So Qualidea Code pulls no punches – Canaria is really dead. Gone. In a split second, struck down in front of Ichiya, who’s absolutely devastated and with good cause.
The themes of death and loss run strong throughout this episode, so this may be a hard episode for some people to watch.
There’s a flashback showing a young Maihime and Hotaru after the death of a Tenkawa family member. Hotaru can tell that Maihime is hiding her pain and grief while putting on a strong face for others.
In the present day, Tokyo is left leaderless after Canaria’s death and Ichiya’s inability to deal with anything because he’s so shell-shocked. Airi and Gutoku ask the other representatives if they’ll help lead Tokyo for the time being; Maihime agrees, but Kasumi rejects the offer and is assigned to help defend the no-entry zone 
by the Aqua Line instead.
Maihime and Hotaru go to Ichiya’s room to try to coax him out, but he rejects them and pushes away their attempts to bolster his spirits. When Maihime pushes him a little too hard, he lashes out and accuses Maihime of seeing Canaria as “just a number.”
After the two girls leave on their walk home, Maihime drops her walls and lets her grief loose. Canaria was her friend too, and Maihime’s almost as upset as Ichiya over Canaria’s death. Hotaru says nothing and simply tries to comfort her friend with her presence.
This episode amped the slowly-blooming conspiracy way up this episode. While Ichiya’s trying to process Canaria’s death, there’s clearly something sinister going on involving recent attacks on some students, and Airi and Gutoku are somehow involved.
How so? There’s a flashback involving Aoi and some kind of surgery performed Airi and Gutoku performed on the “code” plate on her neck. It appears that all students (or perhaps all students with World powers?) have one, but while it initially seemed like an ordinary thing to have, I’m now starting to doubt its true purpose. Maybe they’re markers or tracking devices of some kind? But how do Airi and Gutoku factor into this conspiracy??
After the flashback Hotaru bumps into Aoi and asks her if she remembers anything suspicious about the recent battle with the Unknown at the Aqua Line, and reveals some information she’d uncovered: that all of the students who were recently attacked were with Aoi’s group, students who entered the battlefield from the rear. Now the flashback makes a little more sense – was Aoi’s code altered so she wouldn’t be attacked?
Hotaru drags Aoi around the campus, prodding the blue-haired girl to show her the route her troop used that day. Maihime remains behind, knowing Hotaru can handle things on her own.
Down near the no-entry zone, Kasumi and Asuha are staring out at the ocean together, while a zombified Ichiya stands silently behind them. Asuha and Kasumi talk about Canaria’s death, or rather Asuha prattles on about Kasumi’s opinion of Canaria. She’s interrupted when a group of Unknown pass through the border and head towards the Aqua Line.
Maihime does her best to rally the students together, encouraging them not to panic despite all the recent attacks and Canaria’s death. This is yet another typical battle with the Unknown, right? Right??
Wrong. Oh hell no. What initially loooks like an ordinary fight quickly escalates into something much, much more serious. Remember the opening shots of the first episode, with the red sky and Unknown coming down from the sky to destroy the city? Yeah, think along those veins. There’s a whole swarm of Unknown, with one extra large flying Unknown swooping around the smaller ones.
And as everyone is staring up at the sky in horror, light dings off the gold plates on everyone’s necks. Does this mark them as a target, or as saved?
…Oh damn. Shit’s gonna get real. x__x
My thoughts: For a character who’s featured in the opening song, I’m surprised that Canaria was killed off before the halfway mark in the series. Unless she’s not really dead, but time will tell. Maybe she was an Unknown and she’s in hiding now?
Ugh. Goddamn show ripping my heart right out and smashing it to bits. T_T Watching Maihime sob made me cry too.
I’m calling it right now, Airi and Gutoku are secretly Unknown in human form. I’ve had a sinking episode since the last episode, but Aoi’s reaction to touching Airi’s finger pretty much clinched it for me. Can’t wait to see if I guessed right or not!
Author’s Note: I apologize for this review being late, as I was not able to get my laptop working properly while I was away. Therefore all of this past week’s reviews are going to be slightly delayed. Thank you for your patience!