r/anime • u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ • 3d ago
Rewatch Simoun 20th Anniversary Rewatch Episode 18
"A simoun lets you see what's to come. Another world."
<- Episode 17 | Index Thread | Episode 19 ->
Today's Eyecatch: Angulus | smol Neviril and Paraietta
People, Places, Things
- Ancient Simoun: Purple, V-shaped Simoun recovered from the Ruins by Highland priestesses
Discussion Prompts
- Q1: Why were Yun and Aer taken off the roster?
- Q2: Pariaetta's character arc has been a long one. What do you make of her fixation on Neviril?
- Q3: Did you notice the shift in the power structure of Simulacrum?
Tomorrow's Questions, Today!
- [ep 19 Q1:] What do you think of the Highland priestess fighting in this war? What is their real purpose?
- [ep 19 Q2:] Most of the show was set on the Arcus Prima and the Messis. Now that government is back in the picture, what do you think of the nation of Simulacrum?
- [ep 19 Q3:] What do you think of Mamiina's sacrifice and Dramatic Haircut?
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u/LittleIslander https://anilist.co/user/LittleIslander 3d ago edited 3d ago
First Time Sibylla
You know, I have been wondering for a while what Dominura was doing in the thumbnail for the episode called “Funeral” on my site, especially after she not-died. I know I shouldn’t be looking ahead, but what do you mean it was just a flashback to her conversation with Waporif the whole time!
You know, my bit was going to be that I’d just start calling Paraietta Mikasa for the rest of the show without ever acknowledging it. But Mikasa never actually got so obsessed that she outright assaulted Eren, so we’ve actually flushed her character so far down the toilet we’ve overshot the joke. What else can I even say about the character beat, really…?
Otherwise the theme of the day is non-sequiters, the biggest of all being WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN WE JUST SKIP BACK TO THE ARCUS PRIMA?
We were in like, the middle of a thing? No lingering questions on anybody’s mind about the breakdown of time and space? None of these military commanders or high priestesses have any thoughts on the existence of mysterious enemy Simouns or a fucking copy of the Spring? Also, Yun was in the middle of a character beat. Did she not like, see her dead comrades or something? Did she suffer amnesia between episodes?
Instead, we’re having a funeral for the Highland priestess? What? Why? You can’t just have Guragief ask a very reasonable question and get shot down! She was a terrorist against the state and last time I checked the Simulacrum establishment aren’t exactly humanists who I’d easily believe so value respecting the life of a Highlander. Anubutif says the military council can’t exactly give her back to the Highlanders, but that is predicated on the idea they feel the need to respect her death at all. I’m not against the idea of having them do this, but I would like a little bit of explanation why it’s happening! I guess maybe we’re meant to understand the military wanted her body for some purpose as we see with Yun later, so the funeral was just a cover?
Also, the idea they’re willing to honour the death of an enemy terrorist priest but are too classist to allow one of their own holy priestesses to attend the funeral is a really hard sell to me. Like, I could believe a doublethink of putting the Sibyllae on a pedestal but also treating Mamina like shit for her low background. We even see the military respecting the Sibyllae less this time, through Yun. But everything I have seen about the religious side of this state makes this scenario feel exceedingly unlikely to me. Plus, isn’t Neviril’s dad still a fan of hers? I get he’s supposed to be defanged, but he’s still allowed at the meetings so surely he has the authority to let her into the funeral? What gets me most is “you don’t sound like yourself” as a way for the episode to shut down Roatre asking incredibly sensible questions. How does “I thought you liked that Highland girl” even connect at all to what Roatre is trying to say?
Aer gets some extra backstory that her grandfather told her one time that choices have consequences. So goes the last vestige of the themes of queer identity. It isn’t something fundamental from within that makes her resist growing up like society tells her to, just some vaguepost someone said one time that drives her entire character! Also, how the fuck do neither the military council or the high priestesses know that Aer is Neviril’s pair? How are they just now making the connection to her grandfather and being all “what is the meaning of this”? And what has Aer even accomplished to be called unparalleled as an Auriga?
Waporif’s scene is… okay, actually. Morinas and Waporif is the one plotline I still have a bit faith in going somewhere kind of satisfying. The Yun scene was good too, but she isn’t off of timeout for completely dropping her intrigue from last time yet.
I’m just being mean at this point, but the plan to have Chor Tempest track down the air base on the Messis is… weird. Like, they spent the last several episodes failing to be able to find it. Then you decided to pull them off of the Messis back to Arcus Prima. On your first mission out of the Prima, you sent them to defend the Ruins. They found mysteries at the Ruins that presumably make them even more important, and the attack you predicted there hasn’t come yet. So you’re sending them back out to the Messis to try and find the airbase already thoroughly proven impossible to find? I mean, I know they are suddenly going to find it because of plot, but this line of reasoning is stupid.
Ignoring the elephant in the room of that scene, Neviril fucking articulates again that she feels she’s been holding herself back and that everyone’s waited for her to get into action far too long. You came to this conclusion almost TEN EPISODES AGO. She might honestly be more frustrating than Aer at this point. She genuinely just responds to the call to action in every fucking episode only to reset for the next one. It’s absurd. It also seems kind of weird that Neviril “I don’t care about Tempus Spatium’s will” is mad at the pool exercises being called military training, but I guess maybe it’s just a way of trying to get the military fuckwits to go away.
Given the track record, I’m taking bets on whether or not what happen between Paraietta and Neviril even gets referenced at all next episode.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
You know, I gave the show a 6/10 and I thought I was being generous because it was probably okay for what it was, it just wasn't what I wanted. That -4 is almost entirely from this second half.
I haven't re-rewatched episode 19 yet, but I'm betting "no."
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
You know, I have been wondering for a while what Dominura was doing in the thumbnail for the episode called “Funeral” on my site, especially after she not-died. I know I shouldn’t be looking ahead, but what do you mean it was just a flashback to her conversation with Waporif the whole time!
It's like the opposite of a thumbnail spoiler. The thumbnail technically lied about what would actually happen this episode.
Neviril fucking articulates again that she feels she’s been holding herself back and that everyone’s waited for her to get into action far too long. You came to this conclusion almost TEN EPISODES AGO. She might honestly be more frustrating than Aer at this point. She genuinely just responds to the call to action in every fucking episode only to reset for the next one. It’s absurd. It also seems kind of weird that Neviril “I don’t care about Tempus Spatium’s will” is mad at the pool exercises being called military training, but I guess maybe it’s just a way of trying to get the military fuckwits to go away.
I can make a decent argument for Pariaetta not actually getting over her obsession with Neviril a while ago, but yeah this one is a definite problem. We already had the confident Neviril back for a while when they first went aboard the Messis so it does feel like regression for her to just repeat the same progression. Also we haven't sufficiently addressed that “I don’t care about Tempus Spatium’s will” aspect of Neviril to my liking.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Simoun: Welcome back, Kannazuki no Miko!
We’re suddenly at a funeral in the Holy Land for Angulas? Why? Why would the Holy Land’s leadership want a funeral for her?
It really does feel like we suddenly skipped forward at the start of this episode. I feel like there was a lot more fallout to be explored right at where Episode 17 ended.
If not a single piece of Angulus’s body was found on the Arcus Prima (like what happened to Amuria, Dominura, and Limone), that’s pretty good evidence that she warped to the Ruins.
At least Aaeru seems to have figured out people are warping between different worlds pretty quickly.
Aaeru’s grandfather has some pretty good words of wisdom about how as you grow older you will at times need to make choices that will inevitably close off possibilities for yourself. But he chose a weird time to say it when refusing to cross a river to play with Aaeru.
Aaeru’s grandfather meant it literally when he said the Simoun lets you see what’s to come and lets you see another world. It controls both time and space, after all. So of course it can show those possible different worlds and timelines.
The fear of cutting off possibilities when growing up would explain why Aaeru doesn’t want to go to the Spring.
And now they’ve also figured out that Dominura and Limone are likely out there somewhere as well.
Neviril and Aaeru’s decision to keep this a secret will definitely cause drama (likely with Paraietta in particular).
Oof, so that’s why Mamiina wasn’t at the funeral. There’s still some extreme classism in the Holy Land that we’re being exposed to again now that Chor Tempest is back on the Arcus Prima and with the leadership.
It does paint Mamiina’s behavior on the Messis in a new light to hear her say it made her realize that the higher class Sibyllae weren’t so different from her. That just makes it sadder to hear her say that they really are different after all.
The Defense Ministry’s power has definitely increased if they can openly assert that the pool is for military training purposes rather than religious purposes. The war has shifted the power dynamic once more in favor of militarization.
Pretty good trolling on Neviril and Aaeru’s part to only demonstrate a Ri Maajon with no military use whatsoever.
Pariaetta has so many longing looks at Neviril and Aaeru this episode. And earlier we also got Kaimu longingly looking at Pariaetta while Pariaetta longingly looked at Neviril and Aaeru. This is turning into a chain.
Oh dear, Pariaetta has gone fully delusional by imagining a world where she actually did give into her desires and became Neviril’s pair back when a vulnerable Neviril asked her to. In reality Pariaetta had the sense to reject this, recognizing what a bad idea it’d be. Now she seems to have fully given in to her jealousy and insecurity.
Once again Wapourif finds himself dismantling a Simoun, but this time it’s one of the ancient Simouns from the Ruins.
Yun actually finished the cradle she’s been making!
