At the last episode, Maki found herself in a completely different world, one that she does not recognize. Everyone is shocked when the planes are not covering for them, but firing at Zearth. The model of the plane is something that they have never seen before, as they questioned Dung Beetle on what is going on.
“This is Earth, just a different Earth from where you live.”
Where does this lead us to? Despair or devastation. There seems to be a spiraling effect of morality in the coming episodes.
Updated list of children after Episode 13: Click here
Episode summary
The recap of the last episode informed the kids that it was not their Earth. It was an Earth separated by space and time, and Dung Beetle explained that the universe was vast and spacious, meaning that there were many time continuum. Hence, their Earth was just one Earth out of the many possibilities in the universe. Hence, the world they were in was another Earth as well, meaning that the origins of Earth was the same but developed differently under a different time continuum. Takami felt that this was Earth, and Maki was all confused. However, Kanji told them that the huger problem was that there were human pilots inside the enemy robot as well.
They then remembered Mogi’s words, and was shocked at the revelation. The enemy started to rotate itself rapidly as it moved toward Zearth. Dung Beetle said that the battle was just like having a home and away game, and now they were away from home. He also reminded them that their Earth would be destroyed if they lost here, and told them to fight properly. Dung Beetle then explained this game happened because the space continuum of the universe was limited and this was a very efficient way of choosing which space would survive. He then told them that it was how they had fought, to destroy universes in order to save themselves.
As they fought, Maki realized that the people have not evacuated, eliciting laughter from Dung Beetle saying how these people would die anyway if they won the battle. Maki saw all the banners of humans below telling them to lose, as she continued to retreat while the enemy advanced. Zearth’s right arm also came off from the spinning arms of the enemy, as Tanaka warned Maki not to soften her heart if she wanted to win and to stop the movement of the enemy. Kanji suggested to use the broken right arm to throw at the weak central spot of the robot. As it approached, Zearth threw the head and stabbed it right through.
Maki then brought Zearth closer, gripped the enemy and the battle was won. When questioned why this Earth looked so similar to theirs, Dung Beetle said it was to maintain the structure of Earth as identically as possible and only those with close time proximity would have such a similar type. Takami said that they could let the pilots go, but Dung Beetle said that the issue was not to destroy the robot but it was to kill the pilots. The weak circular thing was in fact the cockpit. Maki wondered how many battles the robot had fought, and they had five remaining lights as well. Maki said she had to protect her earth because her family was there, and Jun had to add that the defenders were protecting too. Maki unceremoniously smashed the enemy to defeat it, finally removing the weak cockpit of the enemy.
Dung Beetle warned her that she only had 48 hours in total and wasting time would cause them a loss but Maki told him to keep quiet. Maki placed the cockpit on the floor after grabbing it, opened it and realized that the pilots inside were also humans. She then blasted the cockpit with Zearth’s lasers. The battle ended, and Dung Beetle told them that they had the luck to see how a planet was destroyed. A red burning light surrounded this planet, before Zearth disappeared into an air of stars, and eventually nothing.
All the children were shocked being overwhelmed by the total lack of life, before they were transported back into Earth with the lights. As Maki saw her little baby brother being born into the family. With that, we saw an image of Maki holding her baby brother in the rocking chair, before we see her body disappearing. Takami asked why they had to continue with this strange game, but Yoko said that they could not escape as their earth would be disturbed. Aiko said she wanted to go home as the choice of the next pilot came. It was Kirie and he expected him to be the next one as Dung Beetle said he was looking forward to his performance.
Tanaka suddenly woke up after a call, where Takami said that she only realized she was at home on the bed when she woke up. Tanaka said she would check as she got a call from Aiko who wondered if they had to fight and decided to come over to Tanaka’s house. Kanji was also asked to come with Kana and Jun. Seki, on the other hand, was driving to the female professor who was extremely excited to see Kanji’s coverage of the incident. Seki was the first to get to Tanaka’s house as he said the professor was the type of person he could not handle. Tanaka then decided to move ahead to meet them since it was dark.
