The title is pretty much what Episode 5 of The Price of Smiles is. It is night and Stellas Squad is doing stuff. While there was a lot of action this time, there were also some breadcrumbs of story development about the past of Stella and her relationship with Lily.

Japanese Title: 分隊の一夜 (Buntai no ichiya)

Episode 5 – The Night of the Squad

Things in the war are getting more dramatic and Stella and her squad mates become part of a mission to find out where the camp of the enemy is located. Two other squads are sent out along with them and at least one of the three is supposed to get through and send the location of said camp to the troops. When Stella and the others arrive close to one of the checkpoints, they see enemies and attack them. Lily gets hurt in the process, so the team leader stays back with her, while the others move forward. They talk about Stella and her past with Lily before they decide they would both catch up with their team and help them. As it turns out, they just arrived in time because the other side has a new Thaurgear that is super fast and is in the process of crushing Stella.

Highlights

Flashback

The only and most important thing this week was Stella’s flashback. There was the wall that theoretically squished her to death – as far as her mother is concerned – then there are people smiling at her (adoptive parents? foster parents?) and Stella meeting Lily in camp two years ago. We can see how Stella has lived so far, even if it was just a few seconds. This is a wild guess, but most likely she doesn’t remember who she was before the ‘accident’?

Smiling

I liked to see the bond between Stella and Lily and I love that Lily might have seen the true smile of Stella before. It shows that they are important to each other.

Commander

Everybody is just curious about why he is there and wondering what would make him switch, but nobody cares why he is such a good guy?? He takes care of everybody and is asking about other people. He knows Stella is not good deep down, even if she’s smiling and he gives everybody enough room to do what they think is right within his orders. So far, I can’t say I dislike him. And I am curious who he sends the money to!

Themes and Trivia

Lily

Since Lily had to talk quite a lot this episode, I realized that she is one of the girls that like to use their own name instead of ‘I’ or ‘me’. I really don’t like it, especially in real life outside of anime, but I understand where it is coming from. In Japanese, you don’t usually say ‘you’. There is a word (‘anata’ and other variations less or more polite) for it, but it really is uncommon. Most of the time you use the name of the person. Since children always get called by their names and are asked ‘What does Lily want?’ they are naturally replying with ‘Lily wants an apple’. It’s just how it makes sense to a young child, I guess, and some never grow out of it. I am sure there are many other reasons, but this is what I gathered from my friends here in Japan and from what my teachers at university taught me.

German names

Is there an answer yet why in war scenarios like to use so many German names, even if the story is set in the future? The three squads they sent out are Bürger, Schaff and Hirsch, though I am not confident it really is Schaff. I think they might be saying Schaf, the pronunciation in the series definitely sounds like it. Bürger translated would be like citizen. Schaff doesn’t have much meaning but if it were Schaf instead, it could mean sheep. And Hirsch is a stag. I just thought it was funny.

COMING NEXT: The Crossroads of Fate

The Price of Smiles

Winter 2019 | Anime Info | Simulcast