Synduality: Noir – 16 – Part of the Family

Kanata & Co. are back in Rock Town none the worse for wear, while Tokio AKA “Licht” has gone off to, I suspect, reckon with his former family. While conscious, Noir has come to the conclusion that Kanata will be better off with Mystere, because she makes him stronger, like a Magus is supposed to do. No matter how many times she hikes up her coat, it falls off her shoulders.

Kanata believes the self-repair program will be complete in five days, but he’s mistaken: it will only take two days. Not only that, but when the program is complete, Mystere will completely take over the body Noir has controlled throughout the series, and Noir will disappear. All her memories, gone in a poof. Mystere asks her if she truly accepts this, and Noir gives her the logical line.

Noir has totally bought into the fact she’s a “dud”, the useless opposite of Mystere. But even though she accepts her death as necessary, she wants to do one last thing, on her own, for Kanata. After Ciel makes her and Kanata dinner, Noir goes to Ellie and Ange and asks them to teach her how to cook. Ellie … doesn’t really cook either, so it’s up to Ange-sensei to steer them right.

But first things first: in order to procure fresh meat and vegetables from Michael, Noir must deliver his entire inventory of green bell peppers, which he hates but the rest of the town love. Something else the town loves? Noir. Her pepper delivery is also a method of demonstrating just how beloved she’s become. From Ma’am and the merchants to the bar staff and Maria, everyone has accepted her as a true Rock Towner, and they appreciate her and Kanata helping to protect them.

Ange’s cooking lesson is genuinely heartwarming, with her, Noir and Ellie having a blast together. Each time Noir interacts with people this week, she has a photo taken to commemorate the moments. No photo hit me more in the feels than a softly smiling Noir flanked by brightly smiling Ange and Ellie. None of the people in Noir’s photos know she considers these to be the last photos they take with her.

Kanata is so surprised Noir is cooking that he can’t help but loiter outside the kitchen, worried about her cutting or burning herself, until Ciel tells him to sit back and, well, let Noir cook. Both Kanata and Ciel find the resulting dish to be delectable. Believing she was finally able to do something for Kanata, Noir proceeds to keel over, shocking her two friends.

As her body starts to slowly transform into Mystere, Noir explains how she’s a “bad Magus” who hasn’t been helpful. But Kanata tells her he doesn’t care about that, he’s just happy to have a family again, thanks to her showing up in his life.

His words, spoken to Noir in such a delicate state, end up interrupting the transfer. Noir starts to weep, because she no longer wishes to disappear, and fights against the transfer, causing her to basically crash, leaving Kanata and Ciel to fear the worst.

I’m not ready to accept that we’ve seen and heard the last of Noir, but if ever there was and episode that showed how much she meant to everyone, and that she’s not a dud, and that she would be terribly missed if she were gone, it’s this. Hopefully Maria can fix her and Noir and Mystere can come up with some kind of alternative to one of them being consigned to oblivion.

Synduality: Noir – 12 (Part 1 Fin) – Back to Black

When a third core coalesces between the towers, Michael and Tokio charge in to take it out, but are instead taken out themselves by a barrage of Ender firepower. That means It’s All Up to Kanata, but between his inexperience and Noir’s ongoing crisis of confidence (insisting she’s a “dud”), things don’t go well.

When Daisyogre loses its blade arm and most of its offensive power, Noir even starts to question whether she’s actually a Magus, let alone one deserving of someone like Kanata (needless to say, she’s underselling herself and overselling Kanata). But then a switch flips suddenly she’s Noir with a Tan, using elite Magus Skills to deflect enemy fire and calling Kanata a hack at every possible opportunity.

Noir’s saucy alter-ego refers to herself in the third person as Mystere, and she makes it quite clear that she doesn’t want to be awake, and would prefer if she hadn’t switched places with Noir, who is some kind of Safe Mode. For all her sassiness and impatience with Kanata, Mystere is also hella good at her job, using a second offensive Magus Skill to Yeet a bunch of beams of light, shattering the core’s armor and blowing it to smithereens.

After the victory, for which everyone praises Kanata, Mystere tells him she’s going back to sleep and doesn’t plan to see him again. I love how Koga Aoi changed up Noir’s voice to make it more natural and more hostile. I also love how Range and Dolce are scouring the battlefield for crystals and end up chased by a surviving Ender. They’ll never learn!

Back at a grateful Rock Town, the victorious Drifters kick back. Michael tries and fails to propose to Maria, how has some wine with Claudia and notes that she’s not old enough to remember the first Silver Storm. Tokio wants to have another heart-to-heart with Kanata, but Ellie and Ange warn him that now may not be the best time.

After two days, Noir wakes up, but she’s still Mystere, and still doesn’t want to be there. In a clever demonstration that this is definitely not the Noir we know, she finally pulls her oversized coat over her shoulders, something Noir would never do. She also informs Kanata that she’s been trying to get Noir back but she isn’t responding.

