Let’s continue our rambling journey through Simoun! Looking back on our recent history, it feels like the show’s last couple episodes have neatly demonstrated Simoun’s extremely variable dramatic range. At times, like in Floe’s focus episode, Simoun rises to become a simultaneously immediately thrilling and thematically rich war thriller, exploring the complexity of individual motivations within an oppressive social order, and smartly contrasting Class S yuri melodrama against a searingly appropriate dystopian background. At other times, like in Kaimu’s episode, the show can get lost in awkward digressions, center its emphasis on drama we’ve been given no reason to invest in, and essentially forego anything resembling a coherent dramatic structure. Simoun’s first act was deeply constrained by this messiness, and it’s only been in the last few episodes that things have pulled together into a propulsive story.

Series composer Sho Aikawa and script writer Mari Okada are both infamous for exactly that kind of narrative incoherence (well, at least they are to me, and I’m the one who gets to make all the damning declarations here), but each of them have also written true masterpieces, and are absolutely writers worthy of respect. I’m guessing Simoun will continue to bear both the messiness and the brilliance of its creators, and am excited to see it all unfold. Let’s jump right into one more episode of Simoun!

Episode 13

In contrast with last episode’s cold open pretty much entirely disregarding the events of eleven, this week we open with a reprise of last week’s cold open, and very quickly skim over the events of the episode. It all just feels so haphazard. As an actual, beat-to-beat narrative, Simoun is basically just a failure; it’s a good thing, then, that us fans of stuff like this instead prioritize thematics and character so much more highly than beat-to-beat narratives. If “coherent story defined by parsable narrative movements and clear stakes” was a prerequisite for anime narratives, both Mari Okada and I would probably be working in other industries

I suppose last episode’s biggest worldbuilding reveal was that incompatible partners just won’t make their Simouns start at all. Presumably this could lead into more discoveries about how Simouns don’t just require “compatible partners,” but are actually most powerful when piloted by pairs who trust and possibly even love each other

Simoun continues to have the weirdest soundtrack ever. This tense flashback is accompanied by a manic keyboard melody and what basically sound like low-budget synth laser sound effects

“Two priestesses unite their hearts in praise of Tempus Spatium.” Yeah, it seems like that’s where we’re going. Dominura seems to be almost overplaying how priestesses “uniting their hearts” is meant to be a religious ceremony, not an intimate expression of feeling for the other person

Dominura also treats Kaimu and Alti’s failure as new information, meaning it’s actually very rare that Simouns fail to activate

The show’s doing a just-short-of-overbearing job of consistently framing Alti and Kaimu as distant poles in each frame

Floe complains about being bored until she accidentally rips Rea’s stuffed animal. Our fearless warriors

Aaeru and Morinas discuss the “Emerald Ri Majoon,” which is apparently some superpowered Ri Majoon beyond imagination. There’s not too much to hang onto in a dramatic sense there, though – the fact is, Ri Majoons have been so loosely defined that you could basically propose any kind of Ri Majoon and I’d likely accept it. Not setting constraints on powers doesn’t make them feel more impressive – it actually makes them feel less exciting, because we have no framework of expectations for them to then dramatically surpass. The fact that the main weapon of Simulacrum is so vaguely defined means the show isn’t really able to lay much dramatic weight on the back-and-forth of its battles, but that generally doesn’t matter; the episode conflicts here resolve through emotional turns, not through tactical brilliance. The girls “win” when they overcome some character conflict, and then their actual battle victory is a foregone conclusion

Rea and Mamiina have a really charming scene, where Rea is impressed by all of Mamiina’s domestic know-how. These little scenes between various cast pairings have become one of the greater pleasures in Simoun, and I’m very happy that the show understands both the power and importance of these little team-building moments

Wow, Aaeru acts incredibly insensitively about this. I could imagine her initial “Neviril, do the emerald Ri Majoon with me!” request feeling innocent, but when Neviril immediately responds to that by dropping her plate of food and shaking in discomfort, you don’t push the damn issue. Regardless of how you think Neviril should feel about Amuria’s death, she’s clearly still traumatized by it

“That was in spectacularly bad taste.” Yep. I’m glad the group agrees – Simoun itself often frames Aaeru’s bluntness as a necessary antidote to the others’ behavior, but this crossed a line

It’s actually kind of interesting that now that Aaeru’s bluntness has helped the rest of the group grow together, the show’s able to let Aaeru herself maybe learn a little tact

Floe attempts to ask Aaeru if she’s in lesbians with Neviril, but Aaeru seems unable to parse that question in any terms but “sure, I want her. She makes me fly so high!”

Floe kisses her. “How did that feel?” “Well, we’re not about to fly into battle, so, weird.” Ahahaha

“It’s a lot better if you like each other, got it!” Floe unknowingly articulating the point that Dominura was initially trying to conceal – that Simoun work best with pairs who are actually in love

Neviril now consumed by flashbacks to Amuria’s death. The timing feels about right for this particular turn; there have been enough episodes since Neviril returned to the team that this doesn’t feel too familiar, and she really has basically just suppressed all her old feelings, not resolved them

Para as diligent as ever in her service to Neviril. Para very exactly slots into that classic archetype of the princess’s knight, doomed to love and serve her but never stand at her side

I really like how Simoun portrays clouds. They’ve often not terrible realistic, but very evocative – energetic splashes of paint that seem to imply motion

Limone admits she also wants to try the Emerald Ri Majoon. This is a very good use of her character – she’s also both highly ambitious and a little separated from the main group’s emotional drama, so it’s natural for her to land on Aaeru’s side of this conflict

And Aaeru passes on the strange things she’s learned about kissing and partners from Floe

Dominura seems scornful of Simulacrum’s overall war priorities. I am very eager to learn where her loyalties actually lie

Oh my god Limone gesturing for Dominura to lean down and then kissing her cheek. This is the most adorable thing ahhhh

And then she has the most expectant smile afterwards LIMONEEEE

Aw, that’s sweet. Dominura seems genuinely touched by this gesture. I really hope she doesn’t turn out to be a simplistically antagonistic character

Aaeru once again sneaks into Neviril’s room. I like how Aaeru consistently breaks the privacy of their little dorm rooms by using the windows – it seems to reflect the artificial nature of their little boarding school, and Aaeru’s ability to circumvent its assumptions

Aaeru not being terrible subtle in her comparison of Neviril’s preoccupation with Amuria to the old garbage of Neviril’s private room

“The rest of us have avoided talking about it, too.” Simoun gets excellent dramatic mileage out of Aaeru’s very consistent behavior. Her tendency to just storm straight through conflicts can be both helpful and terribly destructive, but it sure keeps things moving

It seems like Amuria was the team’s rock. I wonder if a version of Simoun that had started some distance before this one, and taken an approach to Amuria’s character more like what Gurren Lagann did, would have made for a more effective narrative

Para wonders where Aaeru gets her absurd confidence

Neviril, consider your nation’s future and Kiss That Girl

“I’m… afraid of Aaeru.”

And Done

Whew, that was an emotional scorcher of an episode. The whole central thrust focused on Aaeru being incredibly selfish and inconsiderate towards Neviril, and Dominura playing off that selfishness to further her own strategic goals. It was fundamentally unsettling seeing the upbeat, irrepressible attitude that initially made Aaeru so compelling here applied in such a cruel way, as she continuously demands Neviril just get over her trauma for her own sake. The actual narrative of this episode was messy, as they often are (and Dominura’s choice to have only Aaeru and Neviril fly felt pretty contrived), but the emotional back-and-forth was rich and ambiguous. I’m excited to see how Aaeru and Neviril learn to truly communicate from here.

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.