Sunday, November 2, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 5

We begin Episode 5 shortly after Episode 4, with the last dragon falling into the ocean dead. Everyone but Salia writes off the Vilkiss/Ange as dead, and while it's obvious Salia mostly worries about the Vilkiss and Hilda cares about neither it or Ange herself, Jill tells Salia to return to base and they'll send a recovery team for the Vilkiss later.

We then cut to the scene shown in the beginning credits of Episode 4 where Ange meets the guy she woke up naked in bed with, and not only does he seem as uncomfortable as her, he looks somewhat less like a Kira Yamato ripoff up close.

He apologizes for tying her up, citing it as a just in case measure (she IS a soldier now, makes sense), but Ange is more worked up over being naked (the fact her uniform is lying on a table means he removed it from her body, which has her noticeably upset.

He turns around to continue introductions, slips on a bottle on the floor, and lands face first in her crotch. He's profusely embarrassed, but this suddenly causes Ange's adrenaline to kick in as she knees his face, plants her feet in her gut and somersaults him over the bed behind her, and she even manages to snap her bonds as she  grabs her uniform and hauls ass out of makeshift cave like house they are in.

As she runs off, understandably scared and confused, her memory starts to kick in as she soon locates the Vilkiss on the beach. She tries to make it move, realizes it can't, then realizes the throttle is jammed. She checks in, and she finds it's been jammed with several familiar looking undergarments, and that's when she remembers Hilda was behind the attempt to kill her.

Her male captor (now dressed) shows up and tries to ask why she beat the shit out of him (gee, dumbass, we wonder why........), and she whips out her service pistol, shoots at his feet, then tells him the next one isn't a warning shot if he takes another step. He tries to get her to calm down, she still pissed over waking up naked and assumes he wanted to take advantage of her. He tries to protest innocence in the most idiotically inept way possible (guy sounds like a virgin IMO), she only takes this as proof he's a sick bastard, he's still trying to protest his innocence, and that's when a crab pinches one of his toes, and he falls forward, against atop her crotch.

Before I continue, the sequence was hilarious, but more importantly sets the tone for our male friend's character. In short, he's a Butt Monkey.

A quick scene cut later and a few gunshot sounds later, he's tied up to a tree with some jungle vines, she stomps off still convinced he's a sick fuck, and he's trying to protest his innocence to deaf ears.

We then cut back to Arzenal HQ, where we see a scene of Hilda reclining in the base spa looking smug, then we curt to Jill's office, where they are wondering how the hell the Vilkiss went down despite being in good shape with a competent pilot. Jill looks a little emo as tells Mei's recovery team to recover Ange, in a body bag if need be.

Scene cut Mei and the other about to lift off in a VTOL, and Vivian and Ersha offer to help, proving despite Ange's standoffishness and douchery in the prior episode they still have souls, and Mei shrugs and let's them join the team.

Meanwhile, Ange is back with the partially submerged Vilkiss, pissed it doesn't come with an emergency supply kit, then reflects back on Jasmine's admonition a Para Mail is a Norma's casket. It's starts raining, so she realizes she needs shelter. After watching a lightning bolt fry a tree, she clines into another tree hollow nearby in an attempt to stay out of the weather, only for a snake to bite her on the inner thigh, forcing her to keep going, only this time limping slightly due to a snake bite, but that doesn't last long as the bite was poisonous, so she collaspes.

At this point, she figures she's gonna die alone, and that's when we see the guy she tied up earlier (still there), asking if she's alright. She finally asks him to help her, passes out, and his adrenaline kicks in and he frees himself and decides to help her. He realizes she's snakebitten, and in a scene that is amazingly not fanservice laden, he sticks his head between her legs (yeah, I know, sounds wrong) and starts sucking out the poison. He then binds the wound with his shirt, then hauls ass back to his little cave, a wounded Ange in his arms.

She's naked in his bed again one scene later, but he's proving his gentleman credentials by cleaning her off and attending to her wounds, and that's when he sees her ring, gets a flashback to his past, and we learn his mother was a Norma, his father died with her in combat, and we also see a somewhat younger Jill (now we know when she lost that arm), and we also see this isn't the first time he's see the Vilkiss. A brief scene change to the recovery team still looking around, then we cut back to him.

Ange has woken back up (this time somewhat dressed, as as he notices he hurriedly explains (while making dinner) he sucked out the poison, she's still weak and numb, and that NO, he did nothing perverted to her.

Ange is too weak to give him any serious shit, but still gets tsundere briefly when he tries to offer her food, which dies pretty fast as her stomach starts growling. She finally takes a bite, mutters it tastes bad, but she still wants more (amazing how hunger can make you eat anything, huh?), and he's amused as he explains it's sea snake soup (she winces at this, but doesn't spit it out).

He then asks if she's willing to trust him now and not punch, shoot, or tie him up, and she finally softens up a little and tells him she'll think about it, then realizes what he meant exactly by "suck out the poison, so she bites him (hey, she never promised she wouldn't do that).

