Star Crossed Anime

Holy god, this really was a gloomy episode. The atmosphere was so thick, you could almost cut it with a knife. As the Arcus Prima is still in repairs, the Chor Tempest has been transferred to a temporary battleship: the Messis. While the Arcus Prima provided our Sybilla with all kinds of luxuries, the Messis is just an ordinary ship with no luxuries at all. Some members don’t have problems with this (Aaeru, Neviriru, Yun), some members love it (Mamiina) but most of the members are a bit unconfortable with it (Furoe, Kaimu). The latter part really accomplished a great atmosphere in this episode.

Apart from the Messis, this episode had two main focuses. The first was Dominüra, who’s been the one who got them into the Messis. She acts a lot different than when she was in the Arcus Prima. She also begins to get more bossy by the minute. Still, Neviriru trusts her. I don’t know whether this trust is real, or whether Neviriru doesn’t want to cause any unnessecary problems, though.

Another major point of the episode was the relationship between Mamiina and Rodoreamon. Mamiina still acts cold towards Rodoreamon, who still doesn’t have the courage to say something about it. She does make attempts though. She manages to ask Mamiina to talk to her, but again, her shyness stops her from actually saying the right things. In the end, she cuts one of her braids. It seems that Mamiina was always yealous of them. It also seems that there’s an actual story behind Rodoreamon’s braids, as she didn’t wear them just because her parents told her to. In any case, I liked this scene. I almost always like it when a character changes hairstyle. It suggests change.

Apart from that, lots of small things happened during this episode yet again. We finally get a bit more info on the strange windmill that Aaeru keeps carrying along with her. It’s a memento of her grandfather, who also used to be a Sybilla in his (her?) younger days. I’d love to get to know a bit more about the village Aaeru grew up in. I also loved it when I saw that Limone put all kinds of candy in her suitcase. ^^

There also seem to be mice aboard the ship. Furoe, Yun and Limone seem to be quite scared of it, though Neviriru remains neutral and Aaeru’s been used to mice in her village. Still, Limone was able to appreciate a joke Aaeru made about this.

Overall, the great part about this episode was the atmosphere. It’s been mostly meant to introduce the life on the Messis, and develop a few relationships.

Memorable moments:
– The expression on Rodoreamon’s stuffed toy. She really had a strange taste when she was young. ^^
– Rodoreamon cutting her braid off. It had it coming, though it remained awesome.

Yup, it’s as predicted. The Chor Tempest will go on. This episode was nothing rather special in terms of action and drama, but it did provide a huge load of interesting material for future episodes.

The most important part of this episode was Neviriru, who traveled to the temple in which Onashia rules. (I think this is called “The Centre”, not sure though. And what kindof place is the “Grand Temple”?) In there, she demonstrates her leadership, as she’s able to give a very nice speech, in order to make Onashia not disband the Chor Tempest. She was quite the heretic in this. All the priests around Onashia shivered and outraged when Neviriru compared flying in the Simoun to faring war and doing Ri Maajons to killing people. When she mentions that she doesn’t care about God’s will, people really got ticked off. Onashia, however, has the total opposite opinion. It has yet to be explained why she has. She’s quite the excentric person, and I’d love to get a bit more info on her. So far, we only know that she’s the one who oversees the gender-changing ceremonies at the Shrine, she rules the country of Simulacrum, she has a different opinion when compared to most of the high priests and she has a rather good memory.

Still, this also shows us more insight about the highly placed people in Simulacrum. It reminds me a lot of the medieval christianity. They believe in their god, and because they believe in the god they do, they think themselves more highly than anyone else. It’s a surprise that they haven’t attempted to shove their beliefs down the throat of others, like the cristians liked to do during the colonization-era.

About Dominüra, I was wrong. She’s evil. At least, she works for evil people. But at the same time, she sympathizes with the members of the Chor Tempest. Though I think that she got scolded enough to not care about this anymore, and carry out the assignment of her superiors. The last scene in the episode suggests this, in any case. Her superiors seem to be highly places officials. Oh, and they also let the Plumbum Priests invade the Arcus Prima.

The third and last major point in this episode came from the enemy. It seems that they’ve also been enlisting for suicide pilots. And now, their crafts don’t just shoot back, but they also explode when they hit something. It’s a good thing that these things have no accuracy at all. But this does show that the enemy’s getting more technically advanced by the minute. And more desperate as well. But then again, if you know that all of the soldiers you’re going to send to the battlefield will end up dying, why not turn them into suicide pilot, huh?

