The Desperation of Both Sides in a War

The Price of Smiles Episode 5 Review

So far The Price of Smiles or Egao no Daika has done a pretty excellent job at making me actually concerned about the characters in this story even if I barely know anything about them. There’s something about the way they interact, particularly Stella and her squad that we’ve only really spent an episode with, that makes them feel like real people and makes the war around them seem even more bleak than it might.

This episode is another interesting one as we follow Stella and her squad almost exclusively but in doing so we realise how far the enemy has pushed into Yuuki’s country and how desperate the war effort has become. It makes it difficult when we see Stella and her group moving into position to try and flank the enemy because I don’t want to see anything bad happen to Stella but I would also like Yuuki’s kingdom not to get overrun.

The action this week is pretty nice with some night time sneaking in mechas through a forest followed by a short but brutal fight amongst the trees. In the process we learn a bit more of the relationship between Lily and Stella and what has happened to Stella over the last few years. While it is all superficial stuff they’ve nicely sketched the outlines of a potentially interesting character and the Price of Smiles has bought enough goodwill from me that I’m willing to wait and see what they do with this.

While things remain unresolved at the end of the episode, and it is also unclear if we’ll be following Yuuki or Stella next episode, there’s certainly reason to look forward to next week. This one isn’t blowing me away but it is developing nicely and has so far managed to be an intriguing entry into the mecha anime field. Hopefully it can do something with its ideas before the end but it has been awhile since I’ve found a mecha I liked this much (Iron Blooded Orphans the first season was probably the last one I had this much enjoyment with).

Or, use one of my product affiliate links.
DEADPOOL: BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL