At long last, we’re returning to the high-flying Simoun! It’s been a little while on my end since we checked in on Chor Tempus, and I’m very eager to return to this strange, uneven, and endlessly compelling series. The show’s last episode was a roiling sea of emotional turns, upsetting the relationship between Neviril and Aaeru while also offering more dark hints at the true nature of Dominura. “Aaeru and Neviril can’t get along” has been one of Simoun’s most enduring conflicts, but the nature of the relationship is definitely different now – it’s no longer Neviril retreating into her shell that seems like the problem, it’s Aaeru trampling over Neviril’s feelings with her own fanatical desire to fly.

The end result of this miscommunication was Neviril’s unhappy realization that she’s actually afraid of Aaeru, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Most of these priestesses fly because they’ve always assumed this is what they’re supposed to do, because they genuinely believe in the sanctity of their mission, or because they’re not ready to visit the spring. Aaeru has stated she’s not ready to visit the spring, but her love of fighting goes beyond that, and seems to be something Neviril finds fundamentally disturbing. I imagine their disagreements will be approaching a head in this episode, if only for narrative spacing reasons; we’re over halfway through this series, and if anything regarding this society’s fundamental nature is going to actually be resolved, we kinda need to get the band back together soon. Either way, Simoun always finds a new way to surprise, so let’s see what episode fourteen brings!

Episode 14

Alright, so our main pair are out on that scouting mission that I believe Aaeru proposed, which was the whole impetus for Neviril realizing she feared Aaeru in the first place. And now Aaeru’s getting the silent treatment

“There’s a good chance that Plumbum and Argentum are allies now.” Simulacrum just can’t catch a break, huh. Well, if everyone else is living in poverty while they horde the simoun, I guess they don’t really have much room to complain

I’m still hanging a lot of hopes on Dominura for this show’s third act. Most of the girls are just too immature to really grapple with concerns outside of their immediate circumstances and social group, but she’s clearly already operating on a higher plane of political machinations, consistently implying the show’s full scope will include a direct confrontation with Simulacrum’s social structure and leadership

“That Which Must Not Be Violated”

Morinas walks into the showers while Wapourif is already there, leading to the uniquely Simoun line “don’t worry, I’m planning on becoming a man”

“To tell the truth, I have a hard time imagining the two of you as lovers.” Yeah, Floe and Wapourif? We didn’t know either of them when Wapourif first said that, but at this point it’s hard to see

Oh my god, the truth is so much more silly. Floe wanted to be lovers, but Wapourif was too dutiful to make love to a simoun sibylla, so Floe demanded he at least say they were lovers to anyone who asks. That seems like a perfect reflection of both their characters, validating and thus further bolstering our investment in them as people

This scene is composed very well. The consistent sound of the falling shower water, the reliance on these repeated close shots, and Morinas’ regular twisting of the valve all add up to create a sense of rising tension and intense intimacy, the scene literally heating up along with the water itself

In the end, it’s the contrast in each of their views of a sibylla’s nature that breaks the tension. The closeups are broken by a final shot of both of them through the curtain, ending their ratcheting intimacy on a shot that implies anonymity. A very well-constructed scene that builds on one of the show’s key relationships until ultimately contrasting that relationship against one of its key themes: the divergent ways sibylla and their admirers view their nature, and how that impacts all their personal relationships

The ship is docked in a forest, so Mamiina teaches the others to fish. Mamiina has been an incredibly important addition to this cast, and I’m always in favor of more scenes like this that let the characters express themselves through unique incidental activities

That scene is immediately followed by the ship captains reminiscing about being young and silly, illustrating how not everyone has the same lofty view of sibylla

Dominura calls Wapourif to the chapel to make a request. Certainly not an accidental setting – it appears Dominura intends to directly manipulate Wapourif’s sincere faith

Oh what? No, she’s doing the exact opposite – she’s forcing Wapourif to acknowledge that the Simoun are ultimately just machines, not holy objects. Everything Dominura does just makes me more desperate to know her actual motivation

“Certainly there are mysteries left unsolved, but…” Love this casual dismissal of the “god of the gaps” defense, where god is defined as whatever we have yet to explain