Harukonfu also had an interesting role. He’s been extremely shocked about what happened, which made him lose his own determined personality. He still does what his previous ideals told him, though with far less enthusiasm. We can see this when he attempts to apologize to Neviriru. His struggles with his ideals and memory turned this into a really weak attempt.

Rödoreamon is getting more pityful by the minute. The thing is that she’s shy. And when she does say something, she says the wrong thing. I suspect that this will move her away more and more from the others, unless she can get some kind of help froma good friend.

I LOVED how Limone was holding Aaeru’s hand at the end of the episode (when the Chor Tempest was introduced to its new, temporary battleship: The Messis). She’s just so adorable. She acts like a cool and cold girl all the time, though she can do this without too much suffering because she knows that she can rely on Aaeru. I never imagined how great the impact of episode four could have been.

Morinasu again demonstrates that her laid-back personality can work quite strong when it needs to. She’s easily able to comfort Limone. She also has a sharp eye when she’s the first to notice the enemy’s motives.

Aruti wanted the funeral ceremony to be over as soon as possible. Why?

Furoe really doesn’t care about the little details. We can see that in the way she attempted to pack her suitcase. ^^;

Yun has a high sense of duty. She likes to act serious, and she also attempted to protect Mamiina from the others.

Vyüra looks up to Neviriru, that’s for sure. Though she hasn’t got any respect for the other members of the Chor Tempest. I’m not sure about her opinion on Aaeru, however…

Anubitufu is a strong captain. You could really hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he spoke.

I also liked the way that, in the seventh episode, Mamiina was willing to sit in the back of the Simoun and operate the weapons, so that Neviriru would be able to sit in the front and fly the Simoun. It now turns out that she doesn’t care about this at all, when she let Aaeru sit in the front.

Simoun just continues to get better and better by the minute. These dramatic shots were greatly executed. Especially Aaeru was great. In fact, Simoun’s just awesome in its ability to portray heavy emotions suffered by the characters. Higurashi really can learn from this. I’d love to see a crossing between the two shows. 🙂

In any case, last episode, we left off with the priestesses and the important people from Plumbum arriving for the conference. We start the episode with Anubitufu, who finally introduces himself. He’s the captain of the Arcus Prima, indeed the biggest warship that Simulacrum posesses. This must mean that the Arcus Niger, from the previous episode, is something other than a warship, as these two ships looked like they were the same size. Three Chors are stationed in there, the Chor Tempest, the Chor Kaputo and the Chor Riboru (the current top-Chor, Vyüra’s in this one). Waporifu then reflects about what happened back in the previous episodes.

We then switch towards the pre-conference meeting. Harukonfu wonders why there are so many priestesses. He believes that they only serve as translators for the Plumbum officials, though the priestesses answer that they are needed to watch over the important conference. The Plumbum officials get a bit startled when they find out that the Tempus Patiem-priests (or the Simoun Sybylla) also will attend the conference.

Meanwhile, we switch to the Chor Tempest in their ballroom. The overall atmosphere is kindof gloomy. Rödoreamon tries to make Mamiina feel better, who immediately bites back at her. Yun also doesn’t understand Aaeru’s reason to be a Sybylla (not wanting to go to the spring). Then, the Chor Riboru decides to invade into the ballroom. This ballroom always belonged to the Chor Tempest because of their status, though now that that’s gone, the member from the Chor Riboru just do as they please.

Once they get sent out, Furoe comes running towards them with a message. It’s been decided that only two priestesses will attend the conference, so the third one will stay with the Chor Tempest for the moment. Both parties introduce themselves, Furoe introduces each of the members of the Chor Tempest, and Angurasu (the priestess) repeats the name of each of them. Except Aaeru, who gets a bit pissed about this. Angurasu then tells a bit about the country of Plumbum. It’s supposed to be very cold. Mamiina then reveals that she only became a Sybylla because of the war. When she was young, she wanted to be a Simoun pilot, though this seemed impossible due to the fact that she came from a poor family. Because of this, she kept wanting to pilot one of these more and more. When she finally got the chance to fly and it seemed that she had talent, there was no way back for her. She now hopes to be Neviriru’s pair, so that nobody would ever dare to look down on her ever again.