At Jun’s house, Kanji came to inform them as Jun was resting and Kana was boiling water. Jun told Kanji to tell them that he slept after dinner, and Kana wanted to go. He objected to it at least until Kanji said he would take care of her. The three girls met up to go together as they met up with a bunch of guys who are asking for directions. After a while, it was clear that they wanted to abduct the girls for some reason, and Kanji arrived. He tried to stop the guys but was shoved aside before Tanaka came and fired a shot to warn them off. With the shot, it was not clear whether anyone was hit as the episode came to an end.
Thoughts
Wow, this episode just brings the whole moral dilemma to a new level. My theory is confirmed correct (Maybe I should buy lottery now, ha ha ha) in which this is a game to eliminate planets but I was surprised how this game is fought not only on space but also on time. This means that alternatives of Earth has been eliminated without the kid’s notification. This is a cruel survival of the fittest game now, where the kids are now “murderers”. Yet, you cannot brand them as so since they are saving their own Earth as well. It is hard because this is the stage where I actually feel for the kids.
They knew nothing, joined up a game they thought to be fun, but realized quickly that it is a game that has no return for them. They are going to die and disappear, and everyone will not know what is going to happen to them. All that pain is starting to hit me when they realized that they are killing common humans just like them who wanted to defend their own world. They have stood in the earth of humans, invading them harshly and destroying their existence just like this. It’s too cruel.
I do not know about you, but I think this latest twist that they are killing humans are seriously causing emotional turmoil. It is bad enough that you are going to die. It’s bad enough that if you lose, your whole world will die because of you. Now, you realize you are killing follow humans with your bloody hands in order to survive. This is worse than a war because if you win, you still survive. This is a war that you are meant to lose, one way or another.
I do wonder why Maki wanted to see what is inside. From no matter which angel I see it, I cannot understand for the life of me why she wants to peek into the cockpit. It does not even make any sense at all for her to see what is inside when she already knew at the start of the episode. How can she even kill someone after opening it. It really hurts my brain to figure out why she actually wants to see it, but I do have a queer reason. She wants to confirm the words.
The very words that “We are fighting against other humans who are also pilots“.
Who are the guys that are trying to get the girls? I am not sure since details of the girls being the pilots are considered to be highly confidential information, which means that these guys must be sent by someone from the government. The alternative is that the news of them being pilots is somehow leaked by someone who is in the known. However, few people do know about them, which now confuses me to who would want to harm the very girls that are going to save their world.
I highly doubt that this is anything to do with Haruhi, Espers and Time travelers. Any ideas?
14 Comments
“A red burning light surrounded this planet, before Zearth disappeared into an air of stars, and eventually nothing.”
Thats a bit of an understatement.
In the sequence from 13:30 to 13:52 you see increasing large chunks of the planet start flying off around Zearth. The chunks start small, and get bigger. See around 13:45 for especially large chunks. At 13:52-13:55 the sun goes Super-nova.
Hardly a case of “A red burning light surrounded this planet, then Zearth disappeared into an air of stars.”
@Taicho: thanks for the correction. I was trying to get the summary parts on the dialog in order to keep the summary to a concise and not overbearing one. In fact, the summary is not aimed to summarize the fighting or sequential scenes that has no words. I will take note of it though, and it’s definitely not that well in my summary.
I apologize
About the “who would harm the girls who are saving the world”, well ordinary people do not know of the consequences of Zearth losing. It is possible that the identity of the pilots have been leaked, and that those who lost family and friends in the various Zearth battles wish to get revenge.
This is what I am thinking. The other possibility is that the female scientist obssessed with Zearth hired them to abduct them, but we’ll see. This is original to the anime, so I have no idea what will happen.
@Diedrupo: My personal guess is that it makes no sense for the female scientist to abduct them, unless she is keen on making some strange experiments. That said, it might actually be possible that she, being so crazy over Zearth, might try something like that.
I truly do not believe that there is any chance of leakage, and I wonder if it is the same person who leaked to the magazine to be the same person who did this. If so, it might be Aiko’s father who is a journalist or something, yes?
