Captain Earth / First Impressions

「キヴォトス計画」 (Kivotosu Keikaku)
“Kivotos Plan”

Going back all the way to the first episode, it was clear that Captain Earth wasn’t a show short on ambition. Filled with mysteries and teasers masquerading as revelations, there’s no shortage of things this show is trying to touch upon, and the notions of family, parenting, and growth of the adolescent are just some such topics.

If you’ll remember, we talked in depth about the aforementioned last week already—particularly about how children tend to be caught in the crossfire of conflicts between adults and the fact that Nishikubo’s trying to take a fatherly role for a cast that’s lacked such a parental figure in their lives—and what this week does is bring things to the next step in this regard. Indeed, if there’s a message to be gleaned from this episode in particular, it’s that being a parent is a two-pronged affair. Yes, it’s important to give kids the support that you feel they need and to be there for them, but that’s not all. Part of being a parent also means also giving kids the freedom to make their own decisions and to trust that they’ll do the “right thing” even if you don’t want to let them go, and there’s a really nice contrast here between the role Nishikubo plays for our main cast and the role CEO Kube thinks he’s playing for the Planetary Gears.

Whereas the former wades the fine line between supporting our cast and giving them the freedom they need to grow, what Kube’s essentially doing is trying to force his plans for a utopia upon the Planetary Gears, and it’s interesting to note how both groups are treading down opposite roads while also representing some of the typical behavior we’ve come to see from adolescents. Granted, the Planetary Gears may might not be the best model for adolescence and they probably never subscribed to Kube’s philosophy, but one can still say their dealings with Puck behind Kube’s back are akin to adolescent rebellion. At the same time, this goes along with the apathy Daichi had previously (and to some degree seems to still have), as well as the anxiety and sadness both Akari and Teppei seem to be experiencing, and our entire cast’s emotions essentially encompass the entire “typical” teenage behavior spectrum. What this does though, is merely highlight the difficulties of being a parent, as well as the difficulties of being a kid in an environment that’s pushing them to become adults faster than they should be.

Reito Hirosue’s attempted abduction of Hana and his quote of “Are you prepared to kill someone? If you’re not ready to do so, you can’t save anyone,” only highlights the walls of adulthood closing in—walls laced with conflicting ideologies and ultimately, petty conflicts. Because as some of our cast points out already, the views of those from the Ark and Intercept Factions shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. But due to one reason or another—CEO Kube’s and his megalomaniac fantasies of running a utopia is one big example—they’re literally sabotaging each other, and again, it’s the kids that end up suffering as a result.

With that said, the fact that the Planetary Gears are essentially digitized souls in a body (and theoretically immortal) ends up being another key aspect of this week’s episode, and there’s much that can be said about their supernatural status and the whole “space vampire” analogy we got regarding them. As it turns out, the Kiltgang can kill humans just by coming near them and absorbing their Libido, and the fact that we’re given a clear indication of how they would be able to destroy humanity really ups the stakes for future episodes. Up until now, we’ve been given some hints to this regard and many of us likely arrived at that mechanism as how they would destroy Earth, but there’s a difference between that and actually knowing, and things look like they’re on their way up now that they’ve officially upped the ante. The fact that many of the alliances have finally been cleared up—Reito Hirosue’s also out of the picture for the time being—only helps things along, and here’s looking forward to the next episode.

 

Preview

43 Comments

  1. At last, I feel like I’m getting close to halfway understanding the plot! I wasn’t worried that failing to do so would impair my enjoyment, ’cause come on, it’s a super robot show, but it’s a nice bonus. One thing I predict: from this point forward, human antagonists are only going to be a legitimate threat by occasional coincidence, making things much simpler overall.
    Also: Daichi, I’m loving the job you’re doing as protagonist, you’ve got serious guts, but why are you training with the head guns, of all things?

    Mythnut
    Reply

  2. We have quite a few factions, each with their own agenda. I will try to list them out, correct me if I’m wrong about anything.

    1. The hero faction. Daichi and the core group, who are trying to save everyone. They use direct combat type interceptors to engage the enemy.

