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Now that’s how you deliver a game-changer in spectacular fashion.
I can’t help but think there are going to be a lot of viewers happy about the turn AO has taken in the last two weeks, and especially in this episode. That’s great, especially for someone like me who was depressed about all the abuse the show was taking from fans. I’m much happier as a fan (and E7 is one of the rare series where I fully slip into fan mode, with “viewer” and “blogger” taking a back seat) when the fanbase is happy, too. But I feel the same way about AO as I did when I heard complaints about the early eps of Seirei no Moribito and Tsuritama – that those episodes were vital to creating the scenario and developing the characters, and they were the foundation that the later eps needed in order to succeed. I think that proved true in those cases, and I think it’s proving true here. The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but it isn’t always the preferred narrative route. Sometimes you have to turn off the GPS and let the characters drive the story, not the other way around.
Let me state up front, I don’t know what’s happening here. A lot of voices are being raised from people who claim they do, but they’re only guessing – I have my theories, just like they do, but they’re still only guesses. I’m still confused – but it’s a wonderful kind of confusion where the possibilities are constantly shifting and evolving, and the world Aikawa Shou and Kyoda Tomoki have created is beginning to solidify. It’s Aikawa’s nature as a writer not to connect the dots for the audience, but he always gives you a fair chance – the clues are there, along with some intentionally misleading blind alleys. And as is his way, he tends to raise more questions with each one he answers. Here are a few moments from episode 12 that stand out as potentially significant for me:
- The Truth tells Naru that she “has a scub growing inside her”.
- He then tells her that the two of them are “parts of the same being”.
- The Truth is the adopted son of a disgraced scientist named J. Johannson, who was apparently the first one to use The Truth’s line about this world being “incorrect”.
- Ao can “see” trapar, quite literally – his eyes are genetically built to do so.
- Hannah, the leader of the heretofore unseen Team Harlequin, is apparently a believer in Johannson’s ideas (prophecies?)
- Hannah quite specifically refers to Ao as “an alien” and says that she didn’t want him to fight because in fighting (against The Secret, presumably) he “might be fighting against his own kind”.
I’m deeply, deeply suspicious of Hannah Bester, better known as “Mama” (Kato Yuko) and of Team Harlequin (and let me express a rare note of disappointment that they seem to be an all-girl crew, like the other teams – I hope we get an explanation for that eventually, otherwise it’s a bit of a cliché EDIT: Not only is the boy, Rajkumar Nair, that I (and Elena) took for support staff a pilot, but he’s played by 15 year-old seiyuu Hatakeyama Kosuke, who was so superb as Nitorin in Hourou Musuko. So not only great to see Harelquin is a co-ed team, but Hatakeyama getting another major role. But how come he’s serving tea and cake and helping out in the infirmary?). Their role seems to be as a kind of deep space specialist team, but Elena and Fleur both speak of strange rumors, of “Seven Days of Fire” which Harlequin would survive even if everyone else died (as I’m also highly suspicious of Stanley, I wonder if he and Hannah are in cahoots). I fail to see the reason why Pied Piper was summoned for this mission at all unless Mama had ulterior motives involving Ao. We see what almost amounts to a custody battle between Mama and Ivica over Ao, with Mama presenting herself as the caring figure, wanting to keep him out of the fighting. And she seems likely to get her way, as Ao is initially spooked by his inability in space to his his trapar-vision to guide him as it does on Earth.
But Ao, as usual, gets past his initial doubts and tackles the task at hand, which is a good thing considering just how much the new few minutes rocked the Astral Ocean world. I think the key question is just who wanted what to happen next, because the feeling I had was that everything was being manipulated to produce a desired result. The Truth seemingly prodded his Japanese ally, Nakamura, to use a Japanese “railgun” on board a satellite to break up the orbiting scub coral after Ao had defeated The Secret, with the result being that the laws of physics leave Ao plummeting into the atmosphere along with the remnants. But The Truth is also the one who seemingly saves Ao, opening up a hole in space that appears on the scub fragment on which Ao is trapped, and inside which he finds a very familiar looking ship and LFO. And was it me, or did Ivica not seem very surprised when all that happened?
So did The Truth engineer all this to get Ao into that very position? Here’s what we can say for sure – the ship is indeed the Gekko-go, legendary vessel of E7 fame (it even has the right damage from events late in the run of that series. The woman who emerges from that familiar LFO is indeed Eureka. Or at least, she looks like Eureka and it looks like the Gekko-go. But whoever she is, I don’t think she’s Ao’s Mom – or at least, not the one from his timeline/dimension/reality. She doesn’t look old enough, and in fact, she looks as if she might be pregnant – in theory with Ao, as weird as that sounds. That should be heartbreaking for poor Ao, who no doubt thinks he’s reunited with his own Mama at last.
