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「いっそ このまま」 (Isso Kono Mama)
“Stay This Way Forever”
You know, for all the annoyance of 86’s intermittent release problems, it sure makes an episode’s return all the more fulfilling. A week’s delay (or two) can do wonders for whetting the appetite, and this episode is effective that strategy in perfect form. After all, it’s a return to what Spearhead knows and does best, only now with a wholly different objective: survive.
While 86 has been fairly decent on the surprise front, I don’t imagine anyone was too shocked when one pint-sized and thoroughly squeaky mascot wound up tagging along for the grand adventure behind enemy lines. It was always a given Frederica wouldn’t be disappearing from view anytime soon, she’s too entwined with Spearhead at this stage, and for all the pet peeves involving her, she does serve as a nice foil and grounding for what the kids represent. It’s easy to forget that the lives of Shin and the rest are not fated to end with war, that there is a future which can see them live and thrive outside of these circumstances beyond their control. They may not see themselves in such a future or even want it for the moment, but Frederica’s presence is an effective reminder that Spearhead isn’t operating in a shell anymore. There are plenty now who like them, care for them, want them to succeed. Whether it be Ernst or Gretha, the lesser known or the titular Lena herself, many want to see the kids back safe, and love it or hate it, Frederica is the key for ensuring it happens.
As for how Spearhead makes it home (and just how many), that will come down to what Legion gets up to next. As anticipated the attack on the Morpho didn’t go as expected, though I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t have bait and switch in the Legion’s tactical playbook. Brute force mass assault certainly, but a legitimate feint? Now that’s bloody impressive, especially when it’s noted the feint was deliberate.
Whether due to who Legion has been assimilating or Shin and his familial clan themselves, clearly things have gotten personal and the fallout from it will be interesting to see. Kiri after all wants revenge for what transpired to him and Frederica; he’s determined to exact punishment against those who wronged him, and will likely suffer a significant crisis of confidence when Frederica inevitably comes face to face with his final form (you know it’s going to happen). Likewise Legion itself is probably destined for a setback considering Kiri is likely to implode once Shin and company catch up to him.
And then there’s Shin himself who while not seemingly having a death wish is inevitably chasing the tail of death. You could write a thesis this point over Shin’s mentality and what he’s going through, but in short, much like Kiri, Shin is haunted by the spectre of the past, except instead of running away from it temerariously advances upon it. Shin cares not what may happen to him in his personal battle, but much like Spearhead in general he forgets how important he is to those around him (as so bluntly indicated through that stray shot). This is no longer the Spearhead of old, where life is the penance for the fated escape of death, it’s now a group firmly attached (desirously or not) to the land of the living and its denizens wanting to see them survive and succeed.
It’s anyone’s guess just how well Spearhead will adapt to that mindset now forced and imprinted upon them, but something tells me this is one adventure which won’t see them walk off into the sunset.
Random Tidbits
The Morpho may just be a massive mechanical millipede, but it’s certainly one hell of an interesting millipede. Not often you get to see an EMP in action, something that would actually happen when firing electromagnetic railguns of that magnitude.
Also something something Type-1 Energy Sword, because it sure as hell looks like one!
Preview
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Shin is really getting ever closer to the edge. And this time he didn’t snap out of it quite easily. He was already willing to abandon the crew, if not for the stray shot who knows what would have happened. Anyway, reading the comments of the previous posts, I was expecting the Morpho to be otherwordly, but it oddly looks familiar, as if Ive seen something similar before in another mecha anime, like Macross perhaps? Anyway, if I have to comment negatively about this episode its that the transition to the aftermath of the battle was quite sudden and jarring, I had to make sure I didnt accidentally press the advance button. Still, the next few episodes are sure shaping up to be major in terms of plot direction and emotional impact. I cant wait, and I just hope we dont have any more interruptions. We could have advanced 2 more ep already.
The design is familiar to me as well, but likely because it’s a form most sci-fi railguns take. There’s a lot of love for barrel scaffolding for these sorts of machines, especially with curves.
> I don’t imagine anyone was too shocked when one pint-sized and
> thoroughly squeaky mascot wound up tagging along for the grand
> adventure behind enemy lines.
I have never once considered Frederica as a squeaky mascot and I viewed her height as one of her greater charms. I actually like Frederica as a character no matter how generic her personality is. It’s a reminder of the character types I enjoyed when I started watching Anime in the 80s. Call her squeaky or boring, even annoying. But when the missions of Spearhead are constant horror stories, I don’t want the feeling of terror as a take away at the end of every episode.
> there’s Shin himself who while not seemingly having a death wish is
> inevitably chasing the tail of death. You could write a thesis this point over
> Shin’s mentality and what he’s going through, but in short, much like Kiri,
> Shin is haunted by the spectre of the past,
Not surprising since there is not much for Shin and the rest of Spearhead to come back to. When even Ernst or Gretha can’t convince the rest of their country Federal Republic of Giad to stop using the derogatory term 86 or seeing Spearhead as monsters equal to legion themselves.
