Captain Earth / First Impressions

「アルビオンの虹」 (Arubion no Niji)
“The Rainbow of Albion”

No matter what you think about the past and the role it should play in your present, the fact remains that you’ll likely have to confront it in one way or another at some point in time—whether by choice or by force when it catches up to you. In this week’s episode, it ends up being a bit of both, and it’s interesting to see how Daichi’s presence sets into motion a series of events with serious links to our main cast’s respective pasts. Best of all, it’s a notion highlighted by none other than the magical flight director girl from last week.

Indeed, the addition of Akari into the main Globe staff (and thus the cast) comes with the revelation that she’s the daughter of Governor Yomatsuri (from the ISS) and Commander Nishikubo (of Globe), and it’s a blast from the past in the literal sense. By reuniting the latter with his daughter for the first time in five years, Nishikubo’s past comes back when he least expects it, and it’s a reunion that not only gives us a fair share of laughs and priceless expressions, but ends up exceptionally fitting given the circumstances. Because if there’s one thing that bodes true here, it’s that big things usually come in groups of threes, and this event coincides with Nishikubo’s realization that he should never have allowed things with Salty Dog and the lead gears to escalate this far in the first place. By taking the time to correct some of his past mistakes (SLAM THAT CASE HARD!), the commander notably chooses to face his past by himself in this respect, and the taking of a more fatherly role for Daichi, Akari, Teppei, and Hana earns him quite a bit of respect in my eyes.

What it goes to show though, is that sometime seven adults make mistakes. Just because you’re older doesn’t necessarily make you immune to those and it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be wiser either. Sometimes, it takes a different perspective to arrive at the an answer you’re completely satisfied with, and it was nice to see how Daichi’s comments from last week gave him this perspective, and how quick Nishikubo is to own up to some of the things he should’ve acted on sooner.

That said, there’s only so much he could’ve done regarding the last of our trifecta of events here, and one can see the wheels of fate playing a part here in the return of the AEO that killed Daichi’s father. Perhaps the most intriguing thing here though, is how ironic things end up here as a result. Because as much as one can hate on Salty Dog for sending Daichi out with a damaged machine and little chance of winning, it’s something that had to happen as a symbolic passing on of the destiny that Daichi’s father left him, and it’s an event that led to both Teppei and Hana overcoming their respective issues to summon and utilize the Albion as well.

All things considered, things work out quite well despite the nefarious intent behind the Earth Engine’s deployment this week. The problem is, the respective factions behind the scenes clearly won’t be sitting back and watching after the events of this week, and we’ve already seen one faction’s involvement first hand. As it turns out, the Arc Faction—with its preference for low orbit impacters instead of the Earth Engine—has some hands in the Salty Dog pot, and it looks like they have their own “Kivitos Plan” they wish to execute. On the flip side, there’s another clear association between CEO Kubo (the man behind the “Macbeth Plan”) and the Kiltgang members, and things are slowly but surely clearing themselves out in terms of the politics behind it all. The question remains what exactly each plan entails and who Teppei really is, but I guess we’ll find out in due time.

As Nishikubo and Akari put it best:

Don’t worry about the small things.

And that’s exactly what I’ll do. Things are really starting to get interesting now, and the guys behind this show clearly have a set plan for how much they want to reveal and when they want to do it. The words “sit back and enjoy the show” have never been more apt, and when you consider the expansion sequence we got to see again and the reappearance of the gorgeous insert song, there really ain’t anything else to do. Actually, there’s one thing. We gotta pick who we think is stronger! A magical girl or an angel? LET YOUR PICKS BE KNOWN.

 

Preview

53 Comments

    5. Well said, I’m loving Akari 😀
      (Also, in addition to the hacking and some of those facial expressions, her hyperactivity is also totally Ed-like as several said last week 🙂 )

      Also, Akari’s monologue and those reactions to it were priceless 😀

      DangerMouse
      Reply

      2. There’s a bonus CD coming out on July 18th, but it’s one of like 9. I don’t know if it’ll definitely be on that one or if that’s the actual OST. But yeah two-cour series, the OST rarely comes out until the second half is airing.

        Zephyr
        Reply

    1. I like the series but man do they love to throw out all kinds of stuff and not explain any of it. I hope over the course of the series they let us in on all these terms and names and what they actually mean.