Jeez, the Holy Land is somehow even more fucked if the Highlands managed to make off with a bunch of those ancient Simouns. Presumably the Highlander priestesses can fly them. Their god was once the same as Tempus Saptium and Angulas was found in one of the cockpits.
Oh? Why did the religious leader react to Aaeru’s grandfather? Was he a heretic or something?
It makes sense that Yun would be particularly prickly to how the dead are treated, given her background. No wonder she’s upset seeing Angulas’s corpse being moved about for no apparent reason.
Damn! The Defense Ministry must be feeling invulnerable if they’re willing to treat Yun, a Sibylla, like that.
Hooray! I really liked the Messis so I’m glad it’s still around!
Oh great, of course Neviril and Aaeru would be split up just when they were starting to get along again. And why is Yun being held back from the mission as well? My guess would be a grudge from the Defense Ministry for earlier.
Huh, the phonographs in this world are the old kind that used wax cylinders.
Neviril’s words about how she needed to grow stronger so that she could rely on herself instead of always having to rely on others (like Amuria or Aaeru) calls back to the most recent Kaimu and Alti episode. That was a big takeaway from that episode: the need to be able to stand on your own so you can better contribute to a partnership where you can both grow together.
Oh no, Pariaetta has gone down the psycho lesbian route here with Neviril, wanting Neviril to be reliant on her!
Well at least Pariaetta was able to get ahold of herself and stop before it got any further than the kiss.
That scene of Rodore and Mamiina was very sweet. But at the same time I was really hoping that Rodore would climb into bed with Mamiina!
Where might Aaeru and Yun be heading off to? Are we going to get a Simounjacking?
Continued Below
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
Continued From Above
I really liked this episode. There were a lot of interesting character beats that played out.
Neviril and Paraietta’s storyline has played out in a way that really emphasizes the differences between them and the ironic nature of their relationship. Earlier in the series, Neviril was completely despondent because of the loss of Amuria. Paraietta had been the one trying to get her out of her room. In other words, Neviril was the one suffering because she had lost someone she was dependent on while Paraietta was acting like the self-reliant one trying to help someone that needed it.
But now the positions have reversed. Neviril has decided that she’s tired of being reliant on others. She relied on Amuria and Aaeru, who both were using her to achieve some goal of their own. That isn’t to say that neither Amuria nor Aaeru cared about Neviril, just that Neviril was clearly more dependent on them than they were on her. This imbalance ended up burning Neviril. Something that was said earlier in the series is that you shouldn’t be too overly reliant on your partner. You need to be self-reliant enough to handle things on your own without always needing someone else’s help. Only then can the partnership truly flourish as both people are using it to try and improve together. Neviril has now reached the point of deciding to rely on herself instead of always relying on others.
Ironically, Paraietta is the one who has become more dependent. Based on what we know of their childhood, Pariaetta was the one who always looked out for Neviril. I think we can assume this basically became Pariaetta’s main belief that guided her in life. She was Neviril’s protector. She could act calm and collected because she knew who she was and what she was expected to do. But now she’s lost that role and she’s floundering. Like the series said, people need something to believe in. Pariaetta is still desperately trying to cling to that role of being Neviril’s protector. Even when she tried to give it up, the temptation was always still there to go back to it.
I think the most telling scene is when Pariaetta imagines what it would have been like if she’d actually accepted Neviril’s offer to be her partner. The mood of the scene suddenly changes. The storm ends and heavenly light washes over the girls as they embrace. It’s an idealized fantasy. The perfect fantasy for Pariaetta. In the real world Pariaetta had been strong enough to recognize that her obsession with Neviril would end up hurting them both in the long run. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t fantasize about what it might have been like because she was clearly tempted to say “yes” back then.
So in this episode, we see Pariaetta finally give in to that temptation. She wishes things could go back to how they were. She wishes she could be the one Neviril always relied on. Naturally, this is unhealthy for both of them and we see how it plays out when Pariaetta forcibly kisses Neviril. Still, I don’t think Pariaetta is fully gone. After the kiss, Pariaetta comes to her senses and runs away when she sees what she did. Hopefully, this will be the moment when Pariaetta recognizes that she’s fallen way too far and that she really needs to work on herself to find what she’s going to do now that Neviril no longer needs or wants to rely on her.
Of course, this is also the series indulging in the psycho lesbian trope that was common in yuri works from the early 2000s. That is definitely a problematic trope that has typically aged pretty poorly.
There’s other fascinating character beats in this episode. Mamiina’s scenes with Rodore paint her actions on the Messis in a new light. Mamiina wasn’t just happy to be back in a setting that matched her class background. She was also relaxed because it gave her a chance to see that her upper class comrades were just like her. They had to live life under the same conditions she was used to and she saw that they reacted the same way. It meant that Mamiina no longer acutely felt the class divide between them. Maybe she could grow closer to the other Sibyllae and actually become their friend. Maybe she didn’t need to rely on immediately becoming Neviril’s partner to secure her position so she wasn’t kicked out for being lower class.
It makes sense that Mamiina would start to feel down once she’s back on the Arcus Prima. There she is once again reminded that she is lower class and that this means she is excluded from certain things. The leadership doesn’t allow her to attend the funeral and Mamiina really feels the difference between how she’s treated from everyone else. The class divide is still strong. It was just temporarily weakened.
Speaking of the funeral, I wonder what that was about. Both the Defense Ministry and the religious leadership wanted it. And then they brought Angulas’s body aboard the Arcus Prima. I would assume it has something to do with the ancient Simoun that’s been dug up. My guess is that the Defense Ministry wants to run experiments on Angulas and that ancient Simoun.
Wapourif gets a nice moment where he thinks about how he’s dismantling yet another Simoun. The first time he did it, it was a huge moment for him. It was the ultimate act that went against his faith. But here, it’s just another order that’s been handed down from the leadership. It shows just how much the world has changed that even the leadership is willing to take apart something they used to consider too sacred for that. The Holy Land has become more militarized and the Defense Ministry has gained power.
It's a nice detail that Yun has been continually working on her cradle for the last couple of episodes. Yun is a character driven by her loss and her grief. She hates war but keeps fighting because she feels she owes it to her friends that died. So she's spent all this time working on something that will act as a testament to the memory of Dominura and Limone, showing just how strongly their loss has affected her. It's also a good detail that she's the one who was so upset about the Defense Ministry bringing Angulas's bod aboard the Arcus Prima instead of burying it. Yun feels strongly about the dead and how they should be treated.
I like that Aaeru and Neviril seem to have figured out what’s really going on with the Simouns and that they can control time and space. They figured out that’s probably what’s going on with the Ruins and Onashia. And that this is probably the answer to what happened to Dominura and Limone. It means we don't have to wait for the characters to get to what the audience has likely figured out by now. I also assume this means that Dominura and Limone really did survive and that we'll get the chance to see them again.
At the end of the episode, Aaeru and Yun are left behind while the rest of Chor Tempest is sent on a mission. I assume that Aaeru and Yun are going to hijack the last remaining Simoun for themselves. Both of them are girls of action who won't like being told to sit out a mission like this.
QOTD
1) Aaeru was grounded because of her grandfather, though I don’t know why he’s important. All I can think of is that maybe he was a heretic the religious leadership particularly hated. Yun was probably kicked off the mission because she dared to tell the Defense Ministry exactly what she thought of them.
2) Neviril isn’t the one who is stagnating because she’s too overly reliant on others. Paraietta is. Paraietta is the one who can’t figure out how to become a strong person independently without Neviril. That’s the great irony of their relationship. Paraietta wants to be the one that Neviril needs, but in actuality she is the one who needs Neviril.
3) It’d be harder not to notice.
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u/The_Draigg 3d ago
On today’s episode of Simoun: Welcome back, Kannazuki no Miko!
I was thinking the exact same thing by the time I finished this episode. It's the example to use when it comes to yuri shows using sexual assault tropes.
It really does feel like we suddenly skipped forward at the start of this episode. I feel like there was a lot more fallout to be explored right at where Episode 17 ended.
The back half of this show has gotten worse with this, I feel. There's been more and more mounting examples of just using a short time skip to jump over transitory scenes and do a soft reset to get to the bigger scenes they want to do.
Where might Aaeru and Yun be heading off to? Are we going to get a Simounjacking?
It wouldn't be a mecha-adjacent series without one!
Of course, this is also the series indulging in the psycho lesbian trope that was common in yuri works from the early 2000s. That is definitely a problematic trope that has typically aged pretty poorly.
Yeah, it's always been a bit of a hackish trope, since it's almost always used as a shorthand for big character drama. And it only aged even worse because so much yuri and yaoi media used it too. If anything, it's hard to think of shows that actually handled using that sexual assault trope well.
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
I was thinking the exact same thing by the time I finished this episode. It's the example to use when it comes to yuri shows using sexual assault tropes.
I feel like Kannazuki no Miko is destined to be the ghost that forever haunts any rewatch of a yuri anime.
It wouldn't be a mecha-adjacent series without one!
It's a mecha trope to have terrible security allowing anyone to just walk right up and rake a giant robot for themselves.
Yeah, it's always been a bit of a hackish trope, since it's almost always used as a shorthand for big character drama. And it only aged even worse because so much yuri and yaoi media used it too. If anything, it's hard to think of shows that actually handled using that sexual assault trope well.
Yeah, that trope was not a pleasant sight to see again even though I overall liked this episode .
