Once again I was very pleased with the way this show delivered this week! It was interesting to see them exploring Shamoor and how different each planet can be in comparison to the previous one. After such a close encounter with tragedy, their excitement to explore was contagious. It even made sense that they would decide not to pursue the potential enemy within their lines anymore for the sake of maintaining the current teamwork they have going on.
I liked seeing Charce get so excited about everything in the planet and explaining some of the particular flora and fauna. The humor in this show is totally up my alley, sort of comedy duo antics that really do wonders in breaking the tension. I know not everyone appreciates this sort of narrative as I’ve met people before that criticized it because it ruined the mood, but for me it’s wonderful.
It was pretty interesting to see how they dealt with the spoiling food and not having access to meat. They decide to stay in this planet until they can complete the food gathering goals they have in mind, but this plan is quickly thwarted by the planet itself having an ecosystems that it’s not sustainable for living things.
In this episode they continued the exploration of Yunhua that had cautiously started in episode 3. Here we learn a bit more about her mother and how their relationship affected Yunhua’s self-confidence. Her timid nature and low self-steem make her the target of criticism which aids the negative cycle. In a passing comment, something was said about her big stature, so she decides to abandon the group and leave the ship.
The rest of the crew rush to look for her with urgency and are looking to patch up things. Kanata is the one who finds her and she still continues to run away. In the end they are finally able to sit down and talk and Kanata learns some things about her, why she behaves so timidly and what her dreams for the future are. My heart really went out to her after seeing some of the emotional abuse she went through as a child. That’s something very difficult to overcome. She has a huge complex of being a failure and her dream seems to her a useless thing.
This conversation is overlapped with the news of some of the other crew members being poisoned by breathing spores from huge poisonous mushrooms that grow around on the surface of the planet. The way the ecosystem was explained was really interesting too! I don’t really know how realistic it is, but I don’t care much, I’m satisfied with it being interesting and it made me realize I never think much about that sort of thing, but it can help explain a lot of things in the environment of a place.
The majority of the crew has been affected by the deadly poison and while Kanata, Quitterie and Yunhua decide what to do and discuss with Charce how the mushrooms can balance out deaths in the ecosystem, they realize they came across the antidote before. Later on it is said that the antidote fruit isn’t visible unless you have been affected by the poison, so I imagine Yunhua was exposed to it as well and ate some of the fruit, even if we never saw that happen.
In the end Kanata goes to get some antidote fruit while Quitterie and Yunhua stay in the ship caring for the sick. Quitterie ends up showing some symptoms as well and Yunhua is overcome with anxiety as she doesn’t know what to do or how to help the rest. I thought the episode would end here in a sort of cliffhanger, instead we were given the gift of a beautiful ending song sung by Yunhua while she reflects on why singing is so special to her and we see her become the star she wants to be in her mind. It was really touching and a great song to go with the difficulty they’re going through. An amazing backdrop to Kanata’s struggle and a soothing moment for the sick. I hope going forward this will help Yunhua feel more confident, help the crew accept her more and bring them all together.
Now I’m wondering which character will be explored next! I’m looking forward to it and also whether they’ll decide to stay on Shamoor longer or leave right away. I suppose it’s obvious they’ll leave, but since it wasn’t mentioned, I won’t take it for granted yet.