Summary:

With a gun pointed at her head, Yuuri is able to figure out that Nanami is working for the Girouard military. The rest of the ISDA is still unaware of what’s going on, and their attention is focused instead on Jin and Akira’s escape. With Sakaki keeping the Lindwurm Unit at base, Sieglinde doesn’t understand why they’re not doing something, and Laina suggests that they just obey orders. Kazuki spends his time thinking about how he apologized to Sakaki for lying about his alleged mission, and Sakaki was willing to overlook this incident. To Kazuki’s surprise, Sakaki had also mentioned that he didn’t hate such courage. Jin, Akira, and Machina meanwhile figure out that Laina and the others aren’t coming after them to try to capture them, and Akira leads them to an abandoned house that still has electricity and water. After taking a shower, Akira emerges nude and has to be reminded that Jin is a man before she puts on some clothes. As for what Jin intends to do, he simply wants to see Toa.

Out at sea, Yuuri wakes up on the submarine and remembers getting knocked out by Nanami. Toa is now gone, and Yuuri has no way of radioing base because the ship’s communication lines have been cut, so she decides to swim to the nearby island of Tartarus. By this time, Nanami and Garnet are already headed towards space with Toa as their prisoner. When Garnet wonders why Nanami didn’t dispose of Yuuri, Nanami points out that those weren’t their orders. Garnet concedes the point, but she feels that Nanami should try not to forget next time. Gio and Widow are able to see from a distance the Girouard ship take off into space, and they’re further surprised when Yuuri reaches the island, desperate to contact the ISDA base because of what happened to the Album. She succeeds in doing this, and the news quickly reaches Sakaki who had been reading up on Kazuki’s personnel file from his apartment. Because of this, Sakaki heads out, but his daughter blocks the way, so he has to explain that he’s going back to headquarters again and asks her to go to sleep first.

Elsewhere, on L-3 space station, Habaragi Itsuki is running a training scenario with her dragon Otohime that simulates them destroying Thanatos with a special missile. They then head to the briefing room where Itsuki goes over with the Vritra Unit about the Dragon Slayer missile to be used against Thanatos. Itsuki’s little brother Yuuya takes notes during the briefing and afterwards expresses his desire to sortie with his sister and the others in the unit. However, he still needs to engage in a Resonance and get a partner. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, Thanatos has lit up with a circle of symbols on its surface. Once it finishes counting down to the point where all the symbols have disappeared, its core lights up. Over on Mars, Asim is enjoying a bath when he hears that the Album is here. After getting dressed, he first commends Nanami on a job well done, though that doesn’t make Garnet too happy. Asim is quite impressed when he sees Toa – who is now being held inside a large glass container – and explains to her that this is his palace.

Upon finding out that she’s on Mars, Toa tries to contact Thanatos telepathically, but she isn’t able to. She then tries to beg for her release because something bad will happen if she doesn’t get back to Earth. Asim of course refuses to let her go and instead looks forward to seeing her true form. His glee gets interrupted by a subordinate reporting that they’ve detected a Dragon headed for Earth from Thanatos, and Asim then becomes interested in how this is the fourth original Dragon. Fearing the worst, Toa hopes that Jin can get away from Earth quickly. At that moment on Earth, Laina is in the middle of a video call with Itsuki up on the space station when she suddenly notices a bright light approaching. Whatever it is soon impacts the space station and cuts off the call, much to Laina’s horror. The entire unit gathers in the command room where they learn that an unknown Dragon has attacked the L-3 base and the Vritra Unit has been annihilated. In truth, Itsuki and Otohime somehow managed to survive the attack, and Otohime convinces her master that they have to leave immediately. Yuuya is also still alive, but he encounters the unknown Dragon as he wanders through the corridors.

Itsuki escapes onboard Otohime before the space station explodes, but she cries out for her brother who she now thinks is lost forever. The pair return back to Earth where everyone is relieved to find out that they’re still alive, but Otohime then gets knocked out of the sky by the unknown Dragon. Watching from a nearby rooftop, Machina recognizes the Dragon.

