So Dominura steps up and finally opens a Simoun. And what she sees drives her crazy! What did she see? "Hope".
Apparently Amuria was absorbed into the Simoun as well as the new casualties Dominura and Rimone. It would seem the Simoun run on dead Shibyura.
The girls get back to the Arucus Purima and Paraietta falls to pieces.
The enemy finally find their own Simoun. Uh-oh!
The enemy priestess who blew herself to smithereens shows up intact (but still dead) inside a Simoun. It looks like her extreme faith transferred her into a Simoun at her death as well, not into the engine, but rather placidly propped up at the controls. And our side oddly gives her a lovely funeral.
Mamiina's poor self image costs her her life. She is so happy to be recognized as a real Shibyura that she voluntarily sacrifices herself. Class still rules the day though as she ends up dumped on the ground for the coyotes without even the funeral that the enemy priestess received.
Lastly, it looks like Her Eminence, the High Priestess, has had enough of the military taking over and she is plotting some grand sweeping move to end the war and bring all the parties into a new polity.
To the end
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Wow! So much happens towards the end, but it's well paced, not rushed. It's hard to sum up even the major themes here; The Land of Hope, The Door to a Different World, The Eternal Girl.
A couple of final points of interest:
- the language that the foreigners speak is backwards Japanese
- Wapoorifu is apparently male although she has a female body that almost any woman would envy
Events really just provide a backdrop for the real thrust of the story, the character development. So many characters go through such change. They did a wonderful job in keeping control of presenting all that.
All the girls grow up, learn to take responsibility for their lives, become self-reliant, and focus on what's really important to them.
The bottom line seems to be that life always has hard knocks and we are always faced with tough decisions, but we have to follow our hearts and move on.
Given that, no summation can compare with the final group monologue. I have to quote it:
"Why were we all that concerned about sending out Aaeru and Nebiriru to a different world? Was it our being unable to escape from the current of time, because of defiance? Becoming adult was scary; we wanted to stay girls. So we piled those feelings on them? No, definitely something different. We were only carving "We ourselves were definitely here"; shouting in a loud voice the fact that we ourselves were definitely here. Carving, resisting. Aaeru, Nebiriru, I wonder where you are about now, our eternal girls."
You really have to see this for yourself.