The death flags are everywhere.
Impression
This was actually quite a painful episode for me. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but it’s safe to say that the light and fluffy time is over now – in many ways I’m dreading next week, but I’ll get to that in a minute. The focus has squarely been on Fubuki again this episode, and the whole fuss over remodelling has given her more grief than it seems to have paid out, at least in the aesthetics department. Fubuki has really grown on me, and I’m not a fan of seeing her suffer at all – nor do I like seeing her supposedly killed off. It was very unlikely, but not impossible that she’d die a shock death there. It’s true that on one hand, Fubuki has become far stronger, and it’s amazing to see the difference in how she dealt with the same training course she did when she first joined. But at the same time, I felt like the Fubuki we saw working hard today was slightly different from the one who worked hard in the earlier episodes. I’m not sure how to describe it – it felt like she was obsessed and almost zealous towards levelling up, and she became far too reckless in dealing with an enemy that could have very well killed her. She was basically trying too hard – she had good intentions, but they manifested in the wrong way. I wonder what Fubuki sees in teitoku… and vice versa, too! What about marrying poor Nagato? Actually, scratch that. Nagato x Mutsu is a perfectly fine ship. And speaking of ships, I’d like to mention once again that I really appreciate how they make the effort to put in a Kitakami x Ooi scene every episode. Without fail. This week, Ooicchi got cockblocked by the moon!
Mutsuki had every right to be angry. I think she was already a bit uncomfortable with the fact that two of her friends were already going to undergo remodelling, and thus might change irreversibly (the poi count drastically fell this episode, to my dismay). Then Fubuki started acting recklessly, and then a totally different issue came into play. As far as we know, Kisaragi was the latest casualty in Chinjufu – if Mutsuki had lost two of the kanmusu closest to her in a row, it would not have been great. I was hoping Kongou would turn up at some point to help out either Fubuki or Mutsuki, but sadly onee-sama was nowhere to be seen for the first episode in quite a while. I recently forgot that Akagi and Kaga were actually war veterans with an incredible amount of experience, because usually we’ve been seeing them in slice-of-life contexts. Given their background, it isn’t surprising that they decided to continue to push Fubuki well past her limits, even when she looked like she was visibly suffering – it’s their way to show that they care, I guess. Aww, Kaga needs to be more honest with herself!
Now. I do not encourage looking up this so-called Operation MI, because that is exactly what I decided to do. To say the least, I was pretty disillusioned as to what I found. And if teitoku has left instructions for the combined power of Chinjufu to wipe out this Abyssal base, that now just sounds to me like more chances for more kanmusu to get killed. Several kanmusu in particular have very vibrant death flags hanging over them for next week, and I am certainly dreading what might happen. My only hope is Fubuki – at the moment, she’s being portrayed as a wild card of sorts in the upcoming battle. If she’s important enough to be singled out by teitoku, it may be because she has a chance of changing history and destroying death flags just like she destroys practice targets! Hopefully not like how she destroys Akagi’s practice planes though.
“Next time: Operation MI Begins!”
…F^$%ing f^$% with a f^$%ing f^$%-stick. F^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^$%!
Don’t go there, girls! Heed the words of Admiral Ackbar! Don’t head into that disaster!
In other news, poor Mutsuki-chan. That scene with her in the baths… Fubuki’s foolishness tore open the wounds of her trauma from losing Kisaragi. “If you sink you don’t come back.” Sounds obvious on the surface, but think about it. How long was she waiting at the pier for Kisaragi to return? Standing there in denial of Kisaragi’s sinking, waiting for her to come back. “If you sink, you don’t come back. …You just disappear into the sea.” Fubuki, are you going to force her to go through that again?
;_____;
I don’t want them to die ;_; I’ve never said all that much about them, but they don’t deserve to go out like that!
Mutsuki has been having it very rough. It’s not just Fubuki and Kisaragi either – Yuudachi changed as well, and even if they’re just slight things (like how she’s grown too much for the tables in the loli-class to fit her, or the lack of pois) she’s still no longer how she once was. It might be why Mutsuki looked so happy to see that Fubuki hardly changed at all even after her remodelling.
This episode was too enjoyable to allow some missing parts of her Kai-Ni to sink it for me.
I loved and at the same time was frightened by the thought of a Kanmusu living a civilian life while the war’s going on. At least, that’s my assumption, but maybe that “previous Fubuki”… sunk… 🙁
I had a feeling that getting grouped with some of the most experienced Kanmusu would be what would set Fubuki off! Although, I didn’t expect it’d be a 2v1 with Kaga and Akagi, but it’s just as well for it!
Going back to that point about the missing parts of Fubuki’s gear, I wonder if it’s just that she won’t get her new “backpack” until she sortie’s again, along with the new torpedo launchers and boots.
Maybe the Kai-Ni uniform will be introduced under the premise of being specially made in honor of Fubuki’s first sortie with Carrier Group One? That’d be cool. I could easily see Houshou (“mother” of all Kanmusu) making it, perhaps on behalf of a request by Akagi. As for the equipment, heck, maybe it’ll be a similar case except that Yuubari will be the maker? That all would be more impressive than coming out of a changeroom, so it’d be like suiting up for the next big battle!
