[Simon]

(Catching up on my AS reading, so excuse me for replying to some old posts.)

Originally Posted by Futaba-chan

"That which is beautiful is good." (Literally, "if it's beautiful, it's good.")

Thanks - I had the literal translation, but I knew there had to be a more elegant way of phrasing it. That title fits the promo video so perfectly, too. And by the way, *glomp* for the episode synopses, and *glomp* again for all your great work on the Wiki (at least I'm guessing that's you - if not I sheepishly withdraw the second *glomp* ).

Yui, thank you for posting the OP/ED lyrics! Amazon shipped my CDs on Saturday, but it's great being able to read along to the OP video in the meantime (even though I don't know many of the kanji, just reading the kana helps).

Originally Posted by Futaba-chan

I'm thinking specifically of St. Juste from Oniisama E, who was about as far from Nausicaa in voice and temperament as you can get. Rather like Kotono Mitsuishi doing both Usagi Tsukino and Juri Arisugawa....

The first two anime I bought were Noir and Excel Saga - I've been in awe of Mitsuishi-san ever since I realised she was the voice of both Mireille and Excel. How does one person do that? In fact all three of the Noir girls are near the top of favourite seiyū list (Hisakawa Aya does the cutest drunk!).

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

I made a page with pictures, names and seiyuus of as many of the characters as I could figure out. Based on the official site and the Japanese wiki.

Is Grand Shrine Empress a translation of オナシア Onashia? Erii says that in ep 2, and it's on the official site, but I just assumed it was the character's name - a title would make more sense however.

So it seems the only two names left outstanding are ドミヌーラ Dominūra and マミーナ Mamiina. By elimination, do they match these two characters from the OP? Mystery face 1 (00:46) / Mystery face 2 (01:02)

I've also gleaned a couple of interesting tidbits reading the AOD Simoun thread. People there have drawn parallels with the sci-fi novels Commitment Hour and The Left Hand of Darkness - both sound quite relevant. More significantly,

Spoiler:

an AODer noted that the under-17s wear necklaces with two wings, but adult males have only a right wing on theirs: compare Erii and Erif. Does this mean adult women wear left-winged necklaces? It suggests that at least in a spiritual sense, people really are androgynous before they go the spring.

Originally Posted by Futaba-chan

Neville, Parietta, and others are quite explicit in talking to Morinas and Aaeru that the primary focus of the Sibylla before the war was as priestesses, not as warriors. The religious dimensions of the Ri Maajon were their primary focus...

I still think both chor and corps are equally plausible, but the point you're making here is backed up by the earliest synopses that came out: "They are at war; the country where the main characters live is invaded by the next country aiming at their superior engine. ... To intercept their attack, they convert the two-seater plane for ceremony, Simoun, into a fighter." (My emphasis.)

This fits our earlier speculation that not all Ri Maajon are for combat - if you replace "ceremony" with "ritual" in what I just quoted, you can imagine the Sybilla creating Ri Maajon for all sorts of religious purposes. But then again, maybe their history is one of being warrior-priestesses and the term corps has been handed down from that tradition.

Finally, I was thinking about the nature of Ri Maajon themselves: origins lost in the mists of time, a few hundred basic elements that combine in a mind-boggling number of ways... Hey, they sound just like kanji!