So as we close the book on cour 1 of 2 of Synduality, Kanata now finds himself with a completely different Magus, and Ciel is ordered by Macht and Schnee to keep observing to determine if Noir or Mystere is the Key they need. Also Tokio apparently knows Macht, and wonders what he’s up to in Rock Town. The big Ender threat is defeated, but there’s clearly more story to tell and more mysteries (mysteres?) to unravel.

This is, again, and as ever, perfectly serviceable and nominally entertaining without being particularly groundbreaking. Above all, it’s well executed, and the production has remained consistently above average. As such, I’m looking forward to Part 2, due to air in Winter of 2024.

Synduality: Noir – 11 – The Two (Purple) Towers

Kurokamen and Schnee report that they, along with Ciel, have the Magus Key and her current Master in their hands. Their shadowy boss, named Mr. Weisheit, orders Kurokamen (who he calls by his real name, Macht Ewigkeit—to eliminate the master.

While this is standard practice for anyone searching for Paradise, neither Macht, Schnee, nor Ciel seem particularly happy about having to kill Kanata. Meanwhile, his longtime protector Tokio remains unconscious in a medical tank.

Ciel acknowledges her orders as she heads to pick up Kanata and Noir in Tokio’s carrier, only to find he’s readying Daisyogre for the battle at Rock Town. Ciel realizes she doesn’t want Kanata to die, so much so that she’s willing to defy her orders to eliminate him.

She begs Kanata to run away instead, with her, but he declines. He can’t leave Rock Town, Tokio, Ellie, and all the others in the lurch. He has to do what he can. Faced with rejection, Ciel once again steels herself to eliminate him with her electro-fingers.

Back at Rock Town, Michael sets up a line of defense with Drifters from home, Desire, and Baccarat. Even Range and Dolce show up, initially only to watch everyone get their asses kicked, but when they’re ambushed by Enders and accidentally flee to the front line, they give the impression to everyone that they’re not so bad after all, coming to the town’s aid.

The battle is a grueling one, with Drifters running out of ammo and becoming exhausted left and right. But just as Ellie and and Ange are surrounded and look to be out of options except for Ellie to call out for Kanata, there Kanata is, her knight in shining armor with a newly modded-out Daisyogre.

Obviously, Ciel never went through will killing him, as Macht ordered her to continue observing and supporting Kanata instead. Unlike their boss, he has a hunch that he has potential to help them achieve their nebulous “Ideals”, and Schnee feels the same way: it would be a shame for him to die.

Thanks to Kanata the Drifters defending Rock Town have their second wind, and in preparation to make their advance on the twin Ender Storm towers (atop which the cores sit), Claudia and Flamme launch a one-time mega fire cannon that paves a way for Michael, Kanata, and three other Coffins.

As they climb the towers and meet heavy Ender resistance, back in town Tokio finally comes to, and immediately gets dressed. As he expected, Maria has his Coffin fixed up and ready to go; no time for physical therapy. It’s a good thing, too, because Kanata loses his rifle and alerts pop up all over the place.

Just as Kanata rescued Ellie in the nick of time, so too does Tokio take the stage at the most dramatic moment. He tosses Kanata a spare rifle, and they fight off the Enders side by side until the path is clear to one of the Ender Storm’s cores.

They pierce their core, while Michael pierces his…but something’s wrong. The Storm has stopped, but it doesn’t crumble or fall over. Instead, the third, true core coalesces between the two false ones, like a threatening, purple Eye of Sauron. To underscore the importance of this development, a lot of the characters appear on the screen like the end of a Gundam or Macross OP. The next episode will be for all the marbles.

Synduality: Noir – 05 – Marital Blitz

In a distressing cold open, a Drifter is surrounded by sinister black coffins who take his Magus captive. So of course I feared Noir would meet a similar fate later in the episode. That’s especially true when Kanata and Noir encounter Claudia and Flamme in the Rock Town market, selling the crystal they took for themselves.

All Claudie can offer them is lunch and some advice: if they want to get better at “becoming one” as a Drifter-Magus pair, she recommends they visit the maze at Fes, which is almost certainly a trap. In the meantime, Noir is determined to “become one” with Kanata, culminating in her declaring that they are “husband and wife”.

The two start eating, drinking, even brushing their teeth in unison in hopes that they’ll become a better tuned duo on the battlefield. Noir wants to take a shower with Kanata, but he forbids it. And when Noir wants to sleep in his hammock with him, he finally relents, only for the weight of the both of them to break said hammock.

Nevertheless, they fall asleep on the floor, and that’s where a very confused and outraged Ellie finds them. She’s even more distressed when Noir says they’re husband and wife, and asks if love is even necessary in a marriage. Clearly, they’ve been sold another bill of goods by Claudia.

As expected, the maze is indeed a trap, and Claudia sold Kanata and Noir out for a payday, earning her some more villainess brownie points. Fortunately Tokio knows something is up, since Mouton reported the Type Zero Magus abductions like the one we saw in the cold open.

No sooner do Kanata and Noir enter the maze of Fes than they are surrounded by the same sinister black coffins, which are launched from flying carriers. Kanata is able to evade them for a few blocks, but eventually they’re surrounded.

