First Impressions / Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince

「君のヒーロー」 (Kimi no Hīrō)
“Your Hero”

It looks like my worries about Teoria’s imminent demise turned out to be all for naught – there were no signs of attempted assassination, and the character expositions have pretty much remained tranquil and amicable. Make no mistake about it though – there’s certainly more than enough going on here to keep me on the edge of my seat, starting with a colossal Wulgaru attack on mother Earth! The Wulgaru was undeniably quick on the draw when it comes to launching their latest assault – it was just very recently that Rumes pulled together a successful espionage, and the destruction of the Gurantseere Academy is presumably their primary objective! Earth has already suffered a catastrophic loss in their previous large-scale confrontation, and I suspect their chances of victory are at best slim this time around! Team Rabbit will, no question, play a role of paramount importance in this grand showdown, and both the fate of humanity and the defense of Earth lie heavily on their shoulders. Teoria’s deliberate betrayal is no longer a secret – that much is apparent, and while her life is in no immediate peril, a forthcoming bump-off cannot be totally ruled out! The prevalent iniquity – which exists within the Wulgaru’s societal ethos – has been made conspicuous since day one, and it would certainly be somewhat out of the ordinary if Teoria’s blatant defection was absolved without any significant penalty!

Speaking of Teoria, the history that she shares with Izuru continues to be an enigma and their short rendezvous at the okonomiyaki “grill-it-yourself” did not impart any ground-breaking insights! Her predilection for Izuru is crystal clear and she is evidently worried about his well-being – after all, Jiart has his eyes set on Izuru, and an imminent face-off between those two is bound to happen again sooner or later. It’s too bad her conversation with Izuru was cut short yet again, and there’s not a whole lot of scoop that we can gather at this point. Their fondness for each other is utterly beyond doubt, and the dinner date between those two most certainly has implications across the “love pentagon” – for starters, poor Toshikazu was brought along as the third wheel! Toshikazu’s role in the romantic subplot hasn’t taken any big leaps, and it doesn’t seem like Kei’s focus of affection is going to make a shift any time soon. His intensifying self-doubt has been brewing in the backdrop for quite a while now, and the sense of inferiority was, in all likelihood, compounded by Izuru’s recent showcase of valor. As Rin and Anna have aptly pointed out, Toshikazu is obviously pushing himself too hard – he has plenty of strong suits that stand out, and his valiant performance at the warfront, both as a substitute leader and a forward unit, is merely one of them. It remains to be seen how his apparent diffidence will play into the bigger picture, but I do hope he can eventually look past all of that – Toshikazu’s role in Team Rabbit is irreplaceable and I’m sure his friends give him more credit than he realized!

The many facets of human politics were another highlight of this episode – it’s not a pretty sight to say the least, and the internal strife that exists is definitely a cause for concern. Captain Amane’s venture into the global scene of politics was hardly a joy ride – the JURIA-AHSMB technology is understandably a topic of intense contention, and the ensuing international conflicts only serve to underscore the deep-seated tension that prevails. What we have seen thus far certainly does not lend credence to a human victory, but don’t get me wrong – I still fully expect Earth to ultimately emerge victorious, or at the very least, come to a truce with the Wulgaru invaders. Team Rabbit has proven to be extremely resourceful in the time of imminence and they will most likely be the ones to turn the tide around. If the previous action pieces are any indicator, there will be no lack of visual feat in the incoming clash – the two-part episode that awaits us is going to be a real treat and needless to say, I can’t wait to see how everything unfolds!

Random tidbits:

  • “Aim for her heart and strike her with love” – Teoria survives for another week. She did trip on a few more death flags though!
  • “I’d like it if he enjoys the cake I baked” – I’ll be more than happy to eat everything Kei bakes, if that’s what it takes to score some brownie points!
  • Is Tamaki secretly a fujoshi? – I have a feeling she thinks Patrick is gay. Poor guy, Tamaki’s not paying him any attention!
  • “Are a guy or a girl” – Ask the question already, damn it! I guess we’re never going to figure out Ange’s true gender.
  • “Am I seriously turning to a kid for moral support?” – Desperate time calls for desperate measures! There’s nothing wrong with being a lolicon.
  • It looks like Izuru is back to being his dorky self – Who knew he can do the “Robot” this well. Ouch, that must have hurt!
  • It’s a Boy’s Club! – We have a new ED this week and there’s a throwback quality to this one too!
  • Sorry for the slight delay in putting up this post! I was in between airports and flights in the last few days – three cities in four days makes a pretty hectic schedule!

tl;dr: @SeishunRC – #MajesticPrince 16: It looks like my worries about Teoria’s imminent demise turned out to be all for naught – while her life is in no immediate peril, a forthcoming bump-off cannot be totally ruled out! #Anime
 
Full-length images: 04, 06, 10, 11, 23, 30, 35, ED3.