      Karmafan
      Reply

    1. Salty Dog’s part of the Arc Faction that wants low-orbit impacters instead of the Earth Engine. There’s no solid link to them and the guys behind the Kiltgang Duo from what I’ve seen. But there is a definite link between the Kiltgang guy and the CEO who keeps talking to that AI.

      Zephyr
      Reply

  8. I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. And I have to say Albion is more awesome to me than Earth Engine.

    As for your question, the answer is easy: Angel.

    Angels aren’t human and are immortal and aren’t bound by any sort of human, physical, or dimensional law. A magical girl is only a human who can tap into special abilities. Abilities than an angel would already have in excess.

    Irenesharda
    Reply

    1. No surprise really. Even in times of war, allied forces can end up being more concerned with competing against each other than against the enemy and even use that very enemy (secretly) to get ahead of the others if convenient. Politics basically.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
      Reply

    1. Those seem to be orbital impactors rather than low-orbit, personally. But who knows? Also, closing in on the earth at a little over 100mph? That is damn slow, an ICBM would be faster than that Kiltgang…

      SerRompalot
      Reply

  14. In a sense it’s almost as if Captain Earth is a composite of various earlier BONES mecha elements in the same way that Valvrave was for Sunrise, but instead of subverting them and going completely batshit, CE is playing them as a straight-up collage of BONES influences.

    Guardian Enzo
    Reply

    1. Yeah for sure. I’ve seen a lot of people saying Captain Earth is something like a love-child between E7 and Star Driver and I can’t really disagree, although there’s probably shows like RahXephon in the mix too. It definitely seems to be working and its gotten better with every episode so far imo.

      op4blushift
      Reply

      1. People dismiss this as “the Star Driver team” but these guys have worked on a lot of other series in writer/director roles – shows like Utena and Soul Eater (the good one, not the moemoe one) and in secondary roles on shows like FLCL, Evangelion and, yes, E7 and Rahxephon. It’s not too surprising.

        It definitely has elements of most of the BONES mecha oeuvre but I’m getting stronger E7 vibes than anything else right now. And yes, there’s definitely some Rahxephon in there.

        Guardian Enzo
        Reply

    2. I don’t know, I decided to go watch Star Driver because I wanted some background on the Captain Earth team and I actually quite enjoyed it for what it was, although I can see why it gets a lot of flak. But yeah, the guys behind Captain Earth have lots of other stuff they’ve worked on besides Star Driver so its probably not fair to judge them just off of that, especially since the other shows they’ve done are all pretty different from each other.

      That said, Star Driver was pretty much the only show that the Enokido/Igarashi team worked on together in the writer/director role(I think Ouran Highschool Club as well), unlike those other works which they did separately in different roles and as part of different teams and what not, so its kind of understandable that people are mainly looking at Star Driver for past reference.

      op4blushift
      Reply

    3. “In a sense it’s almost as if Captain Earth is a composite of various earlier BONES mecha elements in the same way that Valvrave was for Sunrise, but instead of subverting them and going completely batshit, CE is playing them as a straight-up collage of BONES influences.”

      Yeah, I love the classic BONES mecha feel this is giving off.

      I certainly agree on those previous series influences they’re tapping into too.

      It looks like I’m really going to enjoy this new show.

      DangerMouse
      Reply

  15. DAT Hana. Not only giving us a beautiful music but a nice fansservice as well leaving some males to almost lost their ‘restraint’ lol

    I must say, I like Hana’s Mugen no Hana than Nike’s tender rain song.

    Vaan
    Reply

  16. Never watched Eureka 7 or really finished Star Driver, so it might be somewhat fortunate for me that I have nothing to compare this with. In any case, the 3 episode rule has long been up by the 2nd, and I’m quite happy how this one turned out with humor, behind-the-scenes plotting, awesome music (what’s mecha without epic tunes?) and mecha action.

    The transitions were good too, particularly Akari’s introduction. You could sense the atmosphere was kinda heavy even after Nishikubo finally hardened his backbone to take charge, and it didn’t feel forced, as though it was a moment you were expecting, just not sure when.

