「個の先」 (Ko no Saki)
“Separate Paths”

It was revealed that Mykage planned on sacrificing Jin in order to kick two hornet’s nests. He is able to use Jin’s death as propaganda in Altair to rile up the masses. Crea and Fudo also revealed to everyone that Jin was from Altair and that war looms with the denizens of Altair.

The whole graveyard scene with Fudo telling the students of Neo-DEAVA to climb into newly dug graves (thanks Andy) was perplexing to me but I’m going to take it as one big metaphor and bonding exercise. It has allowed us to once again revisit most of the main cast’s biggest fears. By burying themselves, they allowed their old selves to die. Using Mikono’s connecting power, they were able to gattai while buried without the need of the aquaria. Coming out of the cocoon showed them being reborn anew.

I guess the most important part of the whole experience is that Yunoha managed to get some closure. Real or imagined, she got to hear Jin’s voice while everyone was connected.

The whole episode was a very odd and non-traditional way of going about giving the team a power-up and morale boost. However, the episode’s solemn tone was very good at evoking emotion and getting me, the viewer, to sympathize with the character’s fears and sadness. Yunoha looked to be so grief-stricken that she seemed like she was going to give up on living. Thankfully in that situation she had a true friend reach out to her. I found what Mikono did for Yunoha very touching.

Unfortunately for our heroes, the bonding and good times were shortly lived because we saw Mykage performing his own burial which sent Kagura to Vega in order to crash their party. Judging from the previews, Mikono may be abducted by Kagura which may lead to more excitement than they would want after a funeral.

Notes:
* No OP this episode.
* Those graves are a bit too shallow…
* Full-length images: 01, 03, 10, 13

 

Preview

56 Comments

    1. I was actually quite bored until Kagura showed up. I didn’t really like the emo and angsty episode coupled with corny Fudo philosophies. Especially since I knew it was a power-up lesson and Fudo didn’t go crazy.

      Also, if Kagura is truly the new Apollo, I think breaking the atmosphere is right up his alley.

  1. “Happy birthday!”

    “A wild Kagura has appeared…”

    now I have to say, I am not too fond of this super non-conventional way of getting power ups, but the insert song of the English version Genesis of Aquarion was absolutely godly!!! The one thing that kind strikes me though was the brief appearance of Solar Wing Aquarion when everyone perform Gattai together… Maybe there is more to the whole reincarnation and Aquarion business than we know… and also Nenshin Gattai is back!!!!!!

    seems like we are heading toward the funeral wedding from earlier? can’t wait to see the power ups! and more Aquarion gattai battle is also good!

    jrj
  2. Actually, this method of power-ups falls in line with the first season of Aquarion, I’d say o.o On another note, I found it rather sweet how Zessica’s fear was seeing Amata cast aside 🙂

    Kagura’s appearance was actually shocking. I though Mykage was just prepping him for a similar power-up. Mykage’s ability to send Kagura to Vega without using the dimensional gates could spell all sorts of chaos if the authors plan to use it sometime down the line.

    Beedle
  3. I wasn’t sure what to make of this episode at first. It was all dark and tragic and DARK. I was actually AGAINST Fudou for once. Then, Genesis of Aquarion starts playing and everything turns to love. Now it’s my favorite episode of the series.
    Oh, and yaaay Kagura.

    Bio D
  4. I didn’t necessarily understand all the metaphors and such from Fudou, but seeing him use Kanji like in Genesis and hearing the English version of the original theme kept me glued to the screen. Besides, I don’t remember always understanding Fudou in the original anyways. And then when I saw the original Aquarion and heard someone finally say “Nenshin Gattai” I couldn’t contain my excitement! I wonder if this means the show will do away with the “Something Gattai” and bring back the original phrase?

    I’m curious though, does Mykage now known that Amata is the Solar Wing? He didn’t seem to know last episode but acted like it after preaching to Altair.

    I’m also curious to see whether there’ll be a new opening next week, since I think we’d know about a new one by now.

    Frontier
    1. Well regarding solar wing:

      Spoiler if you didn’t watch Genesis:
      Show Spoiler ▼

      orath
  5. ” *Those graves are a bit too shallow…”
    I’m glad that Andy didn’t make those holes any deeper. If he had made them like 6 feet deep they would probably haven’t been able to breathe because of the pressure though that would make an interesting plot twist 😀

    Tonameki
    1. Uhm, sticking a bamboo rod in your mouth won’t make automatically breath.

      Your lungs must push the air in and out. During this your chest moves in and outward.
      With too much earth on top of you, your chest can’t move and thus neither do your lungs.

      And I say this with not even basic biology in my head.

      JHN
  6. Great deep episode.

    Fudo didn’t waste a single second, after burying their friends, to lift their spirits by telling them that all things are connected, even after death. Mikono’s power was all the evidence they needed to know that. All that while Genesis of Aquarion, featuring AKINO’s family (Bless4), played in the background.

    God. I shed a tear there. It was just so fitting, so perfect. I love this show.