Meanwhile, the recovery team returns to base to refuel. While this happens, Hilda asks Ersha why she's giving a shit about Ange, and Ersha piles on the guilt trip as she tells Hilda that she knows that Hilda would love to watch her die, but Ersha is a forgiving soul who feels they are all Norma's and have to stick together, shitty grudges be damned, then bitch slaps Hilda's arrogance by saying Ange isn't much different from how Hilda first was. Hilda gets offended and tells Ersha she's been added to her shit list then leaves. Brief cut back to Ange, who is resting, her male friend is outside by a fire, then a cut to the Vilkiss, where it looks like a DRAGON is leering at it from the water.

Come morning, our male friend is working on the Vilkiss, and Ange in nothing but a long shirt walks up and looks on, and he explains bits of Paramail wash up sometimes, which he's using to effect repairs, so he taught himself Para-mail repair Robinson Crusoe style. 

She then realizes he has shown no Mana ability to date and has a lot more Para-mail knowledge then he's admitting to, and he deflects the question by telling her his name is Tusk, and he derails any further questions when mentions some simple repairs will fix her radio so she can contact HQ.

She gets all emo and figures no one will give a shit. He gets all quiet and very tentatively offers his hospitality, and she finally cracks a smile and accepts.

Which is then subverted by another scene where she's back in bed again, and Tusk is tied to a tree with a massive handprint on his face, and as he hangs his head in obvious "why me" mode, it's obvious he tried to offer they share the bed and she was like "oh hell no".

Before I continue, I actually like this guy. Bit naive, not to mention seems to be the show butt monkey, but it's obvious his heart's in the right place.

A few days go by, showing him teaching her how to survive on a deserted isle, they start warming up to each other, we get an amusing scene where he attempt at cooking is so bad it turns nuclear, and he gets a face full of her crotch trying to shield her from the blast, prompting her to get pissed again and shoot at him some more.

We also get a scene where she sees him bathing after finishing her own, and he just continues bathing, unconcerned, which makes her realize her own hypocrisy a little. Later, after some more work on the Vilkiss, she finally goes dere-dere on him by being the one to take care of him by throwing a blanket over him and regarding him with a smile instead of a scowl.

We get a brief scene later that starts to get a little romantic (they were even about to kiss), but that goes out the window as they have to hide as a convoy of VTOLS goes by, holding a DRAGON encased in ice, and as Ange wonders what the hell is going on, a DRAGON shows up and destroys the convoy, obviously saving it's brethren.

Tusk figures its time to run, they try and run into a Scuna class dragon that tries attacking them. A few pistol shots later, then run away as that proves ineffective. Ange wants the Vilkiss up and running, Tusk agrees to do lightning fast repairs since its their best option for not dying, and he hauls ass as Ange whips out her combat knife to go toe to toe with the DRAGON to buy time.

The knife proves useless, and Tusk throws her a spare machine gun as a backup weapon while he continues his repair work. Ange scores some good hits but is still being overpowered, and just as thre DRAGON goes for the coup de grace, her ring glows as Tusk gets the Vikiss to turn on, and the Vilkiss seriously wounds the DRAGON via remote control machine gun fire, and Ange, in what has to be one of her most badass moments to date, grabs her knife, does a leap charge on the dragon, and garrotes it's neck repeatedly.

She almost goes into a blood rage at this point, but Tusk snaps her out of it. Later, Tusk admits he likes her, even if she is a bit violent, and just as he offers to make their living arrangement long term, he radio kicks in, and that's when she gets a call asking to confirm she's alive. She does, requests a rescue, then tells Tusk she realizes the penal battalion is the only home she'll really have (basically, what little denial she had is gone now) , then goes all tsun-tsun on him and tells him all that embarrassing stuff like the venom sucking and crotch shots NEVER HAPPENED.

He hurriedly agrees, then she goes dere-dere and tells him her name (Ange, indicating she's finally accepted her new life). She gets picked up by the obviously happy Vivian, then we cut back to Tusk, who is revealed to have his own full fledged Para-Mail of his own, as well as a combat suit and everything, and apparently, his father fought with his mom together, all but confirming they were BOTH Norma (apparently, there are male Norma too), and he flies off, presumably in Ange's direction (yeah, he fell for her hard), then we cut back to where Ange's has finally defrosted, acts grateful for the rescue, and even calls Vivian by name.

The post credits has Ange comedically bitching about how the stranded on a desert island episode was screwed up by gory battles. Also, if the post credits preview is any indication, it seems the maid she had (Momoko, the one who helped cover for Ange being a Norma) is joining the penal battalion, presumably for the crime of hiding the fact someone was a Norma (which most likely makes her a traitor by their current standards).

Overall, this episode wasn't too bad at all, though the parts where Tusk was getting his ass kicked for Accidental Pervert moments was getting a little old, and we got some nice character development from Ange, who seems to have shed most of her remaining bitchiness.

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