Wow. Tight action, character drama, and some startling developments conclude this arc. Major spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution.
Renna and Akiha are almost to the exit of the utility hatch, where they plan to don space suits and use the suit boosters to take them out to the Amaterasu. Unfortunately they encounter some rebel soldiers, and are on the verge of being discovered. Renna gives Akiha one of her pistols, and asks her to help blast their way through. Akiha has an aversion to violence though, and can’t bring herself to shoot another human. Renna understands, and with a wry smile, heads out by herself to confront the soldiers. She manages to take them both out with the element of surprise on her side, but gets shot up in the process. Renna’s strong will to survive keeps her moving, but she’s in bad condition. As they float through space towards the Amaterasu, she keeps whispering that she needs to apologize to her friend Shinon about something, and hope that her email message got through to her.
Meanwhile, Shinon and company take their hijacked vehicle to a potential landing area where the navigator, Mikami, could pick them up using the shuttle. It’s in hostile territory, so it’s time for some covert sabotage action. Miyuri and Dita are tasked with finding a way to tell Mikami where to land, and they do so with the use of some jet fuel and fire >:) Shinon and Arei take out the power generators, giving Mikami a few seconds window to get through the air defenses. With some smooth motorcycle moves, Arei and Shinon manage to navigate the gauntlet of enemy defenses to get to the shuttle, and they all jet out ASAP.
Back at the government headquarters, Rio and Ciska are getting edgy about the holdup, and Rio eventually starts unconsciously crying, allowing Ciska to move in for the kill, if y’know what I mean:) Her uncle Mamiya’s talks with the President are going nowhere, as the Prez can’t decide what to do in this lose-lose situation. Thus, he calls up his most trusted military adviser to make the decision for him. The general advises him to wage war against the Kingdom and protect the Amaterasu. It’s hopeless, but at least Xiu has their new defense ship Shenlong to offer some resistance.
Back at the Amaterasu, Renna is rushed to the emergency room, but she bites the dust in the end. Later, as Shinon is flying back to the ship, she hears the bad news, and reads the email that Renna sent to her earlier in the day. In it, she confesses that she was a spy for the Kingdom-controlled Kibi government, but says that she now wants to fight alongside the crew of the Amaterasu, and that she considers the ship as her true home country. She apologizes for the deception, and hopes that after they all get back together, they can start their friendship over with a blank slate.
Naturally, Peter wants to turn Renna’s death into another media-fueled funeral spectacle.
StarOps just keeps getting better and better, but it’s a total bummer that Renna got whacked. This arc made her one of the more interesting (and multidimensional) characters on the ship; she was initially portrayed in previous episodes as simply being a innocuous-looking crew member engaged in some suspicious activities. Akiha mentioned that she doesn’t really talk that much normally, and she certainly seemed like a quiet and calm type of person – until trouble started brewing, and her spy persona surfaced. She became resourceful, quick-thinking, and decisive, yet somehow retained her composed and peaceful demeanor. I was glad she didn’t suddenly become a gung-ho militant like Arei, and that her basic personality was consistent at all times. And then they just had to off her. I hope Gonzo doesn’t pull a Fafner and start dropping people like flies.
This post was written by...
Ender – who has written 219 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the original founders, and the first to attempt a coups d'état.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
“I hope Gonzo doesn’t pull a Fafner and start dropping people like flies.”
Well if they did, at least they have *plenty* of people to do it much like Fafner.
I was so hoping, as cheesy as it would have been, that Renna would have pulled through. Pretty much for all the reasons you already mentioned Ender. She was becoming a good character and then they go and off her (I originally thought she was spy for the Kingdom and not Kibi). Plus the lovely Yuu Asakawa was doing her voice, and it does no justice to let her character die so early in the game!
The Rio and Ciska scene surprised me. It seemed so random but I’m guessing it hints at their past.. probably including back to the time they met “Him.” I wouldn’t mind seeing more of the two together, though Ciska seems like a total wimp. Beside starting the rebellion to take over the ship, I haven’t seen him do much that stands out…
.. but anyway, like you said SSO is getting really good. Definitely a first for me as it’s my first real “space drama/war” series (Gundam doesn’t count.. lol). Can’t wait to see what will happen next and who knows, maybe I’ll get to blogging the rest of the series cause of your entry
Yeah, Ciska is like a figurehead – all looks and not much else (at least, for now). I liked the scene between Rio and Ciska because it was fraught with all sorts of ambiguities and implications. I actually thought she was mocking him when she was complimenting him about his acting, since she usually seems pretty uppity, but I guess she really does have feelings for him.