Lovely episode, really. Gonzo have been doing such a great job with their shows it makes me want to hold up cheer banners! About the twist, I never expected that it would end up this way, aside from Mogi’s words, I had no idea that this would happen so a job well-done there. I wasn’t that attached to Maki so she was a little meh. As for Kirie I’m interested, I want to see whats his story since he seems introverted which shoul create for interesting writing. As for the men in the end I have no idea what to expect, Bokurano has been throwing twists here and there from the very start and none of them seem to be overbearing so thats always a plus. Its been an enjoyable ride so far don’t mess up Gonzo!
One of the best episodes so far.
If the kids were having a bad time before, I can’t imagine what they are going through now that they know they are fighting humans.
Impz Who has been your favorite character so far?
Wiping out realities that are too similar to spur diversity… makes you wonder why it is necessary. The threshold seems to be finite, like some gigantic memory buffer that holds the multiverse. “Uninstall” makes a whole lot of sense now. The question now is how the children escape their fates? I wonder if by winning, they regain their reality before Kokopelli and Zearth entered their lives? That’ll make the ending somewhat disappointing.
@Tabi: My favorite character has to be Muji for obvious reasons. He is perhaps the leader of the pack and with a good personality that you find it hard to dislike. Nevertheless, another character that captures my attention must be Kanji. He is so non chalant over everything that I wonder what his real life and family will be like.
@Saiga: I guess that there’s no way for them to regain their reality. I think that the painful truth in which they died for the planet builds a good mood on the “uninstall” theme . That also reminds me that I have not watched Episode 15 and 16. I guess i will whip up an entry for Episode 16 later.
I got to catch up with Bokurano.
I read in Wiki that the anime will differ a lot from the manga. It also implies a tragic ending in the manga that may be changed in the anime. I hope you are right though. I would prefer a somber ending to a happy one.
Bokurano is great
and YES, gonzo changed it a little
but anyways i would like to see all NARUTARU (shadowstar) Mangachapters
as an anime!
but since it didnt sell that well it stopped in the middle….
man man man its a pitty
@Saiga6360: I remember there is a huge outcry when the director mentioned that he hated the original work and wanted to change it in the way for uplifting. Nevertheless, I have a feeling that it will not be extremely happy go lucky magical all recovery ending, but more of a bittersweet and contemplating ending for this show. That is how I feel will end.
@Hoshimaro: It is changed supposedly from some of the fans that have mentioned about this. I guess Narutaru is yet another rather “screwed up” anime that has quite a bit of potential but just did not go far due to the budget issue. Still, Bokurano ep 13, despite all that, shows the uplifting message in the realm of death that there is life along with death altogether.
I was wondering(and I haven’t watched past Ep 13 yet, so forgive me if this point has already been addressed)… Is this show set in the future or the present? Because I just realised that the JSDF’s planes and subs from the kids’ universe look nothing like what we have in OUR reality. If it’s set in the future, then the different look could be due to more advanced technology and all that. But if it’s meant to be set in the present… that would mean that the kids are from a different parallel universe than ours. Which raises the interesting possibility of the kids having to fight us, or rather the animated representatives of our universe, at some point.
Cheers either way. I hope you keep churning out these per-episode analysis things. Very handy for picking up on the little nuances I may have missed on my first viewing.
I believe that it is set in the present, but time does not make a huge difference since parallel universes of Earth are going on a different time continuum. In that sense, it is perhaps understandable why the “earth” that they are in this episode is far more advanced. It is simply an “Earth” that is in a different time space to the “Earth” that we know of from the home of the Bokurano kids. I hope that I am not confusing you at all.
I do apologize ahead of time for the lack of updates on Episode 14 and 15 since I am quite lazy when it comes to doing backlog posts. Do take a look at my post for Bokurano 16 and there is a link on that post for you to find out a bit more of 14 and 15 from another blog, a friend of mine.
The Triad HAS to fall behind releases when the series is getting exciting (well more exciting than it already is.) I really want to know what happens next, but I’m torn between waiting faithfully for THe Triad to release subs and just reading spoilers here on THAT.
Dilemma dilemma dilemma