「衝動 エクスペリメント」 (Shodo Ekusuperimento)
“Impulse Experiment”

You’d think that some quality rest and recovery would be on the agenda given everything that’s happened recently, but as it turns out, both sides are getting anything but the sort. With Keith beginning to doubt Roid’s intentions following the sudden replacement of our doctor from last week and the continued lack of information regarding Mikumo—suspicions are abound, and a mix of anxiety and impatience leads to action on part of everyone involved.

Mirage in particular ends up the centerpiece of the triangle this time around, and while she doesn’t do much for her own chances by trying to get Hayate and Freyja back on their feet, her passionate lecturing of the two ends up demonstrating just the kind of person she is: considerate, direct when she needs to be, and there when it matters. The question is how long it takes Freyja and Hayate to realize how right she is, and how their offers to quit their respective professions (while born of the best intentions) would never have yielded the positive outcomes they wanted. After all, the two are inextricably linked at this point—neither can sing or fly without the other—and here’s hoping that they realize just how important they are to each other before it’s too late, especially given Mirage’s selfless sacrifice in this regard.

In the meanwhile, the remainder of the Walkure begin realizing just how much Mikumo means to them individually and as a group, and they take things into their own hands by attempting to infiltrate the medical ship housing the latter. Things don’t go quite as planned with Makina and Reina getting arrested, but their respective sacrifices ultimately allow Kaname to find Mikumo—a meeting that could be the key to leading our cast out of their current predicament and their current stalemate against the Windermeres.

We’ll have to be satisfied waiting for another week before getting any real answers about Mikumo’s origins, but there’s a lot to consider while we do, with Roid continuing to be a key piece to look at. Agreements with Berger over the creation of mind control equipment aside, the latter’s comments about Roid’s intentions possibly changing make you wonder just what’s going on in his mind at this point, and if he even wants to lead the Windermeres into their supposed position as the true heirs of the Protoculture anymore.

The more we go on, the less interested he seems to be in regards to that goal, and one starts to wonder if he even cared about that in the first place or if that was a ruse to get things to satiate his scientific curiosity with. It looks like the Windermeres will find themselves split sooner rather than later as a result however, and the inclusion of Herman’s son in this week’s episode serves as a curious tidbit that could hint at Herman’s inevitably needing to choose between what he’s told to do and what he feels would be best for his comrades and his family. Depending on the way things shape up, the old guard (Herman and Qasim) could very well end up fighting the new guard (Herman’s son potentially included), which while be tragic in its own way, would be the opening our main cast to swoop things and resolve things once and for all.

As it is, the big thing this week seems to be that things rarely go as one intends or wants them to, and it comes down to realizing what’s truly important, making a decision based on that, and accepting the consequences that come with it. Here’s waiting to see what our cast realizes next week!

Author’s Note: As we get closer to September and various real-life commitments/work start taking center stage for me personally, I just wanted to let everyone reading know that posts will likely start coming out on Tuesday nights or Wednesday nights more often than not.

 

Preview

22 Comments

  1. I am failing to see why this is being seen as a love triangle between Hayate, Freyja and Mirage (whose only purpose seems to be keeping the other two together). This whole thing feels so one sided, leaning towards Hayate and Freyja it just makes it kind of hard to feel bad/vote for Mirage when she has not tried the fight for Hayate. Granted, she is the first of the three to say “I love you” indirectly to Hayate, but to me that is not enough to see her winning this battle.

    Anyway, I’m curious to see what will happen to Walküre especially if they are need for a battle next episode or the one after that.

    1. I agree some what, this is love triangle but Mirage is giving too fast about his love, while being selfless is all nice and good she should fight more for the one she loves, this is a Macross love triangle fo god sakes, it can´t that easily!.

      haseo0408
  2. The last episode was interesting: a retelling of the story of the universe of macross, see the franchise as a whole universe, I am amazed by the story of Kawamori and wondering how was planning to write this story.
    I still don’t like the vajra to go to another dimension, but I accept that this is consistent with this type of story.

    In this episode happened few things, but many are important steps to more interesting developments in this story. A necessary transitional episode.

    In my own opinion, Mirage is a great and beautiful character. I’m disappointed that in 20 episodes her development has been so poor. In the first episodes I didn’t like me Mirage; after knowing her character more, all gave a 180 ° degrees. I really like her design and background.
    On the other hand, since the first episode, my interest in the characters of Freyja and Hayate not grown at all; for me, their relationship is very boring. I dislike that Mirage has so little time because the show focuses on these two.

    The fate of the Windermeres and evolution of Keith are very interesting topics. I am surprised and pleased that these elements are getting better. Keith surprised me, he began as a “blind-loyal knight” and “obsessional thinking in the war”. Now he begins to doubt and think about Roid’s goals.
    I hope this is the beginning for a great twist in the story for Windermeres.

    The mysterious secret background of Mikumo, and quite possibly, your connection to the protoculture is very interesting. I hope this will be very good.

    The story of Macross, the music, Mirage, the fate of the Windermeres, and Mikumo’s mystery are the only things that keep me interested in this anime.

    From the beginning I kept moderate expectations. Eventually I loved many things, and accept that other things would not be to my liking. At this point of this anime, I don’t regret having followed this.

    I just hope that Mirage has the development that she deserves, and can be the great pilot that she should be. And she can be happy without Hayate. The universe has many better men.

