Nadesico Ep. 25: Being Myself, Being Yourself

Twelve hours after his assassination, a public funeral is held for Shiratori on the Jovian citizen ship Reigetsu. Vice Admiral Kusakabe tells the public that Shiratori was murdered in cold blood by the Earthlings he sought to make peace with, and the eulogy rapidly turns into a propaganda speech which is very successful in reaffirming the public’s belief that the Earth government is an evil empire, not unlike the one in Gekiganger, which they must destroy. Meanwhile, Inez, Ryoko, Yurika, and Akito board the Kakitsubata as requested by Akatsuki. They find, however, that the crew is too caught up in preparing for something big to deal with them. Erina contacts them to apologize for the delay and tells Inez that they’re nearly ready. Inez then asks a confused Akito and Yurika to starting thinking about Mars. At that moment, the Kakitsubata deploys hundreds of CCs around itself. Realizing what’s about to happen, the remaining crew of the Nadesico begin to panic. Back on the Kakitsubata, Inez talks about the Utopia Colony on Mars. Suddenly, her body begins to shine and then she boson jumps away. Despite their best efforts, Yurika and Akito follow shortly. The three of them reappear on the Kakitsubata‘s observation deck, Inez muses that even in space humans instinctively seek a place from which they can view their surroundings. Akito still isn’t sure what’s going on, so Inez reminds him that when the Nadesico boson jumped from Mars back to Earth, the three of them all wound up in the observation room. Akito’s mind fills with memories of his younger days on Mars, and shortly thereafter, the Kakitsubata successfully boson jumps. On the Nadesico, Mr. Prospector is certain that the Kakitsubata is headed for Mars and tells Jun to set a course to pursue. The Kakitsubata re-appears over the ruins of Mars’ Utopia Colony. Yurika is finally allowed to meet with Akatsuki, who is quite pleased with the way things are going. Yurika scolds him for putting his entire crew in jeopardy for a boson jump, but he tells her that they were all well aware of the risks. Inez is a bit concerned about how boson jumping seems to refute the theory of Relativity, but can’t say anymore without further study. Akatsuki tells her that the ruins may be able to shine some light on that, and begins to tell Yurika the whole story. On the Nadesico, Mr. Prospector tells the crew that when Nergal dug a mine on Mars’ polar ice cap, a vast underground complex was accidental discovered. This structure was composed of material similar to the CCs, but seemed to be mostly inactive. However, when the war started, they noticed that every time something emerges from a Chulip or boson jumps, the ruins show signs of activity. As near as they have been able to discern, the ruins seem to be some sort of boson jumping control system, without which boson jumping would be impossible. Nergal wants to gain control of the ruins before the UEF or the Jovians so they can gain a monopoly on boson jumping and thereby usher in a new age of humanity (while making a nice profit on the side, of course). Akito and Ryoko get the same explanation from Erina, but Akito is a bit distracted, looking out over the ruins of his former home. Yurika and Akatsuki come back to the bridge, just as the Nadesico is reported to be entering Mars’ atmosphere. It seems that Yurika and Akatsuki have agreed to work together to secure the ruins. Akatsuki is looking forward to pulling the carpet out from under both the Earth and Jupiter, but Yurika reminds him that she reserves the right to be true to herself during this fight. 

Back on the Nadesico, Yurika tells the crew that they’ll be working with Nergal on this mission. They aren’t thrilled, but as Mr. Prospector points out, it isn’t like they have a lot of choices at this point. Ruri reports that a UEF armada of over two hundred ships has already departed from the moon and should be there in half a day. From what Yukina has told them, the massive Jovian citizen ship and the bulk of the Jovian forces are also on their way and will most likely arrive at around the same time as the UEF fleet. Thus, the Kakitsubata and the Nadesico have half a day to destroy the automated Jovian forces guarding the ruins and secure the boson jumping control structure. With no time to waste, Yurika orders the Aestivalis on standby and orders Ruri to prepare the phase transition cannon. Ryoko and Hikaru lament that they don’t even know what they’re fighting for anymore, what with them joining a new side every other day. Unexpectedly, Izumi pops up and tells them that she merely fights to remain herself. On the bridge, Megumi worries about Minato, who, in her grief, has shut herself off from the world and is hiding in her cabin. Somewhat understandably, Akito is also refusing to fight because he can’t stand the idea of fighting for Akatsuki and Nergal. Ryoko tries to talk him into fighting and eventually succeeds by appealing to his faith in Yurika. As the Kakitsubata draws the automated Jovian force’s attention by attacking from the front, the Nadesico sneaks up from behind and fires its phase transition cannon, whipping out the majority of their defenses. When Vice Admiral Kusakabe learns that someone is attacking the ruins, he orders advance units to be sent out immediately. Akatsuki is thrilled by the Nadesico‘s performance, but is quite a bit less thrilled when he is informed that the Nadesico is preparing to fire again–this time at the ruins. Akatsuki contacts Yurika and angrily asks what she thinks she’s doing. Yurika happily informs him that since everybody’s fighting over the ruins, if they destroy them, there won’t be any reason left to fight. Yurika orders Ruri to fire the phase transition cannon again, but unfortunately the ruins create a massive distortion field, which completely absorbs the Nadesico‘s attack. In a panic, Yurika orders Ruri to keep firing, but the phase transition cannon quickly runs out of energy, causing Ruri to report that it will take 20 minutes to charge up enough energy to fire again. The most of the Jovian defenders destroy, the Kakitsubata closes on the Nadesico and Akatsuki launches with his Aestivalis team. Yurika orders her Aestivalises to defend the Nadesico until the phase transition cannon is recharged, while she unsuccessfully attempts to convince Akatsuki that destroying the ruins is the right thing to do. Akatsuki accuses her of trying to live out Gekiganger, but Akito angrily interrupts, telling him that they’ve left Gekiganger behind–he figured out what they had missed. Akatsuki laughs and reminds him that different people see justice as different things, and tells Akito that in the anime he liked, both sides had good reasons for fighting–perhaps Akito should expand his viewing habits. Akito angrily tells him that anime has nothing more to do with this–he just doesn’t want to see anymore people suffering and crying on either side. Akito and Akatsuki rush each other, both ordering their allies to stay out of their fight. Akatsuki manages to get the upper hand and knocks Akito down towards the ruins. Akito tries to fight back, but Akatsuki manages to get right behind him with his distortion field lance slowly eating its way through Akito’s distortion field. Just as it seems that Akito has lost, Inez pops up and tells Akito to visualize himself behind Akatsuki. It seems that, surrounded by the ruins, which are similar in structure to the CCs, Akito is able to boson jump freely. Inez explains this to the crew of the Nadesico, and for the final episode of ‘Get to Know the Nadesico,’ she explains that whenever an electromagnetic wave is emitted, it is theorize that two waves are emitted, a retarded wave (which follows along with the flow of time) and the advanced wave (which flows against the flow of time). Normally, the advanced wave is absorbed by the retarded wave, but Inez postulates that if their was a particle that was not affected by the retarded wave, matter converted to this particle could go back in time. If this is true then boson jumping is actually a form of time travel. Inez also believes that the core of the ruins is making time-lag adjustments, without which boson jumping would be impossible. Megumi confirms that Inez’s transmission is actually come from the lowest level of the ruins. Inez tells them that she came here to test her hypothesis, but she also has another reason. She requests that Akito hurry up and make it down to her location, as their is someone he needs to meet. With tears in her eyes, Inez watches as a small portal opens up, revealing a little girl holding an orange.