Before one of the black coffins can pry open the rear bay where Noir is, Tokio’s coffin arrives and knocks a couple of the coffins away. He’s joined by Ellie and Michael, and even Claudia shows up, albeit just to make sure Kanata isn’t hurt.

She explains that her client was looking for a certain Type Zero—even Flamme was checked out—they have deep pockets, and Flamme ain’t cheap to maintain, so she had no choice but to take the job. But not unreasonably, Kanata wants payback for being played the fool not once but twice now.

Claudia doesn’t make it easy at first, as she uses smoke bombs and shadow clones to confuse her opponent. However, once Kanata and Noir are on the same page, he maintains evasive maneuvers while Noir locks on to the weak spot on Claudia’s coffin that she hasn’t gotten around to fixing. With one shot, her coffin is disabled, and she’s at Kanata’s mercy.

However, having won the fight, all Kanata does is recommend a cheap and eager tinkerer to maintain her Type Zero: Ellie’s sister Maria, specifically. That way, perhaps Claudia won’t have to resort to betraying him again in the future. I won’t hold my breath, but if she were truly heartless she wouldn’t have come to check on him, so who knows.

As for Kanata and Noir, to Ellie’s relief they were unable to complete the maze of Fes, which is akin to a lovers’ trial. That said, even though she’s able to work up the courage to ask Kanata to go through the maze with her, they’re not able to as the maze has been ruined by the battle with the black coffins. Poor Ellie…never any luck…

Synduality: Noir – 02 – The Contract

After Kanata and Noir’s first battle together, their mech (they call them coffins, but that’s a bit macabre) is toast. Maria helpfully offers some spare parts, and also suggests they head back to the ruins to see if they can find Noir’s coffin, and possibly her memories.

It’s a solid premise for a second episode: offer up an adventure beyond the confines of the admittedly cool-as-hell city while also peeling back the mystery of Noir a bit.

In the ruins, they encounter a kind of Air & Space Museum where Maria locates Noir’s coffin. Unfortunately, the mech’s memory is wiped clean. But in its cockpit is an old-fashioned camera, which Kanata starts to believe could help Noir get her memory groove back.

The simple search for Who She Is is then interrupted—crashed, if you will—by Range and Dolce, two villains straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon.

But never mind, at least for the moment: Kanata is a Drifter now, and Tokio wants to celebrate at the bar. Kanata is eager to repair his and Noir’s coffins, but relents and goes with Tokio, leaving Noir with Tokio’s Magus, Mouton.

While Mouton tidies up the place (his elegant catch of both Noir and camera is brilliant), Ellie and Ange have eye’s on Range’s punked-out Magus and lieutenant, Dolce. There’s just something beautiful and hilarious about watching her eat ruinously expensive fresh vegetables while everyone stares resentfully.

At least according to Tokio’s memory, Dolce was once a simple farm girl, but look at her now: right hand to an elite Drifter we learn (rather some fairly clunky exposition) was kicked out of Rock Town by Michael for stalking Maria.

These guys have a lot of history together, adding to the lived in feel of the setting and its characters. When Range sees Kanata, he lays into him for having failed the Aventure entrance test, something Ellie never knew.

While Michael scares Range and Dolce away (much more bark than bite, those two) Kanata skulks away, much to Ellie’s dismay. That said, his mood improves appreciably when Noir and Mouton welcome him home and the latter assists him with repairs to the coffin.

Noir falls asleep watching, and an exhausted-from-work Kanata isn’t far behind. How could you not love these archetypal dorks?

I find my appreciation for Ellie growing all the while. Yes, she’s the lonely corner of the love triangle, but the fact that she cares about Kanata more than being with him means she avoids being your standard jealous third wheel character.

More than pining for him, she’s a good person who doesn’t want others to suffer, even if she has to hear him whining about whether Noir wanted to board Range’s carrier, as caught by a neighborhood eye in the sky.

When Ellie visits Kanata, Noir has gone missing, and she offers to help him track her down. Unfortunately, Range and Dolce get to her first, and in her current state, she is easily manipulated into boarding his rig with a promise of fixing her camera that will never be fulfilled.

The one who fixes it is Ciel, a fellow captive Magus who is introduced singing beautifully. Before Noir can inspect the now-charged camera, Kanata and Tokio arrive, their coffins riding one of Maria’s rockets.

The constant mugging from Range and Dolce, the fact their pursuers are strapped to a rocket like Wile E. Coyote, Noir discovering she can exude electricity like Ciel and uses it to aid her effortlessly cool escape and dive into the rear of the coffin to interface with Kanata…there’s a lot going on and it’s all goofy and fun as hell.

Suffice it to say, with Noir by his side, Kanata is able not only to hold his own against Range and Dolce, but force them to abandon their rig and run home with their tail between their legs.

With the princess successfully rescued from her devious kidnappers, it’s time to cap the victory with a kiss. But what follows isn’t a kiss of lips, but Kanata’s thumb kissing the little panel on Noir’s neck. All Magus have them, and when pressed, the presser forms a contract with that Magus.

You could say that Noir and Kanata are now officially a couple, though that depends on how his relationship with her will unfold. I’m not sure if Ellie is resigned or defiant as she watches the contract be made—maybe both. In any case, her beloved Kanata has a new friend like her, and is now a Drifter like her.

