All in all, this turned into quite a unique series. With the second episode, we’re given a new hint to the point of why this series was made, as we continue to revisit some of the locations of the television series. This time: Kummen, the jungle kingdom that was the stage of the second quarter of the series.
Alongside the nostalgia and the decade-spanning developments, this series also puts a lot of focus on the mystery around Chirico: what exactly is he? What has he been doing after the end of the Brilliant Heretic, where that massive spoiler happened? As it turns out, there are more people trying to find him, and the mysterious mecha of the previous episode may also just have been someone who wanted to lure out Chirico (who probably wasn’t even there at the time).
Either way, it’s great to see these kinds of drak and gritty mecha series again, compared to the over the top and colourful ones that we’ve been getting lately. Cocona and Vanilla may be light hearted, but they actually form quite a nice contrast between the otherwise dark fight scenes here that don’t try to be epic with their direction. The politics also were a nice addiction, and it’s quite ironic that with thirty years, nothing much has changed in Kummen, which just devolved into yet another civil war. We can now see that the plan of the prince, who was portrayed as a brilliant stategist at the time, failed to create a new and stable country because people were too quick to grab their firearms at their disagreements.
In any case, I really wonder what’s up for the next episode, because a lot of that arc was spent on a space ship that already crashed by now. For me, it was that arc that really sold me to this series. The loneliness of just being all alone, along with Fyana being really able to show that she’s more than just a damsel in distress. There are quite a bit of open questions left from there, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
The lack of Chirico around the place has been killing me so far, but it looks like the next episode will finally fix that!
I dig how the show is building up tension for its unsettling mystery while at the same time treating us to a sweet trip down memory lane. As a franchise finale, they’re doing a great job of bundling up the history, and letting us see just how epic in scope it really was.