Ep 17.
I'm really excited for upcoming eps in getting to understand the entire worldview and [colonial] (I assume) history, now that they've reached the ruins.
Regarding the mysterious new Simoun, that comment about the RAF was fitting...I think Simouns are made at an assembly plant, only that it's a 'holy' assembly plant. But they are then customized later on. Kinda like the RAF Tornado F.3, GR1 (now defunct), and upgraded GR4s. They are differentiated by their nosecones, I think also their tailfins, and some have ceremonial markings or tiger stripes. Similarly with Simoun spine decor. Simouns may look handcrafted, but their availability and reliability is legendary* and that simply isn't possible unless they have spare parts. If all they needed was just to polish the darn things or push-pull on some widgets, then they don't need talent like Wapourif at all. But now along come 'stealth' V-shaped engine configuration Simoun! (is this like the word 'sheep' or 'fish' where the plural has no 's'?
I like how they made everything this ep seem more realworld dogfight-like. Like when they were about to take off from the hangar amidst the audible hum of turbofans starting up. Also when they used machine guns to engage the maneuverable 'stealth simoun' (sorry if they aren't really stealth or if in fact they are older replicas instead of newer reverse-engineered simouns---that's the mystery :P).
Thanks Kaoru for the link of different Ri Maajons...hmmm got me thinking if the technical designer got the idea from sitting in a humdrum computer lab all day looking at screensavers ~
*flight performance all depends on the copilots moe~ factor towards each other!