Recap: As the Allied Forces begin their assault on Generation Bleu headquarters, Ao, Fleur and the crew must decide on their next course of action. Will they surrender or attempt to flee? Meanwhile, the Quartz gun still lies dormant in the bowels of the HQ, along with something else…

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts:  Despite the number of seemingly critical things that happen in this episode, I couldn’t help but feel like I was going through padding here. This is a very loose, unstructured episode and more than ever before it feels as though the writers were simply throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. It doesn’t really help that the core plot progression here is essentially a loop – Ao and Fleur escape from the HQ basement, then Ao goes back to the HQ basement.  The Quartz gun suddenly has the ability to generate huge amounts of Quartz at will because…? And wasn’t Ao terrified of that weapon and swearing he would never use it just a few episodes back?

The annoying thing is the lousy narrative structure undermines a good few decent chunks in this episode. The return of Team Harlequin is a cool, unexpected little twist, and their badass IFOs are awesome, but the idea that they suddenly managed to jump on a ship and escape sort of tests your suspension of disbelief. Their decision to join the Allied Forces and fight against Pied Piper might have been more striking if we cared anything about them as characters. As it is, it’s simply yawn-worthy. Elena going turncoat is something that has a touch more potential, but the motivation is fuzzy, and it’s something we’ll have to wait a little on.  This episode also ends exceptionally poorly, as the show once again becomes bogged down in the pseudo-political waffle it seems to be enamoured with.

More so than ever before, Ao gives the impression of a show drowning in its own narrative quicksand, pulled every direction by errant plot points and half-baked explanations. The further it struggles to try to add depth and meaning to its world, the more knots it ties itself in. This close to the end, there’s a noticeable lack of tension, escalation or any sort of movement towards an ultimate confrontation. Put it this way – four episodes from the end of the original Eureka Seven our heroes had fallen through a hole in the world to confront a gigantic living coral, our main character had sprouted wings and a luminescent green arm, and our bad guys were emotionally blackmailing a psychotic teenage girl while simultaneously preparing a kill sat to nuke ’em all. In Ao, we get a discussion about possible diplomatically secure refuelling sites. I exaggerate for effect of course, but the point remains – this a show entirely without the wonder, scale and spectacle of the original, and one which cannot hope to match its emotional torque.

Perhaps the worst example of this yet is the laughable reappearance of Truth.  All throughout the series we’ve been teased that the secret that has been lurking under Generation Bleu HQ has actually been the Nirvash Type TheEND from the original series, and it’s finally revealed that is the case. And then Truth (who is still alive, somehow) fuses with it and turns into an amazingly shitty looking lump of metal with his body sticking out of it. What really upsets me about this is not the stupidity of the twist (incredible) or how completely out of left-field it is (totally) or even the end result (hideous and laughable). No it’s the fact that there is literally no reason that it had to be TheEND used for this – it could have been a new IFO, or some sort of magic box, or a jug of Kool-aid for all I care. It’s the most blatant example yet of the show baiting people with nostalgia for the previous series, then casually tossing it aside when it decides it’s come up with something ‘cooler’. It’s patronizing and insulting, and makes me ever more likely to call this show a sham as we enter the home stretch.

Random Observations

– Hey, remember when Naru was in this show? Remember when she was important? Nope, neither do I.

– Ivica just casually decides to retreat. Did nobody even try to chase the big, heavy carrier ship?

– The show clearly wants us to think Christophe is some sort of visionary, self-sacrificing genius. I still think he’s a smug jerk.

– At one point one of the Allied forces pilots implies all the child IFO pilots can see trapar. I thought this was meant to be one of Ao’s unique abilities?

– I still really like the ED. It’s probably the best thing in the show. How sad is that?

– Watching the sequence, there’s a slight chance that the Truthbot(tm) actually emerges from below TheEND rather than transforming from it. If so, what’s the point?