Dragonaut: The Resonance (Episode 16)

15 years ago, a young Asim was running in a forest when he first encountered a dragon egg. His face turned from excitement to fear when the egg began to make its Resonance. Back to the present, he laughed hysterically and being cynically about the power of love Jin and Toa have for each other.

 
The young Asim. Once a brat, is a brat and always will be.

He then ordered Garnet to attack them but Gio immediately went forward to defend them. Asim told Garnet to stop fooling around and show her true strength. Garnet seems to be reluctant to use her powers just yet but the absolute order from Asim somehow made her body to obey his command. Due to that, her left eyes glowed red and this suggests two things: she may be a dragon and Asim may be his master. Indeed her strength was enough to pierce her sword through Gio’s body. Then she went to Jin and told him to hand over Toa to her. Jin stood for Toa, refusing to let her go (come on, they only had a short reunion). Garnet finds this hard to accept because she does not believe in the power of love. Just before Garnet could attack them, Gio made a quick rebound to stop Garnet and knocked her out cold. Then Gio and Machina quickly made their escape from the castle together with Toa, Jin and Akira. Akira suggested for them to return to Earth but Jin was more concerned about Gio’s injury and asked them to stop somewhere nearby to take some rest before continuing. They spotted a mining facility nearby and decided to take refuge there. Meanwhile in the wrecked castle, Garnet recovered herself from the debris sustained from Gio’s strike earlier and Asim ordered for them to go after Jin and Toa. Inside the Avenir, it was revealed from the conversation between Kou and Kiril that the Gillard empire has control over half of the Earth resource and ultimately gives them solidarity power. Then the ISDA operators picked up signals from Mars, indicating Gio and Machina with an unidentified dragon following them from behind. My bet is that the unknown dragon is actually Garnet.

WTF?! Garnet is a dragon?!

Garnet got her revenge against Gio.

A man always stand up for the ladies.

Whoops! Gio is not quite dead yet.

Once reaching the mining facility, Gio collapsed from the sustained injury. So Toa offered herself to heal Gio. Using her healing power, Gio’s wound was completely covered. But the enormous effort used to use the healing power drained out most of Toa’s power and she fell into fatigue, otherwise she is fine. Seeing Toa in her condition, Akira sounded her wish to have some time in a hot spring. Coincidentally there was a place for just that. The hot spring is actually the resultant of the melted ice from Mars surface to allow mining process. Taking their time in the steamy bath, Jin took the opportunity to thank Gio for everything he has done for him. Here we can see clearly of how Jin developed a solid relationship with Gio who is not even his dragon in the first place. Over the ladies side, Akira asked Toa about the glowing pattern on her back when she was healing Gio earlier. Toa refused to reveal anything to Akira but it was Machina who told her that the glowing pattern is a stigmata and that is one of the clear sign that Toa is going to die. Later on, Toa explained further that dragons do have a longer life span than humans do but even they are not immortal. So a stigmata will be an indication that a dragon is about to die. The brighter the stigmata glows, the closer she gets to her death. Knowing that Jin is clueless about this, Toa told Akira not to tell him about it. Toa however accepted the fact that she is going to die because all original dragons are a part of Thanatos and her existence was simply as living probe to complete a simple mission to retrieve the dragon eggs then to die after that. So it was Akira’s turn to tell her story. She confessed of feeling scared when she first met Machina. Looking at Machina, she thought that Machina is the most beautiful person she has ever seen and the perfect embodiment to her of a perfect woman – pretty, tall, huge boobs gentle, polite. Someone she cannot become, a total opposite of her true self. For that reason, she felt scared of her yet they both bonded together and became best friends. Despite of this, she could not deny the fact that Machina is not a human and is a dragon.

Toa, the healing shaman.

It’s fanservicing time!

Then she met Jin. It was him who showed her that there is no difference between humans and dragons after all, so long as they have feelings for each other. Machina too expressed her thoughts that she agreed to what Toa told her before this, that fate may not be able to be changed but destiny can. With Jin with Toa, they believe that it is possible. Jin and Gio joined them and Jin suggested that they should leave the place immediately out of concern for their safety. Akira then pushed an idea that the place resembles a church altar and proposed to have a little wedding ceremony for Jin and Toa. Jin refused to the idea (this is reasonable because the timing is just too wrong) but Toa seemed to be insisting to the idea as well. So Jin tagged along. Machina created their ring from the dripping water while Akira plays the witness. Jin put the ring to Toa’s fingers and just about when Toa do the same on Jin, Asim showed up and Garnet took this opportunity to strike on them. As the target was Toa, Akira immediately covered for her and as a result, she was slashed by Garnet’s sword. Machina and Gio quickly stopped Garnet and forced Garnet to withdraw for the moment. Machina rushed to Akira’s side and Akira muttered her final words to Jin and Toa, telling them to create a new history for humans and dragons. Calling out for Machina for one last time, she breathed her last. Machina was enveloped by grief for Akira’s passing and had gone completely berserk after that. This had made her to transform her appearance to a much more meaner look, complete with a black dress and devilish eyes.

O_O

Don’t make Machina angry.

The final moments are always the finest.

“BWAAAARRRK!”

Angry Machina turns black instead of green.

There is one peculiar thing about GONZO in most of their anime production. When it comes to the first episode, the drawing and animation quality are always top-notched but this quickly deteriorated in the following episodes. However when it comes back to those important moments, the animation is back to its full glory and the characters in particular are drawn to its best. Don’t get me? Simply look at the drawing design in the beginning of the episode, all look too simple if not bad. Then when the episode proceed to Akira’s final moments, you have to admit it, Akira looks in her finest yet. But then that was the end for her. Even Machina was perfectly “sculptured” as she witnessed Akira passing on. This calls for the lack of consistency in many of GONZO’s works. As for the plot, I must say that the writers caught me unprepared by the fact that Garnet is actually a dragon and no surprise that Asim is her master. Another surprise is of course, Akira’s death. I can’t believe that the writers cut off Akira from the story. At least not at this moment. This further convinces me that the writers may really cut off Nanami whom I thought to be presumably dead and it won’t be so surprising if Kazuki is really dead for now. However I still refuse to believe on the latter because I know that the story needs that “idiot factor” to keep the story running. Despite such revelation for the story in this episode, I can’t say that I really enjoyed it that much. Somehow they were able to add a little fanservice and a little recap which appropriate considering that it reflects of how Akira is throughout the story until her death. The next episode on the other hand, looks very promising.