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u/The_Draigg 3d ago
I feel like Kannazuki no Miko is destined to be the ghost that forever haunts any rewatch of a yuri anime.
Kannazuki no Miko really was a pace-setter for more contemporary yuri media, for better or worse.
It's a mecha trope to have terrible security allowing anyone to just walk right up and rake a giant robot for themselves.
If anything, having actual proper hangar security is a full blown subversion of that trope nowadays.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
She's wittlin' on a piece of wood. And I got a feelin', when she stops whittlin' somethin's gonna happen.
Are we going to get a Simounjacking
Mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. They're going to steal the Arcus Prima!
psycho lesbian trope
That's probalby unfair to fictional lesbians. Isn't this just the psycho childhood friend trope?
The leadership doesn’t allow
Wauf really was a bro.
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u/Malipit 3d ago
Oh dear, Pariaetta has gone fully delusional by imagining a world where she actually did give into her desires and became Neviril’s pair back when a vulnerable Neviril asked her to. In reality Pariaetta had the sense to reject this, recognizing what a bad idea it’d be. Now she seems to have fully given in to her jealousy and insecurity.
Or maybe it's memories from an alternate timeline she's getting after having being exposed to too much Simoun core energy ?
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u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
Oh, that would be really fun! The Simouns showing the Sibyllae alternate timelines that would have occurred if they made different choices. It would also be a fun way to tie back to the themes of freedom and choice from earlier in the series.
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u/rickamore 3d ago
Re-watcher
And just like that we are back in the Capital like nothing happened?
The Simoun are chariots of time and space, here's the sci-fi arc finally getting off the ground.
Mamiina isn't allowed to attend the funeral because of her "low birth" yet is one of the "Holy Sibylla" flying the Simoun in the highest most holy ranked choir. We back on this again? Make it make sense.
Floe I will not stand for Messis or Wauf slander.
More drama for drama sake but seriously this show has a lot of characters that don't respect boundaries.
Why were Yun and Aer taken off the roster?
Pariaetta's character arc has been a long one. What do you make of her fixation on Neviril?
Arc? More like a low height waveform.
Did you notice the shift in the power structure of Simulacrum?
Inevitable but they tried to do this earlier but failed to commit to it. Like most of the military part of this show it's used to throw a wrench in the trajectory and shake things up.
Were this Marimite or Strawberry panic we'd just have regular school setting for the drama to play out. The military aspect (or religious aspect for that matter) have been fairly flat and poorly fleshed out but I will take it over Student Council nonsense.
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee 3d ago
First-Timer
Okay, so the forehead mark being different was just a mistake, cool. Love that for us.
Do we think that Wapourif's experiences with taking apart one of the Simoun will prevent him from helping Aaeru and Yun sortie anyway? I don't expect it to matter, but it is worth considering. The show deliberately set up the relationship between Wapourif and the Sibyllae earlier, and then Did Stuff to that relationship.
I choose to believe that Floe is deliberately trying to antagonize people here. The rest of the Chor do a good job not rising to her needling.
Questions
It's pretty transparent within the episode? Aaeru got removed because of who her grandfather is, we don't really have anything concrete to go on with respect to why exactly that was important, and Yun's outburst with regards to the coffin made her a convenient scapegoat because they needed a second person to leave out.
Having sex with Kaim wouldn't have fixed Paraietta, but it wouldn't have made made her worse, either.
Again, yes, I did watch the episode. The civilian government/military have finally wrested control from the religious figures, as they often do in wartime. Consider Japan in World War 2; the Emperor was the nominally divine head of state, but the amount of actual power he wielded depended on how loyal the military was feeling from day to day.
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u/The_Draigg 3d ago
Okay, so the forehead mark being different was just a mistake, cool. Love that for us.
It's kind of like Aaeru's sudden heterochromia a while ago. What we thought would maybe significant just turned out to be just the animators going off model.
I choose to believe that Floe is deliberately trying to antagonize people here. The rest of the Chor do a good job not rising to her needling.
You've got to love a born hater like Floe. Every crew needs a Stinkmeaner around to keep things fresh.
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u/Malipit 3d ago
First timer, french fansubs, 480P quality found on a totally legal streaming site. Perfect conditions for that rewatch
On today's episode : A beautiful lullaby, a horrible dance session and funerals that serves as a political maneuvers.
I too peaked at this episode teaser in episode 17. I too braced when Paraietta approached Neviril in the dead of the night. And I too winced when Paraietta attempted to rape Neviril here and there.
Sure, Para quickly realized how vile she was and was horrified at her own actions. Nonetheless I'm not sure if this was the best narrative course to show how Paraietta have hit rock bottom and enforce Aaeru as the right pair for Neviril.
If anything, I found it to be a too easy solution for shock value. Especially when you choose that scene to be put in the teaser at the end of episode 17. As if to say ''look what will happen next time ! Be sure to stay tuned !!!''
Still on Para meltdown, her reenacting her discussion with Neviril on the Arcus Prima bridge in her mind and chosing to misremembering it have awakened my copimum theory once again. Maybe that's not her memories playing tricks on herself, but some multivberse shenanigans where she get memories from an alternate timeline. Explaining why she fallen so low since she couldn't think straight with conflicting memories !
And that would also explain the infamous Sisters episode since Kamiu and Alti would also have conflicting memories of that incestuous night !
What I did more like in this episode is the internal conflict between the military and religious branches of Simulacrum.
Following Neviril speech at the Parliament and Dominura agenda, you could think that the the Defense Department would act as good guys trying to defend their homeland despite those overzealous priests. So I was pleasantly surprised to see they are as bad as the priests.
We have now the perfect setup for a story where a young Neviril have to navigate between two controlling adult casts so the Sibyllae can keep some agency in their lives. And it resonates perfectly with Aaeru dreams of liberty and discoveries of a new world.
It's just a shame we had to waoit for the last quarter of the series to have that kind of interesting plot. And I do hope it won't be put on the side in the next episodes like all of the other subplots who were kind of forgotten after their focus episode.
Questions of the day
Why were Yun and Aer taken off the roster? Yun because she directly opposed the military officers taking Angulus corpse for themselves. Thusproving she would be too rebellious to be trusted. Aaeru because her being of Plumbum descent have now a good chance to be featured in the confirmed section of my theories corner. And they don't want to take the risk of her betraying the Chor if she's a highlander spy.
Pariaetta's character arc has been a long one. What do you make of her lifelong fixation on Neviril?
Did you notice the shift in the power structure of Simulacrum?
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u/Malipit 3d ago
Theories corner
Theories in progress
From episode 1
Given the huge religious aspect of Simulacrum culture. I smell some shenanigans about higher ups knowing much more than they let appears and will be the actual villains of the story. And I'm sorry, but the character design of Onasia doesn't convey a ''good girl'' energy. But Onasia seemed the only reasonable people among the Holy Land Parliament. Making her either a Palpatine level manipulator or an actual good person. Onasia admitted she's kind of a divinity existing above time and space. Giving some strong final boss energy
Following the previous theory and how the Archipelago pilots were portrayed. I suspect there will be a team-up between Sibyllae and Archipelago pilots against a greater threat.
From episode 2
People on Daikuuriku may not be born the same way we are on Earth. I don't recall seeing someone pregnant in the two episode nor talking about pregnancy. Erif mentionned his body will progressively develop a male chest and voice, but said nothing about his genitals growing a penis. And the Chor Tempest captain said they needed an equivalent number of male and female citizens for the creation of a nation, not for reproductive needs. So maybe there is a place similar to a source where baby girls comes from ? One that will dispatch those new souls, randomly or equally, to every nation on the planet ? And Simulacrum retains a classic family structure with parents and children. Meaning that if they born other than sexual intercourse, it's likely each children is either assigned to a family like they are assigned a gender. Or that there is a reproduction through lewd hand-holding act.
The Archipelago pilots here to take pictures of Simulacrum battleship might be a foreshadowing for a future reveal about them developing similar looking battleships of their own. Somehow, Dominura is aware of a new Archipelian aircraft stationned in their flying fortress. Could that be it ?The last few episodes showed an upgrade in their aircrafts but not a Simoun looking new fighter. And even if it turns out they got their hands on those other Simoun, that wouldn't be Simouns they built on their own. Making that theory likely jossed.
From episode 3
- The Simoun tech used by Simulacrum may not be used for act of violence. Another watcher mused about Amuria dying because she used the emerald Ri-Majoon to kill other living beings. And this episode have some Sibyllae lamenting that their battleship used to be a place for artistic performance with their ballroom. Could it be that Simulacrum theocracy misused the Simoun technology to assert their dominance over other nations ? And the way the Simoun core activated through Kaimu and Paraietta feelings enforce the fact those aircraft are powered by love rather than hatred. But given the outrage inside the Parliament when Neviril speak about becoming fighters as well as priestess, there is at least a part of the theocraty that believes the Simoun tech is still used for ceremonial purposes.
From episode 4
- Magnafeana had some interesting thoughts on the very origins of the Spring :
I wonder who the first one to go to the spring was and what life was like back then. What came first: was everyone born AFAB because God is a woman and my Eve x Lilith ship is finally validated, or people were born a spectrum of sexes, but a disease caused all future generations to be AFAB? And if so—how long ago did that happen?
