Sidonia no Kishi 2 – 10

After a season and three-quarters of familiarization with its combat information displays, you know the Sidonia has hit the fan when pilots start turning red, including Izana. Sure, it’s due to a loss of communication, but I still found myself tensing up with apprehension at the sight of those graphics, especially considering you could call Izana and Nagate’s off-camera experience a death flag of sorts, and as I stated last week, none of the other three pilots are anyone we know, and are hence disposable.

Kobayashi tends to agree with that assessment, as she orders Yuhata to formulate a plan to eliminate the Gauna, not support the recon platoon, a course of action that essentially abandons the platoon to their deaths, Izana included. This is certainly upsetting, but it keeping with Kobayashi’s M.O.

Surprisingly, it’s Kunato who manages to get Nagate and Tsumugi/Mozuku to sortie, stating that it’s as good an opportunity as ever to test both the Tsugumori Mk. III and chimera in non-zero-g anti-Gauna operations. Kunato couldn’t give two shits about Izana or the other recon pilots, but he knows the loss of Izana will negatively affect his “hold” on Tsumugi.

As Nagati and Tsumugi enter formation and race to Planet Nine, Izana loses her kabi cannon when swarmed by Gauna, and notices they follow the cannon. When she releases her fuel tanks, they follow those as well. These moves buy her some survival time, but the planet is hardly hospitable-looking to humans, and with no fuel and very limited survival provisions, Izana is hoping for a speedy rescue.

When Nagati and Tsumugi are suddenly separated by a powerful Hyggs beam, and Nagate starts hurtling backwards into the planet’s atmo, it looks like the rescuers are going to need rescuing as well…

But even though his impact with one of the countless islets floating in the upper atmosphere (which look so tiny when far away, but are actually quite big compared to Tsugumori), his Mark III is tough enough to withstand that impact unscathed. Nagate himself is stunned, but eventually comes to his senses and stands up, very surprised he’s alive.

But Considering the one who fired at him and Tsugumi turns out to be a resurrected Benisuzume, complete with giggles, will he regret surviving that impact? Tsugumi orders Nagate to find and save Izana while she duels with the red Gauna girl, but Beni looks like her equal in combat, if not her better.

Far from the relative safety of Sidonia, on a strange and hostile planet crawling with Gauna, faced with an old foe previously believed dead, and with Izana plummeting into the soupy clouds to an unknown fate, things couldn’t be worse for Tanikaze Nagate. Can he save his friend and maybe-lover, without losing Tsugumi to Benisuzume? It’s snuck up on us, but there are just two eps left to sort everything out.

Sidonia no Kishi 2 – 09

So, here we are, and it’s apparent that Nagate isn’t going to read into Yure’s bizarre assignment for him at all, both because he’s primarily worried about getting his head blown off, but also because he’s got nothing but dust bunnies floating around inside that uncommonly hard skull. Or, to be more charitable, he simply doesn’t possess the means to express how he feels.

His obliviousness doesn’t keep Izana from being charmed by the “code” he’s using to take her on a date (especially when he inspects Chekhov’s Bed), and Yuhata and Tsumugi are also convinced that they’re up to no good, and manage to locate a vantage point to spy on them.

That point turns out to be a gorgeous (and expensive) zero-gravity onsen with an omnidirectional view of the stars outside. When Izana, bless her, takes off her jacket and asks for Nagate to join her in the bath, she’s also asking him to drop the pretense, not knowing there is none; this really is a mission for the dolt.

That’s made clear when Izana gets a peek at his tablet, which has her grandma’s scribbling all over it; this was all a setup orchestrated by her, with no input or even awareness on Nagate’s part. Rather than charmed, she’s pissed, and throws a couple of cybernetic punches at her would-be partner in frustration.

Where she’s wrong, though, is that Nagate “doesn’t care about her at all,” as no matter how much punishment she dishes out, he sticks close to her, determined to apologize, and make things right. It’s also an opportunity to tell her exactly how he feels about her.

But we don’t get to hear it, or see Izana’s reaction, or any other part of their evening. Like Shirou and Rin in UBW, Nagate and Izana are two kids who really like each other and are always at risk of being killed tomorrow. But while the UBW couple had a tasteful if sedate intimate experience that we at least got to see.

Instead, Sidonia leaves everything to our imagination, cutting from the onsen to Yuhata and Tsumugi, watching from afar, unable to hear, like us. The next morning is a little more telling of what happened: the two enter the house, and while on the stairs momentarily forgot they sleep in separate rooms, because last night, they slept with each other.

That’s my take on it anyway, and it’s supported later on in how both of them act. Your mileage may vary on what went on, but I think the show’s point is to think what you want to think, at least until more information comes to light.

All I knew was, after their little vacation, things were almost certainly going to turn perilous again, testing the bond they just took to the next level. The show doesn’t do this in the most subtle way, but in this case, unsubtlety is welcome.  When a disgruntled pilot defects at the sight of the new hayakaze armor, which looks to her like a kamikaze ram for the Gauna, Izana is called up to replace her on the recon mission to the dark side of Lem system’s ninth planet.

The kicker is that Yuhata makes this call to Izana. Yuhata, who stayed up all night worried and likely also upset about what was going on with Nagate and Izana. Is she Yuhata only acting in her official capacity as XO, and Izana truly the best person for the job, or did Yuhata put Izana on this mission as some kind of payback? I certainly hope it’s the former, but the latter can’t be ruled out.

As for the mission, it’s one of those rare instances when Izana is out there while Nagate is on standby, and Nagate is a nervous, pacing wreck, more than ever if it’s true that they’re now lovers. He’s also concerned because Izana is attached to a device he heard the deserting pilot call a death trap, and we know that Kobayashi plays favorites wouldn’t hesitate sacrificing lesser pilots for a second if it meant furthering her goals.

So like Nagate, my heart was also in my throat the minute Izana left the (relatively) safe confines of Sidonia…especially with three redshirts. The cloaked Gauna they find in the rings of Planet Nine is a nasty customer, and promptly takes out one redshirt.

Please make it home, Izana—the last and most important moment you have with Nagate can’t have occurred offscreen…unless, of course it is, and we only revisit it in Nagate’s memory or dreams. Then again, if Hiyama is right about Kobayashi putting Sidonia on the wrong course, even if Izana makes it back, everyone’s doomed anyway.