FafnerReviews

Fafner Ep. 17: Device (Survival)

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Summary

Kyouhei and Maya return to the island while Fumihiko tells Kazuki he has to stay in his room until his punishment is decided. Kazuki tells him he heard about his mother and that it wasn’t Fumihiko’s fault. Fumihiko leaves and meets Kyouhei and Maya. Kyouhei finds it amusing that Kazuki was placed in the mental ward. Maya asks what will happen to Kazuki but Kyouhei tells her not to worry and deliver what she was supposed to. She hands Youji’s disk to Fumihiko and he thanks her. Tsubaki meets with Soushi and tells him it was hard to put on her uniform because she still can’t move her hands very well. Soushi fixes her uniform and she asks if he wonders why she left the cave. Soushi says if it was her will, he will obey it, but she says it was her dream to be able to see the world. Soushi says she can do what she wants and Tsubaki says she wants to live with their family. She tells him he can act like a big brother and say no. Fumihiko meets with Burns, who says that the Festums think humanity has a lot of power because Tatsumiya has it. Fumihiko says he can’t blame everything on the island and asks what Burns is going to do. He says that one of their subs will leave and the other will stay behind. Fumihiko assures him they won’t attack, but Burns says he can’t trust them. Fumihiko leaves and runs into Michio. Michio asks who’s piloting the new unit and Fumihiko says it’s Kazuki. Cannon is surprised and says that Kazuki is a coward who stops in the middle of a fight. Fumihiko says he must praise him for that. Maya runs into Soushi and Tsubaki and Maya is shocked to learn that he has a little sister. Maya asks if Soushi has talked to Kazuki yet, and he says it doesn’t concern her because she’s not a pilot. Soushi turns to leave and Maya begs him to talk to Kazuki. Soushi takes Kazuki from the mental ward and takes him to his room. Kazuki is surprised that Soushi lives in Alvis and he says it’s for convenience. Soushi awkwardly sits down and says they should talk. Kazuki comments that there’s nothing in his room. Soushi says that’s not true and that he has a bed, a sofa, a table, a desk, a picture on the wall and a compact bathroom. Kazuki wonders if Soushi’s sick because he has a lot of pills. Soushi says it’s for pain flashbacks from the Fafners. Before Kazuki can comment, Soushi shows him the vending machine that is eleven steps from his room. Kazuki points out how awkward Soushi is. Maya looks at the picture she took of everyone and wonders where she should be. Michio talks with Yumiko and she says she’s come to complain. Yukie shows up and asks if either of them remember their classmates’ faces. She says that they are the only 3 remaining and Yumiko asks what that has to do with the UN. Michio says that the more you pilot a Fafner, the more your chromosomes deteriorate and you become closer to death, but the element for living also rises. Soushi takes Kazuki back and asks if he should free him. Kazuki declines, saying that his father told him to stay. Chizuru informs Tsubaki that she can only stay alive for three months and she seems ok with it. She says if she had chosen the same path as the Festums, she wouldn’t even care about staying alive. Yukie says she has no affection for the island where she was born a test subject. Michio says they’re lucky if they die and unlucky if they live. Yukie says that’s backwards, but that the island is lucky. Cannon appears and tells Michio that she will stay behind while he leaves.

The Alvis VIPs look over the data of the Mark Sein and how it was intended for a plan to attack the Festum Mir at the North Pole. Chizuru says that Tsubaki thinks that unit is the same as her. The command center crew wonder about their new command center and Kenji’s mom explains that it was made first but it couldn’t handle all of the systems. Since Tsubaki is wandering around, they can now make full use of it. The UN sub leaves and Michio bids his hometown farewell. Yukie says that it really will disappear along with Cannon. Cannon is ordered to protect the sub until it explodes and she’s glad she can finally disappear. Yukie tells Michio that they plan to use Fenrir to destroy the island. Michio asks why she didn’t tell him sooner and she says it took some time to prevent them from shooting down his Fafner. Michio takes his Fafner and breaks out of the sub. They try to shoot him down but their weapons systems malfunction. Michio tells Fumihiko that the sub will use Fenrir and Kyouhei, who had infiltrated the sub, confirms it. He’s about to deactivate it when Cannon uses her Fafner to talk control of Fenrir. Fumihiko removes Kazuki’s imprisonment and tells him to launch. Burns’s sub fires missiles and Michio says he’ll take care of it and that they should try to persuade Cannon. Kazuki says he’ll do it and tries to talk to Cannon. He’s not sure what to talk about so he asks where she’s from. She says there was a place called Dublin until four years ago but it was destroyed. Kazuki asks if that’s in Germany but she says it’s Ireland and accuses him of making fun of her. He asks about her family and she says she doesn’t have one anymore. He asks about her friends and she says they were all eaten by Festum. Kazuki asks why she’s doing this and she says it was an order. She says she’d do anything if ordered to. Kazuki asks where she is and she says she doesn’t exist anymore. Kazuki says the people he treasures are on the island and Cannon says that doesn’t concern her. Kazuki asks if she feels relieved to get orders because she can’t decide anything for herself and asks if she’s always wanted to disappear. Michio flies over the island to intercept the missile and Cannon wonders who ordered him to do that. Kazuki says she doesn’t understand and moves closer so she can see his face. He tells her she has three minutes to hit the switch and if she can’t decide, he will kill her. Cannon asks what he’s doing and Kazuki says if she decides to do it, then he will disappear with her. He wants to talk more and asks what her name means. She says that it’s a type of music that gets faster as it goes along. She says that’s what her mother told her and starts crying. She demands to know what Kazuki wants from her, and he says he wants her to decide. Time winds down as Michio shoots down the missiles and Fenrir is stopped. Cannon doesn’t believe she did that and says that Kazuki was supposed to kill her. He says that was only if she couldn’t decide and walks away. Cannon breaks down and begs him to stay and talk with her while Yumiko runs over to Michio’s damaged Fafner. Michio says he wanted to come back, but he couldn’t because he fought other people and not just Festum. Yumiko calls him and idiot because he could have came back any time. Soushi says they should capture Cannon but Kazuki says they should leave her alone. Cannon continues to cry in her Fafner.

Commentary

What an episode. The first half is quite amusing with Soushi’s awkwardness. He was rather stiff the whole time and his voice actor perfectly portrayed the discomfort of that scene. There’s also more Tsubaki cuteness and it seems that nothing can get her down, even the fact that she only has three months to live. The UN sure are idiots. They have giant aliens breathing down their necks and they want to destroy the only people who stand a chance against them. Yukie throws a shocker out, suddenly becoming Miss Helpful, but I suppose that’s just some left over loyalty to her classmates. Michio defects to Alvis but the biggest shocker in this episode is Cannon. Before her character was just a soldier that blindly followed orders, but when forced to make her own choice she is unsure of what to do. The sheer emotion of that scene really grabs you and makes Cannon a far more sympathetic character. This is how character development should be done.

Overall Rating
5/5

Fafner Info

Director:
Nobuyoshi Habara

Writer(s):
Tow Ubukata
Yasuo Yamabe
Kazuki Yamanobe

Mechanical Designer:
Naohiro Washio

Character Designer:
Hisashi Hirai

Musical Composer:
Tsuneyoshi Saito

Format:
26 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 07.04.2004 – 12.26.2004

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