We’ve arrived at the mysterious spring, the edge of the known world. Last week we were attacked by a mysterious enemy we know nothing about. So what will we do this episode? Cook some ramen and talk about our friendship, of course! My goodness this show is infuriating. We could be having some sweet aeroplane combat, we could be having a bittersweet tragic romance, we could be having adventures and exploring, but no, let’s cook some ramen! What the hell.

And above is the spring. What is the spring? A bunch of squiggly rainbows.

…

…

Seriously? What the fuck is this shit. This show had one thing going for it, the setting. And the aeroplanes. But then we go all this distance, to the edge of the known universe, and we get to see… some squiggly rainbows? What makes it even dumber is that all the characters are talking about how it’s the most amazing thing ever and it’s causing them to break down in tears. Come on. Look at those squiggly rainbows. They’re fucking lame. This is retarded. They could have, you know, just taken a picture of some actual clouds and it would have looked infinitely more amazing.

There’s also the political and military angles. Those could have been cool. But what do we get? The military commander doesn’t want to bother sending out recon, so he sends some kids to do it instead. Why does the military even exist? I’m honestly not sure. He also refuses to attempt to communicate with these people that no one knows anything because they’re barbarians. Barbarians who can build aeroplanes. What. Does this guy even have a brain?

All our information about the outside world comes from hearsay in the town. Because, y’know, nobody ever heard of this Sky Clan until yesterday? Or apparently no one let the kids in on the story at least.

The main meat of the episode, the cooking of ramen, isn’t much better, even if we accept the ridiculous notion that the premise doesn’t already make it a complete waste of an episode. Everyone loves Imouto’s cooking. Maybe she should learn something from this, quit piloting and get herself in the kitchen. Eru-Erufu continues to stand mysteriously in the background and be perfect at everything.

Everyone talks about their feelings as they wrap each other up like mummies after getting paper cuts and they agree to ganbarimasu.

Yay this is what true friendship is all about. My God I fucking hate anime sometimes.

Oh and in the end the writers realize nothing has happened so they add in some drama.

OUCH! BUUUURRRRRRNNNNNN.

Lady, you ain’t helping.

What are the people making this show thinking? Because it really feels like we’re just killing time here.