2015
01.05

Cross Ange Episode 13 – Libretto du Senketsu [The Juude]

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Ohai, Cross Ange. Welcome back—

Why the no-face eh Embryo?

OHMYGOD! WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIS FAAAACE!? Before I even get to the story elements I have to say this episode was all kinds of atrocious in the animation department. Cross Ange ain’t the most spectacular looking broad, but yegads they turned Embryo into Bishounen Slenderman in that shot! Then we also factor in weird silhouettes that come out of nowhere (was some DRAGON person hiding in the resort house?), and Norma who when shot by bullets seem to react nonchalantly as if “Oh I die now.” For a rather big action episode they don’t drop the animation ball; they drop it on a nail and then try to bounce around the deflated sphere around like it was still fine. Even so, it still gave us this scene.

So much for replanting the flowers.

I wonder if this is why Fukuda wasn’t able to get Hoshi Soichiro to play Not-Kira

Anyway, after a week-long holiday break (although Fukuda will say differently since he was working on this episode), we finally get a second island attack episode. For the most part it’s fairly intense with a lot more on the line given the assault is done with set objectives by Julio’s assault team. As per usual, they are pretty inhumane to the Norma, killing whoever they don’t need. Out of all the Norma abuse this show has offered as of yet, the purging is pretty unspectacular compared to the rest and not at all shocking (with not a lot of edge given how the corpses are mostly ill-detailed, charred remains). They’ve already ran the gamut of network friendly ways to showcase Norma abuse, so here’s to hoping this is really the last we’ll have to deal with such. It’s kinda boring.

What isn’t boring is the continued unveiling of what kind of ‘person’ Embryo is. Apparently the euphemism Commander Jill made last episode of how he was ‘God’ was not far off the mark. Throughout the episode he’s not only seen floating around like above, but also being in multiple locations, and resurrecting dead people. Like Episode 11… I don’t know what to think anymore. However, unlike Episode 11, this makes a hell of a lot more sense than all the miraculous survivals found in SEED or Destiny, where people survive from close-range Mobile Suit destruction while in an open cockpit to avoiding a nuclear explosion because they quickly turned the power switch off.

Either way it makes for intriguing developments. Now that Julio has been gloriously murdered, Arzenal has been destroyed, and Operation Libertus has begun, the show can at least get moving from isolation to the world at large. It will be nice to finally see some full on interaction by the rebelling Norma against the rest of the world, hopefully with Paramail battles that are not spent over water. Until then, it looks like we have another episode where Ange and Not-Kira spend time alone together. I’d be worried but then again; they haven’t been interacting for a while, so they probably need to catch up and make that special naked time they have in the OP ring true.

Annnnnnd.....scene.

Rondo of Notes:

  • Outside of the shitty animation quality (which will apparently be addressed next week), the new OP is still rather unspectacular. Damned shame this is from the same singer who did “Cruel Angel’s Thesis”.
  • The new ED (sung by Ange herself, Nana Mizuki) however is amazing.
  • Seki Toshihiko also has a rather nice set of pipes as well. Pleasant surprise to hear him singing here too. I’d get tired of that Endless Song, but it has a nice ethereal quality that’s buoyed by whomever is singing it. Sure beats hearing melancholic falderal like Shinkai no Kodoku in SEED Destiny, the umpteenth Lacus Clyne song, or TM Revolution again.

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