Knowing what we know about Ellie thus far, I imagine both of those things make her happy…and she won’t give up the fight. As for Noir, we’ll see if the contract changes her personality like it did Maria’s newest Magus. In any case, I’m ready for the next crowd-pleasing maximalist pulpy adventure.

Synduality: Noir – 01 (First Impressions) – Two to Tango

With Gundam Mercury over and Nier:Automata yet to resume, I need a sci-fi fix this Summer, and Synduality:Noir looks to scratch that itch. I’ll level with you: perfect it ain’t, but it makes up a lot for its shortcomings with some nice character moments and top-notch production values.

Bear with me: since this is a sci-fi show, there’s lots of jargon to absorb. In a post-apocalyptic world, Drifters are agents who go out into the unprotected lands to forage for resources and loot, while either avoiding or combating Enders, twisted monsters that have taken over much of the planet.

Kanata works for the cocky lone-wolf Drifter Tokio, and on one mission he happens upon an unconscious Magus—a kind of android. Rather than leave her there in a bed of roses, he decides to take her home, but not before they end up in a fight with Enders.

Once that fight is over, Kanata and Tokio head home, which is a futuristic city covered in protective domes. Upon arriving, their vehicle is subjected to decontamination. They then head to the auction to sell off Tokio’s bounty: a giant red crystal (very Final Fantasy touch) that’s a little bigger than his Drifter rival Michael, whose Team Aventure is much bigger.

Upon bringing the Magus home, Kanata presses a button on her back and her clothes disappear. Before he can correct this, his friend Ellie, who has a long standing crush on him, arrives at his pad with her friend and Magus, Ange.

The two young women are scandalized by what they see, and assume Kanata lost his virginity when the Magus wakes up and says she’ll “take him to paradise”. I enjoyed Ellie and Ange’s sisterly rapport throughout; there’s something about Ellie’s design and expression and voice that makes her very rootable, even if she probably doesn’t stand a chance against the “new girl”.

But while the Magus (delicately, precisely voiced by Koga Aoi) is awake, she doesn’t know who she is. When Kanata, a collector of items from the before times, tells her about his dream (apparently instilled in him by his late parents) to find the semi-legendary old city of Histoire, she’s more interested in his vintage washing machine.

While his boss Tokio and Michael continue to drink (and perhaps flirt), Kanata takes the Magus to Maria, Ellie’s older sister and Magus expert. Maria welcomes them with rocket fire, but once she actually meets the Magus, she’s as intrigued as Kanata: this is a model she’s never seen.

Before Maria can do any more research, there’s a massive attack by a swarm of Enders, some of whom break through the dome and threaten the residential zone. Tokio, Michael, and Aventure sortie to aid the city’s defenses (the leader is a tiny old woman in a mech suit).

When Ellie is cornered by Enders, Kanata comes to her rescue, much to her delight, but she’s a Drifter and he’s a civilian, so she tells him to scram. He does so, and switches out his carrier for a mech in the hangar. He boards it and takes off, asking the Magus to stay put.

When a boss-level Ender threatens Ellie, Kanata returns in his mech, but without a Magus aboard he’s pretty much out of control, like a driving school student on their first day at the wheel. At best, he’s a sitting duck for the Ender boss.

And here’s one of the show’s flaws: the Enders, while creepy-looking little snooters, are nevertheless mindless monsters and thus not very interesting. There’s also precious little mortal peril to be had; I expected Ellie or Tokio or someone to die in the battle to show the Enders are a serious threat.

Instead, even the boss kinda stands around, allowing the Magus girl to run up to Kanata’s mech, request and gain access to the rear compartment, and interface with the mech, forming the same Drifter-Magus symbiotic connection as Tokio and Mouton, or Ellie and Ange.

The HUDs inform Kanata that his Magus copilot’s name is Noir, and while she couldn’t even keep her jacket sleeves from sliding down her arms, in the cockpit of a mech she’s an artist, making quick work of the boss Ender with an acrobatic melee attack.

Once the battle is won, Ange eggs on Ellie by telling her to stay on her toes vis-a-vis Kanata, as she may just have a new rival. As for Noir herself, once Kanata says her name and she accepts it, her emotionless demeanor softens and she actually smiles.

Synduality is nothing groundbreaking either premise or visuals-wise, but it is a solidly executed sci-fi yarn made with care and attention to detail. There’s not a whole lot to Kanata personality-wise (no doubt in part because he’s an audience stand-in) he’s surrounded by a host of more colorful and dynamic characters.

The enemy is generic and the jargon is thick, but nevertheless this was a strong and entertaining enough opener to justify sticking with it—or to borrow the slogan from the promo art, stand by it.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul – 10

Ever wonder how Jeanne d’Arc went from Captain of the Orleans Knights to mother of El/Mugaro and prisoner in Charioce’s dungeon? This episode tells that tale, starting seven years back. Things start to go wrong when Jeanne fails to save a young girl from a demon, and she starts to lose respect among her men—not all, mind you, but some is all that’s needed for a kind of rot to set in.

