Digi-chan Check! Sacred Seven Episode One

As a database animal with an eye for details, Sacred Seven is playing hard in my court and letting me believe that it’ll continue doing so. Ghostlightning, a “mecha database animal,” feels the same way, and wrote a post highlighting the show’s appeals to his database instinct. Amazingly, while his coverage was quite extensive, his mental database is different enough from mine—and the show makes enough appeals to both of ours—that I feel I have the material for a companion post.

This post will mostly consist of screenshots. I won’t be covering the ridiculously great sakuga animation because there’s not much to say that you can’t get from watching the ep.

Ruri’s Outfits

Episode one managed to get the delicious Nakajima Megumi-voiced Aiba Ruri into two different outfits, even though I’m pretty sure she wore both on the same day. Ruri seems to have a thing for see-through fabric, featuring it heavily on her first outfit and working it into the bottom of her second one. Maybe it’s spring in the show, though even with that thin fabric, her first outfit looks uncomfortably warm.

Great Character Moments

This face is just amazing. It’s a face Lelouch would make whenever he was having really rough times in Code Geass, but for Alma, that’s just his normal face. This guy seethes with angst to such an extreme that I find it entertaining. It’s sort of like Kamille from Zeta Gundam—he was a little punk at first, but I couldn’t help but love him because he took his incredible teen rage so far. Alma is so fucking angsty that if he burst into tears at any given moment, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. [Someone cut this guy’s wrists and black his eyes so he can fall asleep tonight… or die.]

It seems rare for a character like this to be important in a show like this, though I could be overstating it. Still, it’s really delightful to have Itou Kanae playing a role like this in any show. I don’t even know how to define this kind of character except as an “Itou Kanae character.” (Other examples include: Hinamori Amu in Shugo Chara, Saten Ruiko in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, and Matsumae Ohana in Hanasaku Iroha.) I love her by default.

This guy reminds me of how my brother is half the time. He’s so perpetually angsty that he must declare the suckiness of any sucky day (which is a good third or fourth of all days).

Can a nameless extra have a great character moment? When she makes a face like that, she can! (Click for full version, better effect.)

Very cool shot of Ruri nearly activating her powers as the jaws of death prepare to grip her. In the very next shot, Alma is glowing red the same way, telling us that her powers are similar to his, and now we can see that like his, hers can be activated without her will under situations of intense emotion.

Nothing says “batshit berserker” like a horribly twisted neck (worse in other shots) and talon-like hands. It’s worth mention that there was a lot of detailed hand posing in this episode, which is something I loved from Lelouch in Code Geass.

This is one of the best treatments of a flashback that I’ve ever seen. We get the point without being taken out of the scene whatsoever both because the characters remain in the same positions and the road setting looks very similar to the road being fought on in the present. Genius directing here.

This is about as heroic a shot as you can get, and it harkens back to a similar important moment of heroism from FLCL episode 2 (which then proceeds into a similar asskicking).

Fun Details

Sure, Alma could’ve worn a plain red helmet, but this show lets him have more style than that.

When packaging is this ridiculously detailed, it means the drink is a sponsor. Sadly I can’t read anything on the carton to say what it is. By the way, Alma was storing this milk with the mouth open like a fucking dumbass. Enjoy your spoiled milk.

That throw was serious fucking business. By the way, they could’ve easily gotten away with not detailing, say, Alma’s zipper and belt buckle in this frame, but that’s just how crazy thorough this show is. (Though FWIW the watch isn’t detailed.)

A few things of note here. I *love* the outfits on all three of these girls, especially the one on the far left. All the lace and stuff is a nice touch. I also like how meganekko-chan is ready with a camera for the trip. But fucking god, the girl in the middle has on some atrocious footwear.

There are probably twenty to thirty maids shown in this episode, and every single one of them has a design worthy of a major character. I’ll be having a lot of fun throughout the show learning to memorize each of the maids. Currently, my favorite are the twins who part their hair on opposite sides.

After the mech’s arm gets broken and head melted, the broken pieces are then ejected from the robot to be out of the way. I’ve seen this before on mecha and I always love it.

Hellbrick’s floating rock emoticons that dissolve after use are genius, but the best part is that they’ve got their own sound effect.

Wakana has an assload of rocks strapped to her phone. The thing must be heavy as fuck, but she’s exactly the type not to care.

Extreme Details (images may require expanding)

This is on-screen for less than a second.

That's one stylish megaphone.

That about does it for Digi-chan Check~! I love the deliciously Sunrise note this episode ends on with Ruri buying Alma’s school and all of the important characters ending up in the same club. Let the hijinks ensue!