Later, we switch to the conference. In there, the priestesses give a very obvious hint about what is going on. I would have liked this scene to be a bit more subtle. In any case, we switch back to the main prayer room with Angurasu, Furoe, Aaeru and Kaimu. Angurasu suggests that there probably was another god or belief before Tempus Patiem and Animus (this should probably be handy information for later in the series). Angurasu then is startled by the fact that Aaeru doesn’t consider herself as a priestess. She just wants to stay away from the spring because she can’t choose. Neviriru, meanwhile, is watching all of this.

Then, we switch to Limone and Dominüra. Limone’s studying a bit of the Plumbum language, and she finds Dominüra quite bothersome. What follows is Angurasu taking Kaimu as hostage and heading for the Simoun-dock. Then the good stuff begins. Aruti’s getting angry when she sees that her sister’s a hostage. The characters then realize that this was entirely planned out by the Plumbum officials. Angurasu plans to use Kaimu into setting off together with one of the Simoun. At least, that’s what everyone thinks. The thing she really plans is even greater.

Events really get juicy when she plants a huge bomb near the Simoun. When she’s about to set it off, she mumbles that it isn’t wise not to make decisions. She then sets the bomb off, while yelling Aaeru’s name, as hard as she can. To make things even better, the other Plumbum priests and officials suddenly commit suicide. Then some unexplainable events happen, along with some awesome ones. Apparently, Angurasu planted her bomb very conveniently, so that only the Chor Tempest’s Simoun remain unharmed. In that case, why can’t these Simoun be used by the other Chors?

The good part, however, is that Aaeru heard Angurasu scream out her name. Limone explains that this means “the love for god”, the highest form of love in the Plumbum language. Aaeru’s reaction to this is great to see. It does make sense, though. When Angurasu didn’t want to speak out Aaeru’s name, it was because of the meaning of her name. When she found out that Aaeru doesn’t see herself as a priestess, she got startled, as she assumed that one who’d name herself Aaeru would surely love god more than anything.

Neviriru’s the one to bring Aaeru out of her shock, when she accepts Aaeru as her pair. The episode ends with six simoun heading out of the Arcus Prima.

This anime’s definately got a strong message against terrorism in the world. This is probably one of the first times in which we’ve seen enemies on true suicide missions, in which their only purpose was to fool the enemy, kill themselves and do as much damage in the process as possible. All because they loved their god more than anything. Aaeru, as she doesn’t believe in Tempus Patiem, really has troubles seeing this.

As usual, we had a huge number of different characters, each acting their own way. A small summary for each of them:
Limone: Acts very friendly towards Aaeru, the fourth episode really made Limone respect Aaeru, and she shows this. She’s cold towards Dominüra, though. Then again, she was smiling when she got introduced towards Angurasu.
Rödoreamon: Apparently, she had no idea how selfish she was when she was a kid. She feels sorry for Mamiina. I think she only became a Simoun Sibylla because her family status forced her to.
Aruti: Most of the anime, we’ve seen her as a serious girl, though she changes completely when she tries to talk to Kaimu, her older sister. She’s also enraged when she finds out Angurasu kidnapped Kaimu.
Morinasu: She likes not to worry too much, the previous episodes showed this. Though this does make her strong, in some way. We could see that when she tried to hold back Aruti from trying to rescue Kaimu.
Harukonfu: I wonder how he’ll react after this episode. After all, he firmly believed in the success of the conference, and seeing these people commit suicide can be quite a shock.
Paraietta: She acts like a decent leader. She does the things she needs to do to keep the team from slacking off or behaving badly, though she doesn’t have the charisma of a leader. I guess that that’s Furoe’s part, as she’s the one to introduce Angurasu to the members of the Chor Tempest. It’s also amusing that whenever there’s a scene that features both her as Neviriru, you can always find them close to each other.
Kaimu: When Aruti asked her to come along with her, she declined. Why?
Guraghief: He seemed quite happy to announce that the Chor Tempest would be flying.
Anubitufu: At the end of the episode, I don’t think he would’ve thought to see the Chor Tempest in action.
Yun: She believes in her own ideals. She knows she hates war, and she set to her mind that she would fly the Simoun just like her friends did. She keeps mentioning this whenever she has the chance.
Dominüra: When I first saw her, I really thought she’d be an evil character. But she actually ends up being a very sympathizing one. She just hangs out with the rest of the Chor Tempest, and she really is part of the team now. She still tries to familiarize with Limone, even though her attempts aren’t really working.
Furoe: She may be a whiny brat, but she’s very active in the Chor Tempest. She tries to find out things on her own, she likes to take the initiative and she’s very outspoken.
Mamiina: She’s devastated by the last episode, though this episode showed that she’s mostly an attention-seeking girl. She lived her whole childhood without being recognized, and now she wants to be acknowledged. Naruto tries this by pulling all kinds of pranks, Mamiina tries this by being the best and not being shy to tell everyone about her childhood.
Aaeru: She’s been extremely straightforward since the start of the episode, though during this episode, she breaks. She also was the first to notice that Angurasu was planting a bomb inside the Simoun dock.
Neviriru: I think the last episode got her out of her crisis. She’s been using this episode to check up on Aaeru, and the way she acts. She then realizes that the two of them were very different from each other, except for the fact that they both have trouble to choose.
Angurasu: a pitiful child. She’s been grown up, only living for her god, Animus. For that, she’s even willing to kill herself.

