Thanks a lot for Hashihime to translate episodes 7-11. Still, .ass-files do have their disadvantages. It’s incedibly hard to find the raw files for these episodes. These aired more than a month ago, so any torrents containing these files is going awfully slow. Episode nine also proved to be interesting, as the only torrent to the only raw which seems to be available displayed an error when I tried it. >.<

Anyway, about the episode, I can understand why people are raving about this show. Mamiina was just awesome during this episode. I like the twisted mind that she has. It should prove to be awesome for following episodes.

We start with the members of the Chor Tempest running into the members of the Chor Ruboru (the Chor of Aaeru’s roommate, Vyüra). It’s night, the members of the Chor Tempest are about to start with a special training excercise while Chor Ruboru just came back from patrolling. Of course, both sides try to mock each other. While this was funny in the first place, I just loved Aaeru when she acted like nothing happened and shouted some things back to Vyüra. ^_^

The girls from Chor tempest then board the Shimire (the training crafts) in order to practice. It also seems that Aaeru asked Wapörifu to fix the Simoun that her grandfather flew in (I still have to get used to the fact that grandfathers once were girls as well). I don’t exactly know what happened to it, though. I suspect the thing broke after he went to the spring, and he was allowed to take it with him. Though that doesn’t make any sense. (On a side-note: chibi-Aaeru looks too cute).

In any case, during the training, random conversations are going on. It seems that when Neviriru was still active, it was the Chor Riboru who looked up to them. They also talk about the spring and growing up. It seems that Limone doesn’t want to hear about the latter, and someone wants to go to the spring, immediately when she turns nineteen, though I couldn’t pick up who that might’ve been.

During the actual training, Morinas is having trouble concentrating, and Rödoraemon’s getting worried about this, though Morinas doesn’t seem to care. Dominüra places Limone in the lead. Furoe annoys Aruti again and Kaimu gets happy to know that Paraiette didn’t desert her (after all, during the previous episode, she put her trust into the pair of Neviriru and Aaeru). Then, another ship like the Arcus Prima (the big ship which forms the main ship, where the sybylla live) approaches them. (On a side-note, thanks a lot to Hashihime for giving a list of all the terms and names used in this anime. I don’t think I would’ve been able to remember all of them if I didn’t use this list.)

In any case, this ship is called the Arcus Niger. It seems that Guraghief and Anubitufu arranged a meeting with them. Normally, it’s stationed at the Western Great Temple area, wherever that might be. Though it seems that its commanders decided that there wasn’t a lot of time, so they already met up with them halfway. Probably because of an emergency or some impatient VIPs.

Then, a pink Shimire emerges from the Arcus Niger, flying badly on purpose in an attempt to make fun of them. It then appears that the two Sybylla on this Shimire are to be assigned to the Chor Tempest, in order to make it a complete Chor, consisting of six Simoun again. It seems that the Arcus Niger came to announce that the country called Plumbum Reikoku (what’s lead got to do with this?) has offered a peace treaty with Simulacrum Kyuukoku (the country the main part of this anime plays in). Both of these countries seem to have similar customs, so they probably wouldn’t offend each other. Both of these countries worship a different god. Simulacrum has Tempus Patiem, while Plumbum has Animus. It could be the same being, though neither party would acknowlegde that. Still, Anubitufu didn’t look really happy when he hears about this peace treaty.

We then switch to the Chor Tempest. Paraietta brings them the news about the peace treaty, while the other members are in some kind of gathering room, full of pillow-like things. Music is on, and some of the members are also dancing. It’s reckoned that Plumbum only wants the peace treaty because they want the Helical Motores, found in the ancient ruins and used to fly the Simoun. I then seems that the first peace conversations will be happening in international territory, over the ocean. This means that the Arcus Prima will be heading for Plumbum, as it’s somehow been decided that the conference will be helt on the Arcus Prima.

Then the two Sybylla who were seen in the Shimire from before appear. You would expect that the new ones are totally incredible in every way, though that isn’t the fact. While they may be good Simoun pilots, they’re not as overconfident as you see with most rivals who appear. Furoe predicts that she’ll say something along the lines as “so, the rumours about the Chor Tempest were true”, which is exactly what Mamiina (one of the two) does. ^^;

Mamiina then turns her attention to Rödoreamon. It seems that Rödoreamon comes from a very rich family, while Mamiina was the daughter of one of their servants. She then introduces herself, and so does the other girl (Yun). Then some girls come to warn the Chor Tempest that someone’s moving in with Neviriru. It seems that her father’s got some high rank, and he placed Mamiina as Neviriru’s new partner and roommate, against her will. At this point, it seems that he’s blinded by ambition, and wants his daughter to look good, no matter what.

Neviriru, of course, refuses to let Mamiina be her pair. What follows is a bit of random discussion between some of the members of the Chor Tempest. That’s another thing I love about these random conversations. The huge amount of characters, in combination with the fact that each of the characters is interesting in some way, makes each of these conversations unique and very enjoyable to watch. Furoe asks whether Aaeru’ll be her new pair, though she still has her eye on Neviriru. Yun also is a strange one. She’s willing to go with anyone, but she hates war. The only reason she flies as a Sybylla is that all of her friends went to war and died. She couldn’t face herself if she avoided it.

The next morning, Aaeru seems to be holding the same strange thing that we’ve seen her with a couple of times. It’s never explained what it was. In any case, she looks down her window, and there she sees Neviriru’s window. Neviriru, meanwhile, isn’t too happy when Mamiina comes bothering her inside the shower. Mamiina shows that she’s determined to become Neviriru’s pair, though Neviriru shows that she’s determined not to let Mamiina be her pair. Aaeru breaks the tension in this conversation when it appears that she used a rope to come down to Neviriru. For the first time ever, we see Neviriru amused again. Mamiina, however, gets angry. Very angry.

We then switch to a conversation between Harukonfu (Neviriru’s father) and Guraghief. The Chor Tempest is supposed to perform the Dandelion Ri Maajon during the peace conference, and it requires six Simoun to perform it (hence Mamiina and Yun’s sudden arrival). Guraghief wonders whether the new members will be able to do it. Harukonfu exits with the phrase that he won’t let his daughter get hurt anymore. It seems that the two of them have been separated for too long, as he has the wrong idea about what a “father” means.

Then the good stuff finally begins, as we switch to Aaeru and Mamiina in the Maaju Pool. There, Mamiina turns berserk, while she tries to rip Aaeru’s suit off. The two of them struggle for a while before others see them and break them apart. Harukonfu then decides to disband the Chor Tempest as soon as the conference is over. He also plans to send Neviriru to the spring as soon as possible. It was really great to see Mamiina break when she heard this.

I wonder what happens during this conference. The episode ends as soon as the priests from Plumbum are brought aboard the Arcus Prima. I’ve read everywhere that episode eight seems to be totally incredible, so I’m really looking forward to that one. I also love the way that there are so many characters who break so many clichés so easily.

This episode was totally messed up. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of storytelling. We have this Proxy who can change his appearance at will, and he keeps bothering Real, Vincent and Pino with this ability. Pino probably featured her best performance up till now. ^_^

The episode begins with a teaser of what happens at the end of the episode. Real phylosophizes a bit. She believes that the world doesn’t end once she dies, though she used to believe this as a child. She’s a true realist, though I’m dying to see her as a child. Then it seems that Vincent seems to have done something stupid, though he seems to blame Real and Pino for this. Then they approach the dome, which probably will be Moscow, Vincent’s homeland.

We then switch to a lake, in which a dead Real is floating, with Vincent and Pino standing right next to her. At this time, I was beginning to scratch my head, and then to think that that only was the beginning.

The OP rolls, and we switch to Pino and Vincent doing some groceries. It seems that they ran into another abandoned city. This time, not even robots or autoraves are active. Real walks around a bit, and gets some visions of Iggy. The city has a strange shape. Much like a huge crater, entirely populated with houses and with a small lake and lots of trees in the middle. She walks around a bit, takes a look at the ship they traveled with and then she arrives at the lake. At that time, she could’ve sworn she saw something. That’s the first clue we get of the Proxy.

