Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta Episode 2

Impression:

The tension between Class A (Nobles) and Class B (Commoners) was incredibly thick today and it’s only going to become even more intense. Kal-El isn’t as timid is he appeared to be in the first episode as he boldly went up against Melze Fausto Fidel, publicly shaming him how the Melze family was exiled to Isla. That took some major guts, but the guy was a royal he is bound to know some of the secrets along with proper etiquette which he showcased today.
It was confirmed today that Axis is well aware of Kal-El’s true identity. We still haven’t gotten a word about why he harbours such deep hatred against him, so I’m going to stick with my theory that it’s because Kal-El is keeping it a secret. That said, if it’s because of that, it would explain a lot about their difficult relationship.
Major props to Sharif Benjamin for asking questions about why the Island of Isla is so heavily armed and who are they being protected from. Unfortunately we did not get an answer, and he was told to zip it. I have the feeling that the military commanders and Nina Viento are all at least know they are bound to run into something at some point, or even possess knowledge of what they are expected to encounter. But I think keeping a secret and sugarcoating it saying “there might be no dogfights at all” is a huge mistake. Sure it allows the students to live a rather blissful life before all hell breaks loose, but at the same time, if they take it easy thinking they have three years to train… It’s not going to end well for any of them.
There were several key pointers that were mentioned today. The first is that there are three continents, each solely occupied by the nations of Balsteros, Qi and Benares. Between them is the Sauram Sea and Noel sea, separated from one another by an endlessly long waterfall. (I’m not going to lie, one of the things that kind of bugged me was that the map didn’t identify what continent belonged to what nation). At this point it’s safe to assume at least one of the other two nations will be responsible for the future attack. On top of that, hearing that the Holy Springs was discovered by Admiral Luis six years ago in the midst of the vast ocean raises the possibility that the other nations have also discovered it and are pursuing the same thing: The Endless Sky. According to the legend, there are sometimes flying islands of rock (much like Isla) that appear from the Spring, and those islands will cross the sea, eventually reaching a place of which they supposedly know nothing about, The End of the Sky. With that in mind, when it comes down to power, perhaps conquering these islands is a bigger element to the story than some of us had anticipated. Or it could simply be killing two birds with one stone, annihilate the enemy and take possession of Isla, after all, Isla is said to never return again.
One of the biggest surprises was to see Nina Viento on board. I am fairly certain her presence on board is supposed to be a secret as she will be overseeing the battle. But at the same time I am dying for answers to knowing just who the world is she, and why does Kal-El harbour such a grudge against her? Is she secretly some divine being?
Another surprise was seeing how Claire is so sheltered. It was thanks to de Alarcon Luis, who allowed her to go to pilot school in the first place. But the bigger surprise (though admittedly I don’t know whether I’m reading too much into it) was that it appeared almost as if she was communicating with the golden star that she was glancing at out the window.
I was quite bummed to see that we may have missed out a training scene between Ariel and Axis. Unless Axis was able to get away with it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he trained solo. I am definitely excited to see how the two will interact since Axis has such a cold, unapproachable personality, and spends 99.9% of his time glaring at Kal-El and Ariel has such a warm and social personality. Axis had skipped out on the meals that the students are responsible of cooking by taking shifts, and prefers to eat bread. (I have a feeling he either doesn’t know how to cook, or he’s just bad at it hahaha… kinda like myself – BREAD FTW!) There was no signs of jealousy today from Ariel about Kal-El partnering up with Claire instead of her, but she did feel at loss because she was expecting him to be her partner.
This episode just flew right by so it felt too short (this is why I can’t watch 5mins shorts). But nevertheless, it was still good and discreetly made progress with the plot. The other characters that were introduced together were all charming (except for douchebag Fidel), especially Wolfgang who is my favourite minor character. He is such a gentlegiant and is actually the same age as the rest of them! It was so cute and funny to see him go up to Fidel giving off the impression that he was going to beat him to pulp only to clean the ice-cream off the douche’s uniform! As for the animation, it’s clear that until the real battle begins, the animation quality is definitely going to be below average, but I just pray that it will go up when the important parts of the story happen.