I love the way that each of the characters has her own reasons to be a Sibylla. Neviriru’s reasons are still unknown. Aaeru wants to fly the Simoun because she doesn’t want to go to the spring. Paraietta lives for Neviriru. Furoe’s reasons aren’t known yet. Rödoreamon was forced in because of her family. Rimone wants to make perfect Ri Maajons. Dominüra wants to be accepted in the Chor Tempest, though her reasons for starting in the first place are still unknown. Aruti’s in because of her sister. Kaimu’s reasons are still unknown, same with Morinasu. Mamiina wants to be acknowledged and Yun doesn’t want to betray her friends.

Overall, I don’t think the Chor Tempest will be disbanded. After all, the anime would kindof lose its purpose if this happens. The episode itself was awesome, except for the few convenient coincidences and the obvious hint that was shown at the middle of the episode.

Thanks a lot for Hashihime to translate episodes 7-11. Still, .ass-files do have their disadvantages. It’s incedibly hard to find the raw files for these episodes. These aired more than a month ago, so any torrents containing these files is going awfully slow. Episode nine also proved to be interesting, as the only torrent to the only raw which seems to be available displayed an error when I tried it. >.< Anyway, about the episode, I can understand why people are raving about this show. Mamiina was just awesome during this episode. I like the twisted mind that she has. It should prove to be awesome for following episodes. We start with the members of the Chor Tempest running into the members of the Chor Ruboru (the Chor of Aaeru's roommate, Vyüra). It's night, the members of the Chor Tempest are about to start with a special training excercise while Chor Ruboru just came back from patrolling. Of course, both sides try to mock each other. While this was funny in the first place, I just loved Aaeru when she acted like nothing happened and shouted some things back to Vyüra. ^_^ The girls from Chor tempest then board the Shimire (the training crafts) in order to practice. It also seems that Aaeru asked Wapörifu to fix the Simoun that her grandfather flew in (I still have to get used to the fact that grandfathers once were girls as well). I don't exactly know what happened to it, though. I suspect the thing broke after he went to the spring, and he was allowed to take it with him. Though that doesn't make any sense. (On a side-note: chibi-Aaeru looks too cute). In any case, during the training, random conversations are going on. It seems that when Neviriru was still active, it was the Chor Riboru who looked up to them. They also talk about the spring and growing up. It seems that Limone doesn't want to hear about the latter, and someone wants to go to the spring, immediately when she turns nineteen, though I couldn't pick up who that might've been. During the actual training, Morinas is having trouble concentrating, and Rödoraemon's getting worried about this, though Morinas doesn't seem to care. Dominüra places Limone in the lead. Furoe annoys Aruti again and Kaimu gets happy to know that Paraiette didn't desert her (after all, during the previous episode, she put her trust into the pair of Neviriru and Aaeru). Then, another ship like the Arcus Prima (the big ship which forms the main ship, where the sybylla live) approaches them. (On a side-note, thanks a lot to Hashihime for giving a list of all the terms and names used in this anime. I don't think I would've been able to remember all of them if I didn't use this list.) In any case, this ship is called the Arcus Niger. It seems that Guraghief and Anubitufu arranged a meeting with them. Normally, it's stationed at the Western Great Temple area, wherever that might be. Though it seems that its commanders decided that there wasn't a lot of time, so they already met up with them halfway. Probably because of an emergency or some impatient VIPs. Then, a pink Shimire emerges from the Arcus Niger, flying badly on purpose in an attempt to make fun of them. It then appears that the two Sybylla on this Shimire are to be assigned to the Chor Tempest, in order to make it a complete Chor, consisting of six Simoun again. It seems that the Arcus Niger came to announce that the country called Plumbum Reikoku (what's lead got to do with this?) has offered a peace treaty with Simulacrum Kyuukoku (the country the main part of this anime plays in). Both of these countries seem to have similar customs, so they probably wouldn't offend each other. Both of