Dragonaut: The Resonance (Episode 13)

The anime blog Random Curiosity’s very own Best of Anime of the Year award had released their list of results, including for the Reader’s Choice Poll. It’s not exactly an award, just biased to the writers’ own standpoint but trust me, these people are seasoned anime bloggers and they sure know their stuff. In case many of you do not know, there won’t be any animes being aired for this week due to the New Year holidays and thus giving fansubs and anime bloggers a little break. On another topic, here’s an insightful read for Malaysian readers.

Ten years in the past, representatives from both ISDA and Gillard army were in a meet as the Gillard army demonstrated the destructible force of their latest warhead, Type X missile. Confident to have this missile to destroy Thanatos, all the Gillard army need is a transport shuttle to deliver this payload to Thanatos. However Gillard army did not provide the shuttle because it was not part of their contract and that is in the responsibility of the ISDA. Kiril and Sakaki were present and the former told them that they do not have any suitable shuttle for that job. Then Sakaki suggested that a dragon is suffice and that makes up for the D-Project.

Earth’s secret weapon to defeat Thanatos.

Continuing from the previous episode, Jin began his search for Toa together with Gio. Meanwhile the Lindwurm team was single-handedly defeated by Ostrum when another dragon appeared. The team was curious about the other dragon when Yuuri came to them and told them that the dragon is Atrum – the third original they were searching for (okay, I might have messed up the sequence here). Then she told them the shocking truth – Atrum is actually Nozaki. The dragons fought each other and came to the point in their Communicator form when Atrum or Nozaki (I’d prefer Nozaki) asked Ostrum if his purpose coming to Earth is to destroy all the Earth-born dragons and he acknowledged it. Nozaki stood up to defend the dragons whom he regard as his children. Noting that Ostrum had made a Resonance, he reckoned he would understand why he had changed. Away from Earth to Mars, Toa thought to herself that she prefers to remain as herself in Communicator form instead of original dragon form for Jin’s sake. Suddenly her cell moved upwards and reached to the throne chamber where she meets Prince Asim with Garnet and Nanami. Then a message came to Asim, informing him about the mayhem caused by the neo-original sent to Earth. Asim requested Toa to show him her original form, then was asked by her to have the CSS shield turned off. He refused to the deal, suspecting her to be escaping if given that chance. She promised to run away but instead Asim wanted her to beg him to turn it off. She tried at first, starting off with only a “please” but Asim was not pleased by it. So Toa got to her knees, pleaded him to turn the CSS shield off to point of kissing his ass, if you know what I mean. Not literally of course. Despite of that, Asim remarked on Toa’s defiant eyes and refused her plea until he is certain to attain her loyalty. It was still an intense battle between Ostrum and Nozaki but when Yuuri’s life was at risk, Nozaki was distracted and was knocked out. It was then Ostrum noticed Gio flying over the sky above. He immediately engaged towards Gio. The Lindwurm team who are witnessing this, felt that they should go and fight against Ostrum instead of idling around.

The fight continues.

Yuuri did a bad job cheering for Nozaki.

Kiril called on Gillard army for military support in the midst of this crisis. Asim agreed to send in the Agathions to help ISDA though he also decided to wait a little longer so as to allow more damage done to ISDA. Hearing this, Nanami can’t stop thinking about Yuuri and excused herself from the throne chamber. Call it guilt conscious, she went over to see Toa and asked her what she is willing to do if she help to turn off the CSS shield. Toa talked off completing a mission of saving the “children” on Earth and now that she lost contact with the Mother, a new dragon was sent for the job. She felt that the Mother has abandoned the children and humanity – in other words, destroying Earth. Nanami only wanted to know if Toa have what it takes to save Earth but Toa is not too sure about that. She is only certain to protect the person she loves the most (no need to tell who that person is). Toa’s words brings Nanami to the decision to let Toa escape. Unfortunately she was shot by Garnet before she could even release Toa. Garnet had always suspected Nanani to take side of the ISDA after working with them for so long but she intended to get rid off her sooner or later anyway. Toa couldn’t bear her emotions and cried out aloud. With the CSS shield turned off, her cry or rather her song for Jin was heard by Jin. Listening to this carefully, he managed to trace Toa to Mars. But once the CSS shield was reactivated, Jin couldn’t heard Toa’s song any longer. While Jin lowered his guard, Ostrum charged towards him but Akira was able strike him down in time. Akira told Jin to go for Toa and assured him that she and the rest of her teammates will take care of Ostrum. And Akira was not the only one. Raina and Sieglinde came to him and gave their support to him. Indeed the Lindwurm team put up a fight against Ostrum but even with their combined forces, Ostrum is too much for them to handle. Jin on the other hand felt overwhelmed by the Lindwurm team support and bear in mind that Jin is not even a member of the Dragonaut.