“The balance of power between Simulacrum and its neighbors will shift quickly unless we take action.” So there it is. If Dominura isn’t lying here, her frustration is with how Simulacrum’s insistent view of itself as a holy, invincible force in the world means their leaders are blinding themselves to their impending doom. They choose to cling to the lie that is their religion over accepting reality and working to preserve their country like any other

And here’s Dominura’s natural wish: to actually take apart one of the Simoun in order to figure out how they work, a very necessary act of vile sacrilege

Wapourif’s response is a natural one: “I know you’re right, but without the Simoun’s inviolability, we have nothing.” This frankly seems almost too self-aware for a true believer, but it’s a solid point either way: their society may be built on a grand lie, but that lie is likely all that holds their society together in the first place. It’s a truth we saw illustrated on the individual level during Floe’s focus episode – Simulacrum’s soldiers can’t give their hearts to battle unless they really believe the sybilla are untouchable valkyries

This show can be messy, but god these are great ideas to fiddle around with. Conflicts between faith and pragmatism are often far richer than you might expect – even if faith is applied to something that isn’t real, the power of that faith itself is still very real

Now we just need Morinas to jump Wapourif’s bones and help him get over his whole faith issue

“Knowing the secrets of Simoun could save our Holy Land.” You can save this beautiful lie, but only if you disabuse yourself of it personally. A very cruel choice

Some really nice colors and shapes for these clouds. In contrast with the usual splashes of white, these sunset-lit clouds look like vast pink mountains in the distance

Aaeru seems to have arrived at a fatigued acceptance of Neviril being difficult

Wapourif implies that Amuria was actually absorbed by the Simoun or something, since her body couldn’t have been thrown from the wreckage. A pretty terrifying thought

The colors in general are gorgeous here. Terrific contrast between land and sky

Morinas and Wapourif have such good chemistry, damnit

Para asks Yun to pair with her, but Yun is disgusted by Para’s preference for protecting Neviril over everyone else. An interesting reflection of her unique form of pacifism

Yep, we’re taking this in the most natural direction – Wapourif’s hesitance to “defile” a simoun being contrasted against his clear attraction to Morinas, another taboo

The girls are gossiping about love and Para tells them to shut up. I like that Mamiina gets a dig in at Floe here – those two don’t interact much, but I actually have a weird feeling they’d get along. They have very different priorities, but are both extremely bluntly themselves, and proud of that fact

Dominura is the last survivor of Chor Dextra

“The legendary choir formed specifically to complete the Emerald Ri Majoon”

She’s a sybilla under direct command of the Defense Ministry now. That makes a great deal of sense – she works directly for the military, and thus has no compulsion to venerate the religious wing that most sybilla seem bound to

“Whatever we do, we must believe in something in order to accomplish it.” The captain once again articulates this episode’s core theme, and one of the themes of the show as a whole: the uneasy relationship between martial pragmatism and religious zealotry. Frankly, I’m not sure I want either of these sides to win

“Whether the basis of their mystery is real or not doesn’t matter.” Yep. People assume believers are just too stupid to realize there’s no evidence for their faith, but many understand that faith is its own power

Granted, that definitely doesn’t mean we should structure our societies around the beliefs of people who have no objective evidence for anything they say, but I’m afraid we’ve already kinda crossed that bridge

Wapourif kisses Morinas, and through doing so says goodbye to his precious faith. He cries as he acknowledges that Simoun are just machines. This episode is a killer

It’s such a monstrous thing to ask Wapourif. “If you love your country that much, sacrifice your reverence for it in order to save it”

Wapourif sees nothing in the Simoun, but Dominura sees something horrible. Presumably the previous sybilla, converted into “fuel”

And Done

Oh man, what a brutal episode. This was pretty much everything I want from Simoun – gripping character drama tethered to far-reaching conflicts regarding the nature of faith and our relationship with society. On top of that, its actual focus characters were Wapourif and Morinas, both of whom gained a great deal of complexity and humanity over the course of the episode. I really hope the finale’s events don’t ruin their relationship, but either way, this was a terrific exploration of Wapourif’s faith that also pushed the show’s central mysteries forward, succeeding as a page-turner, character piece, and thematic argument all at once. Well done, Simoun.

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