So I was watching this today. I have to say, I’m very impressed with the large-scale battle on a visual level as well as a tactical level.

With the inclusion of Glacies (which is Russian apparently), it makes Ginyoku no Fam feel much larger in scale compared to the first season of Last Exile which only had Disith and Anatoray as the two ruling countries.

Aside from being the best episode this season so far (I just love battle scenes), it also felt very much more like a type of episode that would fit in with the first season, which a lot of people had been missing. Fam was dismissed rather bluntly by the professionals as opposed to just letting her go on her merry way to do whatever she wanted. It was pretty serious and that was what made it so different from the rest of the season so far.

There are two things I felt were a bit off-putting from the episode.
The first is how Glacies warned the Sylvius while they opened fire right away on Ades Federation forces. I thought Glacies was the country which doesn’t understand that the enemies of your enemies are your friends? Or maybe it’s because Sylvius is considered an unidentified ship to them so they didn’t take drastic actions. I also hardly think it’s because Sylvius is clearly in need of a break so they decided to give it some slack. Anyways, this part felt different from the description and notion we had of Glacies that it felt off.
Second thing the bugged me is Fam’s Skyfish hunt. Granted, the Sylvius needed to put into action anything they can to get out of the battle alive, but putting this in was like an afterthought. Kind of like “Oh hey, let’s not forget our main characters from this season and let them save the day even though the rest of the supporting cast were BAMF earlier.” I think the only worthwhile thing going for this is possible further character development on Giselle who missed out on taking down Anshar as well letting Millia get bragging rights on being the first one to get a direct hit on a Claudia unit.

Those parts aside, I think Ades Federation needs to start modifying its ship and hide their engines. Is this a major flaw that the production team left out there just so Millia could get her one shot? Seeing as this episode was awesome, I’m just going to chalk it up to needing to get close to the engines to actually do major damage and with all the artillery the ship carries and shots flying through the air in an actual battle it would be difficult to do so.

Unless Ades likes tradition, perhaps we’ll have more Shaharzes used in big scale battles, because Vanships and Glacies’ version of them do give an advantage.

Overall great episode, I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Afterthoughts:

All the characters from the OP have been introduced and/or shown now except for Vincent and Alvis. When do we see them?!

Speaking of the OP, I noticed Lilliana clutching onto Luscinia. D: I really like their mysterious relationship and while it might be cliché I’m hoping that even though Luscinia used Lilliana, there’s some hidden romantic feeling there.

The ED visuals this week is different and featured all the photos of the Ades ships captured by Fam. Assuming there’s no repeat pictures and the pictures aren’t in order. There’s fourteen in total.  One short of the promised fleet. Are we going to get a timeskip again? Oh I was thinking the 11th picture was Anshar, but I could be very wrong.

Oh almost forgot, I loved, loved the scene where Alis was like “Everyone, I have bad news. Captain Tatiana is smiling.”

Gonzo’s really putting everything they’ve got into this series aren’t they? I can only imagine how much money they spent on this episode to make the CG pretty much integrated seamlessly. Though, they’re still not up to par with ufotable’s insane quality.

I miss Dio D:

… really? REALLY?

Just when I thought I was feeling like giving up on Naruto for at least a year so I can finish the arc in one sitting instead of torturing myself to labour through it weekly, Masashi Kishimoto decided to give me a surprise gift:
Shisui

… what… REALLY?!

I have renewed hope for next week.

In other words, the production company takes this chance to put in innuendos that was clearly missing last week.

Shion finds himself at Nezumi’s place which was full of shelves filled to the brim with books. He picks up Macbeth and starts to read a passage to one of Nezumi’s rats (this line would sound so awkward if I had said Rat’s rat).

“The scent of blood still lingers. Even if everyone here were to sprinkle Arabian perfume about, it would not compare to the sweet smell of your delicate hand. Ah… ah… ah…What a wonderful sigh.”

Ahhhhh. Nezumi critiques his monotone reading. Shion counters with the fact he was discouraged from art (I’m not sure if it’s because of his genius qualifications or the city discourages it) but recalls a time when his mom read him The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. Nezumi then acts out a soliloquy. In this scene we can see his scars on his back, the ones Shion saw four years ago. To be honest, I would have never thought of Nezumi as bookish kind of person.

