Last episode: Frau. This episode: Airi. It’s quite surprising what this episode all showed us, because from out of nowhere it delviers Airi’s entire backstory. Or at least the parts that don’t involve the deeper mysteries behind Kimishima Kou. We did get to see his face, though.
It wasn’t a big surprise that Airi existed in the real world. She was just too real for that. The really interesting part is why Kimishima Kou did what he did. Did he freeze Airi just because he felt sorry for her, or was there some deeper reason behind it? Also, why two Airis? What was the reason behind that? And why did Airi malfunction the way that she did here?
I do have a bit of a complaint about the past three episodes standalone, and that is that they feel a bit too much like a checklist: “okay, we’ve got one girl, now the next one’s up, and after that the next one”. It feels a bit too… scripted, for a series that aims to be so believable. But it’s not like the creators didn’t try to mix this up. I really appreciated how every episode also showed hints and answers for the other lingering plot threads in this series. When put next to each other these three episodes are a bit cheesy but they work as build-up really well.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
It’s “scripted” this way because it’s following the format the original visual novel was in, which started with Jun (don’t forget the first episode of the second half!). I don’t see it having much of a choice at this point, since the script of the visual novel is timed so well with the cour-format of a typical anime. There aren’t many of them this time, at least compared to Steins;Gate, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
I think it’s completely unavoidable since we has a chance for completing the side stories in S1 and they did not finish any of it, they teased all of the issues instead.
Still, “…they work as build-up really well.”
…they*
Having seen this episode, im going to make an assumption that Kimijima Kou is Frau’s father.
They look similar (now that frau has dyed blonde hair). As far as im aware they havnt mentioned her dad yet (apart from the picture in episode 14 – which we didnt see his face & he had short hair though). Then there is the fact that he was murdered, and Frau’s mum was also targeted.
If any of this holds any credibilty, then Kimijima’s room is a little give away. Why would frau’s mum put the password from Episode 13 all around Kimijima’s derelict house if they didnt have a connection previously. (Also they both said the same thing about the robots, projects mars and the solar flares etc.)
Oh well thats just a theory anyway. Although i havnt been able to make a connection as to why any of this matters if he was actually her father.
Only thing im curious about though, is how did Kimijima afford all this ridiculous hi-tech stuff. Even more impressive is that it has been running seemingly unaffected, perfectly, non-stop, for a decade. Just like the machines in his other workshop. Other than that, and what happened in ep 16, the story is coming along very nicely.
I kinda agree with your theory, there is an undeniable connection between Frau’s mother and Kimijima, her mother’s website being linked in a way to one of the reports (not to mention the final episode of Gunvarrel) clearly shows they had some connection, whether he is Frau’s father or not is still debatable, but i have no doubt he met Frau’s mother and was in contact with her (and probably that’s why she came to the island as Frau’s said).
As for how he got this hi-tech, i suppose he worked with the 300 committee and then defected, that would explain how he got the advanced tech, the info on their plan as well as giving them a really good reason to want to kill and silence him for good.
I agree with you hunter that its safe to assume Kou worked with those 300 guys. However what if Kou is Airi’s father?
That’s a very interesting possibility that i haven’t thought of, since we only got the information from an AI which he could have purposefully programmed to not say anything about Airi being his daughter (meaning we really shouldn’t take the flash-back we saw with face-value as it was told by a programmed AI version of Airi not the real one), he could have done this to protect her from the hands of the 300 committee … he probably also destroyed any evidence that links her to him to mislead them away from her.
Airi being his daughter would also explain why he went to such great lengths to save her life and why he made a complex life-like AI that looks and acts like her (which is in turn helping Kai uncover the secrets of the 300 committee).
What I’m wondering is and its me grasping at wild guesses. If Kou Kimijima’s death is fake, a ruse and he’s laying low from the 300 committee.