Let’s return once more to the troubled skies of Simoun! The show’s previous episode was one long, somber dirge, as all of Chor Tempest struggled with Mamiina’s death in their own ways. With the actual, senseless consequences of war made so inescapably clear, Tempest seemed on the verge of dissolution. The team’s theoretical rocks, Aaeru and Para, both blamed themselves, while Neviril sank into the familiar grief she’s been struggling with all season, and Floe decided to leave altogether.
What ultimately saved them was not their own ability to rise out of tragedy, but instead the uniting influence of a common enemy. The military’s callous discarding of Mamiina’s remains brought the team together in rage, before Onashia’s gift of Mamiina’s braid reminded them that ultimately, the only support structure they can now rely on is each other. Once protected by their religious status, military importance, and inherent class advantages, the sybilla have discovered that as Simulacrum society disintegrates, none of their old guards can now be trusted. The only people still at their side are their fellow sybilla; the squadmates they once bickered with, but now realize are their only true friends. Let’s see how Neviril’s team hold together through one more episode of Simoun!
Episode 21
Night skies and frightful, staccato strings, before an explosion lights up the dark blue like a second moon
It looks like another simulacrum fleet carrier is being destroyed
“The Door to a New World.” This is the prophecy that Onashia mentioned before, when she was giving Yun Mamiina’s braid. It’s the biggest remaining mystery of this narrative, since it’s presumably guiding all of the church’s actions, and yet we have no idea what their ultimate goal actually is
It’s clear that Onashia isn’t loyal to any one country – she has priestesses in several of them, and can seemingly materialize at any one of an unknown number of shrines across the world. Additionally, she’s clearly not deeply invested in Simulacrum’s future specifically, or she wouldn’t be taking these actions that directly destabilize the country’s order. The spring is where you go to choose your final gender, and the defining object within the spring is that broken gateway in the middle of the water. So presumably she’s trying to open that gateway, and enter a world where gender is handled in a different way?
Regardless of her specific plans, this priesthood does convincingly echo the demands of loyalty and frequent apocalypticism you see within many religions. Neither Shintoism nor Buddhism tend to exemplify those qualities, but they’re common within the sort of sprawling fantasy fiction Simoun often draws on, which regularly suspend their characters between the crown and the church
I appreciate that they cut across every single member of Chor Tempest as they return home. They’re all in this together now
The military are furious at Tempest’s display of insubordination
“I hope you realize that fighting leads absolutely nowhere.” And the priest’s response is the least comforting thing imaginable. When you’re actively losing a war, hearing “fighting leads nowhere” from the priesthood can only imply they don’t actually care if your country survives
Children are playing on a crashed simoun, and… holy shit, it’s Limone! LIMONE IS BACK!
And Dominura is making soup inside. PLEASE LET THESE TWO BE HAPPY. I’M FINE WITH THIS CHECK-IN, LEAVE THEM OUT OF THE WAR
Three women show up at the door. “So the day has come.” GODDAMNIT NO, EAT YOUR SOUP
The Arcus Prima’s leaders discuss the increasingly tense political situation under the light of a full moon, a setting that naturally implies violence, due to the shots that opened this episode
“Our responsibility as simoun sybillae is to take pride in what we do.” Neviril articulates the bond that is now holding them together
And Para offers the “is that all, commander?” to the angry military officer, embodying the strength the team needs. They can no longer be directed through shame or threats
The team essentially has a sleepover in the library, since none of them can sleep. Presenting strength is one thing, actually feeling confident in your rebellion against your own military organization is quite another. And then Onashia arrives
Onashia at last makes her pitch directly to Chor Tempest – that they join her on the Messis, and learn about this new world
Limone is a ruthless critic of Dominura’s soup
But there’s a point to that. As Dominura points out, Limone doesn’t say “I don’t know” anymore; she’s learned to really consider her thoughts and feelings, and gained confidence from realizing she actually does understand the world around her
Meanwhile, Dominura has grown beyond her initial proud certainty, and is now willing to acknowledge that there is much she doesn’t understand. These two are so good! Their style of growth is one of the key strengths of many Mari Okada productions; characters don’t just learn things, they actually become meaningfully different people as a result, reassessing their self-image and values all along the way
Yun meets Onashia alone, and Onashia seems quite frail, actively hyperventilating
I love Aaeru’s assessment of their leaders. “The Defense Minister is kind of a bastard, but the High Priestess gives me the creeps.” Never change, Aaeru