    What’s coming next now? Mikono is kidnapped wearing a dark robe? Oh boy…. “Black Wedding” incoming!

    1. gg made some notes to understand the kanji wordplay a bit more:
      Show Spoiler ▼

  7. Crack thought since last episode and with Mykage spelling it out this week that the Wings of the Sun (Solar Wing) has been reborn make be think that Amata is either the spirit or soul of the original Aquarion or my first theory of him being Apollonius reincarnated.

    Either way Kagura the reborn Apollo wouldn’t be able to “smell” Amata as the first option being a spirit rather then a mortal soul wouldn’t carry a scent and the second being Apollo was born from Apollonius’ reincarnated soul won’t be able to smell his former self.

    Ani_BEE
  8. This episode finally connects Aquarion EVOL to the original series, in more ways than one. Like the original, the big turning point of the series is when the “last son” dies; in the original, it was the last son of the Dark Angels. Then, we have Fudo’s methods of “special training” reappearing again, which I never really understood even in the original. Also, we’ve finally heard Mikage call the people of Vega the “Wingless Ones” (hanenashi), and since last episode we’ve also heard mention of Solar Wing (taiyo no tsubasa) again.

    It really stirred me when Genesis of Aquarion started playing in the background, when everyone was connected. It also made me glad to see that Yunoha has finally come to terms with Jin’s death, and that she was able to hear him again one last time.

    I think that the reincarnations of Apollo and Sylvie aren’t going to be a clear-cut 1-to-1 reincarnation, similar to how the original series surprised us. Show Spoiler ▼

  9. The graveyard scene was very Aquarion. Having an acapella of the original theme song certainly helped the mood a bit. Glad to see that Fudo is still the same weird guy from 12,000 years.

    Also this episode goes a long way to give Mikono some more development. I just realized the problem with Mikono. She’s supposed to have the power to connect to others but she spent half the series interacting with almost no one but Amata and its all dull and boring. Her interaction with others especially Yunoha make her shine more. Which brings me to another question that bugs me: Why hasn’t Mikono interacted with her brother? They have zero screentime together and it seems utterly pointless that they made Cayenne even related to Mikono.

    fragb85
    1. Exactly. Mikono we are seeing so far is anything but someone who connects people. Yunoha should have had no idea what Mikono was talking about when the girl with newly-found “leadership” suddenly started to call her a friend of hers.

      C’mon Mikono, give me a break…
      Sorry if I sound too harsh Mikono, but I firmly believe you need major reality check here. You basically don’t have ANY friends at all. And if I am not mistaken, you haven’t said anything like “I like you” or something like that to Amata yet either. Like fragb said, you have never shown your kind and caring side which tells us that you actually fond of your brother Cayenne even. Your “connections” with other students seem very bleak, to say the least.

      So, with that said…
      Now I am wondering if Fudo is playing a big-time troll role here. Maybe Mikono’s ability is NOT connecting people but something else(which I have no idea what it really is now). Sure she used the ability once before but it was nothing but that Fudo defined the circumstance, exactly the same way he just did once again this time.
      This whole connecting ability stuff looks like a con to me, because it’s so odd, so out of place, and makes so little sense to me.

      U Doh
      1. That’s blatant slander and you know it. While it’s not the focus of any episode, there’s no shortage of scenes depicting Mikono hanging with the other girls. To say that she doesn’t have friends or that she doesn’t show any caring side is an utter and complete lie, do I need to remind you how she got Mix to open up to Andy?

        And I’m sick of hearing people say how she or Amata needs to say ‘I love you’ to each other, is it so absolutely important to put in down in words? This is clearly not the case where unless someone says those words nobody will “get it” because it’s no secret to everybody, including the two of them, that they like each other ALOT.

        I do admit it’s unusual that the two siblings hardly ever interacted, but maybe that’s the kind of relationship they have, not every siblings is close to one another.

        Chaos2Frozen
      2. Wow I thought Andy got straight snub and kicked back down to earth at that time…got unconscious no less. I saw MIX was almost in anyway, with or without Mikono.
        Although I admit it was all Fudo’s initiative and it wasn’t like Mikono had any ill intention towards anybody at that time, do you really believe MIX would have stayed cold towards Andy after that incident if Mikono hadn’t stepped in and ended up to make them split(yeah I say split, not connected) apart temporary? Can you say she actually changed their fate completely with her uber supernatural “connecting” power?
        Come on they are obviously destined to each other from the get go, with or without Mikono.

        As for Amata x Mikono, with Kagura(whose reverse hatrid/love for Mikono is so obvious) lurking around, yes, her words should have been very important. I would say it’s her utter indecisiveness. She should have said something to him already, but she didn’t.
        There is no way production staff wasn’t aware of all this. So naturally you can assume that this is exactly how staff wanted her to act towards Amata.
        OK, we will see how she reacts to and interacts with Kagura from now on. From my point of view, it seems she could very likely stay the same, and keep acting just like that. I believe if she stays that way for too long, that could easily make her relatinship with Amata to a very awkward, unpleasant and disappointing one, especially for Amata, who still is suffering a lot from the memories of being abandoned by his mother and all.