Dragons can play rugby too.

Nanami to rescue?

I’m afraid not. Just look at Garnet’s boobs gun.

Toa is such a crybaby.

With the Lindwurm team defeated easily by Ostrum and the Gillard army support is an hour away, ISDA under Sakaki’s command is facing a dead end. By some twist of luck, Otohime with Itsuki piloting came prepared to annihilate Ostrum using the Type X missile she carries. Knowing the potential energy of the missile, she planned to bring Ostrum to space and detonate the bomb there and then. Sounds like a suicide mission to me. All Itsuki had in mind was Yuuya and with that strength, she was able to bring Ostrum slowly out to space. However Ostrum released a field of explosives around themselves and the shockwave fell Otohime off her flight, dropping the Type X missile at the same time. In those dire moments, Gio and Jin stepped in to the challenge and grabbing the dropped missile, they charged head on towards Ostrum. Pushing Ostrum with all might, Gio and Jin brought themselves to space with only seconds left to detonation. I can’t be sure if anyone would survive that explosion but the explosion did happen. And it was so huge, the sky gave way – it was clear with all the clouds blown away. By luck, Gio and Jin survived the explosion which is reasonable to the story standpoint as they were protected by a shielding bubble and descend slowly to Earth. ISDA confirmed Ostrum is out of radar and Sakaki did not waste any further time and hastened to the next phase of the D-Project.

Oops! Somebody dropped the most powerful bomb ever.

Just like the rugby game, all Gio need to do is catch.

“I can see the light now.”

Imagine surviving the Hiroshima bombing from the epicentre.

ISDA mobile base perhaps. Go Celestial Being!

Here’s irony for you. Jin had severed his friendship with Kazuki and with Kazuki being a jerk, only worsened their relationship. The stark irony is that Jin was accepted well by the Lindwurm team – Raina, Akira and Sieglinde – who work together with Kazuki in the first place. Thankfully the writers decided to drop Kazuki off this episode and lesser madness for Dragonaut for once. I can see now that Kazuki may shift slowly towards the evil side of the story, though there is no clear indication of that happening any time soon. Should he turned out to be the villain, he would probably betrays the ISDA and works closely for the Gillard army though I believe he would work independently. It is not clear if Widow would serve for Kazuki ultimately but Gio certainly is a comrade of Jin’s. We now know things are looking well for Jin and that he knows where Toa is, Toa would escape from the Gillard’s captivity soon enough. In the meantime, the D-Project now progress ahead of the schedule, giving more pressure for the Dragonauts and ISDA by whole. Certainly anyone of them would realize that they are in deep trouble given that the Dragonaut could barely defeated Ostrum alone. Not knowing how many dragons such as Ostrum would be sent to Earth soon, Sakaki surely do not want to take that risk. This bags the question how big is this D-Project and its significance. For now, I can see a shuttle would probably serve as the new mobile base for the Dragonauts and ISDA and of course, the Type X missile as their only trump card against Thanatos. However it disturbs me by the fact that ISDA gotten the missiles from the Gillard who are not exactly have anything good in their agenda. Lastly is Nanami who apparently being cut off of the story. I was surprised by this, certainly though I’m not close to raise an eyebrow if she had indecisive loyalty towards the Gillard army and ISDA. The one whom I thought of being dead in this episode were Itsuki and Otohime as they were on a suicide attempt to blow Ostrum up using the powerful Type X missile. Odd enough, they didn’t. At least they didn’t share the same cruel fate as Yuuya did.