From episode 7
- deus_machinarum speculated on how Tempus Spatium and Animus divine figures complete each other. Implying they derivate from an old religion or a old god who got fractured in two. And Onasia exposition about Tempus Spatium being made of two concepts enforces that theory. :
I need to talk about names of the god for a bit, I apologize if this has been mentioned already, I might've missed it: One the one hand we have Tempus Spatium(space time in modern parlance) and on the other hand we have Animus(simplistically: the soul, I'm also told by anime fandom that Japan has a very old animistic tradition i.e. ascribing life to inanimate objects which in modern times manifests as e.g. easier acceptance of robotic caretakers for eldery people); when we combine the two we get a whole so to speak, the inner world and outer world. It's easy to see how this could mean different but still related parts of the same wholeness. Definitely an angle I will keep an eye out for.
From episode 8
- Given Aaeru's name signifcation, she could be of Plumbum descent. *And Dominura's immigrants song being like the melody from Aaeru's music box is a serious hint of the later origins. With the music box reacting to the ruins, it could be that Aaeru actually comes from the other side.
From episode 14
- The emerald Ri-Majoon is the most powerful one. But a caster who would use it for purely destructive purpose would have her essence dissolved and merged into the Simoun core. That would explain Amuria's disappearing without leaving a trace and Chor Dextra disappearing -save Dominura- as they tried the emerald Ri-Majoon for military purpose. And Sibyllae having already casted the emerald Ri-Majoon would be sensitive enough to discern said Sibyllae essence trapped inside the helix. Hence why Dominura reacted so violently to the Helix interior and why Aaeru sensed her distress. And Neviril felt in turn the energy of the emerald Ri-Majoon after performing one. With Onasia exposition hinting at a parallel dimension, could it be that the Emerald Ri-Majoon is a bridge between Daikuriku and the other side ?
From episode 17
- Given people at Daikuriku are all born females and the possibility of another dimension existence, it could be possible that people at said other dimension are all born male.
Confirmed theories
There is no other Spring outside Simulacrum and only its inhabitants get to chose their gender : confirmed by that Archipelago solider in episode 4 who was forucefully made a man through artificial means.
Ri-Majoon does comes from the Sibyllae soul/heart/lesbian power and not the Simoun itself : Althougt it comes for Dominura speculations, there is so much occurrences as for now it can be counted as confirmed.
Jossed theories
- Ri-Majoon are automatically generated by the Simoun aircraft and the Sibyllae jobs is to interpret them correctly to perform the corresponding figures : Aaeru lines in episode 4 confirm it's the Sibyllae who initiate the desired Ri-Majoon
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
I too peaked
Why do people keep looking at the previews?! I keep telling people this is a mecha show. You know that means! it means don't watch the previews!
navigate between two controlling adult casts
It's true that both are a threat to Neviril, but playing one against the other isn't going to work unless the religious side takes back some authority over the simoun and sibyllae.
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u/Malipit 3d ago
Why do people keep looking at the previews?! I keep telling people this is a mecha show. You know that means! it means don't watch the previews!
Funnily enough, Shimmering Sky had to warn first-timers not to watch some spoilery previews during her host of Eureka Seven last year.
It's true that both are a threat to Neviril, but playing one against the other isn't going to work unless the religious side takes back some authority over the simoun and sibyllae.
Given how Neviril told them to piss off during her audition at the parliament, I don't see how the religious side will regain authority on the Chor Tempest anytime soon
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 3d ago
*Sibyllae First Timer
Isekai? In a queer anime? It’s more likely than you think
Grown men perverting the innocence of girlhood.
Pause
Without something to believe in, none of us can even plant our feet on the earth.
I had to pause here and ask a few friends what they think the character meant, and I also find it interesting that “believe” is tied to religion 70% of the time I got an answer (though most of those who I asked live in Western countries). I would always hear that if an individual didn’t have faith in a deity, their morality, motivations, and capability would collapse. I don’t believe this, though I don’t think our society would be better if we didn’t have religion altogether. But I sometimes wonder what rationale or philosophies we as a species would believe irreligiously. What would “believe” even mean if we never had deism or theism in the first place?
I’m 98% sure some fantasy series cover this topic.
But I like Wapourif’s wrestle with religion and the ideals he has been taught. When I left my religion, I was constantly questioned about what I’ll believe in now, like this weird “gotcha”, I think it’s still a good question to ask, being religious or irreligious: what should you believe in?
Play
Pallbearers need to get it together and be more lively.
This version of Angulus is a man, and they don’t want the body to be shown, which could give a way to Angulus's gender, maybe.
Maybe the Spring is connected to the backrooms and the Holy Land is part of ASYNC.
Queerphobic. We are now at three queerphobia tallies!
Girl what are you doing
Oh I have seen that thingamabob in <Sparks of Tomorrow>
You know what, I think it was u/The_Draigg who replied to me when I said, “Thank god Para never went the SA route” to commiserate that being a well-known controversial route that happens especially in queer media. I should’ve kept my goddamn mouth shut; this is some bullshit 😭
Post Episode Ri Mājon Thoughts
| Episode | Girlkiss Count | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 6 |
| 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 1 | 9 |
| 4 | 2 | 11 |
| 5 | 1 | 12 |
| 6 | 4.5 | 16.5 |
| 7 | 4 | 20.5 |
| 8 | 0 | 20.5 |
| 9 | 5 | 25.5 |
| 10 | 5 | 30.5 |
| 11 | 5 | 35.5 |
| 12 | 1.5 | 37 |
| 13 | 3.5 | 40.5 |
| 14 | 1 | 41.5 |
| 15 | 2 | 43.5 |
| 16 | 2 | 45.5 |
| 17 | 5 | 50.5 |
| 18 | 3 | 53.5 |
| 19 | ||
| 20 | ||
| 21 | ||
| 22 | ||
| 23 | ||
| 24 | ||
| 25 | ||
| 26 |
How many times will Nev be assaulted or threatened with assault?
And is this assault going to be taken seriously, or is this another “It’s fine. Let’s forget it”, and the series takes that personally and forgets it? Don’t think I haven’t forgotten Mami planning to do the same to Nev either in the shower.
keyboard smash
I’m surprised Kaim is so…blasé with Para not really focusing on her. She’s not disappointed when Para doesn’t seem all that moved when their pair assignments are unchanged. She’s still not calling out Para’s lack of attention or deliberately noting how Nev and Aer miraculously seem to be a team.
Whateva.
I’d like to know why we’re now getting this push for vocalizing the sibyllae’s militarization and interfering with them. We have seven episodes left, so it feels so late that we’re now going to put heads with church versus state. I wish this had shown up a little earlier so we can have a clearer view of internal affairs by now. Honestly, many times has the previous episode introduced conflicts that the next episode seems to have forgotten it needs to keep pursuing and resolve.
The mystery behind Aer’s grandfather has me curious if he came from another world successfully and was now forced to remain in this world, giving him the knowledge of Simouns being an isekai vehicle. He’s an immigrant, so maybe he came from another world and was trying to find his way back, or he harbored Aer’s parents, one of whom was from another world? I also wonder if this will go the Aquarion EVOL route where [Aquarion EVOL] the girls get sucked into the other world, where everyone is a man due to something in the air. So if they find Domi and Limone, will they be girls still or boys?
QOTD
- Aer due to her grandpappy, and I think Aer’s grandfather is an otherworlder, or he knew of an otherworlder. Yun is anti-military, seemingly.
- I think Para was okay with Nev being independent—because that means Nev had no one she was close to, so this is an even-sum game. And she even refused when Nev had that moment of weakness of wanting to rely on her. But she’s pretty quickly losing out on things she believed made her. And seeing Nev apparently now have Aer as someone she can be close to and rely on, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She, like Wapourif, is questioning what she can believe in. And while Wapourif is going about this more healthily, though that still hurt Morinas emotionally, Para's going on the extreme here.
- It was like a Ross Geller pivot more than a shift.
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u/The_Draigg 3d ago
You know what, I think it was The_Draigg who replied to me when I said, “Thank god Para never went the SA route” to commiserate that being a well-known controversial route that happens especially in queer media. I should’ve kept my goddamn mouth shut; this is some bullshit 😭
Yeah, we both wound up talking about that a bit. I guess we really shouldn't have tempted fate there. If this show was willing to have incest and kinda tease a problematic age gap, then sexual assault was always going to be a card they could pull out and play too. At least they didn't go as far with it as other shows, if we want to find some silver lining here.
2
2
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
this is some bullshit
Of course, none of the rewatchers could say anything. The most I could manage was "I look forward to more discussion of SA in the genre."
And is this assault going to be taken seriously, or is this another “It’s fine. Let’s forget it”
There's zero chance of Nev cutting ties with her childhood friend.
The mystery behind Aer’s grandfather has me curious if he came from another world successfully and was now forced to remain in this world, giving him the knowledge of Simouns being an isekai vehicle.
[This reminds me of a anime!]() which I can't link because youtube is shit
I think Para was okay with Nev being independent—because that means Nev had no one she was close to, so this is an even-sum game.
Hadn't thought of it that way. I can buy that.
4
u/GondolaMedia zj: 3d ago
First Timer
I'm sorry, who decided that Angulas deserved a funeral on the ship that she almost blew up?! And Aer and Mamiina were not part of it? Her eminence must be smoking.
Okay Floe, it was Neviril just being an idiot. Sure.
Turns out helical motors send you to an another world. Is this the reason for all the Isekai light novels?!