So who is she, then? I’ve seen every theory in the book for what’s happening here, with some sort of “Matrix” styled scenario currently in vogue. I don’t know, but my best guess is still that the entire “reality” we’ve been watching for 11.8 episodes isn’t real at all, but a construct – and that most of the people inside it (say, for example, everyone with “normal” colored hair) are NPCs, or artificial beings of some sort. I don’t think they know that’s what they are, and I think that reality feels “real” to them – but I get the sense they’re part of a science experiment (including Fleur, sadly). So – whose experiment is it? The Coralians? The Secret (I doubt that)? Some people can see the truth – Johannson could see it, and whatever The Truth is, he can see it. And people like Ao and Elena are seemingly outside this reality too, even as they feel like part of it. When Hannah calls Ao “alien” this is what I think she really means – though she probably doesn’t understand it that way.
The part that doesn’t fit neatly here is Naru, who by all physical appearances seems to be a normal human girl – but clearly, she’s not (The Truth verified it, if it needed verifying). Perhaps the reason The Truth and even Naru seem so unconcerned about the lives he takes are because they recognize that these aren’t true humans and they don’t have “lives” per se – though if they feel fear and pain, does it matter? Naru even calls Truth “kind” even as a factory full of workers has just been blown up by him – kind, because he hasn’t killed Ao. The Truth believes that Ao will come to see “reality” as he sees it, and The Truth seems to exist outside the reality of those first 11.8 episodes and is able to manipulate it. Perhaps Ao could manipulate it as The Truth does, if some latent awareness inside him is awakened. This is all very comfortable territory for the BONES of E7 and Rahxephon, and for Aikawa-san as a writer – the fallibility of perception is a favorite theme for both of them.
It’s great to see all the heavy lifting the early episodes did paying dividends so handsomely now. It was necessary to build all that detail into the world, and for the character drama to have real power it was necessary to take the time to establish the characters as people, not just plot drivers. This is the luxury of the multi-cour series, though impatience is always going to be a problem. With 50 eps, the original E7 perhaps had a little too much time to tell its story, but with 24 episodes AO seems on-target to deliver a blockbuster second-half as the connections between the two shows become clearer and clearer. We could have gotten the Gekko-Go and Eureka making their grand entrance a few episodes into the series, but something essential would have been lost if Koyama and Aikawa hadn’t done the hard work to establish Astral Ocean as a series in its own right first.
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Snuckerpooks
July 7, 2012 at 12:48 amBEST EPISODE OF THE SERIES
I loved this episode. The way we got some info about truth, a crackpipe scientist like Dr. Bear, and what actually happens with the cores.
The ending was the icing on the cake. Something inside me wishes they restore Gekkostate to the status it once was, but this time I hope we are not following them and Ao does his own thing with Generation Blue. That way we can see what Gekkostate was like from their interference's.
admin
July 7, 2012 at 1:02 amI really hope we don't have a full scale return of Gekko State – just Eureka and Renton, maybe (and the preview suggests we won't have a full return). I'd like to see the AO cast stay at the heart of the series.
SQA
July 7, 2012 at 1:10 amOnly other member of Gekkostate we need to see is Renton, and only so long as for 2 things to happen: 1) see whether he went for a beard and 2) have a moment of awesome with his son.
Anonymous
July 7, 2012 at 1:50 amNo renton please 😀 I'll take Holland, Talho, Anemone and even Dominic over that annoying brat. Heck, I'd take those annoying kids of Eureka's over him.
SQA
July 7, 2012 at 1:07 amI was in full geek out moment there for a bit. I will admit. I recognized the hatches when Ao first saw them. That was both awesome (because I knew what was about to pop out) and sad (because I recognized the ship by a set of panels).
They definitely dwelled on Eureka's stomach long enough to suggest that she is pregnant. So the "What version of Eureka is Ao's mother?" is probably going to be seriously addressed next episode.
You know, Naru/Truth/Whoever that opened the hole for Ao, that kind of looked like a flower. Like, maybe an Anemone? 🙂 It might just be subtle references for fans or it might mean more. We know TheEND is around, after all.
Dr. Johansson looks like Billy Mays (RIP). If "Truth" turns out to not have "the truth", could that be the most subtle foreshadow ever? Haha
Oh, and Truth really sold his cat eyes with playing with the smoke ring.
Ah, the geek in me was really, really happy about this episode. Also, the OST kicked it up a notch as well. Was seriously rocking there.
Anonymous
July 7, 2012 at 1:52 amHell yes, I had my doubts about this series cause it was turning into "what will the secret do today" but daaammmmmmeeee. Finally a big bomb shell!