I totally agree with you that the “space drama” genre excludes Gundam…that franchise is in a peculiar class of it’s own, due to the super-hero stylings of its protagonists in the more recent incarnations(I always get a laugh out of Kira’s 20-million laser move). We need to get the word out this this is quite different!
I need to be careful, since I’ve rawed SSO up to episode 12, but just a few sidecomments.
1) SSO rocks. I realize that many, maybe even most viewers won’t like it, but I really dig this show, because it’s a fairly unique mix.
2) If you think that Cisca embarrassed himself so far, you haven’t seen nothing yet ^_^ … this ship is so run by Shinon that it’s almost funny.
3) It’s not quite Fafner, but the body count WILL rise some more.
4) If you look at it soberly, SSO is such a bitter-brilliant criticism of the modern media excesses in our society…
5) I’ll continue to blog SSO on Memento soon – not in epic MH breadth, but at least to keep the awareness up. This show is very much underrated and deserves some mention.
Is the criticism really that brilliant? There are novels and films which predicted the development of the society and media. Unless you only watch FOX news and CNN you’re also probably aware of the vast amount of propaganda et al. Showing soldiers killing people on TV or journalists getting killed in front of the camera isn’t nothing new either. Shows like “Big Brother” have been around for years. Also, for example, I found the “there’s no sound in space, so we add effects” joke lamer because it is older than Star Wars and “spicing up” reportages – if not faking the whole thing – happens all the time especially in certain media.
Chris: I didn’t think of the “adding effects since there’s no sound in space” as a joke at all ^_^;; … rather as a very sober indication what the Starship Channel is all about, and it’s NOT genuine reporting.
I don’t want to comment too indepth here, since it would be drastically spoilerific. There’s some more things behind the Starship Channel which will become known later. Just this much: They’re being used for a purpose, and not just for ratings, fame and cash.
What you have been summing up makes up for the major part of the criticism however. I found it quite intriguing how the same methods they applied there are applied today. If you consider this old news and barely noteworthy, I suspect that you won’t enjoy SSO too much. I think it’s a pretty gutsy thing to do.
Seen 12 episodes. I think it’s barely around average so far.
You Guys should go and watch the Crest of the Stars series. NOW!
I did, and I certainly prefer the SSO storyline and cast – but as I said, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this show
Hm, I think I feel more inclined to go try out Starship Operators now… I’ve been convinced to go get the Gakuen Alice manga, and now I’ve been convinced to go and get SSO. Well, I hope I’ll like it… Realistic space drama with deaths? Count me in, I guess.
I’ve wathced Crest of the Stars, and while I found the space/battle parts fairly realistic but really… dreadfully… boring… the human relationships were pretty good. Can’t wait for the movie.
And I guess I’ll nitpick and ask just why on earth you said “I hope Gonzo doesn’t pull a Fafner” … this show is done by J.C. Staff afaik…
Another interesting aspect of this show is that it’s actually in a prime-time slot, which was quite surprising to me. It’s on some local stations too (6 stations of TV Tokyo or something like that)
Ahh you’re right! I hadn’t even looked at the staff credits yet, and I already had associated it with Gonzo due to the somewhat cheesy CG models! Ugh, bad memories of Bakuretsu Tenshi….
Geh, if anything I dislike J.C. Staff because most of their productions have fairly mediocre production value (except when you have fantastic creative teams ala Utena)
And mentioning BakuTen should be hereby banned from being mentioned… eh
What’s wrong with BakuTen? That was good cheesy fun!
I think if Renna had kept the second pistol instead of handing it over she could have taken out both guards. Dual wielding pistol action always works, especially when wielding silver ballers.
Also, I like Ciska. He does exactly what he’s supposed to do: look like a leader. He frees the other members from the pressure of being the “leader” as there is no real chain of command. Plus it’s not like he’s stupid, it’s just that Shinon is exceptional. Ciska has surrounded himself with smart people and he doesn’t get in their way. That’s a good leader, in a way. He’s also got pretty good timing with the ladies…