    2. The low-altitude interceptor faction. They use mainly the ineffective satellite interceptors we have seen, and are trying to put the hero faction out of the way for their business.

    3. The Salty Dog faction. They are mainly advocating for the plan to save a few select people, seeing the Kiltgang invasion as inevitable. They also want to hero faction out of the way for their plan.

    4. The CEO Kube faction. Same as the Salty Dog faction regarding saving a few select people, except he will be the one doing the selecting, and he wants to create his own utopia after most of humanity is wiped out.

    5. The Kiltgang faction. It seems they are using the CEO Kube and Salty Dog to get the few obstacles, such as the hero faction out of their way for the invasion.

    So lots of pile-ups with plans overlapping and people backstabbing each other.

    MasterDragonKnight
    Reply

      1. #2 hasn’t done anything important yet. All we’ve seen are the results of their efforts – the satellites that always fail to stop the Kiltgang. I think their opposition has mostly been offscreen, and that they’re like the “conventional military” faction; the most mundane faction.

        Mythnut
        Reply

    3. Man, what is it with guys in suits being total douches? x_x;

      Salty Dog and Kube are basically going about eugenics, thinking that only those with “the best genes” should be allowed to reproduce and anyone else (that’s not up to their par) is seen as “worthless”. That’s what really makes me hate them the most and hope they go down hard.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
      Reply

  3. https://randomc.net/image/Captain%20Earth/Captain%20Earth%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
    So are we switching from skin-based fanservice to masochistic ones now? Cause that’s the second time Daichi bumped his head…

    https://randomc.net/image/Captain%20Earth/Captain%20Earth%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Captain%20Earth/Captain%20Earth%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
    OTOH, this family is rather messed up (I guess the divorce isn’t just for show, for the time being).

    info600
    Reply

  5. So….Samekh from Star Driver was a Kiltgang?

    The Salty Dog organization is seriously unimpressive entrusting a mission to just one idiot that gets defeated by a boomerang. Who doesn’t know that boomerangs curve back? And he was escaping on a boat. A boat!? Is the organization too cheap to send a chopper or some reinforcements. Kind of too late to try and keep things quiet or secret when all your other schemes were already seen and thwarted.

    Ptolemaios00
    Reply

  7. Reito Hirosue’s also out of the picture for the time being

    I can’t imagine how. They handed him over to Salty Dog, which means he’s right back home to be sent out again next week. Because they’re idiots. The best we can hope for is that the boomerang gave him a concussion.

    Wanderer
    Reply

    1. Well, considering that Reito was more of an observer than any kind of major trouble for Globe HQ, he is kind of out of the picture; I mean he’s back at Salty Dog, but now that Globe kicked him out, they don’t have to worry about his surveillance for a while.

      Dualash
      Reply

      1. Well, i see that he will have a comeback as Spy. Because he knows the facility, and perhaps the globe faction HQ is so dumb not changing the passwords. And so they can use him to infiltrate the HQ again, this time MGS style

        Germanguy
        Reply

  9. Well I think this episode kind of sets in stone that this is just going to be a fun mecha show and nothing more. The topics they explore are interesting but they never go into any real meaningful detail for me to be mildly effected by it. The whole scene with the glasses guy kidnapping Hana was beyond silly since it appears he was just waiting there on that boat and did not make an attempt to escape with her. Why? It’s as if the stand off was just a setup for Daichi to finally use his boomerang in a practical fashion. It would be nice if we just didn’t see that guy show up ever again because anything involving him is filled to the brim with cheesy evil guy antics.

    The more episodes that go on the more i see Daichi as being this cheerful little kid who always gets things to work out in any situation. 1/4 of the series has gone by so I’m wondering if this be will just become standard for him. They even use the “It feels like a game” explanation for why he’s able to pilot the mech so easily which is just beyond stupid imo. What game do you know that has that many complicated controls?………

    leatherhead333
    Reply

    2. I disagree about the video game thing. One, we get the impression that Daichi is spending A LOT of time in that sim. Two, he’s not really the type to brag about a bit of natural talent. Three, how many of us have concluded at one point or another that piloting a mech would be easy because of extensive experience with video games? It sounds like a comparison any normal teenager would make, especially a japanese teenager, who probably grew up on gundam and arcades

      nyanlol
      Reply

      1. Daichi somehow knew how to pilot the mech before he was even being trained in the sims. Sure he’s gotten better through them but the fact doesn’t change that he figured out how to make everything work properly before this meaning the only explanation we have for that is “it’s because it feels like a game” which is poppycock. That’s one of the reasons why I think this will only be a fun mecha show because they don’t really care to explain details like this and use stuff we could relate too but don’t make much sense in context.

