(CR) Ooyukiumi no Kaina

[Frontier]

Smol Ririha! She looked adorable, if tough on her little brother! Though it seems like she’s only slightly mellowed out as a tomboy…

The Snow Sea is so pretty! Just don’t get too caught up in the sights that you almost die .

Ririha talks a big game, which I can respect in her situation, although now she’s making Kaina out to be the guy to answer all their problems. No pressure !

Yaona seemed to blush harder at thought of peeing than his sister did…and she blushed pretty hard !

Kaina got out of there at a good time. They were already considering using him as a bargaining chip. Of course they don’t know Kaina has his own way of travel .

So the Admiral might be the main antagonist? He seems to be a very formidable and vicious man. Also, Nobuyuki Hiyama !

Is it killing the messengers when the side that sent the messenger probably knew they’d end up dead ?

They may have missed the time limit, but the Valghians still need Ririha alive, so there’s a chance they can save Ririha !

[Frontier]

So the Valghians' go to war tactic is taking a royal, putting them in a cage, and then dragging their frozen and starved corpse back to their homeland to intimidate them into giving up. That's pretty hardcore, and Ririha might be the latest victim .

Wait, was that guy at the beginning Amelothee's brother? Was she a princess of the Aquoiler kingdom? Is that why she was so focused on Ririha in the cage, almost like she empathized with her ?

Ugh. Now they're basically just torturing her. I wanted to see Kaina and Yaona go to town on those guards, even if I know it wasn't the smart move .

All that tension and buildup and they finally free Ririha! Even get to use Kaina's laser .

Well, it's nice to know Ririha's dad feels a little bad for what happened to his daughter. But they seriously didn't expect them to kill the messengers? Come on .

Oh yeah, it's nice they saved Ririha in all, but they did kind of drag her little brother and the kingdoms' sole remaining heir into the most dangerous situation possible. Of his own volition, granted, but still. At least she thanked them while they were sleeping, grateful that Kaina came for her and that they both did so much for her .

Y'know, a part of me wanted to see those guards die, but a part of me felt bad watching their commander kill them so easily. Now I'm not sure if they deserved that or not .

It's no time for sightseeing Kaina! Now you're in enemy territory, the city on the sea, Valghia .

[frubam]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Wait, was that guy at the beginning Amelothee's brother? Was she a princess of the Aquoiler kingdom? Is that why she was so focused on Ririha in the cage, almost like she empathized with her ?

It's no time for sightseeing Kaina! Now you're in enemy territory, the city on the sea, Valghia .

I also thought that was her brother. She had a look after a comment by the old captain that almost felt like he was mocking her.

Its the perfect time for sightseeing. How many people get to not-to-freely look around the enemy's city? It should be an important element in the story to try and humanize these otherwise, cruel and aggressive nation. I'm also curious as to how Kaina will play a role here; there's a lot for him to observe and consider as he doesn't have a preconceived impression of them.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by frubam

I also thought that was her brother. She had a look after a comment by the old captain that almost felt like he was mocking her.

Not to mention the way she reacted to her subordinate making light of it. I wouldn't care for someone joking about the tool used to kill my brother and parade his corpse around either.

Its the perfect time for sightseeing. How many people get to not-to-freely look around the enemy's city? It should be an important element in the story to try and humanize these otherwise, cruel and aggressive nation. I'm also curious as to how Kaina will play a role here; there's a lot for him to observe and consider as he doesn't have a preconceived impression of them.

True! I wonder if we will get a better idea of the average Valghian citizens and that they aren't all as bad as their military .

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Alchemist007

Maybe I missed it but can't they just capture the precipitation for drinking?

That bothers me more and more each week. The fact that they're all fighting over a dwindling water supply means the snow and the snow sea aren't water. There's also the fact that people aren't wet when they come out of the snow sea. So what is it? Alcohol? Ether? Ammonia? Whatever it is, it can't be toxic to humans, because it would be running all through the food chain. I tried not to think about it at first, but it's pretty glaring now.

[Alchemist007]

"Ririha in a cage" sure is an episode title.

Also wonder what the other ships thought about (if they even saw) the empty escape boat. Should have at least responded/reported that they saw such a thing, would've eliminated that as the escape mechanism.

[Frontier]

Our heroes are stuck in Valghia, which despite it's impressive stature on the outside is pretty much a squalor inside with a bunch of tenements and citizens subsisting on water rations that barely even count on water, and it's still not enough. No wonder they're so desperate for Atland's water .

