[DreamSword]

Episode #04: Sphere

Just incase you thought Heroman couldn't hang with other super robos, oh he can.

The plot of this one is that while Will tries to sneak into the Skrugg's' new base, the Skrugg in turn decide to go bowling. With the city as the pins.

There's also an underlying theme of responsibility going on with this episode. And surprisingly, it's more prominent with Professor Denton, who feels that it's his fault the invasion is happening to begin with.

It presents some dramatic irony too, because Will's' entire plan is to steal some Skrugg weaponry to use against the invaders; Meanwhile Joey and Heroman have already secured an enemy blaster for Denton to study. Even if Joey didn't quite do that intentionally.

In terms of the main threat, while it might sound silly that the Skrugg plan to smash all resistance with a giant metal ball, the episode very quickly establishes why that's far more of a threat in execution than it seems on paper. Heroman is very strong, sure, but even he's not tough enough to smash the thing as easily as he has the grunt soldiers.

And I gotta say, this episode does such a great job in handling its mood. The episode is very appropriately intense throughout almost the entire run time, and the way things are framed, I legit had no idea how our heroes were gonna overcome this new threat(And before you ask, yes, I did forget how they did so). And very teasingly, the episode makes you wait until next time to find out the answer. But man, never thought Robot vs Giant Ball could be so intense!

It goes without saying that a major player in how well the atmosphere is handled goes towards the soundtrack. Fittingly, the song for today is called "Tama" or "Sphere" in English. It's a very tense track that I think was composed specifically for this episode, and it does a great job pulling double duty as a set piece for the the fight in this episode as well as just being an all around great piece for showcasing tension. And like every other sound on this anime's' soundtrack, it's just great to listen to ontop of all of that.

The episode ends with the Skrugg having captured Will and them now being fully aware of Heroman's' existence, so you can only imagine that things will snowball from here.