Real then goes back to the supermarket, at which Vincent and Pino just finished shopping. While Pino has fun with cans, Real’s as cold as usual. Vincent wants to stay for a while, though Real scolds him, for not being determined. Then, Pino gets cuter than ever when she tries to present her own assembled meal to her. It looks absolutely disgusting. Real immediately turns this down and leaves, with the excuse of keeping a lookout. Vincent, however, doesn’t. Seeing Pino smile like that was just absolutely hilarious. She’s an autorave, so she doesn’t have the slightest ideas about taste. I don’t think the Proxy was at this scene. Both characters acted natural and said things that an outsider wasn’t supposed to know. (Like Real who drinks a lot of Ginger Ale and Vincent’s goal to reach Moscow) Though it would have been too funny if he actually was pretending to be one of them. ^^

We then switch to Real, complaining about how Vincent and Pino bring her in a bad mood. Back to Vincent, he’s packing and runs into the Proxy, pretenting to be Real, eating the pea soup from before. When he tells her to hurry, she tells him that she’s eating at the moment. Vincent gives her some ginger ale and then goes to get some water, along with Pino (she looked too awesome carrying that big can like that ^^).

Back to Real, the fake proxy gives her a visit, pretending to be Vincent. He brings her the same ginger ale as he just got from the real Vincent. He then suggests to stay here for a while. When you see this, and don’t know about the Proxy, the scene turns hilarious: first, Real tells Vincent to pack things up and leave as soon as possible. Vincent packs, but then he sees Real, taking it easy. Then Vincent comes back to Real, and he is the one again to suggest to stay and Real is the one to suggest to leave fast. Still, when you know about the Proxy, this scene makes perfect sense. The Proxy is lonely, and he hopes for the two of them to stay.

In any case, when the face Vincent set up an incredibly fake speech, asking Real in a very sad tone whether she didn’t love him anymore, I began to suspect something. These feelings only got confirmed when the real Real pushed the fake Vincent off the roof of the supermarket, only to disappear into nothingness afterwards. The fact remains that the Proxy didn’t know about the two of them. He just thought that they were a couple with a child. He also thought they were still lovey-dovey, so that’s why he set up the act he did. He also let himself get pushed off, in order to try and test how Real would react to this.

Vincent, meanwhile managed to get enough water. Then he runs into the fake Real. She sets up an angry voice, and she asks for the autorave. Then she attempts to kill Pino and Vincent locks her in a storage room. When he hears her reasons, it appears that Pino wanted to kill her. Vincent doubts this, of course, though he still asks Pino in a very kind way. Out of her explanation, it seems that Vincent believes that this was because of the food that Pino made. He indeed reckons that Real overexaggerated a bit. What follows is the fake Real, falling off the roof of the supermarket, right in front of Vincent’s eyes. He then sees a figure on top of the roof, and heads there. While he does, he notices that the storage room from before is open again.

When he gets to the top of the roof, the fake Real is gone, only to appear behind him. She then asks him a few questions, which Vincent can’t answer and runs away. Pino, meanwhile, gets visited by the fake Vincent, carrying the real Real’s unconcious body. They head for the lake, and the fake Vincent drops the body of the real Real in the lake. It sinks, only to rise again. Pino then thinks that Real has died.

When the real Vincent, meanwhile checks up on the Centzon (the ship they came with) he notices that it’s gone. He then thinks that Real and Pino left without him. And that he’s alone again. He then notices that something’s happening at the lake. Back to Pino, she totally manages to pwn the Proxy when she unmasks him. She also mentions something very interesting: there are two real Reals. Does the other Real mean the Proxy, pretending to be Real, or does this mean that Real’s got another appearance? Then, the fake Vincent attempts to strangle Pino, but then he sees that she’s an autorave, who can’t be strangled. Still, when he acted as Real, he did mention the fact that Pino was an autorave. What’s up with that?

The real Vincent meanwhile arrives at the lake, and then he sees the fake Real, sinking into the lake. Vincent dives after her, and manages to save her. She then opens her eyes, and attempts to drown him. This looked pretty amusing. ^^

Pino meanwhile managed to save the real Real from drowning. The two of them realize that both of them aren’t the proxy, though Real realizes that something’s happening. What follows is Vincent and the Proxy, floating in the depths of the lake and finding out about the facts that they both are Proxy. The Proxy then tells Vincent about his loneliness. Everywhere he appeared, people fled. Nobody acknowledged him. He then killed everyone in the city, in the hope of disappearing, though it didn’t work. He hopes to eliminate himself, along with Vincent. He then tries to break Vincents mind, in tricking him to die along with him.