And...they're immediately robbed the moment they settle down. Although it ended up screwing over both the thieves as much as it did Kaina and company when they realize Chiru had Ririha's necklace .

It takes a special kind of scumbag to threaten to kill a child just to draw someone out. But Ririha putting herself out there and risking her own life for the sake of Chiru seemed to endear her not only with the her siblings but the people of Valghia who saw the Princess of Atland risk herself for one of them .

So Ririha knows Amelothee's deal? It definitely seems like she was forcibly conscripted into Valghian's army after they conquered her kingdom...maybe even a kingdom where she was the princess. Which adds another layer to Amelothee and her dynamic with Ririha .

Nice teamwork from Kaina and Ririha! They didn't even outright state a plan, the two of them just worked in-tandem practically knowing what the other would do! Also kind of romantic .

Huh, so Valghia not only conquers kingdoms but basically kidnaps the children to be soldiers or just the average citizen. It wasn't even always so "evil," because the fortress before was saving people when the water from the spires started drying up, but overpopulation and the drought seems to have driven Valghia into it's current state. Even Ririha seems to see that Valghia needs to be saved as much as her own kingdom does .

I guess now the cast have an endgoal, getting a boat and finding the last Great Spire that might have enough water to solve the crisis. Although first they'll have to escape Valghia and maybe contend with the admiral's monster !

[Frontier]

It really means a lot that Noze and co. are giving Kaina, Ririha, and Yaona they're boat so they can escape. The least they can do is give Chiru a taste of real water and make a vow that they'll find the Great Tree and see them again !

Some adorable sibling intimacy in this episode! Ririha and Yaona are quite cute together .

I wonder what that huge fin breaking out above the water was...kind of felt like they forgot about it when Yaona slipped over and almost drowned. Gotta be careful in the sea !

Yeah, maybe don't mention how Kaina's people were trying to get him and Ririha hitched. Not that they needed to do much when these two are already holding hands and thinking the same thing together .

It felt like ages since we left Atland, but they finally made it back successfully! Ririha and Yaona get to joyfully reunite with their father and Kaina has the respect and gratitude of Orinoga and the entirety of Atland !

Of course, despite what they went through, their father still isn't keen on listening to their fanciful tales of the Great Spire or a chance to make peace with Valghia. And, admittedly, Valghia as it is probably isn't any more interested in peace. But Ririha has reason to want to end the fighting, and she didn't want the takeaway from their conversation being how much weaker the fortress is .

I see Kaina is getting the heroes' welcome, complete with a steam bath and two beautiful ladies wrapping their arms around him...which Ririha doesn't care about one bit. Though good thing he told her the masseuse was an old dude, that wouldn't have ended well otherwise .

So Kaina got to not only see two cuties in a towel but the princess of Atland in nothing but a towel who gives him a proper massage. Lucky dog! But it was also just nice to see Kaina and Ririha get a moment alone with each other in the bath .

I see Kaina's kanji reading skills might finally prove useful in terms of getting Ririha's dad to actually listen to them! Well, hopefully. I don't like their odds with that guy .

The moment Kaina and Ririha were facing each other, I knew something was going to happen, and it did when Ririha's ample Ririha's were exposed for Kaina to see in all their glory. Well worth getting a little beat up over it .

Hopefully Kaina and Ririha can succeed in convincing her father before Valghia's invasion hits. Also, is that a Mech suit in the water ?

[Alchemist007]

The show is paced well for the most part. I've been thinking for a while that the red headed princess isn't as ruthless as their king.

[Frontier]

The battle begins! Atland is trying their best but they just don't seem to hold a candle to the Valghian war machine .

Ririha was wondering how they would get the people of Valghia to turn on the admiral and the war, but it seems like Noze and the other kids are working on that internally, spreading rumors about the Great Spire and Kaina to make the citizens more willing to stop hostilities and jump ship if it means their salvation .

Some nice Ririha moments...her pride at understanding words now and her recognizing how sore a topic it is for Kaina when she brings up all the people still in the canopy .

"You would be a better king than me, sis." So Yaona is in line for the throne and not Ririha? I guess they follow the trend of a male heir gets first dibs. I wonder if that might change by the end of it ?

