(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)
Last episode ended ominously, with Kate looking long and hard at Asuta before letting him go (an ominous phrasing on my part? Yes it is). Renge knows who Asuta is, and there’s an invisible wall between them. Yasu teaming up with White Falcon? The city being all torn up, or perhaps it had always been this way? The remark that they no longer have a home to return to, when the one theme this show had always pushed was that of having a home, of finding one, of creating one?
Oh boy, seems we might get a continuous story from here on out. Then again, it’s Sekai Seifuku, and I wouldn’t put it past them to mislead us ;-) (Especially considering a novel had already been announced!)
Thoughts and Notes:
1) Brave New World…?
1) Wait, whaaaat?! Talk about going from 0 to 1,000 MPH in one go. So, Tokyo Civil War, orchestrated by the Tokyo governor, using his private army? Man, Asuta’s father is such a villain! Of course, what are the purported reasons for the fight? Who’s aligned with Tokyo’s Governor aside from his paid goons, who’s opposing them? What’s going on here?
It seems we don’t really know much of what is going on in the world, right? In a certain sense, this is a show about world conquest, so you expect to learn much of the world, and yet, we’ve been confined to a small region of the world, we’ve been confined to one family. But our family is the world, and even this clash, you could say it all revolves around Asuta, one side of his family making war on the other.
So no, we don’t know what happens in the rest of the world, but it doesn’t matter – it’ll all be resolved in this one place that’s the symbolic heart of the world, West Udogawa. This show had already told us fights and control of the world and of minds is a symbolic thing.
2) Heh, now we truly see how ridiculous things are, how we’ve been given small hints throughout the show. The explanation we’ve received? It wasn’t of what happened after the onsen trip, but the background to the whole show. The ruins weren’t cause for alarm because they’d been there before. The whole “Tokyo Governor”? He was already controlling all of Japan. This all had happened before the first episode, the only change is that the neutrality of West Udogawa had finally been compromised.
2) Adrift in the Wind:
1) “We’re homeless now.” No, not anger, no rage – but a position of helplessness, of being cast out into the wind. This is especially important for the characters in this show, who had already been homeless once more, but had been granted another chance of having a home, of having a family. I hope they will not take the symbolic destruction of the physical home as the severing of the emotional ties, though being betrayed by Yasu, a family-member, might do that to them.
He was a smoker, you shouldn’t care about him anyway!
2) “There is nothing to worry about! Hope is borne of despair!” – I think now is the time to worry. Reminds me of episode 3, where after Kate had declared that fear doesn’t motivate people to action, she had used tactics aimed to terrify. So, from the lowest point, you can only aim up, is this what she is saying? Asuta is so tired. He kept running away from his father, so now to go and face him?
3) The great enemy, the terror of the population. Poor Zvezda. I almost wonder why they keep the radio on, to let these remarks disturb their morale and sleep. By the way, pretty sure the person speaking before and after Renge had been Yasu.
4) How foolish, “Either lead, or quit!” – If you trust her enough to quit, you’d keep her around even as a subordinate, wouldn’t you? I could think of cases where you won’t, where it’d cause friction, but that is clearly not the case here.
5) Makes you wonder why White Falcon will work for the Governor whom she hates, but she does it for the sake of taking down Zvezda, whom she hates even more.
3) Counter-Attack:
1) “We’re not the ones who are trapped, you are! Do you realize who you are fighting for, where this is going?!” – First, I’d love to know where this is going myself, but I surmise it’s a fight over the shape of the future, of the society we would live in. As for the soldiers being trapped, she doesn’t mean that physically, but they are trapped in the Governor’s web of lies, trapped under his control.
2) Smoke, the enemy of Zvezda, it returns! More to the point, the Governor was willing for his son to die, and I suspect he knows Dva is Asuta. The most interesting point, however, is that they referred to Kate as “Bravo”, so who is Alpha?
3) Could it be, that in episode 10 of a single-season show we’ll finally get the main character’s backstory? Heh. “This is what Zvezda gets for ignoring reality,” but to me it seems more like they’ve been shaping reality. Aside from Asuta’s past (and what it is that he wishes for), that’s the other great mystery.
4) Sacrifice and Resolve:
1) Man, this shot, of Renge in front of the firing squad, looking sadly at the camera, and her friend / admirer being the one who will give the command to shoot her down. This is a scene straight from a movie, now we just need them to shoot, and to have Asuta move in slow-mo and scream soundlessly. Talk about death flags :<
2) White Egret was here to give Zvezda a chance to surrender, but now Asuta is saying he’ll give them a chance to surrender, and he’ll defend them in the international court of law (or against public opinion).
3) White Egret had given the order to shoot a boy she knows, a boy that likes her. She adores Renge-chan for being pure-hearted, even as she descends deeper into darkness. Makes you wonder why Miki picked up the mantle to begin with.
Shorter Notes / Asides:
- Uncute Kate blaming Asuta for not being cute enough :3 I suspect it has to do with her stuffed animal being taken away.
- Those “Wanted!” posters. Plamya is 17 years old, and pretty! You monsters :P “Boss Um” who’s playing with her coloured breasts, and Roboko looking like EVA 01 :o These are great.
- “It’s all over, go home!” – Venera the Great, go home, you’re drunk. Oh wait, your home’s gone, snap! Guess losing that doll, and the symbol of her home had done a number on her.
- Cute energy restored! Crazy energy too!
- Udo Sweet Buns, the Zvezda source of energy, are being confiscated. Hm, suddenly I recall they sent many of these to the diet, does it mean they have or had undercover operatives there? Hmmmm. Unless it’s the energy to alter reality, to make for a better world.
- Just an underground jaunt while we’re fugitives, nothing to get our spirit down!
- They call them “White Light,” but their wings are tinged in red, and are pointed to the rear. Are they trying to hide their eyes, or fly as far away as possible?
Next episode is titled, “All that remains of the conqueror’s dreams,” but that could refer to Kate, to Asuta’s father, or to Asuta himself, who declared he wishes to conquer the world.
Post Episode Thoughts:
This episode sure did come out of nowhere.
I really wasn’t expecting it. Seems we might get the resolution of at least one story here. No, we will not learn what is up with the world or the setting in general, but it seems we might get some more information or a greater understanding for Asuta, and perhaps Asuta and Renge might even end up together.
What of Kate? I really wonder, especially after seeing the novel’s cover. This show… it’s about home, and family, so now we’ve lost our home, and we’ve had a family-member betray us, so is the family going to fall apart? What will Asuta choose? Where will the world end-up, and at what cost?
This show had always been interesting, but this is something else altogether. Exciting!
Return to the Sekai Seifuku – Zvezda / World Conquest Episodic Notes page.
Geekorner-Geekulture. 
