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In space, no one can hear you emo.
Even more so than in most BONES sci-fi, parental issues seem very much at the heart of Captain Earth. As such it only makes sense that Teppei would be added to the mix this week, with Akari as an accessory – she’s already got her own daddy issues of course, but she’s in the highly unusual position of having two living parents. In addition to the whole divorce thing, there’s the fact that they’re seemingly allied to different sides in the intercept-ark struggle – one that seems more integral to the plot of Captain Earth than the aliens themselves.
There was a time when Ishida Akira probably would have played the Teppei role in Captain Earth (even now he’d hardly be more miscast for it than Hiroshi Kamiya) but now I guess it’s his place to be the Dad. This seems to be comfortable fit for him, and Arashi Eiji seems very much in the Inari/Myoue mold – a man of dubious ethics and morals who makes questionable decisions out of love for his child (or children, as the case may be). I wouldn’t exactly say Ishida has a lot of range, but he does have that instantly recongnizable thing going, and his performances are certainly never lacking confidence.
It’s a pretty classic anime (and beyond) sci-fi dynamic – esper teens being used as weapons in both the personal and global conflicts. In Akari’s case, her dad uses her desire to see her mother as an excuse to send a shuttle up to the arc ship where Teppei’s gene donor father is in cryogenic sleep. No doubt the Mahou Shoujo is certainly a useful (frankly a little too conveniently so from a plot standpoint) figure to have along for missions like this one. As for Teppei, the implication is that Tsutomu has sentimentally sent him up there to meet his father – which seems a pretty foolhardy thing to do given that the Arkists were presumably after Eiji because Tsutomu was preventing them from getting their hands on Teppei.
I’m convinced there’s something more going on with Tsutomu – he’s a more shaded character than the soft-hearted hero figure we’ve been presented. But perhaps his motives were genuine here, who knows – for now it’s a simple matter of a rescue mission, which amounts to a race against the sabateurs from the Ark Faction to get to Eiji first. Teppei is mostly a passenger here, truth be told – silently brooding while Akari makes most of the decisions and greases the wheels. That changes when Eiji wakes up – he stamps himself as a highly competent strategist and quickly takes control of the situation. His “criminal” status seems mostly connected to protecting Teppei, so for now there’s no reason to assume his concern for his biological son aren’t more or less genuine. Though of course that’s subject to change based on further information.
Yes, that’s four paragraphs without a mention of Daichi. He’s strictly a bit player here, sidelined in a hospital bed so the supporting cast can get the focus. While Akari has two parents Daichi of course has (as far as we know) none. I suppose that makes him a good match for Hana as she’s seemingly in the same boat, and any doubt that it’s Teppei Akari has her sights set on is certainly cast aside here (the navel-gazing she offered Daichi last week being strictly platonic). It seems about time for Hana to get her fleshing-out episode, as she’s the main cast member we know the least about. As for Eiji he’s escaped from the Arkists after surrendering himself to them to protect the kids, which seems to set up him up as a wild card figure, disappearing for now only to pop up again at a crucial moment somewhere down the line.
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Roger
May 4, 2014 at 9:39 amI dunno. while i do appreciate that they are finally giving more to the characters, this ep just comes short of providing some real depth. They were obviously trying to create an emotional tug for Teppei's character, I just can't feel it. For one, they barely gave any backstory on Eiji Arashi's character. So his interaction with Teppei feels flat. They should have jthrown in flashbacks instead of just having Tsutomu, Peter, and Rita narrate the whole thing like some commentators. Also the purpose of the whole infiltration mission (for Teppei to just see his "dad"), doesn't really connect well with the past episodes.
Overall, the episode just feels like a random attempt to create some drama and doesn't really drive the story or the characterizations forward.
And I am honestly not amused with the whole "Hana doing the belly button forte" scene.
Zeta Zero
May 4, 2014 at 10:03 amAgreed with just about everything that you said.
While it makes sense to flesh out the characters it is quite obvious the way they're going about it too. I.E. next week it's Hana's turn. It feels like a very paint by numbers approach.
Maxulous
May 4, 2014 at 10:17 amAll they're doing here is repetitiously rolling paint onto a concrete wall.
Helen
May 4, 2014 at 1:45 pm"(or children, as the case may be)" I was wondering if anyone else was thinking that, the CR subs were a bit ambiguous (I have no idea if the raw Japanese was any clearer) but it sounded like Eiji went agains the Macbeth plan for an already living child, either some older sibling of Teppei or that somehow Teppei was a normally born, human child who was turned into a designer child (which is a really dark implication, although it could explain how he remembered so little about his previous life prior to his kiltgang outing). Either way I'm sure that's going to come back up/be explained a bit more later, I'm less thrown by that than I am that I'm seeing practically no discussion about the line!
And I will also agree that the pacing in this episode felt off, the show so far has tried to have a rather relaxed tone but just tried to cram in too many things for it to work and it made Teppei/Eji's interactions fall rather flat indeed. Funny enough Akari's moments felt just fine as truncated as they are but, even though they're actively trying here to get Teppei's character development started in a hurry I don't think it's quite working. (And as for the uncle's darker motives, I think his "darker motives" are just getting Teppei to bond with more humans so he'll feel more of a connection and fight reverting to a kiltgang, which as far as dark plans go is pretty pleasant one!)
Helen
May 4, 2014 at 1:46 pm(and just to make sure I get the notifications, hadn't realized google had logged me out first)
Roger
May 4, 2014 at 2:20 pm"(And as for the uncle's darker motives, I think his "darker motives" are just getting Teppei to bond with more humans so he'll feel more of a connection and fight reverting to a kiltgang, which as far as dark plans go is pretty pleasant one!)"
That's another issue that undermines the episode. Tsutomu's decision for that plan just came out of nowhere. You never get to see any insight from him why he thought that it is important.
Helen
May 4, 2014 at 3:19 pmHmm, yeah I can agree there. I guessed that he saw how badly Teppei was shaken up last episode, and how much Daichi helped him, and thought that was the basis for his plan but the show never does quite articulate why. I almost feel like this episode should have been a two parter just so it could've fleshed things like that out more.