Dang, keeping us on egg shells! First you think it was all for nothing because Kaina can't read the symbols, then it turns out the symbols are just upside down, then when they finally realize they have a working map, there's a huge oceanic trench they have no way of getting through to reach the Great Spire...unless they have a Valghia ship that can handle what they need to pierce it. Is that where Amelothee comes in ?

Well, points to Orinoga and his team for trying, even though infiltrating the fortress means nothing to the admiral because he doesn't care about the citizens and it doesn't really hold any strategic advantage .

Orinoga and Amelothee reunite! Though still not under the best of circumstances, even if both seem eager for a rematch .

Dang, I thought that was a mecha but I didn't expect it to be a giant one-eyed, one-armed, robot that's tall enough to stand on the Snow Sea and is piloted with what looks like a human skull! So hardcore .

[Frontier]

Well, now the Admiral is using his Builder to Mecha to straight up throw Atland's own defenses against them. And they're pretty much powerless against it !

You have to respect that Orinoga's not about to give up and lay down his sword, even at the cost of his own men, when so much is riding on this fight. Even Amelothee respects him enough to let them end it with single combat, even if she's sporting an artifact suit of armor that puts her so far above him in skill level. But their clash of blades is pretty epic .

No hesitation on Kaina's part to go save someone! You gotta love it! Even the prince of the kingdom showed more hesitation, but he made up for it by being there and taking care of the civilian they saved. Also will Kaina's laser at it's highest setting be what ends up saving them all ?

I like how the Builder is missing an arm and constantly has an alert about it .

"I'll kill his daughter in front of him!" Not only did he not kill Ririha, but her dad didn't even know she was there. So...pretty big failure on his part .

The Light returns and turns out to be the Ascender, the god like being of the Snow Sea...and it's pretty cool, even if it ends up not doing anything when the Builder swipes through it. So that was a fat lot of nothing. Though I was honestly wondering if all that rain might end up rusting the Builder enough that it stops moving or is easier to break .

Ririha has been so brave and confident but even she freaks out when she thinks the Builder has spotted her again. Do something, Kaina !

[frubam]

Man, they are doing a whole lot of nothing. It seems like a lot is happening, but its not; at least I don't feel like it is. The whole thing with reaching the king just felt unnecessarily convoluted to me =0v. They should have just focused on the war itself. The whole Ascender thing kinda felt like deus ex machina, but I know the "light" had to do something at some point, and if it were anytime to do it, it would be now. I kinda feel like the pacing of the story has slowed down, and not to its benefit. Hopefully it'll start to wrap up things soon.

Originally Posted by Frontier

Also will Kaina's laser at it's highest setting be what ends up saving them all ?

I like how the Builder is missing an arm and constantly has an alert about it .

"I'll kill his daughter in front of him!" Not only did he not kill Ririha, but her dad didn't even know she was there. So...pretty big failure on his part .

I thought the same about the laser at this point. When he cranked it up, I thought that it would be the end of the tool, and the casual mention of "don't use it a max power or can't use it again" in, like, ep 3, would come into play, but it seems its not its time yet. Not sure if it'll be used for the Builder, or something dealing with the Great Orbital Tree later down the road.

I wonder if the Captain intentionally had the arm removed, or was it just a coincidence? I think the fact that he can't read the symbols will play a role in the machine breaking.

Yeah that was terrible writing. Granted, he could see the aftermath because of the Ascender, but still, at the very least they could have stalled the scene to at least give the impression she was dead(obv she wouldn't die because she's fMC, but still....). Immediately showing she was okay definitely killed the impact of that almost instantly.

[Frontier]

Kaina and Ririha really do think alike! Just like him, Ririha prioritizes saving a civilian over her own life and current mission, even risking the precious map to save someone! That's the kind of princess Atland should be proud of !

Well, Valghia kind of turns around after seeing the Admiral throw one of their ships at Atland and demonstrating how little he cares for his own men or proper warfare. Even the average citizens start turning on them. Plus Sugita's yes-man commander, which surprised me .

You know this is a Nihei work when Toa Heavy Industries is involved .

Admiral finally sees Ririha again and tries to carry out his murder father-daughter murder plot when Ririha and her father can actually see each other this time around...but good on Ririha for standing up for herself and blasting the Builder, fruitless as it was. But it was brave .

Say his name and he shall appear! Kaina arrives just in time to do what everybody had been asking for and firing a giant frikkin' laser beam at the Builder, finally destroying that thing. About time !

