Dragonaut / First Impressions

Summary:

Two years ago, after the shuttle accident, Yuuri had been exploring an island when she came across a wounded Dragon. She had tried to touch it, but its wounds began to glow brightly, and it suddenly disappeared. Back in the present, Jin wakes up on a beach and finds Gio standing on a nearby cliff. Over at the ISDA, Howlingstar is a bit shell-shocked over how he killed the Spirytus since Spirytus was like a little brother to him. Amadeus tries to make him feel better by implying that it wasn’t his fault because a master’s order is absolute from the moment of the Resonance on. As for what really happened with Spirytus, Raina reports that it is under investigation, and he also apologizes to Howlingstar because they had no choice but to do it like that. For now, their job is to find Jin and Gio. Meanwhile, Kiril is in a meeting with Sakaki, Garnet, Yuuri, and a group of men in suits, and he argues that they can’t make public the truth of the D-Project because it would unnecessarily trouble people. Garnet makes it a point to ask what Sakaki thinks about this, and it turns out that he thinks they should make public the D-Project.

Back on the beach, Jin asks Gio who is he to Toa, so Gio explains that he was born to protect her. Gio then shoots the same question back, but Jin realizes that he doesn’t know. Jin then starts to hear some singing and recognizes it as Toa’s. He figures out that it’s coming from the moon, but Gio can’t hear it. A short while later, Machina and Akira are driving along when they come across Gio holding Jin captive in the middle of the road. Gio claims that Jin used him, and Jin calls Gio a traitor, so they take them both in. Gio ends up telling Sakaki that he doesn’t remember anything after hearing Toa calling, and Sakaki orders two soldiers to take Gio to Yuuri. However, part of the way there, Gio turns against his escorts and escapes. The base alarms go off right as Jin is admitting to Akira that he’s trying to see Toa in order to find out what he is to her. Akira and Machina leave the interrogation room to go after Gio, but as they’re running, Akira realizes that Jin and Gio could have prearranged all of this. By the time she runs back to the interrogation room, Jin has escaped too.

Earlier, when Jin had asked Gio to believe him about Toa being on the moon, Gio had decided to do so, but he stipulated that if Toa wasn’t there, then he’d abandon Jin. Before they could go to space, Jin knew that they needed something, and that’s why they had hatched this plan to get into the ISDA. Jin now breaks into the garage where the ISDA’s vehicles are parked, but Akira catches up with him before he can get into one. Pointing a gun at him, she asks why Jin was able to ride Gio if he’s not a master and hasn’t completed a Resonance. Jin, however, doesn’t have any idea what she’s talking about and declares that he’s going to see Toa to find out the truth. Before Akira can shoot him, an elevator that Gio and Machina had been fighting in comes crashing down, and the impact throws Akira onto the ground. Jin uses this chance to climb into the vehicle and drive off, though Akira manages to grab onto the side of it as it goes by. Gio and Machina meanwhile have taken their fight to the wooded area behind the base, and she questions why he doesn’t follow Kazuki even though that’s who his Resonance was with. Gio answers that he’s himself and that he doesn’t take orders from anyone.

The two of them just happen to emerge from the woods right as the vehicle that Jin commandeered drives by, but there is a bend in the road soon after that the vehicle isn’t able to safely make, so it crashes through the fencing. This causes Akira to lose her grip, and Machina is forced to break off her fight to save her master. Gio uses this opportunity to turn into his Dragon form, and by now Jin has suited up and is piloting the pod that was in the back of the vehicle. After Jin attaches the pod to Gio’s neck, Gio heads up towards space, and Akira decides not to have Machina give chase because she believes in Jin’s ability to change the relationship between man and Dragon. As they fly through the upper layers of the atmosphere, Jin remembers what his father said about the Earth being exceptionally beautiful when seen from space. He ends up being quite impressed by what he sees, though his focus remains on the moon. Unaware of what’s going on but still furious at Jin for taking Gio, Kazuki gets into a fight with a group of other guys in a lounge. After they beat him up and leave him in an alley, it’s the female piano player from the lounge who appears in front of Kazuki to offer him a handkerchief.

Preview:

You know, I would have thought that an organization like the ISDA would do a better job screening its people for psychological instabilities before making them into Dragonauts. I don’t see why they’d trust something so valuable like a Dragon to someone like Kazuki who looks like he’s going to lose it any minute now, if he hasn’t already. Of course, he gets a second chance in the form of the woman who’s likely to become his new partner, though her quiet demeanor doesn’t quite match up with Kazuki’s anger. The other thing is that if she’s a dragon as expected, then is her Dragon form what Yuuri briefly encountered on that island two years ago? I guess the question is if she’s one of the three who came down on the day of the shuttle accident.

As for Jin and Gio, I wonder if their search for Toa will be an integral part of the story (aka. last several episodes) or if they’ll quickly find her and move the plot forward. The preview suggests that it’ll be the former, which doesn’t sound too promising, but hopefully it’ll be something more than just that.

29 Comments

  3. Can anyone stand to watch this without the nicovideo comments?

    Granted it becomes exponentially more entertaining with it on.

    And what’s with the boobs. Why are they so big? Why are there so many?

    Rembr
    Reply

  7. @Kabitzin

    An actual scene from the episode:

    Jin: How did you get the clothes?

    Gio: Humans are like this, right?

    Nico audience: That doesn’t answer the question! Why is Jin’s first question that one? Wear it from the start, ffs!

    etc etc etc.

    Rembr
    Reply

  10. Nicovideo = Nico Nico Douga = YouTube with realtime comments flying across the video stream. Usually filled with completely inane babble from otaku, which is also frequently quite funny.

    Speaking of which, anyone know why about 25% of all comments are the word うぽつ? I have no idea what it means…

    BluWacky
    Reply

  13. IF jin being arrested is a pain, be ready because he gets arrested next week again. Toa seem not to be taking it too well that she left Jin, so it is obvious she will be the one that will rescue him. Probably a couple of more episodes before they get back together.

    golthin
    Reply

  21. yes!! stay like this..no CGI, just good stuff, like in the begining with scenes like that brute man fight. “BOOB’s = TESTICLES”??? GOOD LORD MAN!!!!!!!!!hahaha oh well…. TRANSFORM!!!!!!!!!!!!

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  22. “He figures out that it’s coming from the moon.”
    When figuring out where a sound is coming from, I usually try stay in the planet’s atmosphere. I havent seen the episode yet, but this is what I’m imagining the conversation to be like:

    Jin: “Gio, I can hear Toa’s voice.”
    Gio: “From where?”
    Jin: “The moon.”
    Gio: “…fair enough. Get a space suit, let’s go.”

    Boomstick
    Reply

  29. What I dont get is, if they’re going to have a goup of officers escort someone (in this case Gio) who has a history of not following orders, wouldnt they want the people guarding him to be someone who can actaully hold up their own against him? O.o lol
    I like this anime though, it’s fun to poke at. ;P

    ebear
    Reply

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