Preview:

At first I thought the inclusion of Itsuki, Otohime, and Yuuya was a bit random because they didn’t transition into it very well, but it actually made for some interesting story. At the very least, it was different from the usual capture/escape cycle with Jin and Toa, though technically there was some of that. Yuuya in particular might become a major character because I assume that they wouldn’t kill him off mere minutes after introducing him, so something has to have happened between him and that fourth original Dragon. If so, then I really hope they do a much better job tying it all together with the main story with Jin/Toa/Gio than they did here.

The other things that stood out for me this episode were Asim’s voice and Sakaki’s daughter. Asim had some lines last week, but it didn’t really become apparent to me until this week that Miyano Mamoru was voicing him. I mention this mainly to comment on the fact that he does that evil voice really well. As for Laura, it’s really creepy how she appears and disappears – she’s on the sofa one moment but gone the next when they show a distance shot of Sakaki’s apartment. Her dead-looking eyes in that scene don’t help either. I originally thought that she might be a figment of Sakaki’s imagination haunting him, but as someone else suggested, I could see her being his Dragon too. This goes back to the question of if Communicators take on a particular form based on their Master’s preference or something – Itsuki and Otohime for example certainly look like twins.

All in all, I think this episode did a good job bringing forth plot elements that make the show a lot more interesting than it had been. Next week looks to be focused on the new Dragon. On a related note, there’s not going to be an episode on January 2nd.

29 Comments

  1. Ok, so like, Akira is walking around naked infront of Jin. With her helping him this much already, I’m thinking she’ll want to get in his pants later on. The whole Jin and Toa pair probably can’t last since she’s not human anyways.

    Or maybe i’m just grasping at something that’s not there for the hopes of getting more. It could all just be pointless fanservice.

    GP
  2. @ GP:
    I totally agree. When will Akira totally offer herself to Jin? Isn’t blatant fanservice good enough to tell someone that you like them?

    And OMG. Make the characters with smaller boobs. I’m tired of seeing swinging boobs for no reason.

    MaimeDaifuku
  3. boobs = power

    fear the power of big-ass boobs !!!!
    but you can already predict the end

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Noostrad
  4. respect the “power”

    Ok, it’s not a Death Note, but is fun to whatch….Boobnaut, ops, Dragonboobs…ops, Dragonaut is not a study of human relationships and existence in a infinite universe, is just B&D ( Boobs and Dragons, that is equal to Dungeons and Dragons, but much more fun…)

    Noostrad
  5. Was right all along. Not only Gillard after Toa, they also look forward for other two as well. Had no idea who were the first and second. Or could the first one be the one discovered by Professor Kitajima. Jin is obviously all about Toa. Asim is the typical ruthless selfish kind of bad guy. Itsuki definitely will look perfect with Laina. Yuya is cute handsome. Obviously the fourth dragon annihilating Vrithra may have to do with Toa.

    For now Toa’s only way of reaching Jin is her making a cry or emotional thought kind of thing….. From the earlier episodes we came to know how Jin was able to detect Toa’s whereabouts through her song. But the only problem now is she is contained in a ‘box’ by Asim. Perhaps Asim would have been aware her tactics of escaping I guess…… Widow will definitely become Kazuki’s dragon……

    Nanami is sucking crapping bitch as ever like Garnet….. Gio is still a ‘loyal caring brother’ of Jin as ever maybe….. I guess that Thanatos may not be the real case of ‘enemy’…… It will maybe be Gillard and Asim…… who knows…..

