#InfiniteStratos ep3: there was honestly a 6-8 min period of this show that made me want to drop this. #anime 

I'm quickly learning how much of a pain this show is going to be. I'm starting to have physical responses to different aspects of the show. When the mechs show up, I get a decent sense of joy and anticipation. When the girls start cackling and complaining I get a feeling of despair and tedium. There honestly isn't much of a good reason for Cecilia to make such a 180 in terms of her attitude towards Orimura. I guess in this world it's easy to think a guy is awesome if he can rival you as a pilot and is the only penis in 20 miles. Apparently he "won" even though he lost the match.

Too bad he doesn't seem to want anyone period. Even when the new Chinese pilot shows up he doesn't get the hints, the same hints she'd probably been giving him for a long time. Unlike in Pink Chainsaw though, I don't have a problem with the new third member of the harem. There's nothing special, spectacular or exceptionally cute about her, just like with Houki. They're both very much archetypes that sorely need to be fleshed out. I suppose Cecilia is not much different. but let me have my one moment of denial for her.

As for the episode itself, it was mech action being used to sandwich the very strong harem aspects of the show. Damn it Japan! Stop trying to make me like your harems. With a few clever exceptions I hate them ALL. Despite Orimura's natural talents for piloting an IS, he's still a hopeless, testosterone deficient moron. Heh! Maybe that's why he can pilot an IS in the first place. I've done my best to avoid hermaphrodite jokes up until this point, but I can only last so long.

Most of this third episode was about three girls positioning themselves to be with Orimura. I don't enjoy this at all. It's a collection of weak, stereotypical, one dimensional females going after a weak, stereotypical, one dimensional male character. And the fact that they're trying to pass this off as a decent mech show is what really gets to me. If there wasn't a fight coming up in the next episode I don't think I could keep going. And the quality of the fight itself will be a strong indicator if there is anything in this show worth salvaging at all. Or if this show would be better off with to bullets to the brain and a "DROPPED" sign hung on around its neck.