        leatherhead333
        Reply

      2. your right…

        Pay no intension on the small Things, it make you smaller…

        “The sequence where he had to explain how the Livelaster gun appears in his hand.”

        I understood the message, and thats right for me. So for some little holes, i use Anime Magic to fill the Gaps

        Germanguy
        Reply

  10. I’ve got to say, I’m pleasantly surprised when they brought back Daichi’s uncle. Glad to see the show didn’t forget about him, even though most of us did.

    HazeItr
    Reply

  11. Hmmm. With this episode, it’s rapidly becoming clear that the show can only really manage ‘decent’ at best. I do have good reason for saying this, and it’s not like the show can’t ‘grow the beard’ and improve with time, but frankly, right now, it NEEDS to grow the beard to become a good show. It is currently not that great.

    This is because of two reasons:

    Blackbird
    Reply

  12. Hmmm. With this episode, it’s rapidly becoming clear that the show can only really manage ‘decent’ at best. I do have good reason for saying this, and it’s not like the show can’t ‘grow the beard’ and improve with time, but frankly, right now, it NEEDS to grow the beard to become a good show. It is currently not that great.

    This is because of two reasons: Plot and Character Development

    The easy one:

    Character Development

    Daichi. Supposedly our main character, is currently a 2D plot item. His existence in the show is to spout shounen cliche, and act like every other protagonist out there. Since the first episode he’s barely said a thing, often just doing the whole “but I have to fight!” routine, or generally pointing out Salty Dog’s obvious evilness, even when it’s also obvious for everyone involved (including the audience) and he just sounds like the writer is putting words into his mouth. And by that last statement, I mean it seems very much like everything he says is the writers trying to be as un-subtle as possible, making it abundantly clear exactly what Daichi is thinking/doing in that situation. In other words, he’s not real, he sounds lifeless and dull. He’s just not a ‘character’, you can contrast the fact that Renton had more character development in Eureka Seven’s first episode than most of this cast has had in 6 episodes. By the end of E7 E01 you have a solid idea of Renton’s life, you’ve seen him at his worst, at his best, you’ve got a great idea of his hopes and dreams, and the whole relation he has with his dad is also summed up pretty well. Just the 10 second panning shot around his room, shows you just WHO he is and what he’s like: A “normal” 14 year old boy (I hesitate to say normal, as no one’s ‘normal’ in real life, and especially in a fantasy/scifi show). Maybe you don’t like him, maybe you hate him cause he’s a whiny idiot, BUT if you hate him it’s because you don’t like his character, which by the end of the first episode he has in enough abundance for people to know if they like him or not.
    Compare Daichi. 6 episodes in and there’s nothing. I can’t hate Daichi, or love him, there’s nothing there. It’s the same for all the other characters. Well, except Teppei a bit from last week’s episode. And as a matter of fact, Daichi’s uncle Nishikubo, has been thoroughly fleshed out, with all his insecurities, hopes, ideals, problems and the like laid out for all to see. His struggle to do the right thing and fight against the futility of humanity’s existence is admirable, and we get to see it in full. Honestly it’s wonderful to watch, HE should be the main character in my opinion, I would love to see the focus of the show shift to him and his dealings with the killtgang, and the show moving in the Real Robot direction. Of course, that will never happen… but I can imagine.