    There’s just so many mysteries going on here, what with the overly helpful AI, Salty Dog and Ark Faction’s agendas, the identities of Teppei and Hana (the hints were all there, with Akari’s story about the shrine and AEO pilots talking about the “Princess of Blume” who should be none other than Hana) but at the same time it feels like there’s some kind of balance being achieved here in just 3 episodes.

    Special mention goes to Daichi for getting his head in order. One would assume he, (as Glasses Scumbag probably did) young as he is, would naively jump at the chance to seek vengeance. Instead what came out was a surprisingly mature response of taking up the mantle of his dad. Good on you, son.

    Love it. And dat fanservice. Nicely done, Bones.

    Owaranai
    Reply

    1. Yeah.

      It’s probably pretty awesome seeing this as an even newer viewer of their mecha. 🙂

      Loved this episode and how those things came together.

      Also, yeah Akari’s intro to everyone was hilarious, she was great and I loved watching those reaction faces. 🙂

      As the review mentioned Nishikubo was pretty awesome addressing a bunch of stuff and taking everyone in, also Hana with the yam was so likeable, well done Nishikubo. Nice job with the fanservice and song too Hana. 🙂

      DangerMouse
      Reply

  19. I was disappointed by previous two episodes, but this one is finally good. Hope the upward trend continues.
    Teppei is my favorite character for now. Maybe because he reminds me of Tieria Erde from Gundam 00 (seiyuu, hair + eyes combo, affinity for pastels, Show Spoiler ▼

    ).

    Reite
    Reply

  21. Sadly, this show doesn’t pass the 3-episode rule in my case. It just isn’t doing anything for me. I’m more bored than anything.

    I suppose the problem is that I haven’t really seen anything that jumps out at me for being original or superbly executed. The plot seems to have little surprises, the characters are mostly uninteresting save for the two girls (our boring main hero with his revenge-taking for his dead father is the worst) and the fights aren’t very thrilling either. Earlier Bones mecha shows like Eureka Seven at least managed to draw me into their world already at this point, but here, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.

    Don’t feel like getting stuck on a 25-episode show, so I’m ditching this. It’s not the worst thing out there (this season has a fair amount of far worse mecha shows) but I’m going to look for something more interesting. I’m hoping M3 delivers. And there’s Sidonia too, so hey.

    Dvalinn
    Reply

    2. Glad I’m not the only one. This has been picturesque mediocrity to me. Nothing about the world is interesting so far. Throwing out a bunch of proper nouns of various organizations is not interesting, and it’s definitely not a good way to tell a story or build a world. Eureka Seven started off *really* slow for the first few episodes to me (which is why I’m giving this more of a chance), but it wasn’t *bad*, or uninteresting. Just slow. This though.

      It doesn’t help that I really don’t like the style so far. Bad guys have a base in space, good guys have a base on a tiny island. Lots of talking people sitting in the Command Center. Feels waaay to much like Power Rangers.

      But again, keeping hope! Hoping that it doesn’t have much more in common with Ao than the dark-skinned girl who doesn’t talk much and.. all the rest!

      Fulluphigh
      Reply

  22. This is a hard one but if the magical girls are powerful like Madoka or Nanoha they win in terms of sheer power but Hana won me over with that beautiful voice of Heaven she has so I side with the angels!. XD

    haseo0408
    Reply

  24. Not sure what people are complaining about, seriously it’s getting way more hate than it deserves. But as an experienced mecha and Bones fan, I am enjoying every single freaking minute. This in my opinion is how you should do mecha, have a little comedy, some things that have yet to be explained, maybe a little super robot/real robot combination, and a whole lot of epic giant robot beat downs.

    diyedas
    Reply

  26. Fantastic episode, really nice balance between humorous and serious moments .. the highlights for me where Hana’s song (amazing vocals), Akari’s introduction and the back-and-forth between her and her father (it’s damn hilarious and a great way to fill us on the background info while making us laugh) and finally the moment when Teppi’s Albion does the rainbow thing .. it’s a perfect example of “show, don’t tell” … without a single word and only a simple iconic move he identified himself to us and to Daichi.

    As for all the politics, factions and stuff-behind-the-scenes, i say give some time and it will clear out .. given time every faction will show it’s true colors and intentions … but as they say “don’t worry about the small things” XD

    HunterWulf
    Reply

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