Dragonaut / First Impressions

Summary:

In a meeting with the entire ISDA group, Laina reports on how they completed the mission to capture the Album despite the interference from the Girouard military. Kiril reveals that they’ve already lodged a strong protest against the Girouard military for this and are looking into penalties for annulling the contract. Laina then goes on to explain that they’re reexamining if Kazuki is appropriate to as a Dragonaut and that Jin has been confined in the base. The mention of Jin’s name causes Kiril to comment on how everything started with Jin, and Laina thinks about how Jin saved the shuttle. As for the other Dragons, Toa is being held so that they can collect research data on her, and Gio and Widow have been isolated onto Tartarus Island. Worried about when the latter two will go out of control, Kiril thinks that they should deal with them as defective products before they cause any more problems. Yuuri, however, recognizes that Gio and Widow aren’t bound by their Resonances and are thus worthwhile as research subjects, so she wants to hold off on getting rid of the two. Sakaki argues that the Album alone is enough and thinks that wanting all of them is being greedy, but Akira then butts into the discussion because she doesn’t feel they should be talking about Dragons being defective or research subjects in front of Machina and the other Dragons. Laina eventually cuts short the argument by citing the end of his report, and he warns Akira to calm down.

On Tartarus, Gio tells Widow about how Howlingstar had said that the fate of Earth Dragons was to protect their masters. When Widow points out that Gio still has a master in Kazuki, unlike her, Gio wonders if he’s fated to be Kazuki’s Dragon. Widow feels that though they can’t change their fate, they can change their destiny if they stay alive. The problem is that they’ve been left on a secret ISDA facility used for discarded Dragons, and there’s a CSS electromagnetic shield around the island that keeps them from leaving. Jin meanwhile dreams of going to the beach with his family, but the dream turns into an encounter with Toa. Hugging him, she blames herself for making him alone in the world and claims that that’s why she appeared. Back in reality, Yuuri and Nanami pay Jin a visit to show him video of Kazuki’s Resonance with Gio. Yuuri explains Resonances to be something like a contract between humans and Dragons and reveals that Dragons have to obey the orders of their masters. However, Gio chose Jin instead of Kazuki, and for Yuuri, this is very intriguing. What’s even more intriguing is how the Album also sees Jin as her master. Yuuri explains that two years ago during the time of the shuttle accident, Jin’s body showed signs of having completed a Resonance with the Album. Jin is shocked speechless at the thought of being Toa’s master.

Elsewhere on the ISDA base, Akira is wondering what she should believe in, and Machina makes her feel better by feeding her an apple slice. Sieglinde then shows up to talk about Kiril, but Akira knows that this isn’t what she really wants to say. Embarrassed, Sieglinde asks Akira not to betray them because without her, Sieglinde feels that she’d be left with just Laina. Akira promises not to, and this leaves Sieglinde quite happy. By now, Yuuri has finished talking with Jin and learns from Nanami that it’ll be Nanami’s birthday soon. Nanami requests a present, so Yuuri tells her to think about what she wants. On a different planet, Garnet is apologizing to Prince Asim for her failures, but he doesn’t care about Gio anymore. Asim now wants the Album, and when Garnet protests because it won’t be easy to get Toa from the ISDA, Asim tells her that it’s for times like now that they infiltrated a spy into the ISDA. Back at the ISDA base, Yuuri, Nanami, and Nozaki are watching over the Album, and Yuuri comments on how there are more and more Dragons appearing who aren’t bound by Resonances. To her surprise, Toa suddenly breaks free, knocks out all of the guards, and heads to room that has a group of eggs suspended in a tube. She’s come for those eggs, but before she can do anything, Sieglinde and Amadeus stop her. Toa claims that her mission was to come for these children, and that causes Amadeus to hold back momentarily from attacking her, however Nozaki then shows up to declare that he’s the person in charge of this place. Nozaki refuses to let Toa lay a finger on the eggs, and his eyes glowing catches Toa off guard long enough for Amadeus to knock her out.

During the confusion from Toa’s escape, Akira and Machina get the chance to free Jin. They attempt to escape via the parking deck, but the three are confronted by Laina and Howlingstar. Laina had suspected that this would happen sooner or later because he had known about Akira and Machina helping Jin on previous occasions. He also thinks that Jin might have enticed the two to do this, but Machina suddenly grabs Laina as a hostage and affirms that this was a decision on her and Akira’s part. After urging Howlingstar to open his eyes too, Machina puts Laina into a car, and the group makes their escape. They leave Laina on the side of the road a little while later, and as they drive off, Jin questions why Akira saved him. She reveals that she thinks Jin and Gio can change the relations between humans and Dragons, and she uses herself and Machina as an example. The two of them are together not because Machina has to obey Akira’s orders, but because they need each other. Akira thus doesn’t believe that Dragons are human property. Meanwhile, Yuuri learns from Nozaki that they’re suspending further testing on the Album. She is of course opposed to this, so Nanami suggests privately that they instead do their research on Tartarus by taking Toa there under the pretext of isolating her. Nanami successfully convinces to do this, but along the way, their submarine detects something rapidly approaching them. Yuuri realizes too late that the Girouard military is in pursuit, and an Agathion soon grabs onto the submarine. Their helmsman tries to radio out an emergency, but he gets knocked out by Nanami who then proceeds to hold a gun to Yuuri’s face. She tells Yuuri that she’s decided on a birthday present – she wants the Album.

