[DreamSword]

Episode 2: Survivors

Well, I started off the music showcases with the ED, so now I might as well do the OP, which is generically titled "Main Theme."

Generic title aside, I do rather like this song. Not only does it harken back to old school hero show theme songs like Superman, X-Men, what have you, but it definitely helps to make things feel as though something big is going on all throughout the plot.

Speaking of plot, that's essentially what this episode is all about; Establishing motives for alot of the cast we've met so far, ontop of giving some lore to the universe that this anime takes place in. We actually get to see The Reflection event take place worldwide, and some of the consequences that came of it. There's also more elaboration on the reasons that the events of the first episode were even happening.

Oh, and speaking of our cast, well, look who's here!

This is Mr. Mystic, and yes, he is infact voiced by Stan Lee himself. All that is known about him right now is that he's a telekinetic who's working with the established villains of the show.

Which brings me to something else that I wanna bring up real quick: Good luck remembering anyone's' name or superhero title without reading the credits every episode, because they are said very few times throughout the show's' run. For some examples, the Frog Man? His name is apparently Fearsome Frog. The Russian Ninja who can set everything on fire? She's called Flaming Fury. These titles are not said at all in the entirety of the two episodes so far.

Anyway, the background we get established is all well and good, but thankfully the episode also does give us a step forward too. X-On recruits the Freelance Teleporter to help him investigate someone or something known as "Wraith" and, more importantly, we get to know more about I-Guy!

Yes, he is infact taking a nap on the wing of a plane. Love this guy.

Turns out his civilian identity is Ian Izzet, a one-hit wonder of the 80s who lost his ability to sing after The Reflection happened. Wanting to desperately return to show business, he gathered a team to help him create the superhero known as I-Guy. And I gotta say, it was alot of fun getting to hear just all of the background chatter that was going on that we didn't get to hear throughout the battle of episode 1. Does a great job at adding alot of personality to Ian and his crew, which in turns makes them fun to watch.

And that's about it! Really, while I did separate the two episodes here, it does feel like you are meant to watch the two back-to-back as one longer episode. And given how much praise I gave to episode 1, episode 2 as an extension of the previous one is absolutely fine by me.