    Shadow074
    1. I find your viewpoint about the love triangle interesting because i find mirage and hayate’s interactions more boring and inorganic than hayate and freyja’s. The dynamics between hayate and freyja feel natural, like their always having fun and that they enjoy talking to each other which is why i wasnt surprised at all when hayate says that that there’s never a dull moment when he’s hanging around freyja when mirage asked him how he felt about her; it’s something you can actually see on screen with their interactions. There’s a reason why the cast of characters thought that hayate and freyja were practically joined at the hip in the earlier parts of the series. When i see hayate and freyja interact, i see two humanized characters who really care about each other and that’s more relatable and well…fun to me than hayate and mirage’s more stiff and formal relationship; that doesnt do anything for me. Mirage being a martyr in this triangle doesnt all of a sudden make her an interesting character to me but i can at least feel that she has a good heart

      sonicsenryaku
  3. Rooting for Mirage x Hayate end. That guy is thick as a rock for not realizing the hidden message behind her harsh words, even Freyja sort of understood.

    And Mirage has become love incarnated; I hope she gets her happiness at the end, she’s almost never happy.

    Zhon1
  4. Hope this means Mirage will drift from the “triangle”, and can expand herself in 6 episodes being this badass pilot or something, but away from Hayate in a romantic sense.

    Kaname singing to Mikumo gave me the feels.

    South
    1. I thought she’d be shot dead inside, after seeing something shocking. Until the preview I thought she was fortunate, but now I fear that Mikumo might kill her next ep (if she really turns evil that is).

      Lord Nayrael
  5. At this point, it’s pretty clear the series wants to have Roid as the Big Bad mastermind (if he’s going to be the final boss or not remains to be seen), probably to put the blame of the war squarely at his feet. An easy solution that will conveniently overlook that Roid didn’t declare the war or even take command of the campaign before the previous king’s death.

    Keith is becoming surprisingly clever about it. Until these last episodes, I considered him part of Roid’s conspiracy, with all his “Windermereans superior race” and “Genocide all earthlings” stance, but it seems family really comes first to him despite him being apparently cold towards his little brother.

    Mistic
    1. I can’t really grasp Roid’s character. In first half, he was the one who looked like the “alright guy” of the group: he was softer on Freya and others, and also did not want the Prince to sing because it was dangerous to him, while Keith was the one loyal to rough Windermerian side.
      Now he is suddenly the one doing shady stuff with the prince, forces a war that would force the Prince to hurt himself more even more with singing, and is obviously the big bad amongst Windermerians.
      He always looks like he had ulterior motives, but it’s like he changed from one kind of mastermind to another…

      Lord Nayrael
      1. The most obvious answer is bad writing, but I guess it will depend on the explanation we’ll be given in the future.

        Perhaps Roid’s devious plan is something that will benefit the Windermereans at great cost. Something like improving their ridiculous life expectancy. That means he does care, but the end is so important that it justifies everything else. Or maybe he was worried about the prince’s health because if he died before he could do his experiments, his plan was lost. Who knows.

        Mistic
  6. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
    That is what probably happened to Roid. He was already on the edge, being a Windermerean supremacist. Now it looks like he has fallen off. Sad thing is, I think he became this way because he was rooting for the underdog, aka his people.

    After 20 episodes, I don’t really see a love triangle. But I do see a lot of triangles.
    And speaking about trios, out of the three conducting the infiltration mission, Makina seem to have the highest probability of slipping away. All she needs is a good distraction. She’s using the Pantera P7 Fold projector system + WD120 right? Unless she’s actually using a nurse costume that is. Kaname seems to be still in her civilian clothes and I’m not sure how good Reina is in that sort of stuff.

    theirs
  7. I think Winderemere are done. All eyes on Mikumo to take the stage! I’d be generally shocked if Mikumo doesn’t have a Ranka like role in the series finale of this show. You know how the series finale of Frontier opened with Rankas song mid battle.

    Lyfe
  8. Wow, if Mikomo ia an android…
    An army of Mikumos 😛
    A sentient android.
    Is she the original…or not?

    Will Lady M show herself?
    Is “Lady M” a person or a group of people?

    Did the Vajra introduce fold bacteria into the Macross series or was it supposed to be there since the beginning? It kind of realise singing as a weapon to me. Unless they eradicate the fold bacteria to make singing “neutral” again.

    Seeing that Windermereans have short lives a Mirage x Hayate seems more likely in the long run.
    But the ending should most probably be an open-ended kind I think.

    So its 6 more episodes?

    iron2000
    1. @So its 6 more episodes?

      I believe it’s 26 episodes yes. But I’m a bit confused. The first four volumes have been confirmed as having 3 episodes each. And there’s nine volumes. Assuming that volumes five onwards have three episodes too, that would make 27 episodes. Perhaps Episode 26 will be longer? It would be a bit odd to do 8 x 3 episodes, with a final volume of 2 episodes.

      While I’m sure it’s 26 episodes, I’m kinda wondering what they’ll include with the final volume to make it justify the same price tag as the previous.

      Lyfe
  9. Berger still might end as ultimate “big bad” – I havent seen such a manipulative bastard since long time… being able to play both side of the conflict while keeping own agenda well hidden.
    Roid is having some secret motives too, first he appeared the most reasonable one, then he has gone all supremacist megalomaniac, and now it seems he has taken yet another turn. I wonder if analysis of princes – erm, new kings – medicine will get Keith some answers…

    ewok40k

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