ZEGAPAIN – 22

Summary:
With Shima rapidly losing his arm, Shizuno take the controls from Minato and gets to work saving him. Meanwhile, the Gards-orm start expanding the Deutera Area from the North Pole. May-Yu and May-Yen realize that should the Gards-orm succeed in covering the Earth, then even if mankind is revived, they won’t be able to live on the planet because of the atmospheric changes. And they’ve only got 24 hours left before that happens – in other words, that’s all the time that’s left for mankind. As for Shima, Shizuno was somehow able to stop the data decay and stabilize him, but he hasn’t regained consciousness. Shizuno confuses everyone by saying that Shima has a special life span. It is later on deck of the Oceanus that Minato confronts Shizuno about that. Shizuno has the other crew members listen in through the ship’s cameras and Ryoko tunes in by watching a movie that shows these scenes. She explains that Shima is not an ordinary apparition – he’s a clone, an apparition clone. Shima’s main body is in another place, and so their Shima is nothing more than a double. It seems that apparitions cannot be copied, but clones can be made. Minato doesn’t believe it, but Shizuno says that something like this is possible for the Gards-orm. The time inside of the Gards-orm server is greatly accelerated, so their science and technology is far more advanced than mankind’s. Although Shima is Gards-orm, he is also the one revolting against them. In order to help the human race, it was necessary for the original Shima to stay with the Gards-orm, so he created a clone and sent to the human server. The Oceanus was originally Gards-orm technology, and Shima developed the Zegapain with the other twelve commanders. However, because the clone has a base of broken data, it needs regular repairs or else the apparition cannot be maintained. And now the limit to that has finally arrived. From the bridge, Kuroshio asks Shizuno why she knows so much and accuses her of being a Gards-orm too. Shizuno denies it, but it’s not until Kyo speaks up for her, believing in her, that the other crew members do so too.
In the calm before the storm, Minato fills Commander Isola in on what happened. With Shima out of action, Isola is concerned about the plan for the resurrection of mankind, but Minato says that she’ll be taking command for now. While this is going on, Kyo is asking Lu Sheng about what his dream for the future was. Without waiting for an answer, Kyo admits that when he was little, he loved watching hero programs on TV. He thought that when he grew up, he’d become a hero and fight bad guys. And so, when Shizuno invited him and he got to pilot the Zegapain, he was actually a little happy. Kyo also says that when the fighting is over and everyone is revived, he wants to introduce his friends to Lu Sheng. When that time comes, he wants everyone to go swimming in the real ocean. Meanwhile, inside the server, Shizuno is discussing Kyo’s determination with Ryoko. When Shizuno says that Kyo is always using all this strength and always facing forward, Ryoko comments on how Shizuno should be going out with Kyo. Ryoko wants Kyo to be to be happy, to be with the person he likes. Shizuno disagrees because although she still likes Kyo, she thinks that they will not be walking on the same path. Ryoko wonders why Shizuno can assert something like that, to which Shizuno responds that it’s because she is Yehl. Back on the Oceanus, Minato is at Shima’s bedside thinking about how the two of them had met. Back then, she had been running through the Sydney Australia server – which was breaking down – with the damage to her leg when she fell. The Shima she knows had appeared before her, offered her his hand, and asked her to go with him. She had of course taken his hand and the rest is history. Strengthened by these memories, Minato heads to the bridge to start the battle operation.
The Gards-orm’s Deutera Area is spreading fast, meaning that mankind has less than 18 hours before the Earth is covered. Minato takes the command chair and orders the Oceanus to head towards the Gards-orm’s Arctic Server. Across the globe, all of the Oceanus-class warships take on the same heading, coming from Italy, Egypt, the United States, and more. With the strategy under way, the AIs explain to the crew that this “Project Resurrection” consists of four phases. In Phase I, their ships will simultaneously advance towards the North Pole. They will rise up to a certain altitude, form up together, and then head for the Gards-orm server inside the large Deutera Area called Sabato. This fleet will launch an all out attack on the Gards-orm Absolute Defense Line, inciting the enemy. The Oceanus will then rush through the defense line gap and enter the Sabato. In Phase II, the diversionary fleet will try to obstruct the expansion of the Sabato by attacking the Arctic Server. However, Isola’s Dvaraka will leave the front and head for the Gards-orm orbital base Claude. Attacking Claude will cut off the Gards-orm reinforcements. During all this, the Oceanus will go into the large-scale quantum portal that will teleport it to the moon’s G-Phaetus base. Arriving there will start Phase III where Kyo and the other pilots will repel the enemy and come in contact with the person cooperating from within the base – the original Shima. He has apparently completed a system to reincarnate humans and will be waiting for the arrival of the Oceanus. At the same time they are accepting this system, they will also be recovering the Maihama Server. And finally, in Phase IV, the Oceanus will destroy the G-Phaetus Server and return to Earth. This entire mission will take about 15 hours, and so before the Deutera Area completely erodes the Earth, they will finish the mission. In the event that the Sabato still exists after G-Phaetus is destroyed, the Oceanus will proceed to aid their allied fleet. Minato says that at any phase, the enemy could launch an attack, so they need to be prepared. Kyo sums it up by stating that there’s little chance of success with this reckless strategy. Minato actually agrees with him, but she says that this is the final decisive battle and as long as there is a possibility of success, they cannot give up.
Shin and Abyss are watching on screen as the Oceanus-class warships arrive at the North Pole. The two of them think that it is necessary to fill the world with Naaga’s light – an eternal light that never disappears. Both sides of the conflict are readying to fight, with the seven Oceanus-class ships deploying their Gravity Acceleration System Powered Railguns (GASPR) and the Gards-orm carrier ships launching all their fighters. Commander Isola has the other ships wait until the Oceanus reaches the enemy defense line before opening fire. After an opening salvo that takes out many Gards-orm, Isola scrambles all the Zegapains. It is these Zegapains that protect the Oceanus as it proceeds through the defense line. However, Gards-orm had a wave of Nautilus-class ships waiting under the ice. The Oceanus trades fire with these ships, but starts sustaining heavy damage. The Dvaraka’s Toga and Meivelle pilot their Zegapain ahead to challenge the Nautiluses, but they can’t seem to pierce through the enemy’s strong armor. Refusing to sit still through all this, Kyo and Ryoko launch the Altair. They arrive just in time to save Toga and Mavel, but Toga is outraged that Kyo would come out and make the whole point of the diversion meaningless. The brash attitudes of Toga and Kyo clash as they fight the Gards-orm, but both sets of pilots actually have much respect for each other. Toga has Kyo transfer some QL from the Altair so that Toga’s Zegapain can use its Holobolt Gravity attack to clear away all the ships in front of them. With nothing blocking the way, Minato advances the Oceanus at maximum speed and Toga’s Zegapain drifts away with no QL left. Toga tells Kyo that he’ll return the loan the next time they meet. Having witnessed all this from their base, Abyss and Shin decide that it’s time for them to come out. On the Dvaraka, Isola notices that there’s only 13 hours left. She’s praying for good luck.