    For now reasons to know:
    1) Why Toa crash Jin’s shuttle and Jin being the only one alive?
    2) Nanami perhaps knew a lot about Garnet from the beginning, we get to know she suggested a perfume to Professor Kitajima only used by Garnet. That shows the evidence she may be affiliated with Gillard and Asim.
    3) Chest stuff to draw more male audience besides the action thingy of the show.
    4) The reason Akira feels convicted by Jin about the questioning of bonds between dragons and their masters.
    5) If Asim have to get full control of Toa, he had to kill Jin first. Toa would go out of control if anything negative were to happen to Jin as in earlier episodes there are rules mention about the resonance of a human with a dragon.
    6) Interestingly Jin is the only one with the unique ability to hear feelings of Toa from far distance probably due to their natural resonance. While the others went through resonances to be dragonauts….. I don’t know…. We have yet to know…..

    C
  6. “Itsuki and Otohime for example certainly look like twins.”

    Itsuki and Otohime are also both voiced by Ono Ryoko, which I would assume reiterates that they’re supposed to look very similar.

    I’ve updated the Dragonaut ANN page with this new cast info, as well as Mr. Gundam Meister Setsuna F. Seiei’s Miyano Mamoru playing Asim.

  7. Subs are out, and i’m getting the episode right now. It’s kinda funny though, I like boobs and all that, but right now, the best female character for me is Akira, and she’s the only semi-flat chested chick in the show!

    I guess personality doesn’t play a part in it more than just boobs. :p

    GP
  8. Right now I’m leaning towards the idea that Yuuya would end up having a resonance with the dragon that annihilated the L3 base and becoming a villain in the show. And Liner doesn’t get to hit any because Itsuki is angsting. That would be oh-so-melodramatic.

    kalamunki
  9. @ C what your forgetting is that Widow lost her partner in a tragic unknown incident and the rule of dragons going “insane” if they lose their partner was negated because of what happened to Widow and yet she still retains her state of mind. So this rule can only apply from what is shown if the human partner is mentally unstable, thus transitioning their state of mind to their dragon partner. We still don’t know if this can apply vise versa or possibly how much a dragon’s own state of mind reflects on his/her partner. However, even though Widow will become Kazuki’s partner that “rule” may still apply in that the dragon may still go insane eventually, but it may be based on the dragon’s own mentality, though I don’t believe this is true and Widow will remain herself, and that rule of the dragon needing their “original” partner or they’ll go insane will be negated. Also, I believe that this series is going to turn into a chase-after type of series in that the protagonist (Jin) will most likely be chasing after Toa for a good portion of the rest of the series, my guess is for about 5 episodes or so, or they’ll continue the escape, capture, escape, recapture cycle, which will really get old and annoying…

    IfOnlyYouKnew
  10. After Asim said his line to Nanami I was like WAIT *pause* *relisten again*
    OMG it’s Light! I’m a huge fan of Miyano Mamoru, so this got me really happy.

    I can’t wait until the next episode! And I hope this wasn’t all of Yuuya’s screentime.

    Daisy
  11. The art of this episode wasn’t the best I’ve seen so far, but the plot’s for sure getting better :3.

    Dunno whether the “escape, capture, escape, recapture cycle” is over or not though. Part of me hope that it’ll continue, as I’d as before mentioned rather not that Jin & Co joins the ISDA, but in the long run, that’s probably what’s likely to happen anyway… And even if it isn’t the ISDA that captures’em, it may be the Gilliard army…
    Personally I’d give it about 5, perhaps as much as 7 episodes or so before Toa & Jin’ll be reunited…
    Itsuki, Otohime, and Yuuya’s apparence may have been a bit random – but so was also Itsuki and Otohime’s first appearence in Episode 9 – and since they may play a major part (at least for a while) in the story, their apppearence won’t seems as random later, or so I hope. And Yay! A new dragon has appeared! Things are getting rather interesting.. 😀

    SpectatorBeholder
  12. The anime is okay for me at the moment. Its starting to pick up a bit in terms of storyline so I hope the character development gets better! The Jin/Toa relationship should be developed better >_

    Pyro
  13. The next episode is driving me madly excited….. I just feel like waiting for the following episodes…… The showtime is beginning…… I don’t know why….. Dragonaut, Gundam 00 and Shakugan no Shana II are the only shows that drove the ‘boiling exciting chemistry’ in me……

    >_

    C

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