Alderamin on the Sky

Episode 3

Eventually Ikta's shtick may get annoying, but for now enlist me as a member of his fan club. It's refreshing to see a protagonist who constantly outsmarts his opponents rather than trying to overpower them or bull his way through problems. That he does so while still being a bit of an ass is actually one of his charms.

This whole episode is pretty much the Ikta Show. Whether he's thinking tactically or just being himself, he's fun to watch. At one point, he goes above and beyond to interpret what his fellow cadets should really be understanding about a historical tactical situation; at another point, he's lightly teasing the princess by expressing his disappointment that he can't get lovers into the Academy and then commenting that she may yet be too young for such things. He overcomes bullies by showing that there's basically nothing he won't eat, which fazes their sabotage attempt, while in another case he picks a fight against a different group of bullies (Torway's elder brothers, who are getting on Torway's case) because he knows he's got backup coming. The episode's highlight moment comes after a time skip to later in their training, when the main cast and their classmates are each assigned leadership of a platoon, and Ikta discovers that his female Sergeant Major is the daughter of one of his former lovers. (Ikta claims she was divorced, so she was fair game.) That naturally means that he's going to have to prove himself to her in an upcoming drill, and even before the fighting starts (apparently next episode), he makes an impression by liberally interpreting their instructions, second-guessing what the enemy commander (one of Torway's bullying brothers) will do, and forcing the enemy to meet him on his own terms. He even correctly interprets what Yatori, whose platoon is among the enemy forces, will do when she realizes what Ikta is up to.

All of this works for now because unlike so many other series featuring a brilliant character, who usually makes a showy display of explaining how smart they are, Ikta just lets it show through his actions. As if to emphasize that point, he even indirectly chides Chamille (who clearly shows that she wants to seem smart) for describing his tactics out loud. The writing keeps him in check by regularly giving him some comeuppance; he does take a beating to pull off his stunt against Torway's brothers, and Yatori, rather than getting physical this time, verbally puts him in his place about sleeping with the Sergeant Major's mother.

Yatori, of course, also gets a chance to show off with her martial arts skills. (I want to say that she's using judo, but recognizing martial arts styles is not my specialty.) Looks like Torway's getting his chance at some character development too, since he's going to have to reconcile his desire to be a sniper against being perceived as a coward by some. Hence it doesn't look like this will be a one-man – or one-man and one-woman – show.

The one gripe I have about the episode is the female version of the military uniforms. This is apparently a mixed-gender military, and both genders wear the same jackets, but instead of wearing pants, female cadets wear a school-style pleated skirt over dark hose. At least it doesn't leave their legs exposed, but it seems like a weird and unnecessary compromise to have the skirts at all. Also, Yatori, Haroma, and Chamille still wear their hair very long, which seems like it could be a liability. Yes, I know both of these are concessions to anime style and this is hardly the only series to do it, but you didn't see that in, say, Attack on Titan.

Overall, the episode moves the story along briskly, which probably means that the mock battle in the next episode is going to wrap up the military school side of things. Looks like we won't have to wait too long for the series to get back to more heavy-duty action.

Rating: B

Alderamin on the Sky is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.