[DreamSword]

Episode 4: Up and Running

If there's one thing I can give this show, it's that it's managed to make every Kaiju encounter so far feel like a major event, and this episode is no exception, as its second half features the return of Copperhead, the Kaiju from the first episode who just absolutely refuses to stay down.

Atlas Destroyer is confirmed here to only be a Mark 3, meaning that it's way out of date by the time this series takes place, and that fact is very much emphasized by how its punches do basically nothing to Copperhead, whereas if this were, say, Uprising with its Mark 6s, there'd be much less of a struggle in a one-on-one fight.

This episode also serves in establishing a connection between Taylor and Mei, both literally and metaphorically, via the Neural Handshake. While I initially was confused at Taylor's' insistence on fighting the Kaiju given his characterization in the first two episodes, maybe after seeing Mei's' memories, he's subtly trying to tell her to stand up to Mob Boss? There have certainly been a handful of times where Mob Boss doesn't have much of a leg to stand on in terms of making demands and yet comes out on top anyway.

Outside of that, this episode didn't have too much else to offer? The mystery of Experiment Boy continues with his tendency to kill and eat wildlife, and there's some weird bit of humor at the very beginning of the episode inwhich Taylor drinks "Kaiju Milk." Otherwise... yeah, nothing too noteworthy.

Now granted, I did rather enjoy what was the central highlight of the episode, but I'm also not going to sit here and pretend that I found anything incredible "deep" within it.

And hey, ya know, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The most important thing to get out of stories is a good time, I think.