Now that Fubuki can do advanced AA/AA cut-in, making her Anti-Wo almost and now that she’s also Akagi’s escort, I wonder if they’ll end up doing the Diamond Formation (which is best for anti-air) for REAL with Yamato, like they pretended to do when Yamato was introduced. It’d be pretty sweet and in that case Yuudachi would be there, too, since she’s also in Carrier Group One! And they sure will need that combined firepower if a particular Hime or even an Oni shows up!
Come on foreshadowing! 😀 Except the death flags… let those sink instead.
Speaking of sinking and on a lighter note, I found Ooi’s “moon-block” quite ironic since I was expected “The moon sure it beautiful” in that scene. I wish Kitakami had laid down the importance of the moon to the sea after asking Ooi why she was shouting so.
Speaking of foreshadowing and on a darker note, a fellow fan tipped me off to this:
“The bomb that sunk Kisaragi was shown to be have the distinct stabilizers of the Type-98 Land Bomb (which is used as the first image in the linked article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_World_War_II_navy_bombs). This is a nod and a wink to the idea that the Abyssals are … the darker halves of the Fleet Girls, and the Allied armaments used are just a convenient [distraction].”
I mean, we’ve all considered this to be a possibility, but it’s nice to have something specifically hinting at it in the show. Heck, maybe sinking the Kanmusu in their historical ways is a sign of sadism or explicit bitterness on the part of the Abyssals.
Looks like Fubuki’s made it! I’d totally forgotten that she had an ambition to work with Carrier Group One with her precious Akagi-senpai! With Yuudachi along for the ride as well, this particular fleet looks very powerful, which raises even more questions about exactly what will happen next week if the death flags do activate. It’s interesting you say the Abyssals are darker halves… it does make sense, since they are very similar in many respects – it’s just that the fodder Abyssals are depicted too monstrously. I think Wo-chan has quite a fanbase though! All this time I’ve just assumed it to be some sort of nationalistic statement, given that in real life, all the naval tragedies suffered by Japan were at the hands of the Allies and the USA in particular.
And I love Ooi. I know some people find her very annoying, but I’m so entertained by her antics. The sad thing is that Kitakami never responds to her as much as I would like her to.
Apologies for the late reply! I’ve been slacking on Tokyo Ghoul as well, come to think of it >_>
Well, we’ll see what difference ‘Full Metal Blizzard’ with her enhanced Anti-Air and ‘Nightmare of Solomon’ with her heavy-cruiser level firepower, can really do as part of Carrier Group One this time around!
Hopefully if history doesn’t repeat itself, perhaps they capture a Shinkaisei-kan or get a lead on something that helps the Kanmusu learn more about them like the previously cancelled operation was teased to be able to do.
Ah, you know viewers. Most of us are quite vicious when watching something and would react quite a bit more understandingly in real life xP Ooi’s only really bothersome when she’s mean to others, which has become less and less. Maybe she should take some pointers from Mutsu on how to show impactful, yet subtle sisterly love 🙂
As one last note, apparently Fubuki’s Kai weapon transfers over to her Kai-Ni and her Fire Director (the watch-like device) can be given to her at Kai by just building it. So some are saying she really might be Kai and the Kai-Ni comes for the finale. Pacing wise that might make more sense, especially if next episode Fubuki and Yuudachi DO make a difference in the Shinkaisei-kan’s plans to repeat history and Fubuki is thrown over the Kai-Ni threshold over that battle. Protecting Kaga, Akagai, Hiryuu and Souryuu would yield more experience than a battle in which they are lost and so ends sooner.
The potential for ANYTHING is real ><
Can they talk? They’ve been silent for the entire series, but an interrogation scene might be cool. Given that we have two episodes remaining (according to MAL) I don’t think they’ll be going into substantive answers any time soon. What I instead fear is that they decide to massacre the entire cast and just end it like that ;_;
I’ve been assuming she’s just Kai too, given that Kai-Ni really should be more drastic than that. Yuudachi Kai doesn’t involve a design remodel either, but that all changes when she’s upgraded to Kai-Ni.
Hey, Fubuki tried her best to become akagi’s “escort”. And when she was going to get remodeled, I was like, ” will Fubuki Change or something’s?” It was kind of a relief. Still I wonder if the Admiral is dead, or watching over them to see what they’re doing. But I think it’s most likely the second one. Anyway, come to think of it, we have never seen the Admiral’s face before….. I wonder why.
I was actually looking forward to seeing her change! The normal Fubuki is cute too, but I ended up really liking Yuudachi Kai-Ni so I wasn’t too worried.
We’ve never seen teitoku’s face because he’s meant to represent the player, who takes on the role of the admiral in the games. What they’ve instead done in the anime is to have Nagato (his secretary ship) and Mutsu basically take over his role, by relaying orders that he’s supposedly given.
Does that mean you think he’s day or not? just asking sorry I changed my icon.