Unbeknownst to Shion, deterioration at his neck has started to form. He tells Nezumi that he wants to contact his mother but Nezumi advices him against this and to instead forget about her and anyone else from No. 6. Shion tells him that he contradicted himself by saving Shion but the boy says that the only reason he went to save Shion was to repay the debt of four years past. In the middle of the argument Shion remarks how tall Nezumi has gotten (see previous episode) and Nezumi once again backs off and gives up to Shion’s lack of awareness. His rats have gotten close to Shion and he introduces the one which notified him of Shion’s predicament, a robotic rat full of sensors which aside from the eyes looks completely real. Seeing that Nezumi has been sniffing around the city, Shion asks him if he’s heard of wasp-related abnormalities, which Nezumi didn’t. Doubling back Nezumi asks Shion if anything was wrong when he noticed that Shion hands were turning black. Panicking, Shion reaches up at his neck and notices the deterioration. He began reeling due to pain and tells Nezumi to take it out. In the middle of the operation, which was without anaesthesia, Shion begins to give up. Nezumi admonishes him and tells him his mother would cry and he had promised to meet with Safu in two years.

“Even though you don’t know a thing about sex, books, or fighting… you’re fine with not living? Shion!”

I just love how these are what Nezumi chooses as things worth living for and I just couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the sex part despite the seriousness of the situation. For someone who turned down sex from the girl who clearly stated she wants his sperm, I’m sure Shion’s not thinking about that kind of thing while dying. As this was happening, a scar began to form on Shion. Again, I had to laugh at the sexual innuendo. Shion relents and lets Nezumi take off the pupa in his neck after which he collapsed.

Outside, Nezumi looks on at No. 6, amused by the turn of events.

“I will expose the hidden infection within.”

I curious about the analogy the characters use in this series. Shion had referred to the Moondrop as like a blister on skin and now infection/disease. I’m pretty sure that when Nezumi said that line he wasn’t just referring to the pupa he discovered but to something more symbolic. Then there’s also the physical scarring he and Shion have.

Safu is saying her goodbye to her grandmother before she left. Her grandmother immediately notices something off with Safu and immediately deduces the source to be Shion. Telling her that two years will roll on by, the grandmother says she’s completely happy at the retirement building, Twilight House. Just from the name, I’m already getting a bad feeling. Despite being surrounded flowers, it looked to me like a place where people come to die and not due to their age. Which is why I’m willing to bet that her grandmother will be gone by the time Safu returns.

Shion wakes up and in attempt to fetch some water he passes by a mirror. He notices his hair has turned white and his are red (Why hello there Allen Walker). He then takes note of the scar on his face and begins taking off his clothes. There is only one scar, but it runs up coiling around his body. Nezumi walks in seeing Shion’s distress. He tells Shion that he finds the scar alluring (Ohhhhh…) and that it should be viewed as a medal of honour for surviving. Shion sees them as punishment for living when his co-worker died of the same cause. Nezumi tells him to not feel guilty, continue living even if it’s just to remember those who died (a line I found particularly beautiful).

After a meal, Shion identifies the pupa as those of a wasp and when asked, he doesn’t know when or how the egg got into him. It’s a parasitic wasp that matures rapidly and secretes a poison that kills its host at the final stages to be able to come out. Nezumi begins laughing and Shion thinking Nezumi was going into hysterics, splashes him with water. Nezumi angrily explains that he found the situation funny since the wasp was developing in humanity’s newest haven. Shion can’t believe that the other boy found people dying funny. But Nezumi explains that something was wrong with No. 6 which rejects anyone who doesn’t give absolute obedience (maybe I should start rereading Nineteen Eighty-Four). He tells Shion to forget about it as they couldn’t do anything anyways. Not dissuaded, Shion realizes that since he survived his body may have developed anti-bodies to counteract the poison. But once again Nezumi slams the idea down as no one would believe him and advices they should sit back and watch it happen. He also says that he’s never heard of the wasp menace happening in West Block, the area they’re residing in, so it’s probably an isolated disease within the city walls. In his opinion the bees only targeted those inside and the government covers it up as “accidental deaths” according to the information he dug up.

Shion becomes distressed and which made Nezumi feel sorry (and began stroking Shion’s scar… Oh). Since he’s been living within No. 6 he doesn’t understand the whole situation between inside and outside and Nezumi remarked that this was probably due to Shion growing up in an environment where they’re told not to question anything (Wow… Ignorance is Strength). Coming to a realization, Shion wants to understand the truth about the world.