Kaina destroyed the Builder and Orinoga headshots the Admiral, leaving Valghia with no choice but to surrender. Which actually works out for the best because now they get to make peace with Atland and get access to actual water .

All's well that ends well! Peace is made between Atland and Valghia, Kaina's great memorization skills means they know where the Great Spire is and they now have access to Valghian resources to be able to reach it, and Kain and Ririha even manage to reunite with the people in the Canopy! Nice note to end on as we wait for the release of the movie .

[frubam]

Man, just... terrible writing...

Ririha using the map to put out the fire instead of pulling the girl out of the room first, making it burn; The King just literally standing there as the big monster approaches instead of doing... well, anything else;

Ririha walking with no sense of urgency after incompetently letting the map get burned;

the Commander and Amelothee are just sitting there watching events instead of fighting, or doing anything.

Ririha was just pure stupid plot device for stuffs to go down. Really, the only sensible thing that happened during the 'war' was Commander shooting the Admiral in the head. And the gravitational beam emitter part was cool I guess.

The ending wrapped up in such a haphazard fashion(showing them in the Canopy, then jumping back to Atland with no sense of time progression) was a poor choice; they could have condensed the 'war' down quite a bit, leaving more room for the aftermath to be properly presented, if only they didn't inundate the show with random char stupidity and common episode stalling tropes.

All in all, it was a decent showing for the most part until the "war", then it went to crap. I'll watch the movie just because I'm invested enough in the story, but even if there weren't a follow-up, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

[Decel]

Yeah the last 2 eps were a disaster in storytelling. Too bad because the worldbuilding is top notch.

6/10 overall, with the last eps pulling the score down. I'll watch the movie if I come across it, in a nonchalant way.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by frubam

Man, just... terrible writing...

Ririha using the map to put out the fire instead of pulling the girl out of the room first, making it burn; The King just literally standing there as the big monster approaches instead of doing... well, anything else;

Ririha walking with no sense of urgency after incompetently letting the map get burned;

the Commander and Amelothee are just sitting there watching events instead of fighting, or doing anything.

Ririha was just pure stupid plot device for stuffs to go down. Really, the only sensible thing that happened during the 'war' was Commander shooting the Admiral in the head. And the gravitational beam emitter part was cool I guess.

The ending wrapped up in such a haphazard fashion(showing them in the Canopy, then jumping back to Atland with no sense of time progression) was a poor choice; they could have condensed the 'war' down quite a bit, leaving more room for the aftermath to be properly presented, if only they didn't inundate the show with random char stupidity and common episode stalling tropes.

All in all, it was a decent showing for the most part until the "war", then it went to crap. I'll watch the movie just because I'm invested enough in the story, but even if there weren't a follow-up, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

At least her just walking around I can write off as her being in shock that she lost the map.

Orinoga and Amelothee were probably thrown off by the Ascender and then debating than to actually fight.

[BBOvenGuy]

One thing that amused me - Kaina's "bark cutter" looks like the guns from my favorite childhood TV show, Space: 1999



Alas, the guns on Space: 1999 didn't have a "supernova" setting.

I wasn't as enamored of the world-building as others in this group. Too many scientific inconsistencies. The war storyline just made things worse.

[Dop]

I liked the show, and I'm looking forward to the movie to see where that goes.
I do think that in the past this might have been a longer series, because if it had twice as many episodes (which could include the plot of the forthcoming movie) I think it would have had more time for the story to breathe. More background info, more worldbuilding, and I think it would have benefited from that. As it was it seemed a bit rushed.

[Alchemist007]

The last couple eps were pretty cliche and not really enthralling. I'm still going to give the overall show a generous take because I did like the world and most of the characters, in particular the red headed warrior princess was a pretty human character in a war environment. Looking forward to the sequel.

I couldn't help thinking that the water ghost thing that showed up and exploded was just to reveal to the people that the ooyukiumi is in fact made of water .

8/10

[Alchemist007]

The sequel movie is out.

Spoiler:

So there's a new bad guy who turns out had the right idea and the good guys stop him and give the green AI a two word order and it resumes doing what the bad guy they stopped from doing. By cutting down the big trees, they go into space and evaporate the snowsea somehow and the problems of the planet are solved.

The mystery intrigue from the series is solved but it just felt too flat, especially since this was just some random guy at another base they found and resolved in the span of some 90m.

5/10