Re: not much for Spearhead to come back to.
That’s probably the defining theme of this season, whereas the first was about Spearhead having nothing with death being their only reward (with Lena being the outlier), this one is about them now having something and several people who want them back safe. Understanding that, however, is a challenge given where these kids herald from and they won’t fully appreciate it until the moment is right.
Besides the EMP, they do pay a lot of attention to detail. Have to admit, missed a lot of them first time I watched. They showed the air dropped parachutes last episode, but it was the lack off jamming that made me take a second look. Note that Para-RAID was developed to overcome the ECM capabilities of Legion, so it felt kinda off. That’s when I noticed their diversion strategy at work, the cloud of ECM Legion going away from the Morpho, looked like they followed the WIG aircraft too. Amazing Grethe survived.
Of the new characters, Ernst is the only one I’m keeping an eye on. He’s seriously dangerous and somewhat of an idealist to boot. Ring on the ring finger, willingness to let everything burn and over-protectiveness of the kids. The fact that they put him in power, makes it very likely he’s responsible for the loss of Frederica’s parents. Easy to guess what happened in the past, but the real question is what will he do in the future?
Ernst definitely is an idealist and it makes sense given he’s been confirmed a rebel against the old empire – you don’t fight a revolution without hold some measure of idealism. I don’t think he’s idealist enough to throw away everything to keep Spearhead alive (the calm he shows while commanding is a good sign of his pragmatism), but he will do so should the reasons for sacrifice break with those ideals. In a way he’s probably the most dangerous type of man in that he can flip between carefree and ruthless without any warning.
At this point of time (in the novel), IINM Legion was yet to rank Shin as extremely high priority target, hence why they instructed Morpho to move to their planned location and made killing Shin as secondary priority
Oops it was meant for boingman below :3
Why is Kiri calling Shin “Baleygr”? Unless this is explained later?
Need some clarification.
No-Face is informing Kiri that Shin’s “Feldreß has the advantage at this range”,
Okay, so it would make sense to withdraw. But then No-Face adds that Kiri’s “weapons are likely to be fatal to Baleygr”. Wouldn’t that be reason to stay? Unless Legion doesn’t want to kill Shin?
Speaking of this conversation, I think I’m not too much of a fan since it makes Legion too human. What’s next? Will they evolve, develop as own species and make peace with the humans, living together? 😀
> Why is Kiri calling Shin “Baleygr”? Unless this is explained later?
It’s simply a codename, probably similar to how Kiri is Pale Rider. They can identify Shin by the personal mark on his mecha, but don’t really know – or even really care – who he actually is.
> Wouldn’t that be reason to stay? Unless Legion doesn’t want to kill Shin?
They very much want to kill him, but would like to do to so in a way that leaves his brain intact for harvesting. The Legion is already aware of the Undertaker being a serious threat, and having that potential on their side is very tempting to them. So if possible they don’t want a super-railcannon to completely vaporize him.
> Speaking of this conversation, I think I’m not too much of a fan since it makes Legion too human. What’s next? Will they evolve, develop as own species and make peace with the humans, living together?
We have known since ep 5 that the Legion harvests people for their neural nets, and that the more intact the brain is, the more “complete” the copy becomes. It would only make sense that more or less fully intact humans “serving” the Legion would do so in the manner they have learnt.
As for “living together” with the humans, sure… the Legion would love to do that. To extend their own lifespan, they would love nothing more than to have a replenishing supply of humans to harvest and convert. In a way it’s very similar to the original idea of the Matrix.
Why do you think the Legion have allowed San Magnolia to send waves and waves of suicidal 86ers to their deaths when they had the Morpho at disposal, which could have demolished the entirety of SM at any moment?
Yeah, the Legion wanting to make use of Shin’s skills is what I thought.
As for the living together bit, obviously not what I meant even though you’re right lol. Now as for the evolving bit, I don’t really need the Legion to show up as humanized borg like beings next. That would be kinda boring.
That’s unlikely to be the case at least, Legion only cares for neural material, not the entire organism. At best we might see how such material is used and stored, but I doubt we’re getting humanoid cyborgs anytime soon.
Legion is something akin to a machine having its own consciousness.
Like how the globalsits treat humans as currency, 86-anime verily depicts the Legion.
How they were once human and “upgraded” to harvest fellow humans using war.
Now we know Legion saved the San Magnolian brains like saving the best wine for last. Legion “farmed” processor brains for that purpose.
The episode made me even more curious of the Legion’s inner workings. They seem to have command structure of sorts, with basic AI commanded by “captured” personalities with various ranks – No-Face (which appriopriately has no shown face!) seems to be superior to Kiri aka Pale Rider. Is there some overall “person” in charge of entire legion? Or does it have “council” of best commanders deciding things?
And, TBH I think for this particualr mission Spearhead should have been outfitted with tactical nukes. Morpho might be just too big to take iut with conventional guns…
(Cold war nuclear artillery had nuke ammo for calibres as low as 155mm howitzer which should be able to be mounted on the feldress…