Preview:

Well, Nanami being the spy was rather unexpected. I kind of had her pegged as the happy-go-lucky sidekick to Yuuri and had forgotten about her because I didn’t think she’d amount to anything more than that. In fact, her appearance is so different and serious in the preview that I hardly recognized her. My question is why they didn’t use her earlier if they were so gung-ho about getting Gio. Surely the one spy isn’t worth more than the entire fleet lost in the space battle. Regardless, the bad guys would appear to have Toa now, and Asim seems to want her as his personal slave/possession.

Speaking of Toa, her mission appears to have been something along the lines of getting the Dragon eggs being stored in ISDA headquarters. She called Thanatos “mother” two episodes ago, so it’d make sense if she was trying to get back Thanatos’ eggs. Toa also recognized Nozaki Kasuga, and the combination of that plus the way he talked to Yuuri makes him out to be another antagonist. I wonder if the glowy eyes signify that he’s also a Dragon. As for Jin, he did relatively little this episode and had to be saved yet again. What do you want to bet that he’s going to get captured at least one more time before this is all over.

25 Comments

  8. Nice little twist imo. I didn’t expect Nanami to be the spy either. And what’s up with the doc? Guess there’s more to him also. Anyways, another good ep that moves the plot along. Can’t complain really.

    GP
    Reply

  14. kurotsuki i’m going to make a correction to: “Nice people always are bad people .”
    the correction: “too nice people always are bad people”.
    there is a big difference.

    valthunder
    Reply

  15. I think this going to be short response for once lol, all I got to say is WOOT! It looks like they’ve finally got the pace going in a good direction now for the series, though I’m still waiting for the summary and/or waiting to watch the episode before I can actually make any real comment…

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  17. Time for my long as response, GET READY! lol 😛 _______ Hmmm… Very interesting episode… This episode is definitely one of the most intriguing thus far in this series… I really wasn’t expecting Nanami to be a spy at all lol… Also from what it looks like, Jin is going to end up pairing up with Gio (This can be viewed in the opening credits to further support this) and Toa is going to end up being captured again but this time by the Girouard army… So my guess is that for maybe 5-10 episodes; can’t tell at the moment though but I think they’re going to be chasing after her yet again… Also, I believe from the events that have occurred thus far, Gio & Jin will (possibly) in the end both become the protectors of Toa, however, I’m guessing Gio will realize that Toa truly cares for Jin (when I say “care” I mean that they are in love with each other), but will still protect her and will eventually come to accept protecting Jin as well in order to help preserve their relationship together (Though this realization has already occurred in that Gio willingly gave himself up in order to get Toa and Jin back together). Even though this is my theory, they can still throw it right back in my face and have it end having Toa return to Thanatos… Which would piss me off and probably most of the viewers or some type of sacrificial ending too, there a still so many possibilities that are still opened to the ending of this series and there is still no hint as of how this will end…

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  20. It is becoming more interesting. I always thought that Gillard forces being the main enemy of the show. A suprising unexpected “good Nanami” turned out to be another possible enemy. I always believed that Sakaki, Akira, Machina, Howling Star, Siegliende and Amadeus are characters that can be trusted. A moping Kazuki is still busy all the time thinking of taking full control of Gio probably because Gio would make him a cool person or something like that. I don’t know. I know Gillard forces are evil as ever. It is so obvious they want power like the typical bad guy of any anime shows.

    Gio is cool. He’s like a big brother to Jin. Ah well, it depends how the director wants the plot to be like for other upcoming episodes. It seems for now it is not just Toa that Gillard forces are after. They would also be going after the other originals unknown like her.

    Kasuga looks eerie and creepy. Dun like his personality. He looks weird. I like the journalist guy who spies Kitajima ‘randomly’.

    Still, the plot is getting better. ^^

    C
    Reply

  23. Hmm, it was unespected that Nanami would turn out to be a spy. Though I wonder if she’s going to remain that through the whole show. Wouldn’t be the first time someone in an anime has turned out to be a spy/traitor but then regardless helped the “good guys” in one way or another…

    I wonder about Nozaki becoming an antagonist though. Doesn’t seem all that likely yet, but it isn’t impossible… We don’t know his purposes yet, after all.
    and Akira’s cool as usually. Really hope this won’t end up badly for her…
    Raina’action sort of surpised me – if he knew what was going to happen, then he was actually surprisingly passive for that – he didn’t face them with a gun nor had Howling Star prepare for an attack or ANYTHING. Heck, he even smiled as they got away! O_o

    SpectatorBeholder
    Reply

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