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「ラストブルー」 (Last Blue) by ROCKY CHACK
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2
Still getting used to the new ending after having heard the first one for so long. I love the new images though – they’re so cute, especially the Minato one. I kind of wish they hadn’t waited so long to introduce it, but oh well, I’m still happy with it.

Preview:

As many people had previously speculated, Shima is indeed related to the Gards-orm – he’s a clone of one. I wonder what the real Shima is like and if we’ll get to see him. Maybe it’ll turn out to be Naaga himself. That part with Minato running through Sydney was kind of cheesy though, with Shima arriving like he was an angel of salvation or something. As for Shizuno, she claims not to be Gards-orm, but there’s still that cryptic “because I am Yehl” statement she made to Ryoko. It feels like to me that the story has been shifting towards Shizuno in the past few episodes, though you can’t really declare Ryoko or Shizuno as the female lead character.
This episode was pretty cool though, with all the Oceanus-class ships coming together finally to start the final strategy. It was a lot of fun hearing that female computer voice say (in English) “Gravity Acceleration System Powered Railgun ready for launch.” Stuff like that makes you realize that it’s ass-kicking time. And I was generally very pleased with the 3D animation quality of the battle this episode, so much more so than I was when this series first started.
The whole final strategy is kind of complicated and you just know that it won’t go according to plan, especially since it requires about 15 hours and they only have 13 left. We’re in the final arc though, so this really is the decisive battle. At least I assume this has to start the final arc since syoboi now confirms that ZEGAPAIN is going to be a 26 episode series. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens on the moon next week.