FafnerReviews

Fafner Ep. 21: Future (Sakura)

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Summary

Several Festum attack, but the Fafner team easily dispatches them. Everyone is surprised at how well everyone’s doing since they used to have trouble against one Festum. The pilots take a bath and Michio is surprised that Mamoru doesn’t remember the battle when he takes off his Gobain helmet. Kazuki puts it on and asks Soushi if it looks good on him, but Soushi refuses to be seen with him like that. Kazuki puts it on Soushi’s head and says it looks good. Yumiko joins the girls and Maya says the bath is for pilots only. She says it’s fine because she’s the leader and asks where Cannon is. Maya says she’s hiding because she’s never been naked with other people before. Yumiko says they should drag her out, so they do. Cannon objects and the guys listen to the girls doing various things. After the bath, Mamoru asks Soushi how he fights and Soushi says he stops the enemies and confuses them. He says Mamoru and Kazuki have the most vital parts in the formation and asks if Mamoru wants to change it. Mamoru says it’s fine the way it is because he likes being with Kenji and Sakura. Yumiko informs the pilots that they will be having a retreat later. Kenji and Sakura walk together when suddenly Sakura has a flash and gets disorientated. She says she’s fine and continues walking. Michio says that the kids are getting to do what they missed out on, and Yumiko says she wants them to have as many memories as possible. Yumiko informs Michio that she missed her period, and he gets excited, saying it’s the first natural pregnancy in thirty years. The Avis VIPs discuss Kouyou and Chizuru says thanks to him, she’s been able to suppress the pilots’ Festum elements. Kyouhei remarks that the Festum attacks are happening every four days and the final battle is approaching. Fumihiko says the Festum might have other plans but Kyouhei says Festum have no concept of strategy. Fumihiko says they’ve just been sending out forces like a computer runs simulations. Rina pokes Tsubaki’s cheeks and says how soft they are. Hiroto says that Festums are hard, so he wonders if Tsubaki is hard anywhere. Seri punches him before he can poke her and Rina hugs Tsubaki and says she’s soft everywhere. Hiroto asks if that’s ok, and Seri calls Rina a lesbian. Mamoru wants to use a special attack from his manga, but Kenji says it’s not possible. The alarm goes off and everyone cheers for the pilots as they head to Alvis. Seri tells Tsubaki they should evacuate, but Tsubaki says she has to see the battle. The Festums are destroyed and everyone is shocked to see flowers blooming all over the island. Seri asks if Tsubaki did that, but she says that Mir is doing it.

The pilots go on their retreat and Michio says it’s more like flower watching. They go over the data of the types of Festum they’ve encountered. Later, Kenji asks Mamoru who draws his manga, but he doesn’t know. They ask Soushi and he says it’s probably archived data. Yumiko says she’s going to teach Maya how to cook and Sakura says she should ask Kazuki to teach her. Maya says he has nothing to do with it and asks about Sakura. She says her mother trained her and Maya asks Cannon, who is peeling potatoes. Maya and Sakura are shocked at how fast she does it. Sakura says Yumiko is lucky to have Michio because he seems mature. Yumiko says he isn’t and Sakura asks why she goes out with him. Yumiko says he tried hard to show his good points and failed so Sakura concludes she goes out with him for the laughs. Yumiko says it’s important not to get tired of looking at him and he forced himself for her sake. Chizuru and Fumihiko go over some one’s data and Chizuru asks if they should call her. Fumihiko says he’s not good at calling people and that Kyouhei says he’s weak willed for a commander. Chizuru says she doesn’t think that at all. Kenji beats Kazuki in Old Maid and Maya comments that he sucks at the game. They split into pairs to clean up the house and Soushi and Cannon are assigned to the bathroom. Cannon asks if Soushi is going to help Kazuki with the dishes, but he says some one else already has. They see Maya helping Kazuki and Soushi says he just knew. Cannon asks if Maya is fighting for Kazuki’s sake, but Soushi doesn’t think so. She says he connects to people in the system, but Soushi says he only knows a few things and can’t understand with only that. Sakura and Kenji take out the trash and Sakura says she hasn’t killed as many Festum as the others. Kenji takes her hand and says he will become her strength. He vows he’ll become stronger than Kazuki but she says he isn’t like that. Kenji says if that’s the case, she should let go of his hand, which she doesn’t. She tells him not to overexert himself because she doesn’t want him to die because of it. She asks to hold his hand for a while longer as Mamoru looks on. Michio says he can imagine how Yumiko will raise her children and she asks if Michio will give the child a name. He asks if she would like to make their last names the same. He says he’s nearing the limit where he can still pilot a Fafner and once that happens, they’ll do that. Fumihiko goes home to an awaiting Kyouhei who tells him that Tsubaki was the one who let Kouyou out. Fumihiko asks if Kyouhei believes in coexistence with the Festum and he responds that their generation hates the enemies too much. He says Mitsuhiro represents that and Fumihiko says he would have done the same as Mitsuhiro if he didn’t have Kazuki. The pilots sleep and Sakura muses on how big Kenji’s hand was. She clutches her head and complains about a headache. The next day, Mamoru goes home to an empty house and sees his manga on his dad’s computer. The old lady at the convenience store tells him that his father made the manga so he could be happy. On the way to Alvis, Mamoru asks Kenji if he confessed to Sakura. Kenji says he didn’t because they don’t know when they might die. Mamoru says it’s fine because he will protect them. Before he boards his Fafner, Mamoru gives his Gobain helmet to Youkou. After the battle, Mamoru says he was scared and asks if he will get stronger. Kazuki says he will and Kenji tells Sakura to meet him behind the school after classes. Kazuki finds a letter of challenge from Kenji in his shoebox. Maya tells him to let Kenji win so he can confess to Sakura, but Kazuki tells her to wait outside. Cannon tells Sakura Kenji is fighting Kazuki for Sakura’s sake and that she’s jealous. Sakura asks if Cannon used to like Michio, but she doesn’t know. Sakura says she likes Kazuki now and Cannon says she has no proof. Cannon says Sakura should get going, so she does. While walking, Sakura gets more violent flashes before she collapses. She calls out to Kenji before she looses consciousness.

Commentary

This episode did something interesting. The fight scenes were completely cut out. You know they happened, but before they start it jumps to when it’s finished. This is an interesting technique that allows more focus on the characters. Last episode we had yukatas and this episode had a standard anime bath scene, complete with girls ‘exploring’ one another. It might be over used, but it never gets old. Romance is the main focus of this episode, with Kenji and Sakura’s feelings for each other blossoming, too bad something happens to her. With the series reaching its end, I suspect more bad things to happen.

Overall Rating
3.5/5

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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