ViVid Strike! 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Rinne is very depressed as she watches coverage of Fuuka’s and Einhart’s success. Victoria pays Rinne a visit, but has no success as Rinne decides there’s no point in martial arts. At the hospital, Jill is delivering a present for Vivio. Jill and Nove talk until Jill gets the news about Rinne. Jill cannot get Rinne to change her mind about quitting and bailing on her bet, so Nove informs the girls. Einhart encourages Fuuka to speak her mind. Einhart calls Rinne, but reaches Victoria. To Nove’s chagrin, Einhart lays down a challenge that if Rinne fights Fuuka and wins, Einhart will put her championship belt on the line in a fight against Rinne. Rinne says she’ll think about it, then has a chat with Victoria on the subject. Rinne accepts the challenge.

Nove is not buying Einhart’s optimistic appraisal of the situation, but allows it to continue. Einhart arranges for the special match to be held at Hotel Alpine, where Lutecia also lives. Lutecia and Fabia take a look at the training city where Fuuka’s and Rinne’s fight will occur the following day. The day of the fight comes and a lot of Vivio’s acquaintances are there to observe. Jill, Victoria, and two others are in Rinne’s corner while Nove, Einhart, and two others are in Fuuka’s corner. The fight starts and Rinne puts a beating on Fuuka. She looks hungrily into a camera at Einhart, but Fuuka isn’t out. Fuuka is barely scratched and counters, knocking Rinne into a building. With that, Fuuka scolds Rinne for giving up when things got tough for her.

Thoughts/Review

While we’ve broken away from the tournament, I’m still having a hard time working up any enthusiasm for this series.

Depressed Rinne, Revived Rinne

Rinne being depressed after her loss is understandable. However, how things are progressing isn’t that interesting to me. We are going a cliched route so that the promised fight between Fuuka and Rinne can happen. Then Rinne can learn her lesson, become a better person, and become friends with Vivio, Einhart, Fuuka, and the rest.

What would have interested me would have been Rinne being taught that sometimes it is possible to make no mistakes and still lose. It is possible to be ultra prepared and still lose. That doesn’t mean that one is a failure. Maybe the writers will still produce this outcome, but at the moment, it doesn’t seem like it.

As to her fight with Fuuka, things are going kinda cliched. Rinne seems to have an easy win, then Fuuka gets up, runs her mouth, and shows she’s not been touched. I’m not going to predict how things go between Fuuka and Rinne ’cause I mostly don’t care. Then again, the series hasn’t given me a reason to as it rushes to a conclusion.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Since I’m ultra pressed for time and this episode doesn’t have a lot to discuss, I’ll wrap this up.

• I feel this series needs the Rocky music played over it. 😉
• Glad to see Hotel Alpine and the training city. However, it is only a nostalgic thing and nothing more. And why haven’t they done some magical repairs to the training city?
• While I like seeing Lutecia again, ViVid Strike! is already choking to death on an overload of characters. Seriously, how can anyone get any development when there are 100 characters to have cameos in for?
• No cameos for Fate, Hayate, or Nanoha though. 🙁

In the end, ViVid Strike! 09 is not that good as it rushes things along to get the cliched fight between Fuuka and Rinne. And yet like the sucker I am, I’ll be back to watch next episode.