these countries worship a different god. Simulacrum has Tempus Patiem, while Plumbum has Animus. It could be the same being, though neither party would acknowlegde that. Still, Anubitufu didn't look really happy when he hears about this peace treaty. We then switch to the Chor Tempest. Paraietta brings them the news about the peace treaty, while the other members are in some kind of gathering room, full of pillow-like things. Music is on, and some of the members are also dancing. It's reckoned that Plumbum only wants the peace treaty because they want the Helical Motores, found in the ancient ruins and used to fly the Simoun. I then seems that the first peace conversations will be happening in international territory, over the ocean. This means that the Arcus Prima will be heading for Plumbum, as it's somehow been decided that the conference will be helt on the Arcus Prima. Then the two Sybylla who were seen in the Shimire from before appear. You would expect that the new ones are totally incredible in every way, though that isn't the fact. While they may be good Simoun pilots, they're not as overconfident as you see with most rivals who appear. Furoe predicts that she'll say something along the lines as "so, the rumours about the Chor Tempest were true", which is exactly what Mamiina (one of the two) does. ^^; Mamiina then turns her attention to Rödoreamon. It seems that Rödoreamon comes from a very rich family, while Mamiina was the daughter of one of their servants. She then introduces herself, and so does the other girl (Yun). Then some girls come to warn the Chor Tempest that someone's moving in with Neviriru. It seems that her father's got some high rank, and he placed Mamiina as Neviriru's new partner and roommate, against her will. At this point, it seems that he's blinded by ambition, and wants his daughter to look good, no matter what. Neviriru, of course, refuses to let Mamiina be her pair. What follows is a bit of random discussion between some of the members of the Chor Tempest. That's another thing I love about these random conversations. The huge amount of characters, in combination with the fact that each of the characters is interesting in some way, makes each of these conversations unique and very enjoyable to watch. Furoe asks whether Aaeru'll be her new pair, though she still has her eye on Neviriru. Yun also is a strange one. She's willing to go with anyone, but she hates war. The only reason she flies as a Sybylla is that all of her friends went to war and died. She couldn't face herself if she avoided it. The next morning, Aaeru seems to be holding the same strange thing that we've seen her with a couple of times. It's never explained what it was. In any case, she looks down her window, and there she sees Neviriru's window. Neviriru, meanwhile, isn't too happy when Mamiina comes bothering her inside the shower. Mamiina shows that she's determined to become Neviriru's pair, though Neviriru shows that she's determined not to let Mamiina be her pair. Aaeru breaks the tension in this conversation when it appears that she used a rope to come down to Neviriru. For the first time ever, we see Neviriru amused again. Mamiina, however, gets angry. Very angry. We then switch to a conversation between Harukonfu (Neviriru's father) and Guraghief. The Chor Tempest is supposed to perform the Dandelion Ri Maajon during the peace conference, and it requires six Simoun to perform it (hence Mamiina and Yun's sudden arrival). Guraghief wonders whether the new members will be able to do it. Harukonfu exits with the phrase that he won't let his daughter get hurt anymore. It seems that the two of them have been separated for too long, as he has the wrong idea about what a "father" means. Then the good stuff finally begins, as we switch to Aaeru and Mamiina in the Maaju Pool. There, Mamiina turns berserk, while she tries to rip Aaeru's suit off. The two of them struggle for a while before others see them and break them apart. Harukonfu then decides to disband the Chor Tempest as soon as the conference is over. He also plans to send Neviriru to the spring as soon as possible. It was really great to see Mamiina break when she heard this. I wonder what happens during this conference. The episode ends as soon as the priests from Plumbum are brought aboard the Arcus Prima. I've read everywhere that episode eight seems to be totally incredible, so I'm really looking forward to that one. I also love the way that there are so many characters who break so many clichés so easily.