Once he takes the throne (without the help of the Gods, a first for kings of Anatae) Chariorce gives Jeanne a choice: play ball and help him get the more god-loyal subjects in line, or face exile. Jeanne chooses the latter, and is eventually made to bear a child through the divine power of Michael—no hanky panky or months of pregnancy needed.

Jeanne lives a simple life off the land, and she raises her winged son El well and he proves to be helpful, but they can’t escape from the worsening conflict between men and gods for long, and soon Jeanne comes to harbor an injured Sofiel from the dastardly Ebony Knights.

When the knights come looking for Sofiel and attack Jeanne, El uses her powers for the first time to neutralize them. They report El to Charioce, who orders Jeanne and El caught dead or alive. Jeanne clips El’s wings and hides him amongst demon corpses, then runs off with one such corpse to lure the knights away from her son.

Jeanne gets captured and hasn’t seen El since, but Nina, who has heard her whole dreadfully horrible tale, is now convinced that Mugaro is El (despite her beliving Mugaro was a girl) and promises Jeanne they’ll be the first two to escape the imperial prison. Here’s hoping.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis – 12 (Fin)

I was wondering last week: “Why would Beelz be able to control Bahamut?” The answer?” Err…he can’t.

Bahamut is the third MAPPA anime we’ve reviewed at RABUJOI (the other two being Zankyou no Terror and GARO) that suffered from dull, uninspired villains (Beelzebub/Martinet, Five, and Mendoza, respectively). But that didn’t stop this from being the best Bahamut of the past seven episodes, oh-so-close to a return to the heady first handful of eps that made us fall in love with the show in the first place.

Wait, his name is Gilles de Rais, and he can change his form to various people, from Lavalley to Kaisar to Martinet? Oh, whatever. The bad guy doesn’t matter so much as getting our trio of Fava, Kaisar and Amira back together and taking care of that little Bahamut-related problem. What does turn out being important is the fact that de Rais really just wants to watch the world end.

Beelz wanted to grab control of the demon world and subjugate the realm of angels too. That wasn’t happening, as Bahamut is not a tool, he’s simply a means to an end…the end of the world. Azazel gets to finish Beelz off (good for him), while Fava wakes up from his arrow-induced nap and crosses swords with Kaisar once more as everything blows up around them.

Fava seems to mouth something to Kaisar, who makes Rita promise not to interfere, and she doesn’t…but de Rais does, tossing a sword to Favaro, who uses it to slice off Kaisar’s arm just above the wrist. However, it’s that very wrist that has Kaisar’s still-active bounty armband attached to it. Fava uses it to capture de Rais into a stone tablet, which he tosses to Bacchus for a handsome reward!

Turns out Favaro and Kaisar had a plan all along. The bolt Kaisar shot Fava with had the antidote on its tip, thus curing Favaro, then Kaisar cut off Fava’s arm to make sure de Rais would be convinced Favaro was still under his control. You have to ‘hand’ it to Fava and Kaisar: they work really well together in a pinch.

With that, the two board an embiggened Hamsa, but for different reasons: Fava thinks he has to kill Amira to stop Bahamut, but Kaisar holds out hope he can free her. Their aerial trip up to Bahamut’s head is suitably harrowing, and looks fantastic.

When Hamsa can get no closer, the fact that Martinet’s goals (the end of the world) didn’t jive with the goals of either the gods or the demons (neither of whom want to die or for the world to end). Thus, both gods and demons work together to build a fresh barrier, which gives our heroes the opening they need.

Once atop Bahamut’s head, the show never lets us forget this is a gigantic beast moving all over the place; as such, it’s hard to maintain footing, especially Kaisar, who’s down a limb. Favaro manages to plunge Bahamut’s own fang into the symbol on his head (a conveniently lit-up weak spot). This seems to start the process of shutting Bahamut down. By doing so, Favaro not only changes his fate and the fate of the world, but also Jeanne’s – she is merely a spectator in Bahamut’s demise.

Fava falls off the head, but his rope keeps him suspended right in front of Bahamut’s eye, from which a glowing Amira emerges.

In this gloriously-staged and touching farewell, Favaro tries to lie with a straight face one last time. When his face finally breaks into a goofy smile, Amira smothers it with her lips, thanking him for what he’s done before returning to Bahamut’s eye. Kudos to the show for not pulling a deus ex machina out of its ass to save Amira. I trusted the old dragon in the forest: there was no saving Amira, except to save her from being the instrument of the world’s destruction.

When Bahamut blows, Favaro is way too close, and loses a leg (just as Kaisar lost an arm. Interesting symmetry), but Kaisar escapes aboard Hamsa. And thus, the world is saved, by the most unlikely group of characters imaginable!

Fast-forward half a year, and Anatae is being rebuilt, Jeanne has a new ‘do and is back in the Orleans knights, Fava has a new metal leg, and Kaisar has a new metal arm. Kaisar seems poised to join Jeanne as a lieutenant, but as Favaro departs the city, Kaisar chases after him, just as he did in the first episode.