Outside they run into an ordinary wasp and Shion remembers that wasps speed up in growth rate during the spring. Nezumi is once again amused by the thought. In the spring commemorating the city’s founding, the whole population would suffer. When prodded as to why he hates No. 6, Nezumi doesn’t answer. They go into a hotel and get surrounded by snarling dogs. After a while though the dogs turn docile and even began playing with Shion. Nezumi, by the looks of it, never had such reaction from the dogs before. The hotel owner, Dogkeeper shows up and he leads them in. Her business model is to let people stay in the dilapidated hotel cheaply and loans out dogs as a heat source (impressive). In a room she shows them a slip of paper concerning a matter Nezumi had her investigate. It turned out to be from Shion’s mom, the meaning of which I didn’t understand. It could be a description of their house to tell him it was from her and zero confidence meant she was worried. Either way, Shion thanks Nezumi who denied taking part in it, saying it was one the rats. Now seeing a way to contact the inside, Shion begins thinking of notifying the Bureau of Health about the wasp infestation. Nezumi starts to open up on information regarding No. 6 and will tell Shion the truth. However he warns the other boy that if he still wanted to save No. 6 at the end, Nezumi would consider Shion as his enemy.

So, everyone was right in guessing that the wasp disease was the reason Shion turned into an Allen Walker look-a-like. The most surprising thing here is Nezumi’s love of books and acting. It was entertaining to see him quote those classical works even if I have no clue or an inkling of interest in them. I’m a Science major so Safu’s blunt scientific reasoning of how the world works caught my interest more than Nezumi antics. There’s an obvious comparison to the minds of the No. 6 children and those who live outside. Nezumi likes books and acting and Dogkeeper has a creative thought process. Then there’s Shion, an ecology major and Safu who studied the brain. Aside from finally making Shion’s hair turn white and introducing Dogkeeper, there’s not much advancement in the story. I’m going to guess that the story will pick up again in the next episode with a possible rift between Shion and Nezumi and explaining the exact reason as to why Nezumi hates No. 6. With all the similarities the plot is showing with Nineteen Eighty-Four I’m let down by its unoriginality. But I guess nothing is original these days anymore. I’m bracing myself for Big Brother. Or perhaps I should be bracing myself for Queen… wasp… Do wasps have queens?

In other words, Safu gets the award for best confession of the season and Nezumi just can’t help but jump in to ruffle up Shion’s feathers yet again.

Now working at a park, Shion’s job is to look after the park’s Sampos which clean up litter and reports in any disturbances. The Sampos are in the form of animals, which I find absolutely adorable. I’d probably litter on purpose just so I could get approached by one. The best one is the penguin. Penguins seem to be a recurring character this season and I’m not sure if the lost penguin in New Zealand has something to do with it. The penguin Sampo runs across a deceased man in the park and when Shion and his co-worker went to investigate, they found an old man whose skin has already start to deteriorate and what appeared to be a maggot crawling underneath his skin in the neck area.

After his shift Shion meets up with Safu who he apparently hadn’t been keeping much of a regular contact with since his denial into the Special Program at school. We learned that Shion’s family suffered the consequences following the Nezumi incident. When the police questioned Shion, he doesn’t deny harbouring a VC and chalks up the reason to being that he couldn’t help but pity a wounded kid in his age group. He and his mother were kicked out of Chronos and sent to live in Lost Town, a more humble area and where his mom set up a bakery to earn income. Despite his genius qualifications, he was denied access to the Special Program to his school which meant dropping his Ecology major. He doesn’t regret doing what he did four years ago and despite saying he is jealous of Safu, the girl can tell that Shion harbours no such feelings complete with scientific explain of why.

Safu informs his that she would be leaving for No. 5 the next day catching Shion off-guard. Since they wouldn’t be able to see each other for the next two years, Safu initiates what might end up to being the best confession of the season (maybe even year).

Safu: “Shion. I want something from you.”
Shion: “Oh…Okay. If it something I could give you on such short notice.”
Safu: “Sperm… Did you hear me? I want your sperm. I want to have sex. I… want to have sex with you. Immediately.”

And all the while, Shion is a bumbling mess. When he says he couldn’t Safu is left questioning his answer.

“Why? Do you not have any interest in girls… nor curiosity in sex?”

Oh man, she’s has the best lines. She also said all of that with such a straight face. This sixteen year old has spunk. If she wasn’t leaving, my No. 6 write ups would turn into “What Safu said this week!” To his credit, Shion at least was man enough to say he does have plenty of interest and curiosity but just doesn’t see her that way. He asks her to see to contact him again in two years to see if his views may be different. Nezumi chooses that moment to send in his pet rat, which acts like a walkie-talkie, to Shion telling him that the strange boy hasn’t changed one bit. Shion tries to follow the rat but ends up losing it.

