrontation with Ghost.

Do we know why Ghost is so ridiculously overpowered? Is it a later model? Is it from a different country? Do we have any clue?

I honestly don’t think any of us have any real clue about what Ghost is. It is just that mysterious mecha out there which just adapts to its environment that so many people want for their own purposes.

Anyways, the fight was tough, as you would expect. Actually, I find that lately, a lot of these hyped-up ultimate fights end up a bit anticlimactic. Like -huh… that was easy. Maybe it’s just the shows I have been watching this season but it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a hard-won “victory”. If these weren’t giant robots, it would have been a real bloodbath.

What did you think of the fight, Scott?

I loved all of it. I think it was well paced and gave each character a role in the fight so no one ever felt excluded from it. A lot of good teamwork and “we need to try this” instead. Some good mecha choreography and very thoughtful with how it was done as well. Excellently done hard won victory.

I should have said this sooner but better late than never. There will be spoilers for the episode. In fact, there will be a giant one coming right up!

Because most of the episode was one big fight, I actually don’t have that much to say. It was pretty well-choreographed, I’ll give them that. But otherwise, there weren’t any huge surprises. Amou and Co. were using the moves we’ve been seeing them practice all along. The biggest surprise Ghost had up its… casing, was how resilient it is but it’s not like it was spouting butterfly wings or singing a song that put everyone to sleep. Just a big powerful angry robot.

And so for me, these scenes were purely visual. And well done. The fight flew by and the episode was over when I thought it was about halfway through. It also means this is all I have to say about it. Any thoughts, Scott?

I don’t really have anything to add either. I was just deeply engrossed with all the visual thought and effort put into this episode. It was just very visceral in so many ways that I felt in the fight itself as well. I loved the threat Ghost presented and how hard it was to defeat. Just well thought out for all the things there as well.

However, we did get one unexpected event. Hugely unexpected. In the last minutes, in order to prevent Ghost from getting away and repairing once more, Amou decided to make a grand stand and seemingly perished in the effort, along with Gai and his AMAIM.

Now I refuse to believe that all of them are actually gone. I don’t know why but I just do. I don’t like when my heroes go out in a blaze of glory. So until at least March, I’m going to pretend they are literally hanging onto the edge of that cliff. Well, no, they’re a bit below, probably knocked out by the impact but otherwise o.k. That’s my headcanon.

I mean Gai should have a backup somewhere, no?

What’s your take on it, Scott?

I am in massive agreement with you, Irina. I honestly don’t feel like anyone really died in that final conflict. Or that could be a hope because that sacrifice was tremendously huge. I just…well. We shall see how this anime does this because either way, the result of Amou’s sacrifice should have some interesting implications no matter the way this team handles it.

And yeah, I feel like Gai should have some back ups considering that they might have pointed out something in that regard in one short instance or something.

All in all, it’s not a bad place to end the first cour. There is enough suspense for me to want to know what happens next. The diverse military powers are all making their moves and we now have a potential future ally in the Asian military. That’s pretty awesome. Gashin and Shion are super depressed, but what did you expect? In general, I’m pretty happy with this episode. How about you Scott? Any thoughts about what’s to come?

I’m pretty happy about this episode too. It was very well put together and I loved the way the Asian military played into the story itself. Just excellent all around. One big fight that had multiple levels. Just a complex and interesting meetup of the forces in the show in some fascinating ways. I can’t wait to see what happens in the second cour.