Favaro is somewhat comforted (as am I) by the fact that while he’s asleep again, Bahamut will never truly die, which means neither will Amira. All in all, not a bad way to bring things to a close.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis – 11

In “All Roads Lead to Abos”, Bahamut is bursting with big bold Bahamut battles, as befits a show nearing its big finish. Things weren’t going so swell last time we were here: Jeanne’s a demon, Favaro’s a demon, Amira’s a key, and practically everything is going Beelzebub’s and Martinet’s way. Oh yeah, and Kaisar is released from his crystal coffin to fall to his death.

Meanwhile, with Azazel aboard Bacchu’s carriage, Rita continues to slave over her alchemy equipment, brewing…something, and the angels continue to drop one after another from the honeycomb barrier keeping Bahamut at bay. We see what Martinet had in mind for the great saint when Dark Jeanne swoops in on her stone dragon and skewers both Raphael and Uriel, weakening the barrier significantly before turning on Michael. What a terrible perversion of Jeanne’s power!

Kaisar manages to catch the rope of Favaro’s (I think) crossbow, but falls again when everything starts shaking. Fortunately, Bacchus’ carriage arrives in time to catch him. UNfortunately, that’s when Goth Jeanne spots them, and she’s not going to leave them alone.

This means Bacchus has to actually do something, but Jeanne knocks him off his carriage, forcing Hamsa to blow up like a balloon and catch him. Nice work, Hamsa. After bandying words with Azazel, Kaisar is given an antidote to give to Favaro by Rita, who prepares to toss a second into Visual Jeanne’s mouth. Unfortunately, Hamsa accidentally knocks Kaisar overboard (Fall #3) and deflects Rita’s severed arm-and-severed hand pill flick. Nice work, Hamsa.

Jeannetallica seems poised to finish our motley crew off, but Michael swoops in, grabs her, and having caught Rita’s antidote, puts it in his mouth and transfers it to Jeanne’s with a kiss. Good ol’ Regular Jeanne is back, but is distressed to find she had already stabbed Michael through, dispersing (and possibly killing?) him. For his part, Michael is glad Jeanne still lives to lead humanity to salvation, but that’s looking like a taller order by the minute as Beelzebub nears Bahamut.

Bacchus, Hamsa, and Rita arrive on his ship thing’s deck as Azazel, having saved Kaisar, starts to battle Beels mano-a-mano. Meanwhile, Kaisar turns his attention to Dark Fava, who doesn’t even fight like the Favaro he knows. Convinced he has no choice (or there’s no hope for him), rather than give him the antidote (I guess he lost it?) he fires a quarrel into Fava’s chest, disabling him. Obviously, this can’t be the end of Favaro, though.

As for Keymira, she emerges from her red ball glowing pinkish purple, and lights spring forth from Bahamut (now free of his barrier) to snatch her up. Uh-oh…

Kaisar is surprised to find Lavalley has arrived, as am I. I’m even more surprised to know he wants Bahamut released. He then shoves Kaisar off the ledge (Fall #4).

Even with gods arriving from left and right (well, actually, from above), things are still not going to hot for those who don’t want the world destroyed. Amira may already be one with Bahamut now, who wakes up in the last shot, apparently ready to throw some titular RAGE around. How in the heck is this mess going to get resolved?

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis – 10

This week puts two of our three ladies through the wringer, starting with Jeanne. While bound and burning at the stake as her defenders are slaughtered by the king’s soldiers, she has a vision of an angel who basically tells her they couldn’t care less about humans. Then she’s visited by the creepy red-eyed guy once more, and force-fed that suspicious potion he offered before.

This turns Jeanne into a 1980s rock star demon…a pretty damn badass-looking one, too. She summons her guitar Maltet, makes a stone dragon rise out of the ground, and takes off. That’s not good. Bacchus witnesses this and is mildly concerned, as does Rita, who managed to get out of that situation in the lab and flags the god down for some questions.

Meanwhile in Prudisia, Amira, Favaro and Kaisar are having a relatively uneventful journey when the damn ground shatters into bits and starts to rise into the air. Another huge demon beast/castle thing emerges, and dramatically transforms the environment…or lifts the illusory vail to reveal the real environment.

The creepy red-eyed dude who transformed Jeanne (and probably poisoned the kings mind so he’d get her where he wanted her) shows up here too. His name is Martinet, and he’s very evil. I don’t like him. Amira remembers him as her ‘teacher’, who told her she’d be able to find her mother in Helheim. And Helheim, not Prusidia, is where they actually are.

Rita hitches a ride with Bacchus and Hamsa’s carriage, which accientally runs over the fallen angel Azazel, who has apparently fallen again…out of favor with Lucifer, that is. The demonic doghouse, if you will.

Back in Helheim, Martinet reveals his master, Beelzebub, who for whatever reason wants to release Bahamut. We’ve been told Bahamut is nothing but pure destruction for gods and demons alike, but I guess Beels has a plan. Unfortunately, he and his sneering assistant are nowhere near as interesting as Azazel and Cerberus.

Getting back to that wringer our ladies go through: just when you thought Jeanne was having a bad day, Amira is shown her mother, an angel encased in ice, and once it shatters she’s kind of locked in a shocked expression. Amira was always told her mother could ‘take the key out of her’…but always thought that would be a good thing. It isn’t.

