Let’s return to the tempestuous drama of Simoun! Last episode served as a crucial turn for the series, as a massive number of secrets were revealed all at once. Most crucially, Onashia revealed the true nature of the spring: it is a conduit between worlds, or rather, a channel for traveling through time within the same world. The Emerald Ri Majoon turned out to be the key to this process, leading into the further reveal that Dominura and Limone are technically “alive,” but have been sent to a far-distant point in the past. On top of that, we further learned that both Dominura and Aaeru’s grandfather were both members of Chor Dextra, the choir intended to master the Emerald Ri Majoon, and the reason Dominura feels personally responsible for the violence of the present timeline. That is a ridiculous bounty of information!

Given all these time travel-focused reveals, it was no surprise to see Neviril immediately ask if Amuria could still be alive. Having just recently mended her relationship with Aaeru, I’m really hoping Neviril doesn’t backslide into false hope and depression – her grieving process has been the primary narrative of this entire series, and I was happy to see her seemingly recovering at last. With that in mind, let’s dive into the next episode of Simoun!

Episode 22

A badly damaged Simoun arrives, its pilot telling the crew that the Arcus Niger has fallen. Now that the enemy is equipped with ancient Simouns, Simulacrum’s largely ceremonial armies are getting torn apart by their far more martially savvy enemies

“Sortie.” Welp, looks like an enemy attack is going to force Neviril and Aaeru to stew in their feelings for a bit

This overhead shot of the bridge is beautiful. The rough linework and splashes of paint used for Simoun’s backgrounds create an excellent sense of fantastical texture – it actually reminds me of the fantasy segments in this season’s Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Para’s taking her interim leadership role seriously, which is nice to see. It seems she’s really pulled herself together in the wake of Mamiina’s death

The war has really come home at this point, to the point where they’re shooting down bombs directly over the city itself

Jeez, Morinas pretty much body-slams a missile with her Simoun to prevent it landing on the city. It’s a dramatic gesture, but this production unfortunately has trouble conveying the relative spacing of these objects, or the impact of their collision. A big part of the problem is that the Simouns themselves never feel like they’re actually occupying space within their world – the contrast of full-color, hard-lined CG planes and the rough-sketched, softly painted backgrounds means Simoun’s photography consistently fails to create the sense that these planes and these backgrounds occupy the same space. Normally, that’s more just a visual frustration than a dramatic hindrance, but when the show is attempting to convey the drama of them fighting directly over the city, the clear lack of visual coherency between the foreground and background makes it difficult to invest in the stakes of battle

Fortunately, as always, the show’s character work can carry it home. It’s wonderful to see Morinas abandoning her selfishness and committing herself to the team, and actually becoming a stronger pilot as a result. Her story has been one of the most lightly threaded throughout this series, but her earnest concern for Rea still hits home

The enemy Simoun retreat, giving our allies the freedom to admit that if they’d fully attacked, Simulacrum’s defenders would have been wiped out

Anubituf, Guragief, and the Defense Minister hold a meeting, where it’s revealed that the craft carrying Mamiina’s body was likely taken by the enemy

At last, a divide appears between Anubituf and Guragief, as Guragief is shocked by their callousness regarding Mamiina, but Anubituf wishes to hide the true from the sybillae

Rea can’t wrap a bandage for shit, unsurprisingly. I like that she didn’t suddenly become competent when she cut her hair and pledged to become an equal member of the team – her heart’s in the right place, but she’s still a sheltered rich girl

Lots of nice Morinas cuts this episode. The uneven thick lines of her hair do a great job of adding a sense of volume or depth to her appearance

And a wonderful conversation between Morinas and Wapourif, demonstrating their clear mutual concern. “Please take better care of yourself.” “I will.” “Promise me.” “I do.”

Having demonstrated their clear strength, the enemy alliance has now proposed a ceasefire

What a great inversion of their usual relationship. Sent out among the people to hear their prayers, Aaeru is deeply uncomfortable, and seeks assurance from Neviril. And Neviril is at last willing to catch her, and reveals a secret: Amuria was also a fighter, just like Aaeru. Using her lost friend as a source of comfort for Aaeru seems like an important step; she’s remembering the good things, rather than lamenting Amuria’s absence, and even using Amuria’s strength to support her current partner

Rea gives Yun a precious gift: Mamiina’s braid. Perhaps she senses Yun needs this responsibility more than her; Rea herself seems to have well recovered at this point, and is more concerned about the well-being of her teammates

Anubituf and Guragief have been characterized as a matched pair of perspectives for so long, that it’s a little difficult for me to parse the source of their disagreement here. Like Guragief, I genuinely don’t know what Anubituf wants

Gorgeous late-afternoon shot as we return to Neviril and Aaeru

Guragief informs the sybilla of the proposed peace treaty directly. So has Anubituf lost her faith in the sybilla?

The military has a very good reason to be suspicious, of course – the last “peace delegation” sent by the enemy turned out to be saboteurs. But at this point, Simulacrum might be facing either peace or oblivion

The Arcus Prima looks least intrusive when it’s parked in Simulacrum city, as its angles and curves make for a natural compliment to the city’s own hard-lined shapes. It’s the contrast of the CG shapes against the far looser linework and angles of the natural world that tends to cause visual discrepancies

The curmudgeonly old captain of the Messis gives Anubituf some hard advice, telling him he should patch things up with Guragief quickly, since none of them know when the end will come

It turns out, Para is really hot when she’s acting all confident and in command. Kaimu is powerless against her team captain energy

And now, Anubituf is refusing to order the sybillae into battle, and instead asking them to stand by. What is his plan?

Anubituf declares that the Prima will be the second wave of the attack, and asks Guragief to take command while he gives the sybillae their orders personally. A terrific one-two punch to demonstrate his enduring faith in Guragief: both “I agree that we owe the sybillae everything, and must fight alongside them,” followed by “I trust you completely, so much that I give you command of my own ship in battle.” WHEW – glad that conflict didn’t last long, we really need these two on the same side

Aw shit, Anubituf is actually going to fly as a sybilla! As an adult man, this is all kinds of heresy, but I’m sure Anubituf doesn’t give half a shit about that

Anubituf leads the sybillae into a dive below their enemies, as Guragief flanks them by flying the Prima high above, concealing it with the light of the sun. The two compliment each other perfectly, even as they’re far apart

At last united, the team mounts a devastating defense, and force the enemy into retreat

Anubituf and Guragief share a wonderful exchange of looks as the team returns. I’m very happy this show, whose “choose your gender” worldbuilding could easily lend itself to antiquated ideas of gender essentialism, is instead demonstrating the clear give-and-take and mutual affection shared by this male-male couple

And the battle ends in the best possible result: victory in the moment, followed by acceptance of the peace treaty

And Done

Hot damn, go team! Chor Tempest have never seemed stronger than they were throughout this episode, as they all demonstrated their hard-earned emotional strength, as well as how much they care about each other. From Para’s leadership to Neviril’s support of Aaeru to Rea’s emerging role as a rock within the team, nearly all of Tempest’s members felt confident and hopeful this episode, rallying together to win an impossible battle. My one complaint with this episode was that Anubituf’s brief turn away from Guragief and the team felt pretty artificial – like the show just needed a source of drama there, and thus forced Anubituf to conceal his intentions for no particular reason. But given how satisfying the emotional reunion of Anubituf and Guragief turned out to be, I suppose even that dramatic concession ended up serving its purpose. All in all, Simoun is in fine form as it approaches its final stretch!

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