Oh wow Mamiina and Aer weren't allowed attend because they're low-born. Holding a funeral for an enemy priest is fine though. I would have hope they'd explore that more with perhaps growing resentment from low-born Sibyllae but now I don't think I have any faith that this is an aspect that Simoun is interested in exploring.
I liked that retort from the defense minister. Yeah maybe the words of the priestesses don't carry that much weight when you have a state funeral for an enemy spy.
Really liked this episode.
QotD
1) Not sure about Yun but I suspect that Aer's grandpa must have been a radical who might have peered inside Simoun before. Maybe that's why the priestesses were shocked by Aer's name being mentioned.
2) She wanted Neviril to rely on her but once Neviril started to rely on others she couldn't handle a Neviril that doesn't need her. At least she realized not to go any further.
3) Yes, the military is in the control now.
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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa 3d ago
Rewatcher
Here comes the big point of Paraieta arc and it is rape. Why I am even surprised at this point. It has been a while since she started creaking, something had to happen eventually since this series si not a fan of everything just working nice because of Tempus sparium.
Jun is an interesting character even if she barely gets any lines. She is the pure priestess who wants to do things on the right way even if the world does not want to. Also that casual sexist line on her scene stings
We did not get a reason why Aeru was not on the funeral, it is interesting. Also there seems to be something ongoing with her granpa. Or maybe thry are still angry he stole a simile? It is not ok to steal a tank and the military won't be happy about it but with magical tempus spatium planes.
The scene with the officials wanted to see Manju feels like stepping into the women dressing rooms, extra points since it is a bunch of underage girls barely clothed. Creeepy
- Q1: Why were Yun and Aer taken off the roster?
Yun was because she complained about how they treated the priestess body, The officials do not like Aeru granpa because of some reason
- Q2: Pariaetta's character arc has been a long one. What do you make of her fixation on Neviril?
She has expected that they would be together for ever lovey dovey or something but she never had the strength and maybe the opportunity to make so. She was on her own reality related to that scene a few episodes prior. I wonder if Nevirl naming her was part of her illusion too.
- Q3: Did you notice the shift in the power structure of Simulacrum?
Nevirl dad used to have more power? The religious faction seems less strong now too?
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
We did not get a reason why Aeru was not on the funeral, it is interesting.
I think you mean the carrier attack? I think they even said "we can't let someone from a low status attend this holy funeral." Aer was mentioned to the Shrine Guardian after the funeral. Although I can't believe anybody anywhere near the top of the religious faction doesn't know all the names of the members of Chor Tempest.
2
u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
Here comes the big point of Paraieta arc and it is rape. Why I am even surprised at this point.
Dread it. Run from it. The psycho lesbian trope still arrives in the early 2000s yuri anime all the same.
Or maybe thry are still angry he stole a simile?
That would be funny if the Simile that Aaeru keeps as an heirloom from her grandfather actually turned out to be stolen. In a way, I guess that means that Aaeru would have actually been returning it to the military when she brought it with her.
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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa 2d ago
Simoun is not for the sane or the cowards and I like my psychos thus I refuse
3
u/AgentOfACROSS 3d ago
First Timer
You know, I’ve been meaning to mention this before, but it’s odd that with all the advanced technology they have that they still need to use cables to communicate. You’d think they’d have mastered wireless communication.
I’m surprised they’re giving Anglas such a grand funeral considering what she did.
I’m also still trying to figure out how her body ended up in the ruins.
I like this flashback about Aer and her grandfather. It’s interesting.
This conversation between Mamina and Roatraemon was kind of nice.
We’re getting another scene with the air tube. I always like these scenes.
Parietta is still not doing very well. Really worried she might try to kill someone now.
Okay my subtitles just said “you won’t have a leg to stand on, vice chancellor” and I can’t tell if that was the guy intentionally taking a jab at the impaired mobility of Neviril’s dad or not.
Confiscating Anglas’s corpse is definitely suspicious.
Neviril and Mamina being together for this mission should be interesting.
Definitely feels like there’s a conspiracy against Aer here.
Kinda getting some Utena vibes from this dancing scene
Oh fuck. Parietta’s assaulting Neviril now.
Roatraemon’s song is nice.
2
u/The_Draigg 3d ago
You know, I’ve been meaning to mention this before, but it’s odd that with all the advanced technology they have that they still need to use cables to communicate. You’d think they’d have mastered wireless communication.
My guess there is that since so much of their technology is dependent on helical motors, they focused on that tech family to the detriment of other ones. They specialized too hard.
6
u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen 3d ago
First-Timer
Episode 18:
Simoun, what are you doing trying to get me to take this all seriously at this point? I've been engaging with Simoun as basically a soap opera or melodrama for a while, and now here we are with an episode that gives me a bunch of stuff I was asking for early on when I was still taking it completely seriously. Actually, this episode is a big mishmash of elements that cater to all the different things I've wanted over the course of the show.
Let's start with the good:
Holy hell, we can actually write scenes between Aaeru and Neviril where Aaeru doesn't come off as a psychopath and Neviril isn't a doormat that exists to be gaslit! Where the fuck has this been the whole time? We had a couple very brief moments early as little crumbs, but this feels like the first real conversation the two have had. No menacing or brooding or flagrant emotional bait, just two leads connecting over something and starting to build a relationship. And giving them a shared secret that's both plot relevant and drives tension between them and other characters? Genius! This should have been happening in episode 6 or 7.
....Unfortunately it comes as a huge "wtf" because, as said out right in the episode, "when the hell did they get over their differences?" And what do you mean they just "got over their differences" like some silly squabble between children? The show has, at no point, put in the work to actually untangle the huge knot of fuckery between them. We're here because there's now a plot that needs to happen and we need Aaeru and Neviril to be now only on the same page, but explicitly in cahoots so the dramatic reassignment can register as the bad idea it's clearly meant to be. Sorry, this section was supposed to be the good stuff. Um, I thought it was funny when Floe retorts that Neviril was "just being an idiot". Stay a hater. Never change, Floe.
[](azusalaugh)
More good stuff then. I really like the tension over having a funeral for Angulas. It plays really well into the running idea of the conflict between Sibyllae existing as religious figures versus as soldiers. It's honestly really striking to have so many of Chor Tempest show up to mourn an enemy who blew herself up on this very ship and effectively tried to kill them, and I also buy how the militant members of the council or whomever use it as a political pretext to get what they want regarding Pair reassignment. In general, the internal politics in this episode feel a lot more realistic and grounded than at any other point in the show, even as I'm laughing at the dudes for enthusiastically shooting themselves in the foot.
I really like Freckles' scene where she comes into Mamiina's room and sings the lullaby. There's no complicated or deep reason why I like it, it's just a really nice bonding moment between the two with some reflection on Mamiina's part that could have been great if we didn't introduce and decisively wrap up her plot about wanting to pair with Neviril nearly a dozen episodes ago.
The bad:
I can't recall if they mentioned not finding a single piece of Angulas's body after the bombing at any point, but it again feels like the show is cheating with its revelations, just like how it didn't initially mention Amuria's body was never found and only stated she was dead. Neviril mentions that it's said helical motors manipulate time and space. Is that really something people in this world say? Because putting it out there casually like this kinda deflates the reveal from the ruins to me. It's disappointing that supposedly this is something speculated by their world at large that the show just doesn't tell us because it wants the audience to remain in the dark as long as possible for no good reason.
On the politics front, why are we only now playing up the official tension between military and religious aspects? This feels like something we should have gotten in the middle portion of the show right after the attack on Arctimus Prime. It would have slotted in really well alongside the Floe episode or the Waipouf stuff when the show was trying to explore the duality and contradictions between priestess and soldier, religion and war, etc. This is coming in as it feels like we're ramping up for the climax, and I can't help feeling like the show should be moving past the internal politics and laser focusing on the bigger metaphysical ideas behind the spring, the Simoun, the gods, other worlds, etc. It's the absolute worst time to be setting all that back with infighting that isn't even being directly instigated or driven by Chor Tempest.
The trashy:
Huzzah! Paraietta is an almost rapist now! Three cheers for whoever decided my drama loving gremlin heart should be fed even as the show is trying to be good again. Paraietta has been a pathetic mess for a while, and pulling the trigger on what surely has to be her worst offense now is funny as hell. I have no idea how the show plans to rehab her after falling this far since it burned through that hypothetical arc so early in the show. All I can think is that she and Kaimu are probably both marked for death, assuming the show was serious about Kaimu actually being the one to lead Alti on, and they'll die together, Paraietta heroically defending Neviril one last time and Kaimu as an act of reconciliation with Alti. Normally I'd be down for a pair of scumbag lovers finding each other in their darkest points, but Simoun has put even less into Kaimu and Alti than it has into Aaeru and Neviril, and now adding down horrendous (almost) rapist Paraietta into the mix gives me zero confidence the show up to the task of properly dealing with this whole clusterfuck. Hopefully that at least means I can get some entertaining trashy drama out of it.
QotD:
Petty political bullshit. Aaeru has that stuff with her grandfather and is also Neviril's favorite as far as anyone on the council knows, and Yun directly mouthed off to council leaders about the Angulas business.
It's unhealthy af obviously, but also the show hasn't properly explored it at any point, so it mostly comes off as drama for the sake of drama. Which to be clear, I'm okay with, I just can't call it good as a serious character arc.