Vincent then surfaces, only to see the fake Real standing before him. She yells at him, and he realizes that she’s the fake one. This scene repeats for a while. During this, the fake Vincent also shows the bodies of all of the former citizens he killed, stored in the middle of the lake. I think this all happens in the head of the Proxy, as Vincent then sees the same scene of Real standing on the shore. He decides to go extreme by strangling her. Though then Pino comes to her. This makes Vincent think that he really killed the real Real, while in fact, they’re just standing on the other side of the lake, watching the two Vincents talk to each other. Real noted exceptionally well that the fake Vincent didn’t have a reflection in the water.

Then, both of the Vincents sink again. Then, Vincent surfaces yet again, as yet again the same scene happens. though this time, the fake real is the real real. We then switch to the ship again, where the episode started. Apparently, Vincent caught a cold after being in the lake for so long (you’d wonder why Real didn’t, as she also was dumped into the lake). The Proxy probably cut the ropes which were holding the Centzon at its place, so it drifed off. Vincent then managed to recover it. Vincent then relates himself to the Proxy. They were both lonely. Though Pino and Real managed to save him. They managed to give his life meaning. We also see Real smile for one of the first times in the series.

Each Proxy’s ability and way of thinking is entirely different from the others. Some of them have a human form, like Ergo and Kazkiz, while others don’t, like the one from episode 12 and Senekis. Some Proxy can really think for themselves, like Kazkiz, Ergo and the one from this episode, while others are just killing machines, like Senekis and others are just savage beasts like the one from episode 12. Some Proxy have two minds, like Ergo, while others have just one mind, like Kazkiz. Some use their hair as weapon, others like to change their appearance to confuse the enemy, others just use their hands in combat. And I can keep going on like that for a while.

Overall, I just love the mind games that this anime is playing. I wonder what’ll happen when the characters reach Moscow.

A Paraietta episode. Aaeru also keeps trying to bug the hell out of Neviriru. Furthermore, we get some info on Guraghief and Anubitufu.

Though the main focus lies on Paraiette. She’s been with Neviriru ever since she was a child, and of course that creates a certain bond. Amuriya, however, was the one that took Neviriru away from her. Still, Paraietta remained loyal to Neviriru. Now that Neviriru is in crisis, she tries to help her, though it doesn’t really work. This episode mainly served to let her see that Neviriru also felt that she betrayed her. She then manages to convince Neviriru that this wasn’t the fact. The episode ends with Paraietta and Aaeru dueling in the Maaju Pool, Aaeru beating Paraietta and Paraietta acknowledging Aaeru as Neviriru’s partner. Kaimu also played an interesing role. She’s obviously in love with Paraiette, though she knows about her feelings towards Neviriru. She also helps Paraiette see the thing that troubles Neviriru.

So, what were the roles of each of the characters in this episode?
Neviriru: Still in her room, locking herself away.
Aaeru: Mostly trying to get Neviriru to come out of her room. I liked the things she painted on her door.
Paraietta: Realized that Neviriru also was worring about her. Came a bit closer to Kaimu.
Kaimu: Tries to get her feelings through to Paraiette. Works a bit.
Furoe: Keeps acting playful now that they haven’t got any meaningful missions.
Aruti: Stays a bit gloomy and spies on Paraietta and Kaimu. Why?
Rödoreamon and Morinasu: Worry about the state of the Chor Tempest.
Dominüra: Attempts to bring a bit of dicipline back into the Chor Tempest, but she isn’t really enthusiastic in it.
Limone: For some reason still does what she likes to, outside of the missions.
Guraghief and Anubitufu: Seemed to be a pair of Sybylla as well, in their early days.

The Third continues to be awesome. Even though there wasn’t a lot of tension in this episode, it was a great one. It focuses on Honoka’s determination to protect something, even if this happens to be an armoured ant.

Honoka and Bogie are alone again. Millie’s been dropped off by her aunt and Ikus temporarily left her, in order to take care of certain things. It seems that it’s got something to do with his mission on earth, but not much is said on this.

