Dyan barely escapes Ades' new weapon, thanks to Fam

So it looks like the next episode we’re going to see the result of when an immovable object meets and irresistible force as two Exiles will face off against each other. Of course, it’s possible that Exiles are programmed not to attack each other, but if not, the battle may come down to which side knows how to use the Exiles better.

Meanwhile, it seems that Fam and Giselle have discovered evidence of yet another new Ades weapon: this one a ship that can fly higher than any other known battleship. The Sky Pirates kept their bases up high in order to keep out of the reach of these ships, but they are now in danger if that is no longer the case.

Meanwhile, Vasant really is beginning to doubt whether what Ades is doing is right, and we’ll see if she starts openly voicing that opinion in front of Sara Augusta soon.

I also find it somewhat suspicious that Luscinia sent in the provincial fleets in first, seemingly to know full well that they were going to get obliterated. It seemed like this was more of an attempt to eliminate an internal security risk – by destroying the fleets of the nations Ades had annexed – than it was anything else.

Dyan find the rash Fam incomprehensible

This was a pretty interesting episode, I thought. It seems that Alvis may play a bigger role in the future, considering the assassination attempt on her, but we only saw her at the start of this episode.

Meanwhile, Dyan, who I think is the leader of Glacies vanguard force, seems to suggest that perhaps she and Glacies aren’t as cold hearted as they may appear. While Dyan still finds the trio’s behavior, especially Fam’s, nearly incomprehensible, she clearly seems to share some of their values, even if she tries to deny it. This certainly looks like it could be the start of cooperation between Glacies and Anatoray, especially with the Ades fleet on Glacies’ doorstep.

On a kind of side note, I hope if (when?) Funimation dubs this series, they keep the Glacies people speaking Russian. This episode would kind of be hard to pull off if they weren’t speaking different languages as the whole issue of Millia having to translate depends on that fact. It also just puts a finer point on the idea that Glacies is sees as different or separated from the rest of the world by their isolationism.

Empress Farahnāz Augusta: The last hope for peace

So we finally get to witness the events that led up to Farahnāz Augusta’s assassination. Ironically, she ends up getting killed while trying to protect Millia. It’s hard to imagine how the Ades Federation could have possibly gone in a more opposite direction that what Farahnāz wanted it to after her assassination. She knew there might be setbacks, but didn’t want them to bring down the overall peace. Yet, that’s exactly what happened. Hopefully Sara Augusta’s main advisers, particularly Vasant, remember what Farahnāz had wished for originally.

I still wouldn’t be surprised if the assassination was orchestrated by people within Ades itself, with the prime suspect being Luscinia if that is the case. He clearly has a disdain for the Exile refugees, though it’s unknown whether he still felt that way before the assassination.

I also found it somewhat mysterious why Farahnāz had two bodyguards that looked suspiciously like Guild members. This was supposedly taking place before the Prester Exile even returned, which perhaps begs the question of who the Guild are from originally.

There didn’t seem to be a lot of interesting shows, but there were three in particular that peaked my interest: Ano Natsu de Matteru (aka Waiting in the Summer), Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou (aka The Daily Lives of HIgh School Boys), and Another.

Waiting in the Summer is from the creators of the Please! series, and I loved Please! Twins, so that’s a plus. Plus the art and the synopses sounds interesting. Plus, it’s being simulcast on Crunchyroll, so I think I’ll pick this one up.

The Daily Lives of High School Boys, I was iffy on at first, but after further reading about it thought it looked interesting. However, this series ended up being about the only one which was both licensed and NOT being simulcast anywhere that I can see, and I have a “if it’s licensed, then I don’t download fansubs” policy. So, I would have blogged this one, but because it’s licensed but not “available,” I won’t be able to.

For Another, I’m really not a horror fan at all, but it has a good rating on both ANN and MAL, so maybe I could give it a shot. I suppose if I don’t like it, I only have to put up with it for 12 episodes.

So it looks like for Winter 2012, I’ll be picking up Waiting in the Summer and Another and we’ll see how it turns out.

Alvis is back!

So, just like that all the hard work Fam, Giselle, and Millia did to make a Turan fleet goes out the window when Liliana, who is clearly under the influence of Luscinia, takes the ships over. Even if Fam were able to kidnap her back, I’m not sure it would make much of a difference.

We also meet character #5 from the original series: Alvis, which brings up an interesting question: where exactly IS the Exile that she controls? When Vincent said most of their fleet wasn’t there yet, did that mean they were back in Anatoray on Earth…or in Anatoray on Prester? One would think that Anatoray’s Exile would be a pretty nice weapon to have against Ades, so…why haven’t they used it yet, unless it’s in transit either to or from Prester?

We also learn that Luscinia’s head assassin, Alauda, appears to be from the guild, which is kind of what I suspected from the start, given his attire and looks. That begs the question, of course, of whether there are any other guild members out there, and if so, what they’re up to.

In any case, this is the last episode of the fall season for this series, so we’ll see it again in a couple weeks when I start blogging the winter season.