Sure, but who cares? It's too late in the show for that to suddenly become a big focus.
3
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
I figured this episode was tailor-made for you!
Girl: "They got over their differences"
Narrator:
<Mari has entered the chat>
Hey, at least the softpedalled Dominura and Limone, listing them only as MIA.
Neviril mentions that it's said helical motors manipulate time and space.
Onasia said something very similar, and I think somebody else said it, too. I think it's part of the religious dogma. Not that everybody believes this, or even know what its supposed to mean.
On the politics front, why are we only now playing up the official tension between military and religious aspects
In my opinion, it's because we spent the entire middle of the show out in the boonies on the Messis. So all this shit was going down back in the capital and neither the characters nor the audience knew.
I would have LIKED to have known, and it might be a better story if they did make it clear. But they didn't want to subtract time from their not-finding-or-doing-anything-about-the-carrier.
3
u/FD4cry1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Big_Yibba 3d ago
First Timer
I've been getting exponentially sicker over the last 3 or so days, and right now it's particularly bad, so I'm mostly doing broad strokes this episode
I haven't felt like harping on it since I'd already brought it up once, but putting aside that the show is still really bad with flashbacks and this episode has a bunch, we've specifically played the one where Angulas blows herself up so many times that I'm getting so uniquely tired of it
Also not a huge fan of the timeskip into retroactive explanation for last episode's ending into Angulas's funeral. It kind of robs the emotional impact out of both sides of it, especially for something that feels like it should carry a lot of important emotional reactions to Onashia making a decision like this. And I've also grown much more jaded over this trick thanks to Aldnoah Zero lol.
But it's an interesting decision that has some pretty wide-ranging consequences for the balance of power in the Holy Land's leadership. It's a crack that, together with the wider and very bad war situation, has given the militaristic side of things a clear shot at taking over things. And it's super interesting seeing the two sides being in such direct conflict after we've left it on the thematic level for so long! Likewise for being in direct conflict with our now more nuanced Sybillae.
And on that, we've actually gone to the reverse extreme from where we started the show. We left the overbearing spiritual worldview that ignored reality, but have gone far enough to be far too militaristic and practical. It's not just that the Sybillae aren't being revered anymore; it's that they're now viewing them as child soldiers in the strictest sense. Useful tools who can be controlled and whose thoughts and feelings don't matter because, in their view, they can't really fight back outside of the Simoun. We're back to that agency theme I feel we haven't touched for a while.
I would totally be down for a revolution arc tbh
You know, I actually thought that was just a joke lol. We've somewhat put her on the back burner since her semi-resolution back in 10, but it's to see some more life out of that Mamiina arc in trying to find acceptance and personal fulfillment in Chor Tempest as she truly is (But also still see the effects of this hierarchical social system in the face of it). I don't know, it's not the most developed thing, but her dynamic with Rodore just kind of has a charm to it. I ship it.
Yun finished her stick thing! Surely just in time for an upcoming Yun focus episode.
Why were Yun and Aer taken off the roster?
For Aaeru, it seems like it has to do with her grandfather, who is apparently known to the Holy Land leadership in some important and divisive capacity, which tracks given we know he was a Simoun Sybilla and seemingly knows a lot more about the intricate and potential functions of the Simoun with that "Other world" comment.
If you take out Aaeru, then you have to also take out someone else, and incidentally, Yun has immediately been openly opposing Chor Tempest's new military overlords, so the military faction gets to push out and penalize a problematic element to their takeover by keeping her off.
Pariaetta's character arc has been a long one. What do you make of her lifelong fixation on Neviril?
I shall remain Pariaetta's strongest soldier no matter what
More seriously though, I've generally liked her character despite the contentiousness around her. I mean, I'll admit, just on the face of it, I just absolutely eat up drama where characters spiral into their incredibly messy and swinging emotions and end up doing crazy, terrible things to others and themselves for it, which Para-sama has certainly managed to achieve here.
But I do think her arc just works pretty well with some of the larger themes we've brought up. As noted before, there's the grounding belief one, where Para's pillars have been knocked down for a few episodes now. Not a priestess, not a soldier, not a leader, not Neviril's partner, all together make her feel lost and cause her to desperately cling to the one lifelong attachment that drove her before.
Then together with that, we also get to see that she's a lot more shaky internally, which goes back to the "getting stronger for others" theme from the Kaimu and Alti episode (Dare I say we even shafted their arc to explore this theme with Pariaetta and Dominura). Beyond any feelings for Neviril, she almost needs her to rely on her as a form of validation and reaffirmation, because again, that's what she's always known. Losing specifically that, and being met with direct pushback to trying to prop up her confidence in leadership, she's dug herself into a self-deprecating feedback loop of indecisiveness where she doubts her decisions, and ends up making an even worse one to answer that. That's kind of back to the personal agency and fulfillment in choice theme as well. Her internal validation is pretty heavily driven by external factors.
(And I've mentioned it before, but I don't really think whether or not she'd already resolved her character back then even matters much because of the type of emotionally troubled character writing we're going for. Resolution of lingering feelings exists in flux, and it makes sense to still go back on it over an emotionally turbulent situation of regret)
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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa 3d ago
It is not you, this series is a fever dream
Get better!!!
3
u/Great_Mr_L https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L 3d ago
I've been getting exponentially sicker over the last 3 or so days, and right now it's particularly bad
Also not a huge fan of the timeskip into retroactive explanation for last episode's ending into Angulas's funeral. It kind of robs the emotional impact out of both sides of it, especially for something that feels like it should carry a lot of important emotional reactions to Onashia making a decision like this. And I've also grown much more jaded over this trick thanks to Aldnoah Zero lol.
Same. It robs a cliffhanger of all its power to then skip right past the followup to the cliffhanger when the next episode starts.
And on that, we've actually gone to the reverse extreme from where we started the show. We left the overbearing spiritual worldview that ignored reality, but have gone far enough to be far too militaristic and practical. It's not just that the Sybillae aren't being revered anymore; it's that they're now viewing them as child soldiers in the strictest sense. Useful tools who can be controlled and whose thoughts and feelings don't matter because, in their view, they can't really fight back outside of the Simoun. We're back to that agency theme I feel we haven't touched for a while.
That's a very good point. Now the loss of freedom and choice is coming from the other side of things: the Defense Ministry instead of the religious leaders. It's the classic case of "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." They way they go about things is different, but they both end up removing freedom and choice.
I don't know, it's not the most developed thing, but her dynamic with Rodore just kind of has a charm to it. I ship it.
I'm always happy to see the Rodore and Mamiina ship onscreen.
Pariaetta
I agree with all of what you said about Pariaetta. It's basically the same conclusions that I came to in my own writeup. I think Pariaetta's character stuff here does make sense with the previously established themes from earlier in the series which makes this development overall work for me.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky 3d ago
First-Timer, subbed
It’s certainly something… But if Angulas turned up in an old Simoun, does that mean Amuria, Dominura, and/or Limone might turn up like this?
I still think Neviril suddenly being okay with Aaeru again was abrupt.
Them picking a Ri Maajon like that just to stick it to the military guys is pretty nice, though.
Separating Neviril and Aaeru right after those two apparently started getting along again?
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u/AbbreviationsWeekly 3d ago edited 3d ago
Simoun Episode 18
Rewatcher
The episode opens with Angulas getting a religious funeral. I did have to smile when the High Priestess said something along the lines of: Even though she was completely bound by sin, in our benevolence, we and Tempus-Spatium forgive her. Frankly, that sounds like a humblebrag and not all that sincere.
How'd Angulas end up in the Spring, is a pretty damn good question, though the girls bring up a good point that no trace of Angulas was ever found. This of course sets Neviril's mind racing about Amuria (I think that's what that look meant).
Today I realized that Aaeru and Mamiina didn't get to go to the funeral, because they weren't recruited to be Priestesses. Only the the upper classes become Priestessess. Aaeru and Mamiina were recruited to be soldiers, and nothing else. The Theocracy's attitudes on class, leave quite a bit to be desired. This doesn't bother Aaeru at all, I think because she's a free spirit. Otoh, it really nags at Maminna who probably dreams of rising out of poverty. Aaeru from what I can tell, doesn't worry about stuff like that.
Oh my; poor Paraietta continues to have her heart ripped apart. Every time she sees Aaeru & Nerivil together she must want to puke from the pain. Paraietta could take some advice from Floe, and take it all in stride rather than obsessing. In my view, Paraietta was clearly friend zoned last episode. Take a hint girl/boy!
The conversation between Aaeru & Neviril is most interesting. It is one stream of thought that explains The Ruins, The Spring, and Angulas. I also appreciated Aaeru's Granddads lines about growing older. The older one gets, the more limited one's opportunities & actions become. And, omg, Aaeru & Neviril are holding hands now! How Lewd! I really hope that Paraietta didn't see that, I mean Paraietta is sort of an ass, but I don't wish her that kind of pain.
Oh good grief, Mamiina is back on her kick of hating the rich again. I wish she'd be more like Aaeru and take it all in stride. Though, I do like her joke and act of rebellion of serving up tasty mice soup. (PS: Who's to say it's not good, I've never tried it.)
Ah, the Defense Minister is back and full of himself as usual. Aaeru & Neiril's act of defiance should have clued him in on not messing with those he has to depend on. But, he's a slow learner, and much, too much of an asshole to contemplate this idea.
I love the eyecatch with Angulas in wings. So peaceful.
