Kim's match reviews and pop culture emporium

 The archangel enters Artemis and gets put into custody with the crew in the mess hall and the commanding officers meeting the leadership of the fortress. I don't know why but in the intervening time since my last viewing of this show I thought of the earth alliance as being more federated than this very factionalized force we see in the show up to this point. The officers get interrogated and eventually invited to stay along with a bit of arrogance about the impregnability of Artemis. The notable thing in the latter portion is Flay being peak white girl and narking on Kira being a coordinator exposing him to exploitation and fuck her. the episode ends with the blitz's attack on Artemis the crew breaking out and Kira launching to respond. 8.5/10

 Interesting match to start off disk thirteen. The match is more even than i was coming into it but I will admit that's probably on me for underrating Yasuko's threat potential. There's a call and response desperation in this match I enjoy with Yasuko targeting Bull's arm and back while Bull targets Yasuko's head and abdomen with both targeting the legs of the other in the latter stages. Bull eventually gets the win via a straight cover with head trap. Great performance from Bull and better than expected from Yasuko with Bull's punches being very much my speed. I don't think Yasuko provided quite enough threat to warrant an 8 but a solid 7.7/10

 The heels blitz Mika at the start and Pantera destroys her with a swanton and senton for the quick pin. There's a fun exchange between Pantera and Chigusa ending with Chigusa missing a top rope senton leading to her getting pinned surprisingly early given her stature. There's a short moment of getting her head targeted which was shorter than i remembered from the firsts watch. There's some fun work on Chigusa's knee. Nakame and Condor both get eliminated with the final four being Bull vs Hisako Hotta and Chigusa. Bull shows real grit eliminating both Hisako and Hotta but the attrition catches up to her and she ends up being pinned by Chigusa via German suplex. The vibes were more intense in the first elimination match but i think this is a better match even if the weaknesses of being in the churn heavy AJW environment remain. 8/10 Super fun disk return to form and the hype is back

The Angels jump the alliance at the bell and double team Bull to start. The control is fleeting as soon as the double team ends Nakano blasts Tateno right away and the heels take and maintain control wrecking Tateno's abdomen. There is a quick tag to Yamazaki but the alliance swarms her at point of entry and we double face in peril. The endgame for the first fall is Tateno being German suplexed for the pin. The second fall starts off with the heels continuing to work over Tateno. The pivot in control comes about by the faces targeting one of dump's legs to great effect. Decent striking starts the shift from Tateno solidified by typically really compelling submission work from Yamazaki. The faces get the second fall by forcing Dump to ringside to recover and blasting Bull with a German for the three count. The match predictably breaks down into chaos by the end leading to a no contest and titles vacated. On a pure imput level this match is an 8.5/10 but it took me longer cause t...

 So the big talking point for phase shift down has to be the exchange between Athrun and Kira. It's interesting the difference between the pacing of physical travel in Seed relative to the pacing of emotional beats and combat. Purely in the context of the Archangel crew Kira's position is really sympathetic but the minute it buts up against the reveal of Athrun's mother having died in the bloody valentine massacre it makes his insistence read differently but maybe that's just me. I appreciate how distinct The Creuset team's approaches are portrayed during this mission with Yzak being obsessed with his pride, Athrun being really emotionally conflicted, Dearka being a slightly more sensible Yzak cause he's very task focused as i read him. Nicol's easily my favorite zaft supporting character. I appreciate mu getting Kira out of his hyperventilating state post battle and with regards to Sai and Flay they Feel like Athrun and lacus without the awareness at least ...

 We start off with some trading of arm holds with some fun top wrist lock stuff. It seems like Chigusa takes the edge in the arm damage department. Devil responds eventually by pulling Chigusa on to the apron and ramming her head first into the turnbuckle pole and afterwards whipping Chigusa into the railing at ringside. She keeps focused on the back adding in some mean leg work to neutralize or at least attempt to neutralize the kicks. The notable spots being a bow and arrow lock and a Romero special. There is a sick punch exchange which devil wins and struggling over piledrivers. The finish is a time limit draw. Another 9 for me if a bit weaker than there last encounter