 

ED3 Sequence

ED3: 「僕たちは生きている」(Bokutachi wa Ikiteiru) byヒタチ・イズル(CV: 相葉裕樹)、アサギ・トシカズ(CV: 浅沼晋太郎)、スルガ・アタル(CV: 池田純矢

Preview

23 Comments

  1. i can’t help but compare majestic prince to the older fafner in the azure (another great but sadly underrated series). both have a nice balance between mecha combat and slice of life, which actually rounds the characters pretty well. this one is rather uncommon in the mecha genre. though majestic prince is noticeably much more upbeat than fafner.

    i doubt teoria will be offed anytime soon. in fact, it might be unlikely that she will be offed, period. whether she ends up with izuru or it is izuru x kei in the end, i don’t know.

    and oh boy, they’ve thrown in another death flag for patrick. poor guy will probably be able to confess to tamaki when he is about to die (oh god, another potential michel x clan moment like in macross frontier). then tamaki loses it and finally unlocks her own berserk mode 3:)

    flamerounin
    Reply

    2. +20 Seishun Points! I agree, Soukyuu no Fafner is truly a very underrated series!
      You’re right, it looks like Teoria might just make it out of the series alive – in fact, I don’t think any one of them is going to kick the bucket any time soon.

      Seishun
      Reply

  2. This far in and I’m still genuinely confused about where Izuru and co. are headed in the big scheme of things. I keep expecting there to be some genuine outrage on their part about just how much their lives are being toyed with, but still… nothing. What’s up with that, huh? o__O

    And if Teoria actually bites the bullet sometime soon? Certainly an interesting prospect, but not one I’m necessarily cheering for. I fail to see how such a development leads to anything short of a battle of attrition, and we all know how those turn out.

    Aw well, I’m still itching to see an Izuru x Jiart rematch sometime soon. ‘Till then.

    RyanAshlight
    Reply

    1. I wouldn’t call it an outrage, but Kei and Toshikazu have been questioning the establishment for quite some time now – I don’t expect an anarchy to happen, but some form of dissatisfaction does exist!

      Seishun
      Reply

  3. C’mon Izuru! Shed off that oedipus complex and go for the sweet woman!

    Ahem.

    A question: anybody know where the “Teoria is Izuru’s mum” theory came from?

    I wonder how this will end. There are 8 episodes left, and while the cast has been fun to watch, the status quo hasn’t really changed– even with the addition of Ange. We also don’t get to know much more about Teoria than her premise because something always comes up.

    Maybe the next episode will finally be the turning point… or maybe there really is no drama (or over-drama) in this series?

    Beedle
    Reply

  6. When I saw the “life-threatening” scene of Teoria in this episode, I immediatley had to think about how you would respond to the fact that your prediction was slightly off XD

    All in all I have to agree with the other comments here. Compared to the first episodes, it doesnt really feel like much has changed. Somehow, the bigger plotpoints are missing to push the story forward and to develop the characters. Guess we’ll have to wait how things play out in the remaining episodes…

    Libelula
    Reply

  10. I’m back haha lol XD. I was on vacation for three weeks. Returning from them I was busy watching anime episodes and reading the publications of the premieres. I wait MJP to return to comment. Already I started to have time to comment and give my support to Seishun publications. I’ve updated that I missed and I had fun XD.

    This episode was good to learn more about Teoria. Her character is without doubt my favorite and I hope she has more participation. I like how they have not forced their development within the story. I hope we can see her more active within the story.

    I hope that Asagi have his chance to be noticed by Kei, and not die in the attempt. Damn Death flags.

    I already want to see the action of the next episodes. And also I want to read more of your posts Seishun. I enjoy reading you and your images-links are fun. lol XD

    PS: That hits the heart of Teoria, gave me a heart attack XD.

    Shadow74
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *