AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline

Episode 12

It's the end of the cour, meaning it's time for every series to either wrap things up, or present something resembling a climactic event to close out the Fall before starting up their next cour. As is custom with these sorts of things, that means we're obligated to have a multi-part story to just cram in as many important events as possible. That's what AMAIM is doing, anyway, as we at last reach the long-awaited rematch between our young heroes and Ghost.

Well, we eventually get there. Being a two-part story can also mean you have to fill some extra time to get everything to a combined 45 minutes, so the first half of this episode follows the resistance organizing all the equipment and vehicles necessary to evacuate the island Ghost is currently haunting. Which, hey, it's again nice to see our heroes prioritizing saving lives, but there's also a reason most shows don't bother showing everyone filling out paperwork and waiting in lobbies while they prepare for big missions. Spending several minutes on how the Resistance procures a number of fishing boats just isn't interesting television, and it's all time we could have spent with our AMAIM pilots steeling themselves before this big battle.

But it just doesn't seem like that's the kind of show AMAIM wants to be. All Amou or the others get is a brief sequence of them training in VR battles, and an incredibly awkward shot of Shion staring pensively at some pottery clay. Other than that it's all just logistics and skype calls as the adults make all the necessary arrangements. It's a shame, because you'd think that now, when the stakes are the highest they've been in over a month, would be a good time to check in and see where all these kids are at. How do Gashin or Amou feel about the chance to take down the enemy that nearly killed them both? What's Shion's take on all this as an outsider who hasn't fought this mysterious AI before? These aren't questions that would further the plot, sure, but they would go a long way in making our underdeveloped main trio feel like characters instead of plot devices.

Well, if we can't get any actual emotion built into this fight, the least it can do is actually be exciting. And that's thankfully what happens, even as obvious production crunch keeps the whole fight a little to stop-and-start. There's a good back and forth, as Amou and the others try to chip away at Ghost even as they encounter its new upgrades. They use some new weapons, including a neat electrified net, and we can tell a lot of thought went into possible strategies for tackling this unpredictable behemoth. Plus their big plan is pretty cool, and it's fun to see all three of our pilots working in tandem so well. It's not a barn burner, but it's solid and well-executed action fundamentals.

It also doesn't work at all, because it wouldn't. You really think they'd manage to take down the big current enemy in a Part 1 episode? No chance. All those explosions did was provide a cool smoke cover for it to menacingly glare out through. So we're left on that cliffhanger before our mid-way finale (Or possibly season finale, if some recent online listings are accurate. Unplanned split-cour, wooooooo) and it seems like AMAIM is set to wrap up much like how it started; heavy on some cool 2D robots, light on actual character or intrigue.

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AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline is currently streaming on Funimation.