Today’s weather is all clear and sunny with chances of spotting a stealth bomber.
- In the last episode, we watched the team meet a family in the ruined old capital and ultimately saving only their little girl.
- Summary of Episode Three: Our team runs into a professor and his assistant, and they learn that he is the one who organized the supplies mentioned in last episode. Furthermore they find out that there are more survivors, among them a granny left behind by her relatives. They set out to rescue her, but they are stumped when her last transmission speaks of ‘monstrous crows’ and she disappears. With the help of Taeko they come to realize that there is a B-2 stealth bomber cruising above them, and the granny is only rescued from abduction by a hair’s width. The episode ends with the team and the professor and his aide setting out to capture the plane and its crew.
- My Impressions: This episode was surprisingly action-packed; a lot of things happened. We finally found out who is responsible for the current state of the Old Capital; we also know that there aren’t that many survivors left for Ibara’s team to rescue; furthermore there are some dark forces moving in the background who are likely the culprit behind more and more contaminated Zones appearing in the capital. I hope the story is just getting up to speed and next episodes will keep this up.
- Ibara once again shows off her acting skills when she is negotiating with the professor and his aide. In fact, this episode felt like it was centered around Ibara. I get it that she is the leader of the team, but she doesn’t let Taeko and Aoi shine, and they only get to support whatever she decides to do. However her way of thinking was a bit twisted for me, when she mentioned “if that accident never happened, we’d never have been born”. I felt that the next step in her logic would be “I’m glad that I’m alive. I’m therefore glad that that accident happened”, though she never voiced this.
- Speaking of characters, the professor was kinda likable. He broke down only once, but otherwise he’s firmly rooted in reality. Like the father in the previous episode, he is also terrified by the strength (both physical and mental) the girls possess.
Even the wolf is so in their awe that he forgets to follow them for a moment.
- The name of the company (depending on your version, it’s either translated as Tristar or left as Mitsuboshi, which literally means Three Stars) was hilarious. Considering that Japanese animation (like Western TV series) is not afraid of referencing certain products or companies, but for legal reasons they can’t say out names verbatim, so they usually insert slightly changed versions of their names, like Somy or Pamasonic and so on, it was blatantly obvious that Mitsuboshi stands for a certain auto manufacturer and heavy industry company. Now I can’t say for sure if this was intentional on the writers’ part, but looking up that aforementioned conglomerate it does have relations into the nuclear industry.
The key to all mysteries.
- When first watching the episode, I didn’t realize the old guy being interrogated is the one they rescued in the first episode. Thus I interpreted his words (“do you have any family, captain”) as a hidden threat. Only when watching the episode for the second time did I connect the dots and realize that he is who he is, and suddenly his words got another meaning – “I consider those who organized the supplies my family, and I won’t betray them no matter what”. Or something like that.
- In the review of the first episode, I mentioned that I found it unrealistic that Ibara can jump from a pretty high bridge and not have a single scratch. Well this is explained with at least two of them having some superhuman enhanced abilities. Ibara’s athletic abilities are tenfold of the usual, Taeko’s sight is like a bird of prey and she understands animals to boot. Only Aoi doesn’t have a special ability – at this point.
I say we petition the writers to give Aoi some kind of enhanced ability as well, like… eating apples really fast.
On the other hand I found it utterly unrealistic that a flock of birds could keep up with a jet plane, though I’m willing to suspend belief for a moment. Maybe the birds also have super powers…
Them crows are trailing our plane like crazy! We can’t loose them!
But the cure-all Aether is also explained, and as I suspected, it’s not a cure-all at all. This redeems episode one for me in hindsight.
- Although I liked episode one and I kinda liked episode two, this is the one I absolutely loved, despite its minor flaws. I’m curious as to how the story will continue.
- The name of the company (depending on your version, it’s either translated as Tristar or left as Mitsuboshi, which literally means Three Stars) was hilarious. Considering that Japanese animation (like Western TV series) is not afraid of referencing certain products or companies, but for legal reasons they can’t say out names verbatim, so they usually insert slightly changed versions of their names, like Somy or Pamasonic and so on, it was blatantly obvious that Mitsuboshi stands for a certain auto manufacturer and heavy industry company. Now I can’t say for sure if this was intentional on the writers’ part, but looking up that aforementioned conglomerate it does have relations into the nuclear industry.
