Shinkalion Change the World Ep 15 Review: The Strength to Protect

The struggle for the Railway Club continues as Ganma is invited to be a Shinkalion Driver. Of course, at first he refused, but after an emotional flashback and being the responsible “big brother”, Ganma finally put on the uniform and took flight in his E8 Tsubasa Shinkalion, showing us some of the best combat we’ve seen in the series.

Well, Ganma’s past isn’t as “monotone” as we usually saw. Usually, such a strict person had always been raised to be strict. They are usually shown to be stickler to the rules ever since they were young, and usually earning the ire of those around them. But Ganma isn’t like that at all. He was quite a reserved kid before, even though his sense of responsibility is quite strong, he lacks the strength to follow through. However, that all changed when his class was banned from the school festival. And he took that upon himself as his fault. Even though he had tried to warn his classmates. Even so, that left a deep impression on him. And that’s where he came up with his motto: If you want to protect something, then you must use your own strength to protect it.

What really impresses me was his partner – Vice president Rio Sudanori. She is for the most part a childhood friends. She was shown to be much more upfront before, but quickly took a backseat to support Ganma when he “strengthened” up. She was protecting Ganma before he gained the strength to protect her and others. Naturally, they became a couple and it’s very natural and they make quite a power pair. Even though she is gentle and soft-spoken 99% of the time, when Ganma needs a solid backline, she is all he needs. Definitely a relationship goals.

Now we get to the great part. After the initial refusal to pilot the Shinkalion, Ganma witnessed his kouhais fighting a desperate and dangerous battle against the Unknown. He finally mustered up the courage to defy his “rules” for the greater good. And the E8 Tsubasa is very symbolic of his development. The Drone equipment give him wings to fly – much like how he has “taken off” from his old self. The gattai scene was also very amazing and dynamic. With the Drone Equipment resembling the iconic Force Impulse backpack.

And Ganma is an absolute chad as well. In the previous episode, I guessed that either Ganma will bring down the iron hammer of justice or fumbled his first time. Well, this is kinda a combination of both but not exactly. At first, he hesitated about whether or not he SHOULD drive the Shinkalion, but after he steeled his resolved, he took it like a champ. The E8 is a total 180 compared to Ganma’s grounded attitude. The E8 is literally the saying “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. It’s an aerial assault type like the Force Impulse, or rather, the Gundam Kyrios without the transformation. It’s flexible and fast, and dance around the enemy with ease. The finisher and the wings remind me of an insect teeth and web that traps its prey and then deliver the finishing blow. Overall, it was a satisfying fight that really leverage OLM’s CG expertise.

And of course, President Ganma has become a member of the Railway Club, officially saving it from “demotion” as we predicted. Now the club can operate as normal but with an extra powerful driver. Oh maybe not so normal since Ryota will be forced to obey the school rules now. But the next episode will be the debut of the Masked Man and his Tita…I mean his Hades Shinkalion. So we’ll see how the team fare against that.

Aaron

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