The next day his mom lets him taste a pie she baked and Shion was glad she finally remembered to make them. I’m not sure if this is significant since back when Nezumi was at their house she made the same pie. Did something made her forget? At work, Shion signs into his office by pledging allegiance to the city. At this point I had to look over to my shelf where my worn out copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four sits. He finds out from his co-worker that the dead old man from before was actually only 31 years old. His body wasn’t given to his family members and is kept by the police. Shion smells something fishy and starts to question the government to which his co-worker reacts to by telling him to shut his mouth and to not voice aloud any suspicions he may hold. His co-worker suddenly doubles over in pain and literally ages decades right in front of Shion, transforming into what eerily looked like the dead man they found just the other day. He dies and the very same deterioration at the neck forms and the moving lump comes out from under the skin and turns out to be a wasp.

The police question Shion about the events and as they trace his history from his bracelet they hear the doubts he voiced out to his co-worker. He is detained without letting his mother know and as they drive into a secluded forest on the way to a correctional facility, they are stopped at a bridge by a Sampo (penguin!). The distraction lets Nezumi take advantage of the situation to knock out some of the men and get Shion out. When the attempt to get away in the police car goes south, he leaves behind a bomb to finish their enemies off and he and Shion go running into the thickets. He orders Shion to throw away his bracelet, which Shion does so but with much hesitation as it could mean he may never be able to see his family or friends again. Using an escape truck Nezumi prepared, they drive off to the city walls. Along the way Nezumi gloats about his height asking whether Shion eats enough. He also teases him that he was too thin it would be embarrassing to go naked in front of his lover.

Shion: “Who asked you? Have you seen me naked?”
Nezumi (smirking): “If I said I have, what would you do?”

Shion suspects Nezumi has been observing him and knows something but the boy doesn’t give off anything. They drive through the doors of a garbage processing plant and use the water ways to escape into the city’s outer walls. There, Shion sees what appears to be a city, but more of a slum, just outside NO.6’s walls. Nezumi welcomes him to reality.

So that was a really sudden time skip. It’s only episode two after all. But seeing as this series only has 11 episodes, they can’t waste time. Again, I can’t help but enjoy Safu’s straightforwardness and I’m a little bit sad she’s going away and therefore probably not making any appearances for awhile. Nezumi more than makes up for it though as his and Shion’s back and forth banter continue. Nezumi’s older form once again made me think back to the promo posters where I had thought he was a girl. His hair is so long he can use a clump as a hair tie. I can’t even do that with my own hair! He shows off his fighting skills when he knocked out the authorities. And despite the fact he comes from the outside of the city, he has his hands on pretty sophisticated stuff such as bombs and enhanced special fibre that lets him and Shion tumble down a steep path in the forest and remain unscathed at the end. His mother is quite pitiful though; first getting kicked out of Chronos due to her child protecting an escaped criminal, now her kid is taken away from her without notifying her. However, she seemed livelier when she started living in Lost Town. She’s a busy small business owner compared to just lying around lethargically in the big house where cooking for Shion seemed to be her only purpose. The wasp was actually pretty gross. I’m The No. 6 city logo being honeycomb in style is not without reason now. I should have connected it to a bee or wasp right away when BONES used the eye wasp in their credits. I was disillusioned with the honeycomb pattern and thought them to be modern graphical stylistics carried over from Xam’d.

In a post-apocalyptic world, human beings have set up the only six safe habitable area and banned weapons in order to create a lasting peace. The main character Shion is simply taking what ever life hands to him and seems bored of it all. As someone who tested with a high IQ at a young age, his family has been given many perks such as living in a high-class neighbourhood. His routine is suddenly broken when visited by a wounded young man who breaks into his house in an attempt to escape his armed hunters.

In other words, two lonely young boys meet to form what would probably amount to the summer’s unforgettable bromance.

OP: “Spell” by Lama

noitaminA time slot? I’M IN!

It’s a pretty interesting first episode. After all of the previews showing teenage boys, albeit I swear I thought one of them was a girl, I was surprised to start of with two socially awkward preteens. We have Shion the genius twelve-year-old. Still sporting a normal brown coloured hair in this episode, he is aloof and disinterested with the events going on around him. The only one who holds his attention is a fellow genius classmate, Safu, and odd, out-of-place occurences such as a storm. It’s his birthday and he celebrates with his friend and her grandmother in the upscale neighbourhood of Chronos. For his birthday gift, Safu gives him a kiss on the cheek to which he asked in confusion,

“Why are you doing the same thing as my mother?”