She’s right, though – the military are basically “the evil you know,” whereas Onashia’s aims are totally inscrutable
Neviril’s response seems like a non-sequitur: “I never noticed, you have such small hands.” But it’s reflective of how she used to see Aaeru more as a threat than a person, and now sees her as a true intimate, and is even comforted by Aaeru’s usual blunt mannerisms
Yun asks if Onashia can hear her friends, like she can hear Mamiina, to which Onashia responds that it’s actually Yun who wants to be set free. This feels believable, but Yun’s character in general has always felt a little distant to me. She was introduced late, at the same time as Mamiina, but Mamiina was very rapidly drawn into Chor Tempest’s drama through her prior relationship with Rodore. In contrast, Yun has always felt apart from the core group, and more invested in the worldbuilding secrets of this world than the rest of her teammates. I suppose that might partly explain my own distance from her; I’m not really a person who cares about worldbuilding secrets, so it’s harder for me to emotionally invest in her journey
It seems like Onashia may be actively disintegrating or something
Welp, back to the horny eyecatches
So the new world is the “unintended destination” of those who perish at the ruins. I suppose that explains Dominura and Limone’s reappearance
It’s also the melody playing in Aaeru’s music box, raising further questions about her family background
Apparently this was the training ground for Chor Dextra – and Aaeru’s grandfather was the regina of that choir. Another mystery solved!
And now Dominura says that when she looked into the helical motor, someone else’s memories poured into her. MYSTERIES GETTING SOLVED LEFT AND RIGHT
Dominura asks what their world would be like if they’d never had or learned to use Simoun. I like this extended cut of Limone actually considering this question, and trying to piece together the solution in her head – a direct expression of her character growth, and increasing confidence in her own opinions
This pan up to show the village they’re approaching is somewhat awkward; the angles make it look like they’re staring at a village-painted wall
The villagers treat the sybilla with the same reverence as Simulacrum citizens
“Long ago, there was a civilization vastly more advanced than ours.” A necessary assumption of this narrative, given the simouns and whatnot
Continuous war eventually destroyed the land, giving the people nothing worth fighting over. To a starving populace, the simouns were worthless, and thus their use was eventually forgotten
The priestess goes on to say, “without the simoun, the people could only wait for death,” and that they were eventually visited by two maidens riding a Simoun, who showed them the secrets of sybillae and the Ri Maajon. But of course, this is a priestess of Simulacrum telling them this – she has a clear incentive to frame history in such a way as to make the Simoun themselves seem essential, and not just a destructive weapon of war
Apparently the Emerald Ri Maajon is what lets you travel to “another world,” which is actually just another time
The priestess’s professed goal here seems understandable – using the Simoun to change the past, and hopefully create a future not mired in devastating war
And Dominura was apparently from Chor Dextra, which was created to complete the Emerald Ri Maajon. I suppose that goes some ways towards explaining her distance from the rest of the team, suspicion of the military, and overarching sense of guilt
And so, having apparently succeeded in Dextra’s task, Dominura blames herself for the calamity of the current era. She likely lived through the hypothetical scenario she offered to Limone, and reintroduced the nature of Simouns to the world, thus ensuring further wars
But Limone comes to her aid immediately, saying that if the Simoun didn’t exist in this time, Limone would have never met Chor Tempest or Dominura herself. Even apart from the others, these two are still holding each other together
Aw jeez. Neviril’s immediate followup is “does that mean Amuria is alive too?”, and Aaeru bristles at this
This is really the worst thing they could have told Neviril. This show’s most key thread is Neviril coming to terms with Amuria’s death, and now they just told her she might vaguely be alive
Aw shit, now the enemy’s approaching!
And Done
Whew, that was a dense episode. We received answers to a wide variety of the show’s core worldbuilding questions, from the motives and true powers of the priesthood, to the actual fate of Limone and Dominura. Even the secret of Aaeru’s grandfather was finally revealed, meaning at this point, the biggest remaining questions are Onashia’s true nature and her actual goals. All of these secrets being revealed made for an episode that was certainly heavy on exposition, but with five episodes remaining, we’ve still got plenty of time to ramp up into a satisfying finale. But at this point, I can’t even imagine what form that “satisfying finale” might take – having reintroduced our missing characters and also introduced a major friggin’ time travel component, this show could really go anywhere. Time travel is a wily storytelling beast, and I’m not sure this narrative will be fully capable of wrangling with it, but I’m eager to see it try!
This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.