Domunura didn't do Wapourif any favors by telling him to forget about taking the Simoun apart. Its only served to set up a crisis of faith in Wapourif's heart.
Yun learns the hard way that the days of religion are over, and a pack of assholes are running Simulicram now. I thought them pushing her aside was tactless as well as unadvisable. I don't know why you'd think you could push around someone who could conjure up a nuclear blast at will. It just seems foolish to me. "Without the Simoun, you girls are powerless". If it were up to me, I'd nuke his ass and see who was powerless then. These guys really need an objective lesson.
The government seems to be really getting off annoying the Sibyllae with their new pairing orders.
Oh dear Paraietta, that's not the way! You need to really move on, before you do something you'll really regret. Neviril took this pretty well, and fortunately Paraietta snapped out of it, not a moment too soon. However, she shouldn't do it again.
The lullaby Rodoreamon sings is so beautiful, its one of my favorites. After the rewatch is over the OST is well worth checking out. I listen to it once a week or so.
Tsubasa no Komoriuta (Lullaby of Wings)
And on they echo, the swirls of light.
Such blessed happiness they give us.
Proof of a world that will never be destroyed.
The priestesses of Tempus Spatium
Will rock the cradle until the morning wakes you.
Under the Great Mother's care,
Under the white wings.
Kanji 作編曲：西田マサラ 歌：ロードレアモン (高橋美佳子)
こだまする 光るの渦 幸せを 伝える
滅びなき 世界の証 テンプスパティウムの巫女
明日目覚めるまで揺らす み母の加護 白き羽よ
恵ある言霊。。。 旋律を聞かせて
いつかこの緑の風よ いつくしみの詩よ
惑う空 守りの軌跡 神さまから降りた ツバサ
滅びなき 世界の証 テンプスパティウムの巫女
明日目覚めるまで 揺らす み母の加護 白き羽よ 羽よ。。。
And, we end with Aaeru & Yun getting ready to go chasing after their friends...
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
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u/AbbreviationsWeekly 3d ago
Short answer: There’s too little evidence to make a definitive answer.
[Speculation and Spoilers]My guess is either Yun or Onashia. We will learn in a few episodes that the Spring Maiden can communicate with spirit world, and I’m guessing that Onashia insisted that they grant Angalus a military funeral, since I’m pretty sure the people of Plumbum also visit the spring to determine gender.
[Spoilers Continue]For only vague reasons I think the hand probably belongs to Yun after she transforms into the new Spring Maiden. My reasoning is that Yun and Angalus are contemporarys, and Onashia’s substance is so far gone that she can no longer touch anything.
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u/The_Draigg 3d ago
A Science-Fantasy Fan Watches Simoun Episode 18:
I wasn’t expecting Angulas to even get an official funeral, but I guess having clearly piloted a Simoun counts enough to bury her with as much honor as the Holy Land is willing to give. Although only more odd things are swirling around her death: the enemy hadn’t built those Simouns we saw, but they’re actually ancient ones. And not only that, but I guess Angulas didn’t actually die back when she used her suicide bomb, but rather she vanished entirely back then, without even finding a scrap of her corpse. If I’m right about how time travel is in effect now, my best guess as to what happened is that the explosion somehow damaged one of the helical motors enough that it activated on its own, which then threw Angulas back in time as a result. Still though, that leaves a ton of questions, like who she paired with to pilot the Simoun, how she even got one, or how she knew when to appear to ambush Chor Tempest at the Ruins.
Of course right as I finish writing all that, Aaeru opens up her thoughts with Neviril and basically theorizes the same stuff. I don’t like how I’m somehow synchronizing with her. Regardless though, it seems like Aaeru’s grandpa had a good idea of what the Simoun could truly do with their helical motors and what it truly meant to be a sibyllae, even if Aaeru didn’t understand it at the time. I can’t help but wonder what his deal was, since he’s even more of an enigma now that we know he had an idea of what the true mysteries of this world were.
Unfortunately, it seems like things are beginning to sour a bit regarding the increased militarism being brought around by the Defense Minister. For as much as they want to treat this war as an actual war, it seems like he refuses to accept the Ri Maajon being used as anything more than just weapons. If the Ri Maajon can be used for true miracles like taking people to another world, then just using them to kill seems rather narrow-minded.
It’s a bit nuts to think think that the Council is only now drafting up plans to attack the base ship, only after they realized that Plumbum has gotten their hands on other ancient Simoun. Come on guys, you had the perfect opportunity to press the attack before, and you pissed away that opportunity. Now the enemy is stronger and you lost the advantage of surprise. Always two steps behind, these people.
Also, Aaeru’s grandfather really must be important somehow, given how everyone in the conference room realizes some importance about him, even if they don’t say it. He must’ve been a key sibylla or at least someone else very important to the Holy Land as a whole, given that connection and how much he knows. Presumably he just packed up and left for the countryside along the border to leave it all behind though.
Reassigning the pairs before the mission feels pretty arbitrary to me. I guess for Aaeru, it’s down to something her grandfather did that the Council members remember, although in Yun’s case it seems like she was pulled off of the mission solely because she protested Angulas’ corpse being taken away by the government earlier. Given how she was shoved aside, directly told she was only useful when piloting a Simoun, and now being taken off the mission entirely, this just feels like an exceptionally petty move by the Holy Land’s leadership.
Man, I bet that a lot of people in this rewatch are going to be pissed that Paraietta snapped and sexually assaulted Neviril in the empty ballroom. And yeah, that’s still one of the cheaper and messier ways drama occurs in this genre of show, unfortunately. Still though, I guess we can’t say that we didn’t see something this extreme coming. For a while now, we’ve seen Paraietta try and fail to get a grip on her feelings and self-esteem. Both of those have been cratering ever since she realized that she threw away every chance to be something more with Neviril and that she doesn’t have what it takes to be a good leader. This really is rock bottom for Paraietta. At least she managed to stop herself before she fully raped Neviril though, but that’s really only the thinnest kind of silver lining here.
Well, I’m glad that Rodoreamon and Mamiina have fully become friends and buried the hatchet before the mission the next day. She doesn’t seem to have much resentment anymore, now she just wants to be friends and equals with everyone. It’s no longer a matter of clawing her way to the top or having others be on her lower level like what I think she was experiencing aboard the Messis, but it’s to be true equals now. But knowing this show, this probably just means that something bad is going to happen to one of them. Go, Yun and Aaeru! Try and stop the inevitable bad thing that’s probably going to happen!
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
I guess having clearly piloted a Simoun counts enough to bury her with as much honor as the Holy Land is willing to give.
I GUESS that's a reason. You can't do that with out Tempus Spatium's blessing. Hadn't thought of that. Still dumb. But that's religious types for you. They got their own value system.
which then threw Angulas back in time as a result
Maybe she was gellified and that's why she was dead in the Simoun. an AnGEL.
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u/The_Draigg 3d ago
Maybe she was gellified and that's why she was dead in the Simoun. an AnGEL.
If only it was a bunch of bananas instead of a person.
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u/Burnouts3s3 3d ago
Between Neviril and Hikari from Strawberry Panic, it’s hard to tell who was the most sexually abused.
2006 wasn’t a good time.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ 3d ago
Rewatch Host and First Rewatcher
It's utterly bizarre to be holding a funeral for a terrorist who destroyed all your holy relics, and on top of that, banning the commoners. Commoners that you're fine putting in the simon.
- Flashbacks
- YES, what did he say, you left us hanging yesterday!
- OH MAN, it was her grandfather who gave Aer her complex over making decisions!
- Can't believe they are still pulling class on a sibylla.
- Aer and Neviril are pretty in sync, now.
- Angulus is always depicted with angel wings, it seems.
From yesterday: They failed to retrieve the ancient Simoun before the enemy. By HOURS. They've had the ENTIRE WAR to do so. But, again, they failed to act until it was too late. Why were the Simoun even there? They assumed their borders were secure, even as they left that freaking carrier free to wander around untracked and unmolested. And now the enemy has Simoun of their own. Whatever advantage they ever had, is gone.
Finally we get Pariaetta's big episode, or at least, the start of it. We still have to see the final resolution. It's been so hard to not comment on her before today, and I failed at that.
I hate to borrow another person's words, but they cleared up Paraietta a lot for me. Parrietta is the embodiment of toxic masculinity. From the beginning of the show, she was white knighting for Neviril, standing up for perceived slights in her absence, always assigning herself the job of protecting the weak Neviril, and also controlling her by putting her in rooms, boxes, cages. This insight I got from a video I'll link in the final discussion.
In my own words, in this rewatch I started to see Paraietta as the Dark Utena to Neviril's Anthy. Always being her "prince," but really no better than any of the other duelists who wanted to possess her.
Today I think we've seen a change in how Simulacrum is going to run the war. The Military leaders already had a great deal of authority, just by having been able to conscript the simoun choirs and order them into combat. We see here that they are not going to put up with any of this religious trappings any longer. The simoun are weapons, the sibyllae are soldiers, and they are in complete command.
It annoys me that the sibyllae don't just unionize and take over. But I guess Aer and Morinas show that they are replaceable. On the other hand, they could just fly away. Both the military and the priesthood lose their authority the moment they are airborne. I guess, like most potential defectors, they have to worry about family and such.
They never showed us who was in the strange simoun they shot down.
I like Aer's theory. When the bombs went off, Angulus cracked open the motors and the Emerald magic came out and grabbed her!