Justinnnnnn
July 7, 2012 at 1:57 amSo much build-up you're giving it — you better not dissapoint me when I watch this Enzo…
admin
July 7, 2012 at 2:09 amI don't think you'll be disappointed, because even fervent haters seem to be digging the ep. But then, I never jumped ship on this series in the first place so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Anonymous
July 7, 2012 at 2:29 amWha…? I thought that one Indian-looking dood who was serving tea was a boy. Then again it wasn't really confirmed whether he was part of the piloting team or not but considering he was wearing the uniform I think there's a fairly good chance he is.
admin
July 7, 2012 at 2:50 amYes, I've added it (see note in the post) as it's apparently confirmed by the official website. What I don't understand is why Mama makes her pilot act as a tea boy and a nurse…
James
July 7, 2012 at 3:19 amThanks for the theories, I honestly couldn't think of anything worth typing 😛
jebnemo
July 7, 2012 at 3:32 amWould the Seven Days of Fire not be a Nausicaa reference?
admin
July 7, 2012 at 3:42 amYes, but I got the feeling it was a joke meant to illustrate an actual rumor about Harlequin. I also haven't seen Nausicaa for xxx years and completely missed it.
Ishruns
July 7, 2012 at 4:18 amThat was a very complicated explanation for something I never really thought about. May be that's Eureka like?
I also wonder if the other members of the crew are still alive, I think the preview suggested that.
Anonymous
July 7, 2012 at 4:36 amHas anyone seen the Eureka in Diane's clothes floating at the end of previews… So there might be two eureka's showing up. On top of that, there's a woman with purple hair in a bikini, but it's not clear enough to see who it is, if it's not a new entry. I'm really interested in seeing what's going to happen next episode.
P.S. I wonder if the movie character's will appear in someway in the series.
P.P.S. There is one kawaii scene of Eureka in the previews.
admin
July 7, 2012 at 4:52 amI'm OK with not really incorporating the movie scenario into AO – it's kind of complicated enough. But "Rainbow" is in next week's episode title.
Which explanation is that, Ishruns?
Anonymous
July 7, 2012 at 5:15 amHas anybody ever thought that maybe Eureka could be pregnant with another kid, or maybe she's just let herself go. Either way, what's the Type 0 doing her, didn't he evolve and become the new command cluster?
Tolly
July 7, 2012 at 4:35 pmThis is something I've been wondering about since the second episode. When Mark 1 first showed up. Nirvash should be the command cluster in the original world. The fact that there is a huge hole in the top of the Gekko (in the same spot that the evolved Nirvash blasted out in ep 50) kinda infers that that really did happen. Yet here we have Eureka flying around in the previous Type0 Version 2 model. The only logical (Ha! logic) explanation is that neither is the real Nirvash
Seishun Otoko
July 7, 2012 at 2:06 pmThe last few scenes from this episode sent shivers up my spine and oh Naru, how I've missed your sexy midriff 😉
I agree, it doesn't seem like the current Eureka is the same girl that Ao calls Mama, though it would certainly be great to see the Gekko-go and typeZERO in action again.
The puzzle pieces are finally falling into place and as you said, the foundation building in the first half was essential in developing the many characters that we've come to love. The second half of E7 AO is going to be awesome and I'm definitely pumped!
Tolly
July 7, 2012 at 11:07 pm"The Truth tells Naru that she “has a scub growing inside her”.
Not much emphasis was put on this point what with Eureka showing up and all but I agree that it should be a major item in the show. In the orginal series final ep Gonzy tells us,
"From here on you will use this universe and we will use a second universe to find a way that scub coral and humans can co-exist side by side. There really is no reason why there can not be more than one path of evolution. It was fun being with you all this time. You have my thanks."
Perhaps this scub growing in Naru is one of those paths of evolution. AO was the obvious path that we all knew about. A coralian and human crossbreed. Naru is apparently an experiment that skips the whole coralian step and crosses a human and scub directly.
Is it possible that that is also what Truth is?
Anonymous
July 8, 2012 at 2:53 amOne question really bugs me… Why did they throw Eureka out of Nirvash all the way up in the sky… If they wanted to drop her off in that world, why not land instead of having her sky dive with out a parachute. On top of that, the only person that could be piloting the Nirvash at that time would be Renton, so……… That should make for a very interesting family reunion.
SQA
July 8, 2012 at 3:17 amThe Nirvash also landed itself and stayed, so that's just something that'll need to be addressed later. I'm not sure we'll have an answer until the very end, given the likelihood this "current version of Eureka" isn't the mother that raised him for 3 years.
Tolly
July 8, 2012 at 3:03 pmI would be very surprised if anyone was in the Gekko. The previews focused on AO and Eureka but didn't give any indication of Gekkostate and Pied Piper interacting.
When Gazelle and his team go under the GenBlu headquarters they are told that "Below the headquarters is a facility that processed and reused various materials that are found left inside the scub coral." GenBlu will probably confiscate the Gekko and put it under the same category.
I've got a strange feeling that Eureka's return might be short lived. Of course I could be wrong and Holland will pop out at the beginning of episode 13.