Summary

The Zelana and Graon once again hide in the snow. Doruboru nearly falls off the Zelana, but Shou helps him. Aboard the bridge of the Graon, Nie, Marvel, Elle and Abe see the Will Wipps is approaching Europe. Marvel wants to destroy the Gea Gring before it arrives, but Abe reminds her that the Graon too is in need of repairs. Elle wants to help since they are in debt to the Queen of England. Shou thinks they should launch a surprise attack and Elle agrees to use the Graon as a distraction. The Graon and Zelana head out and launch their Aura Battlers. Louser eats dinner with Bishot. She is worried about what Drake will do when he realizes she is with him. Bishot wants to take the Queen of England hostage to impress him. Zet argues with the Black Knight and says he should pilot the Galava since he designed it. The Black Knight is surprised, since he was spending so much time with the Bubuly. Zet reveals to the Black Knight that he designed all the Aura Battlers; Shot never had anything to do with it. As a politician, Shot took the credit while he remained in the background, resigned to that fate. They are informed of the Graon approaching and head out along with a large fleet of Aura Battlers. Shou hopes to at least be able to kill Bishot in the upcoming battle. He directs the Dunbine and more Aura Battlers underwater. Shou realizes the Aura Barrier is not having an effect on the water pressure, making things very hard for them. Chum, not feeling well is upset and wants to go back to Byston Well. One of the Aura Battlers falls apart from the water pressure and the pilot drowns. Shou orders everyone but the Dunbine to head back. Shou fires a warning shot at the other soldiers and tells them they have to go back, even if it disobeys Elle’s orders. Shou and Marvel continue on, underwater and the Graon and Zelana continue towards London. Elle orders all of the Aura Battlers to head out while the Graon will press towards London. The Black Knight wonders where Shou is. Zet attacks the Graon from above. The Zelana is damaged and starts sinking into the clouds. The Black Knight wonders why Shou and Marvel haven’t come out yet. He brings the Bubuly near the water and drops sonar devices into the water. The Dunbine and Billbine are detected thanks to them. Shou and Marvel approach the Gea Gring while the Black Knight quickly heads towards there to intercept them.

The Billbine ascends towards the surface and attacks the Gea Gring from below. The Black Knight attacks them but Marvel takes him on while Shou continues to the Gea Gring. He tears a hole in the bottom and climbs inside, blasting his way through the engine room. Bishot orders all Aura Battlers to attack the Dunbine. Zet’s Galava pulls the Billbine out of the Gea Gring and knocks it into the water. The Black Knight brings the Bubuly back out of the water and meets up with Zet. Elle tells Abe to have the Graon force its way past the Gea Gring and head to London. Marvel, Shou and the others head back. Aboard the Gea Gring Louser beats Riml, thinking that she had something to do with the enemy’s attack. She thinks Riml is hiding some sort of wireless radio in there. She leaves and tells the Black Knight he hasn’t done much to prove himself. The Black Knight tells her she should look towards Shot first. He enters Riml’s room and hands her a grenade. He tells her he won’t remove his mask until he defeats Shou. The Graon and Zelana reach London. Marvel asks Shou what’s wrong. Shou tells her he doesn’t worry enough about her and focuses too much on fighting. He thinks he’s failed too often to be a true Aura Battler. Marvel asks Shou if he loves her. Shou tells her he likes her, but that’s not what she wants to hear. Upset, she rushes into the Dunbine. Shou tells her not to be too reckless herself. Elle plans to repay the loyalty of London and defend it. The Gea Gring‘s forces, led by Zet soon appear. The Black Knight wants to head out, but the Bubuly is damaged. Aura Battlers come in close to attack the Graon. Marvel tries forcing her way to the Gea Gring to show that she can defeat the enemy on her own. She destroys a number of Aura Battlers but Shou, worried about her catches up to her. He’s about to say he loves here when Zet arrives and blasts the both of them with his Galava. Bishot is pleased about the Graon not faring well in battle and Louser thinks they should use this opportunity to call out Shot. Bishot disagrees. Marvel heads towards the Graon and tells Elle they should avoid getting the city of London involved. Marvel makes her way towards the Gea Gring in an attempt to destroy the bridge, scaring Bishot. The Dunbine is damaged however, and she calls out for Shou. Shou plows right through the Galava, killing Zet, then goes hyper. A barrier in the form of the Billbine appears around the Dunbine. Everyone is shocked that Shou has gone hyper. Shou brings the Billbine before the Dunbine and ceases to be hyper now that the Gea Gring has retreated. Having used up all his energy, Shou is close to passing out. Marvel says he didn’t need to do that and brings him back to the Zelana.

Commentary

Although this episode pretty much shares the same plot as the last five or so episodes it does have a few interesting aspects. Shou questions his motives and Marvel asks him if he loves her. He foolishly only says ‘like’ (even though its been quite obvious for a while that he loves her), causing her to nearly throw her life away by acting very reckless in battle. Luckily for Marvel, Shou goes hyper and is able to save her. This episode also reveals that Shot wasn’t behind the creation of the Aura Battlers, it was Zet all along. Zet seems upset over this, but admits that he just didn’t have the personality to take all the credit like Shot did. In a Tomino trademark, soon after this revelation he dies, in a manner that’s pretty easy to miss. For a character who had a lot of screen time over the course of the show you’d figure his death wouldn’t be so quick, but then again Tomino pretty much does the same thing a few years later with Zeta Gundam when an even more major character, Jerid Messa, dies a pretty quick and unremarkable death. Also note that the Black Knight/Bern still has feelings towards Riml and gives her a grenade to help her escape…

Overall Rating
3/5

Dunbine Info

Director:
Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer(s):
Minoru Yokitani
Yoshiji Watanabe

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kazutaka Miyatake
Yutaka Izubuchi
Tomonori Kogawa
Hidetoshi Ohmori

Character Designer:
Tomonori Kogawa

Musical Composer:
Katsuhiro Tsubonou

Format:
49 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 02.05.1983 – 01.21.1984

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