As it turns out, Amira is merely a vessel for the key, created when Beelzebub did something awful to her mother. Amira has been manipulated by false memories contained in her pendant compelling her to come to Helheim at the proper time. Overcome with emotions, Amira goes over hugs her mom, which is a bad idea, because that causes her mom to crumble into a cloud of dust.

Worse, those nice clothes Fava bought her are all burnt up, so now she’s motherless, rudderless, and nude. Her resulting scream of anguish is the trigger that transforms her into the key Beelzebub wants.

Bacchus and Rita are close enough to see the light of the spectacle. Knowing Bahamut is closer than ever to being revived, they know have to do something. That includes asking Azazel to help them out, which he agrees to do, if for no other reason than he doesn’t want to die either.

Kaisar? He remains encased in a crystal coffin. Favaro manages to escape when he begs the bad guys to let him come over to their side (That’s So Favaro) but it’s just a trick, which Martinet sees through instantly, and then turns Fava into a demon, just as he did Jeanne.

That means perhaps the only ones who can save the world from Bahamut may be a group consisting of a zombie necromancer, a fallen angel, a drunken god, and a duck. The world is so screwed. Or is it?

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis – 09

Proving that slipping back into knighthood is like riding a bike, Kaisar gets the command of a search party to find Fava and Amira, and finds them almost immediately in the middle of a very cool forest that wouldn’t be out of place in Nausicaa or Mononoke Hime. Their own arrival there is punctuated by Amira reiterating that she can’t fly with just one wing, which is a pretty good running joke.

Lavalley sent Kaisar because he wants to stay in the city, because some sketchy shit is going down, not least of which Jeanne has been framed for attempting to assassinated the king, who as we know isn’t the most confident fellow right now. Such is the extent of his paranoia, none of Jeanne’s very reasonable arguments sway him in the least.

While imprisoned, a creepy red-eyed fellow pays Jeanne a visit and offers her something very suspicious to drink in order to “learn the truth about her gods”.  The guardian angel Michael is nowhere to be found, but Jeanne is staying true to her faith for now. She’s followed her faith and her fate this far; now’s not the time to be faltering or tasting weird drinks.

Not long after Kaisar and Favaro pseudo-duel, the two of them plus Demon-Amira are suddenly transported to another dimension within the woods, where Kaisar and Amira worry at a large fang-like protrusion stuck in the very odd-looking ground. When they fail, they wordlessly look to Favaro to give it a go, and he yanks it out as easily as a dandelion, to his and everyone’s shock. And that’s not the only shock…

That odd-looking green ‘ground’ is really the flesh of a massive and ancient dragon, who is glad to be rid of the barb, put there by Bahamut 2,000 years ago. I realize having a big ancient animal throw exposition at the heroes is a common trope in this genre, but this dragon is pretty frikkin’ awesome-looking and sounding, so I don’t mind. I also like how Amira initially calls him “geezer”, but Favaro tells her to call him “mister” instead.

Of course, once the dragon says his piece — about how Bahamut’s reawakening and thus everyone’s destruction is inevitable, and only by staying here can Amira maybe stave it all off, meaning she’ll never see her mother — Fava himself uses “geezer” in rejecting the dragon’s talk of fate.

The dragon, perhaps impressed by the puny human’s audacity, wishes them well on their quest to change their fate. In any case, he can’t stop them. But he does pull Fava aside for a quick word before the trio departs.

Back in Antae, the King has decreed that Jeanne is to be burned at the stake as a witch, which is bogus as hell. Lavalley’s entreats for clemency fall on deaf and possibly drunk royal ears. The fact that Rita is still free in the city gives us some hope Jeanne can escape this particular predicament, but Rita snoops around and is caught in the larder of the same sketchy red-eyed guy who probably put the king up to all this in the first place.

Using the Bahamut barb, the trio warps to Prudisia earlier than I expected, though I welcome the quick transition. Something tells me a place called “The Valley of Demons” isn’t going to be a cakewalk, but Amira wants her mommy, so they’ll continue on.

Oh yeah, about that word Puff wanted with Favaro…he tells him if he really wants to change fate — i.e. stop Bahamut from destroying the world, the only thing he can do, according to the dragon, is to kill Amira, thus destroying the key and preventing it and the seal from manifesting.

That’s a tough pill to swallow, and yet again puts Favaro on the darker side of gray, as well as giving him a much larger role to play in the affairs of the world, just as Jeanne suggested could very well come to pass.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis – 08

The battle of Antae is won, and King Charioce offers Jeanne her own lands as a reward, perhaps to get her out of the limelight. Naturally, she refuses, and the king doesn’t take the refusal well. He started out as a somewhat bumbling and generally harmless monarch, but it was only a matter of time before her power and his butted up. Ironically, Jeanne couldn’t care less about the power the king is desperate to maintain. She just wants to do her duty.

Meanwhile, staring at the Bahamut statue brings all kinds of memories to the surface for Amira, including when a demon lord told her she was special and directed her to Helheim, where “her wish will certainly be fulfilled.” For Amira, that means finding her mother.