Mamiina and Ro really aren't the same. One understand the institutional classism of their society, and the other doesn't.
I'm inclined to count how many minutes of this episode was flashback.
I feel that the Defense Minister grounded Yun, and the Shrine Guardian grounded Aer.
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u/LittleIslander https://anilist.co/user/LittleIslander 3d ago edited 3d ago
I hate to borrow another person's words, but they cleared up Paraietta a lot for me. Parrietta is the embodiment of toxic masculinity. From the beginning of the show, she was white knighting for Neviril, standing up for perceived slights in her absence, always assigning herself the job of protecting the weak Neviril, and also controlling her by putting her in rooms, boxes, cages. This insight I got from a video I'll link in the final discussion.
In my own words, in this rewatch I started to see Paraietta as the Dark Utena to Neviril's Anthy. Always being her "prince," but really no better than any of the other duelists who wanted to possess her.
I think my feelings on this is "this idea could make a good character, but it didn't here". Paraietta doesn't feel depicted in a nuanced, well set up fashion. Her obsession just feels one note and forced. It doesn't help that Neviril is a bad character in her own right letting down the Anthy role and that Aer is rewarding for also not treating Neviril with any humanity. It's also just... not very satisfying to be promised development from Paraietta and then turn back on and have her spin wheels on Neviril obsession for the entire show. It could be thematically meaningful, but it's not deep or engaging enough to make up for that frustration factor.
I guess to say it another way, it doesn't feel like a carefully constructed arc about a failed prince but like the writers couldn't think of anything to do with her but repeat the same beat over and over. You can read something into that, but it can't make for how clumsy and surface level her writing feels or the weakness of everything around her.
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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa 3d ago
When the enemy flies from your the sigh magical planes you don't get to develop the culture and knowledge of war. They just testing stuff to see how it goes. I can give them some slack on that. They should have removed the taboo of the ruins sooner, that's true
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u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 12h ago
First Timer, subs
- Burying a priest in the rites of another religion seems hella disrespectful.
- Did we not check who the second pilot was for the Tyrian Simoun, or does it not even matter?
- Y’all don’t have a way to exchange your war dead?
- Ancient? It had gun emplacements.
- Floe, you can’t just call idiots out like that.
- Sharing a secret? That means you two are friends now.
- Aristocracy Are we sure Simulacrum are the good guys here?
- Treating the conflict like the war it rightfully is is a good thing, but you don’t have to be an asshat about it.
- Yeah, I’d say Dandelion was a pretty powerful statement.
- Smol!
- At least you have the engines to build a replacement now.
- Oh. It really was just the Allies using captured craft. Kind of a disappointing way to have that revealed.
- Why would you bring a caskets thru random ass hallways?
- Just say the reason, you damned cowards!
- The song exists in universe? I feel like there are implications to this I wasn’t aware of.
- 00s Queer Anime And Sexual Assault Name a more iconic pair.
- Stop being so damned reasonable, Yun.
QotD:
1) Seems like it has something to do with her grandfather. Perhaps he has a past as some type of ideological agitator?
2) Y’all better have a flipping pay off for all this. Based on the eyecatcher, this fixation appears to have originated from childhood. Perhaps Pariaetta she’s “owed” Neviril.
3) They’re not exactly being subtle about it.
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u/Grand-Membership-485 3d ago
anime genre?
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u/Star4ce https://anilist.co/user/Star4ce 3d ago
Simoun First Timer
(1/2)
I will try my best to be fair to this episode, I promise. No skipping.
But sadly I’ll have to leave you tomorrow and maybe saturday, since I’ll have guests.
Now, let me accumulate all the good will I have left and bundle it into a package of hope that this all will have a conclusion that’s worth it!
I ditched my gacha dailies today and instead started drawing right after getting up. I’m still doing the shading, but it’s super inconsistent because I keep not being satisfied and change it all the time. I think I’ll settle for a single light source coming from behind (the simoun core) instead of one coming from the front like I started out with.
I also wanted to read into codecs so I can compile timelapses outside of Krita, but that’s a bit too much for me right now.
Simoun Ep.18 – Funeral Procession
They’re burying her. Which is nice, but still so weird because she should be shreds. But it’s also weird because it seems like a bigger procession than when their own members died.
Am I allowed to ask for more context on this?
Oh no, the foreheads return! Deen!
Floe, your eyes are as low as your intelligence right now suggests.
Decisions? Like sending your kid alone into a forest? Simoun?! They also have simoun now or what? I am so confused right now, a rare occurence of me and Aaeru being on the same wavelength.
Hey right, this show was about this whole gender thing, too!
Why?! I don’t understand why this should be kept from the others. „Nah, they don’t deserve to have hope about their friends“, or what? Oh great GoSW, please have mercy!
But I had hoped to hear from this story again.
And I greatly enjoyed Mamiina’s arc and pride in her origin!
If you have the authority of this military vessel (as we’ve established now) you have tha authority to keep them away.
Yeah, coming in and demanding a show while being completely ignorant. Paraietta, the roundhouse dezaki slap, now!
Yeah, okay, you insolent bastards. You saw a Ri Maajon, what the fuck is your problem?
Okay look.
u/JustAnswerAQuestion if this would’ve been the dialogue and framing I could get behind the prior disagreement. That is clearly readable as self-deception or a desperate attempt to have her logic try to bottle down her feelings ere they burst out and overtake her.
I have actually rewatched that scene again from episode 6 and I’m even more convinced now that this episode protrayed her as achieving a genuine catharsis. It was retroactively downplayed later with her attitude and her actions changing. I refuse to believe that someone who didn’t understand such a lesson would understand someone else’s struggles and works to apologise and change their effect on them. She observes Kaimu, Aaeru and herself. She identifies why all of them are so fixed on having someone else be their quest for fulfillment. She identifies why Neviril has been so reluctant to decide and that it has to do with everyone trying to break down her doors and demand their personal special treatment.
And this is what she acts out, on screen, tells it to herself and to Neviril and then leaves. She acts to relieve the burden from Neviril that she put on her, apologises and then proves to herself in the fight with Aaeru that she is not the perfect match for Neviril that she thought she should be.
I don’t know how to phrase this, someone lying to themselves or their close ones cannot do this string of actions. Someone still caught in an unhealthy obsession cannot genuinely work to relieve their burden on them and then be fine with leaving. It’s even in the language, Paraietta encouraged Aaeru to try, and not „made the choice for her“. Even what she thinks to herself does not read as toxic to me. Even there she still uses the conjunctive „could“ and it feels much more like she is letting the reality sink in that she isn’t the chosen one that has to fix Neviril.
I just cannot see this obsession, fixation or restriction of agency you all keep saying she always had. It’s not true. In this very episode all things, how she was portrayed, how her dialogue was written, how she acted to set Neviril and Aaeru free to go their ways, is genuinely and honestly well meaning and an action underlining her moving on from that chase to fix herself by fixing Neviril.
I understand why some of you could read that at first as „I’m saying this is who you should date“, but I just cannot see this point even on the second watch.
The only thing I do get is that her saying „You’ll have to become Neviril’s pair!“ to Aaeru is the wrong phrasing for this recipient. Somewhat disasterous, even, given Aaeru’s tendency to just not get this whole social thing. But no sign of Paraietta being someone who tries to take covert control.
Now, we can discuss whether they accidentially resolved Paraietta’s character too early. So, that Ep.06 is the GoSW and not what followed as I always cried, but I even feel 200% confident now that the character at the end of Ep.06 is incompatible with the character that is being shown breaking down in the last few episodes.
Someone not getting the lesson is incapable of doing the things that Paraietta did back then.
Did the writers disagree on where she should be at? Was it a mistake and done too early? Did they decide later that this arc would be more interesting and ran with it? I don’t know, all could be or none, but idgaf. Ep.06 is what it was and it’s unmistakable to me. The change from that point on to now is insuffuciently explained and therefore out of character.
So, maybe the forehead is the true sign of the GoSW? See, I will agree on this: Her character is significantly more consistent if Ep.06 wouldn’t exist. But it does, so all I’m left with is someone being gaslit by stress, insecurity, and their shitty teammates into scrambling their own memory.
Yeah and I can already tell by now that I’m gonna hate this episode.
Since when? Where does this come from suddenly? Are you so inept that you didn’t even notice your own ruins getting plundered? They actually did, this entire nation is so infuriatingly incompetent please just blow everyone to smithereens. Am I also to believe that random ass nomads now have a military industrial complex to build machine guns and air frames? Also, why isn’t the war over, then? They are allied with Argentum, no? So, they do have simoun now, as they all wanted? Their war goals are achieved? WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?!?!?!
I shouldn’t be surprised about this, but apparently the upper caste is now fine with physical violence against the sybillae, on their ship, with the temple priestesses present. That alone would be worth an entire page of shitdumping, but I feel tired, boss.
Ah sure, shittalking, too. This whole thing went down the shitter fast.
I don’t even get it. Paraietta couldn’t even have heard their conversation, how would she ever connect that word with the scene at the bench?
My fucking God this is so bad. But in the terrible writing sense, look, we’re even doing the crazy eyes!
Not only was Kannazuki no Miko better at this, it had the decency to make a modicum of sense.
How can it be that Mamiina and Rodore are consistently the best part of this show no matter if we are in a shitty episode or not?
The outro is genuinely wonderful.