        U Doh
      3. That’s why I believe Kagura may possibly be the reincarnation of Sirius. Mix stated it in Ep 2, that brother and sister elements have a high range of communication (not in true context, please watch the episode) so even if separated they should be able to feel and hear etc each other (LOL).

        Ria
  10. I hope that now that the Elements have gotten a power up of sorts, that the Mugen Punch becomes effective again. It’s a shame to see it become the attack you know is never going to work.

    Frontier
  11. I was so sad for Yunoha. The part where she was contemplating disappearing for good was particularly hard to watch. I was at first a bit weirded out by Fudo’s training idea because my brain could not compute how people could get buried in dirt and still be able to breath (a breathing tube isn’t much help if you have dirt up your nose :p). But after turning Suspense of Disbelief in my head to max I thought the scene was pretty interesting and a nice way to bring closure to Jin’s death.

    Also, something Mykage said gave me an idea. He said perhaps Jin “will be reborn in the first of Altair’s new generations.” I wonder if that’s Kawamori’s way of hinting that Jin might in fact be reborn once the whole mess between Altair and Vega gets cleared up and Altair’s populace is saved from extinction, and we see his reborn self in an epilogue scene or something. That certainly would be nice and there won’t be a 12,000 years wait for Yunoha and Jin to meet again, though it would mean Yunoha might end up with a version of Jin who’s now 15 years younger than her. XD;;

    Still, in all likelihood that line could just be Mykage trolling Izuomo…or Kawamori trolling his audience and getting our hopes up. :p

    mangaka-chan
  12. I’m thinking that Kagura will kidnap Mikono, then Mikage backstabs Kagura and use both of them as a sacrifice to summon the “Golden Winged” Aquarion and have sex with it!

    Gee, I feel that Mikage is robosexual when he profess his love for Aquarion…

    1. CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN MY GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE~!!! THESE PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNS, THEY MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE NO SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENSE~!!!

      Mediafag
    2. They bury their dead but when a crazy one-eyed magician tells them to, they get buried as well, shit happens, the gutless girl do some voodoo, the graves shine, the dead spy speak a bit then they’re all reborn in moth cocoons to celebrate a happy birthday only to be cliffhanger with the wolf strikes back.

      I mean isn’t that obvious? Unless you don’t speak Kawamori of course.

      Ananas
  13. I loved the acapella English version playing, but I kind of wish for some new material soon.
    -Shrade jumping right into the grave and saying that he was gonna end up in one soon anyways, so he may as well “practice” was hilarious and morbid all at once.
    Interesting episode. I got the feeling where it was going when Fudo told Andy to did holes. Next episode is surely going to be a big plot one. Mikono is all dressed for it like in Cayenne and Zessica’s visions. But Zessica thinks that Mikono is Slyvia and Kagura is Apollo. No one has had any visions of their pasts lives yet, so I’m still not sure yet. Mykage knows Amata is the Solar Wing. I’m beginning to think that Kagura is just a troll put in by Kawamori. Fudo definitely knows but has not said anything yet. And if Crea has to be Reina. They are both goth-lolis, same hair color and style.

  14. After half the serie spend with almost only semifiller episodes that made the story progress very slowly we got a major reboot, it’s almost like it switches genre all of a sudden and it definitely delight me (there’s no better way to end the highschool comedy romance than to burry your classmates yourselves).

    After 13 episodes it finally feels like Mikono is starting to become useful. For Yunoha it felt a bit extreme that she was willing to disappear from the world following Jin’s death given the little time they spent together.

    No matter how many time I watch this, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” is so sudden, so out of place and so utterly ridiculous I can’t help but have a WTF/LOL convulsive reaction.

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMATA, HERE’S YOUR PRESENT, SOME NETORARE.

    Ananas
    1. Kagura really likes to crash the parties. The movie party previous ep… and now Birthday Parties too!

      But he’ll get his return… Since everyone else is sure to CRASH HIS WEDDING!!!

      deafvader
  15. there’s a difference between existential dread and existential bullshit, the difference being one is bullshit.

    as ridiculously cheesy as the entire show is, this episode was quite a bit too much to bear. some part of me would like to imagine the writers for this episodes just laughing their asses off at how outright ridiculous this episode was, even compared to the other episodes.

    Nitro
  16. “Arise my undead minions. Now….Go….Seek the flesh of the Living! Gattai!”

    “Hi. You’re all my happy little mushroom friends…fu fu fu”

    ::Mikono’s VA breaks character::, “Wait….what was my line again? What? Something Something Reincarnation, Slyvie, Something…screw it…I’ll just ad-lib”

    There are other things she could have said, yes, but Happy Birthday fits pretty well…

    skylion
  17. This episode pretty much concluded what I’d expected out of Mikono. She is one of those characters the writers are waiting to characterize and expand upon, when her and her power gets relevent, in later episodes.

    evilcleo

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