As for her father, Amira deduces that it’s none other than Sir Lavalley of the Orleans Knights, Jeanne’s lieutenant. While Jeanne turns down land, Kaisar takes the king’s offer of knighthood graciously, while Favaro pretty much just goes alone with it, because hell, if nothing else he gets his nice knife back! The ceremony is crashed by the angel Michael, who’s there to bestow a new, even more bad-ass sword.

The king has his arms outstretched, but it lands in Jeanne’s hands. Doesn’t Michael know it’s not a good idea to make this king look weak? He doesn’t. Must be the disconnect between human psychology and the angels’ logic-based reasoning.

While we’re on the subject of parents, the King looks at a portrait of his dearly departed mother, who then appears in ghost form to warn him that someone is preparing to betray him; Jeanne, specifically. That’s total horseshit, but the king swallows it because he’s a petty, paranoid fellow.

This may also be the handiwork of the demons, but it would be fine if it wasn’t, too, because for the king to be such a volatile wild card at this stage certainly makes things interesting.

Favaro shows Amira (who calls him “Fava”) Lavalley’s quarters, and there we learn that while he’s not her father, he was a bodyguard for her mother, Nicole, who was an angel exiled from heaven. On a particularly nasty demon attack, the demon lord Beelzebub snatched baby Amira away. That demon sped Amira’s growth, which explains why she Amira acts so childish despite being grown-up in appearance.

Before relieving him to go look for her daughter, Nicole gave Lavalley a pendant identical to the one Amira carries. When put together, they bring up a map of her present location: Prudisia, the Valley of Demons. Amira wastes no time sneaking out of the city, and while Fava bristles at the idea of going with her and simply wants his tail gone (as useful as it was last week), she beckons for him to join her and meet her mother, and he tags along.

Of course, this means that they’re leaving Antae, which is where the angels wanted Amira to stay put under the protection of the king. Of course, the king is too busy with betrayals, trysts, murders and conspiracies, which allows Amira slip through his fingers, bound to the absolute last place the Angels want her to go: demon territory.

Then again, considering all the weird crap going on in Antae and with the king, maybe getting away is the safest move after all, at least for now.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis – 07

Bahamut bursts out of its recap week gate full speed ahead with a very well-orchestrated and balanced episode, as Azazel leads a large demon host to the walls of Antae to re-capture the God Key, AKA Amira.

The episode is clever in that on one side of the castle walls, Jeanne d’Arc leads the defense of the city in a big, loud, shiny, yelly battle, in which she successfully uses her trusty Maltet to dispatch Pazuzu. But this battle isn’t the whole episode. In fact, the battle is just a distraction so Azazel can sneak in.

Inside the castle walls, the episode hasn’t forgotten about our quartet of heroes and heroines, but while there’s certainly plenty of dread – especially when Azazel arrives, there’s the feeling the larger battle is far away. It’s a lot more claustrophobic, but also a lot livlier thanks to the banter between Favaro and Kaisar.

After meeting with that shadowy guy, Amira just wants to eat eat eat, and if she didn’t pass out from the wine, she herself would be one more obstacles to keeping her alive and free from the fallen angel’s clutches.

The episode doesn’t pretend this is an even fight, either: Azazel looks down on Favaro, Kaisar, and Rita like they’re insignificant ants to be swiped away before claiming his prize. They can’t hope to beat him, but they can take turns delaying him. First Favaro stays behind so the others can escape, in a display that clearly shows some of what Jeanne said to him about being more than just an ex-bounty hunter stuck. Heck, he even puts his demon tail into it!

Once Rita has Amira safely away from the fight, Kaisar returns, not about to allow someone else to kill “his father’s killer.” Again Fav and Kai show how well they work together and stab Azazel through the heart. But, of course, Azazel doesn’t have a heart, and human weapons can’t kill him. He still plays dead for a moment just to mess with them. This, and his response after Favaro accused him of cheating, are both great moments for the evil yet irreverant bastard: “Well, I am a demon.” You are indeed.

The guys are in a bad way, but Kaisar happens to turn his sword in such a way that he notices a faint glimmer of light down in the city streets. He then makes a seemingly suicidal rush at Azazel, but in the knick of time, a great light appears behind him. It’s not the rising sun, but Jeanne with Maltet, who spotted Azazel and needed those few moments Kaisar gave her to execute her attack and send Azazel packing.

I’m not sure exactly how the physics of Kaisar’s stunt worked, but nor do I care; it was a sweet setpiece that also united the battle that had been going on inside the castle with the one happening outside. Rita, unfortunately got the short end of the stick, but she definitely contributed.

With the demon army repelled and the day won, all that’s left is to stuff Amira back in her room to keep her safe. Alas, it only takes a moment (after she glimpses her ‘father’) for Amira to wander away from Rita and into the square where the giant Bahamut statue stands. There, the terrifying power of Bahamut and the past destruction it’s caused flashes through her bandaged head. We witnessed a lovely battle, but it was only a battle. There are plenty more foes to fight before the war is won.