    But how has this happened? how did they manage such poor character development? Well it brings me neatly to my second point: Plot. That’s right, characters have been substituted neatly for plot setup. The show is just exposition after exposition, and no end in sight. I get the impression it’s trying to build up the complexity of E7 and E7:AO, but unlike E7 (but quite like AO) it doesn’t have the groundwork to do that yet. If you think about it, E7 didn’t actually have very much (if any) real plot developments in the first half of the series. By this I don’t mean nothing happened, or that there was no plot up til then but very little time was spent delving into it. The plot was going on… in the background. It would influence things in episodes, characters’ actions and the way the series went, but it was at no point the focus. This first half was almost exclusively character development for the main cast. Then with a really (exceptionally) strong foundation, the show revealed the main plot in the second half, with its famed long and complicated expositions. But here, the characters are fleshed out, the world they’re in has also been developed, it’s deep and layered, with many subtleties there. We can take the long exposition, the winding, complicated plot and it’s all the better for it. We can see how the characters are reacting to the new information, how they deal with it, and it’s interesting since we care for them all at this point, and the world they’re in. Captain Earth doesn’t have that. We’re thrown straight into the plot in episode 1 and the exposition doesn’t stop there. There’s no base upon which to develop the plot, no character groundwork, or even world groundwork. Supposedly this plot IS the base. But honestly, it’s not doing that great for that. The plot, for all its long exposition is simple. Each of the factions have very simple purposes, either wanting to save the world or destroy it. Their interactions are honestly not that interesting, and I hardly even care about any of them, and why should I? The world might be destroyed? oh well why don’t I want that to happen? We’ve been shown nothing about the world, of course I don’t want people to die, but you can go and watch a bazillion shows with a similar premise, where the world IS destroyed (or has been) and the series is better for it (Battle Angel Alita, Akira, and others) , and vice versa, where the implications are keenly spelled out, the situation portrayed effectively, and so you care about what happens (the various colony drops in Gundam are good examples).

    So as the exposition increases and only Nishikubo is fleshed out it looks to me like Captain Earth is on a downward spiral, unless it can get its characters together soon!

    This is quite a long post so I might make my own blog post about it in more detail. 🙂

    Blackbird
    Reply

    1. Sorry I think a couple of times in that post I referred to Daichi’s uncle but meant Nishikubo. I hope it’s obvious what I meant! But if you get confused that’s what it is

      Blackbird
      Reply

    2. I can’t agree more.
      There are many fanboys on MAL who keep deflecting all criticism towards this show with “you just want to be spoonfed, try to think for yourself and you’ll understand the plot”… But the plot is simple, just the execution is lacking. Too many logic holes, disjointed narration, inconsistent characterisation. Oh, and poor Hana being a pretty-looking prop with occasional fanservice moment.

      Reite
      Reply

  14. All that head hitting is gonna cost him.

    My bro’s head got deformed as he grew up because he had it hit the floor one too many times. Then there’s the danger of getting his metal health affected too.

    MC should wear a helmet and avoid romantic scenes where his love interest leaps towards him.

    TheMoondoggie
    Reply

  15. I know I’m gonna get hate for this, but I feel like Teppei is an more interesting character than Daichi. And Akari is absolutely a show stealer. Daichi and Hana seem so bland to me. They are boring. Teppei has an interesting arc and daddy issues that make sense.

    Corey Lucas
    Reply

    1. No hate here. I probably wouldn’t like Daichi as much if I hadn’t been so pleasantly surprised by his competence (the only thing worse than a bland, competent character is a bland, incompetent character).
      I feel like I’m still waiting for the ‘real thing’ to start – we’re not going to see characters develop if they just keep sitting on their asses waiting for more Kiltgang. In that sense, Teppei embodies the hope for this series – he’s currently in a state of transition, and he’s inducing development on those around him.
      Seeing his return to the battlefield next episode, I can be optimistic that we’ve reached the turning point for this show.

      Mythnut
      Reply

    2. You’re certainly not alone. Teppei has a more solid character exposure and development and an intriguing storyarc. He has all the ties with the antagonists and a very interesting father who is alive and kicking. His relationship with Akari has a better foundation than Hana’s and Daichi’s too.

      They work very well with unspoken gestures like the way Akari said she was going to make dinner, it made Teppei smile.

      Daichi’s not boring, he’s just ok. But he drags down because he’s around Hana who is by far the weakest character in this cast.

      Durga
      Reply

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