We start with Bogie waking Honoka up. I just love the conversations between the two of them. They’ve grown up with each other, and they continue bickering to each other. Honoka also can believe in things with her heart, without having any proof to, while Bogie likes to think as rationally as possible. If you combine these two, you get some awesome results.

In any case, it then seems that an armoured ant (the ones we’ve seen in the first episode) has attached itself to the Sand Tank. The other two are waiting right next to the sand tank. It appears that the one who attached itself to the sand tank is the queen of this colony. Armoured ants always work in groups of three. One of them might sprout wings and becomes a queen. When it does, it flies off, and attempts to start a new colony somewhere else. It’s not known what happens to the other two ants after this. Thanks to the narrator for this info, once more. I really like this guy.

Shaking an ant like that off isn’t such a problem. After all, the sand tank is big and fast, Bogie can probably do it while activating the battle acceleration. The problem is, however, that Honoka’s taken a pity towards this ant. The queen is using the sand tank becuase she believes that it’s a safer place to sprout her wings (during which she’s extremely vulnerable). The other two ants are protecting her. Bogie uses the argument that they’ve got a job in Emporium, and they furthermore have to pay Millie a visit. If they don’t go, they might not have time to visit Millie. Still, Honoka wants the ant to fly, and she wants to protect it.

Things get bad when Honoka sees another group of armoured ants approaching. They probably see that this queen is a threat to their own colony in some way. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even dare to come near the territory of others, as armoured ants are highly territorial creatures. The other two ants, who serve as the bodyguards of the queen, then close in on them. What follows is a bloodbath between these two groups, from which we only get to hear the sound-effects. The awesome background tune turned this into a great scene. What follows is the death of all five of those ants.

Still, more ants seem to approach. It’s likely that whenever an attacking group of ants die, another group of ants charges. Honoka then decides to not stand by any longer, and hold off the ants herself. She has to stop three ants from reaching the queen, until dawn hits. Apparently, the ants aren’t active when the sun shines, so they’ll back off. The only problem is that dawn’s two hours away. Bogie advices her not to, though he gives in at the end. Travelling with Honoka for so long, he really learned a few things about her character.

Honoka then spends two whole hours using suspended animation (the same technique she used in the previous episode) to blow away the group of approaching ants. Yes, the timing was too convenient: right before dawn, suspended animation doesn’t work anymore and then the queen manages to lift off. But that’s not the point of this fight. This fight was meant to show the determination of Honoka, the things she’s willing to do when she sets her mind to something. And that she’s even able to continue fighting after two whole hours. You need a lot of patience and willpower in order to be able to do such a thing. I also liked the fact that she got incredibly calm at the moment when the ants closed in on her and the suspended animation stopped working. She was about to try out something though the queen flying off stopped her from doing this.

One of the things I absolutely loved about this episode is that this anime is one of the first to actually show the lifestyles and habits of the monsters who keep attacking people. You have to remember that they are also just creatures, trying to survive and get a meal. Though this anime even goes further, by explaining how the hierarchy works with the armoured ants, and how their territories work. Even what they’re thinking. This is turning them into living beings, and not just some random dolls who only can attack and have to be defeated.

Suspended animation. First, I thought that this was another part of Honoka’s power, but now. It’s actually Walken’s (the guy who took care of Honoka) speciality. Honoka learned this technique from him. It’s actually tricking the mind of the enemy, in order to make it think that it’s hit. This all was illustrated by a flashback of Honoka when she was young. Apparently, she had a little fight with Walken and Bogie kept bothering her. She then ran into a desert hare, who was about to walk into the trap of one of the carnivorous sand creatures. Even then, she wanted to save the hare. Walken eventually did this by using suspended animation. It’s so great to see that Honoka actually worked extremely hard in order to be so talented with fighting.

Finally: Millie. First of all, I’m wondering whether Honoka’ll have enough time to visit her, after wasting so much time with the armoured ants. Millie looked so enthusiastic the day before Honoka was supposed to come. Still, her aunt did not like this. At all. Every time Millie mentioned Honoka she began looking serious. There’s got to be something about Honoka that’s on her mind. I think that she knows about Honoka’s eye, and that she hasn’t accepted Honoka for what she is. This should prove for some great scenes in the future.

Overall, of all the series which aired in the spring, The Third does by far the best job of introducing itself to its characters and setting. I like this, I really do.