MISERABLE SPOILERS BELOW

This will be another short review, mainly because my opinion about these special episodes is even lower than that for the full series – it’s bad. Like the main series, I watched these as part of the anime club at my school, at a rate of one episode per week. I saw the first (7.5) directly between episodes 7 and 8, and the second (13) after concluding the main series. And, in a lot of ways, I really wish I hadn’t.

I’m not a great fan of the series as a whole, for several reasons – typical, explicitly-characterized cast, terrible pacing, very poor plot, and extremely weak and hilariously unsatisfactory ending. Unfortunately, the specials take each of these undesirable characteristics and extend them, doing absolutely nothing to add to the already-struggling story or further flesh out the disappointing characters.

Episode 7.5, and I wish I was joking, is entirely about what happens when you get a lot of faux-military moe characters drunk out of their minds. Yes, the platoon raises most of its money from illegal distillation, but Aniplex sees that already-minor plot point as a mere excuse to get its cute girls completely smashed. But why? What purpose does it solve? Somehow it’s supposed to be funny that older teenagers (yes, teenagers) deceive their younger counterparts, along with a celibate-and-sober member of the local church, into getting totally hammered? This rite of passage that Kanata passes through is some sort of cruel hazing ritual involving intense physical activity, injury, intoxication, and some bizzarely-sexual scenes. It’s almost as if the writers thought that rushing a stereotypical American fraternity constitutes a hilarious and heartwarming military picture. I guess that makes sense given the already-tenuous “military anime that wants to be a slice of life” that the entire series struggles under – why not throw some alcohol into it?

On the other hand, Episode 13 avoids the sheer awfulness of 7.5 by being completely lackluster and uninteresting. Kanata doesn’t know her dream, so she asks everyone else. Wonderful! What are we in, preschool? Can dreams be so swiftly singulated into becoming a beautiful bride or playing the trumpet so well that peace returns to the earth? The point is lost on the audience, who is probably still chortling from the inane trainwreck of episodes 11 and 12. If Aniplex was trying to save the series’ tender moments in this final special episode, it should be obvious that they failed a full half-series ago.

And that brings this not-so-serious review to a close. These specials are pathetic. If you’ve had the misfortune of seeing the rest of the series, just avoid these shows – if anything, they make it worse.