Fafner: Exodus Ep. 2: The Name of Hope

Soushi assures Fumihiko that he can use the Siegfried system. Hiroto, Akira, Rina, and Seri board their Fafners as the Festum materializes. It captures Kyosuke and asks if he’s there. Maya attacks and Kyosuke frees himself only to be captured again. He ejects and the Festum chases after Maya. The UN transport lands and Maya also gets in before the shields are raised, locking the Festum out. The Fafners launch and attack the Festum. It attacks Akira but Hiroto blocks it. Maya requests to use her Fafner and Fumihiko approves. As Soushi directs the others in battle Maya asks to cross with the Siegfried system. He’s not too happy about it but assigns her to be rear support. The sealed Mark Sein and Mark Nicht also try to cross, but Soushi denies them. The Festum vanishes and starts assimilating the arm of Akira’s Fafner. The arm is ejected and Soushi orders a missile strike to locate the Festum. It works, but when Seri cuts it in half it splits into four copies of itself. All four attack but Soushi assures the pilots that only one of them is the core. Narain sends out three of his Fafners and together the two teams take down the Festum. Hiroto finishes off the core and laments that they still can’t understand each other. Another Festum is detected.

Mitsugu Jinnai arrives on a boat to pick Kyosuke up, but the giant Festum appears right behind him. Narain realizes it followed them but the Festum just disappears without doing anything. Soushi tells the Fafner pilots to return and when Rina objects he reminds her that the longer they’re in the Fafners, the worse the assimilation gets. Sakura wants to scold the pilots but Kenji says they need to be examined first. He notes that it’s tough only being able to watch over them and Kazuki agrees. Narain and Emery leave their transport and Emery realizes that their Mir is the air. Kyosuke gets chewed out by Saki Masaoka for his behavior. Narain meets with Fumihiko and Fumihiko says they’ll have to monitor their Fafner pilots to make sure they’re unarmed. Narain understands and says that will include him too since he’s the oldest Fafner pilot. The other pilots ask about Kazuki and Narain explains that he’s their hero. Canon finds Kazuki in front of the Mark Sein. She asks if he intends to pilot it again and insists he’s done enough. He asks why no one else is using the Mark Sein and Canon says it’s too different. They plan on extracting its core and sinking it. Kazuki reaches out to touch it but Canon stops him. The pilots go through their exams and Rina wishes she could quit piloting but stops herself when she thinks of her juniors who would replace her. Kenji gives Soushi a painkiller when Maya walks in and wonders if they really have to let Miwa meet the UN people. The guys are flustered by her state of undress and Maya teases them for being unable to handle it despite being doctors. Emery is brought to meet Miwa and they hug. Fumihiko is amazed the girls could communicate with each other and Narain says it’s because of the Mir. He explains that Emery’s brother came into contact with a Mir fragment and she learned to communicate with the Mir through him. When Festum had attacked their town, the brother successfully asked them to stop but he and the rest of his family were assimilated. Narain doesn’t know why Emery survived, but says they call those who can talk with Mir “Esperanto,” which means hope. Maya joins Kazuki at the restaurant and insists on helping despite him telling her to rest. Mitsugu arrives in order to introduce the UN pilots to Kazuki. They are Aishwarya “Ai” Fein, Billy Morgan, and Jonathan Mitsuhiro Bartland. They are excited to meet their hero and mention something called the Makabe factor. Two figures in hazmat suits make their way into the facility housing the Mark Nicht.