With the passage of time, I still see IS as an anime of missing opportunities, but it acquired more of a warm and fuzzy feeling to it. Charlotte, yes, but hey... It is what it is and let's make beautiful memories, as "they" say.

This is a slightly spoiling entry.

Here's the warship in the harbor that prompted CKS' post. I identified it as a destroyer, but on second thought it's more of a frigate. It also sticks like a sore thumb on its background.

The menu in the school's cafeteria is heavily biased towards carbohydrates. Fortunately, they are young and exercise a lot, and hopefully they select the Salmon with Mushrooms now and again.

The art of IS is of a "flat-shade" variety, which unsurprisingly goes well with their mecha designs. The detail varies in general, but does not fill out for the greatest zooms. It generally leaves a surprisingly positive impression. Note the elaborate hair styles.

However, adding a little blur does a lot to make the picture warmer. How's that.

Another curious thing is how the school uniform varies on the main cast. Laura wears pants. Rin's shoulders are open. Cecily wears a long skirt. I guess the mere variation of boots was deemed not enough, even though K-ON and GA:GADC managed to show personalities through uniforms without this outright break in the disbelief.

Laura also wears a real tie, although of the same colour. Interestingly, either there was no 3-year rotation in IS, or I missed it. There must be, it is too much of a staple. But Ichika's class had no kouhai and did not have a chance to interact with sempai, not even in cafeteria.

Cartoon violence: the only instance, actually.

BTW, note how Houki executes the kick. If you try that, then it makes a certain sense, for someone who's extremely flexible. But my muscle memory just does not allow for it. My arms automatically fold up for protection against a counter, and although I let the hips lead, the chest follows.

Tabane: much less annoying than expected according to her stereotype.

There was mecha: magic exo-suits.

And they have gone all Eva on us.

Finally, Charlotte, only because I think she deserves a picture of her own. The "wrong harem choice" setup pops up periodically in anime. Remember Siesta of the original ZnT? That was some blog-gnashing. Dual, too. I think it was done allright here.

N.B. Actually in ZnT, there was no way for Saito to make choices -- only one-night stands -- due to the terms of his magical contract with Louise. If anything went on with Siesta, it would've ended in tears. But IS allows for a complete freedom in theory. Big difference, and more the loss.

UPDATE: Hikago comments:

also for the menu, asians usually have a lot of carbs with each meal: bowls of rice with lunch, dinner, etc, so that's probably just what the japanese find is the norm for meals

UPDATE 2013/01/18: Ana-sempai commented:

In the first (or maybe second) episode, there's a scene in the cafeteria where another girl offers to tutor Ichika. She points out that she's a senior and meaningfully tugs on her red ribbon.