To which she replied,

“It’s different! What I’m doing is a display of my reproductive response… An action based expression…”

Oh my. They are interrupted by a howling siren coming from the Moondrop, a government building in the center of the city. To me it vaguely sounds like whale calls. Though I find it really interesting how Shion refers to it as a blister on human skin while other characters stopped to listen solemnly and with attitude like that of reverence towards a god. Back in his own home, Shion opens his bedroom windows in the middle of the typhoon, rushes back outside and in a seemingly incredible rush of adrenaline, starts yelling at the top of his lungs. Again, how what an odd, odd boy. When he gets back inside, he finds a wounded young boy breaking in and promptly attacking him. Shion, seeing the wounds offers to tend to them and doesn’t hide the absolute joy and amusement in his face in doing so. The boy is Nezumi (Rat) and he hints to that the No. 6 Shion believes may be nothing but a facade. He doesn’t say anything else to the prying boy to prevent a leak in information about him. Shion gets warning on his electronic bracelet about Nezumi who is a wanted escaped criminal, but ignores the report to continue tending to his patient. Walking in on Nezumi changing, Shion notices scars on his back which reminds me of the scars he shown sporting in the OP and ED. Did they happen to get them due to the same reason? During their conversations, Shion’s awkward personality really shines through and leads to Nezumi teasing the boy about shouting outside in the middle of a typhoon. In an attempt to stop him, he tries to tackle Nezumi but ends up getting pinned and immobilized instead in a display of agility of strength in Nezumi’s part. Instead of being frightened, Shion is in wonder of how Nezumi may have immobilized him, catching the other boy off guard. Nezumi gives up completely to Shion’s lack of awareness and attitude and lets sleep take over him. Before he drifts off and while holding Shion’s hand, he remarks how warm living people are. The next morning, the police arrive at Shion’s house and Nezumi is nowhere to be seen, yet Shion looks out at No. 6 with a calm and pleased expression.

ED: “Rokutou Sei no Yoru” by Aimer

This series is already making me giggle. I like how straightforward Safu is and I can’t help but laugh at the innuendos the animators aren’t afraid to throw around. Seeing as how touchy feely the boys were (holding hands, Shion using his forehead to see if Nezumi had a fever, etc.) a lot of people are saying this is yaoi and throwing it out the window because of that. Then again I’m sure there are tons of girls out there who are pretty much gonna stick with show because of the very same aspect. I have yet to see what people are seeing though. Looks to me like two socially awkward preteens suddenly bonding and becoming friends… awkwardly. Hey, I’ve seen the same type of interaction in Ookiku Furikabutte and I’m pretty sure that they’re straight since they get into a pretty serious discussion about breasts. Then again, I could be totally wrong and we turn out to have boy’s love here. I wouldn’t know since I haven’t read the novel this is based on. It would be actually interesting (and amusing just to see reactions on the internet) if it did, its timeslot wouldn’t prohibit from doing so as well. The little action scene that Nezumi displayed towards the end also holds promise to the kind of quality fight scenes this series can show in the future.

The OP took a little getting used to, but after a couple of reruns with it I find it strangely fascinating. The ending was also a very nice ballad. Neither showed any hints of what’s to come aside from the two boys’s older forms.

I’m assuming that Toyota USA used Hatsune Miku to entice a specific group of buyers, in this case anime fans. Sure Toyota gets my applaud for managing to bring forth a popular Japanese cult hit and combining it with a western ad, but in terms of getting in touch with more customers (which is basically what an ad is for), it completely fails.

Important note:  Japanese cult hit.

Since this is a US ad, they’re targeting US anime fans. Unfortunately for them, even in the large group of anime fans, those who heard of Hatsune Miku if fairly small, and those who have actually knowledge of who Hatsune Miku is, is even smaller. In my case I found out through Cencoroll which happened to have a theme song done by Supercell which used to (or maybe still is) doing songs using Vocaloid.

What I’m guessing this ad will lead to? It will lead to people searching on the internet on who on Earth is Hatsune Miku as opposed to looking up the specs of the new Toyota Corolla.

found out through ANN

This one is my favourite:

 I have to admit, Star Driver started to feel rushed and pretty much predictable towards the end, however if the craziness of the plot was ignored and the the only thing judged was animation quality and battle scene AWESOMENESS, then star driver ending was brilliant. The ending really does leave me wanting a bit more and I have this feeling (well, I wish it’ll come true) that there’ll be an OVA or episode 26 bundled with the last DVD for an epilougue… like seriously I’m pretty sure all other series have epilogues in the final episode.

Ahh well~ another ending to a series. It was fun while it lasted and made all the more fun by FABULOUS gg subs that’s been trolling this series randomly. BUT, I’m sorry gg, while I burst out laughing at your final troll, Kurogane’s Anime Blog take’s the cake for commentary on that scene.

Well my Sundays won’t shine as brightly anymore. Goodbye Star Driver~

(<ゝ∀･) KIRABOSHI☆!!!

Forget being two faced, Keito has four and counting