Monday, November 10, 2014

Cross Ange Episode 6

Episode 6 of Cross Ange begins with Emma and Jasmine overseeing a delivery of supplies, and while they are doing that, Momoka (Ange's former maid) is trying to avoid detection.

Later, as Ange returns from yet another sortie, Rosalie, Hilda, and Chris (the three who h8 Ange with a passion) are pissed and Rosalie almost throws a screw at Ange's head, but then the alarms sound and inform everyone there is an intruder.

A scene later, Momoka is surrounded and activates her Mana to defend herself, and Ange walks by and recognizes her. Momoka takes a moment to adjust to Ange's new look, then runs up to her and hugs her, while Ange has o_0 look on her face.

Later, Emma is pulling up Momoka's records, gets off the phone with the higher-ups, then realizes they are fucked if Momoka returns to the free world, as that will possibly spill the beans about what happens to the Norma, why they have to fight the DRAGONS, and why they are working so hard to keep NORPs (mana users) from discovering that.

Before I continue, I'm just throwing a theory out here: The MANA users are drawing the DRAGONs from another dimension, the higher ups in society figured this out and shit themselves, and rather than admit their use of the power that vastly upgraded their standard of living brought doom on their own heads, they made the Norma scapegoats, trumped up some bullshit prejudice making Norma out to be baby eating corpse molestors, then used the Norma as meat shields to save themselves and bullshitted the public to hide this dirty little secret.

Anyway, Jill, who is in attendance, tells Emma no use shitting themselves over what's going on, might as well let Momoka stay for awhile (with Momoka ignorant her visit may now be permanent to preserve a dirty little secret).

Meanwhile, back with Ange, Momoka is struggling for a conversation topic with the laconic Ange, who is pointedly not talking with Momoka due to having a part of her life she thought gone forever return (and the shock seems understandable). Momoka seems to not understand this and keeps trying to compliment Ange on her more badass appearance, and as they reach Ange's room, Momoka is under a really deluded impression the penal battalion is some sort of cushy rehabilitation center, so when she discovers Ange's spartan room, she's shocked, and all of her attempts to help Ange change, fold her clothes, and do what she did before Ange's life went to hell only start pissing Ange off, which, given she's gotten used to doing things the hard way by now, is rather understandable.

Momoka is still not getting it at ALL, so Ange starts correcting Momoka, first telling her that she's Ange, who the hell is this Angelise, and that she's just following orders like a good Norma.

Before I continue, I'd just like to mention Momoka, if she's representative of the Mana users of the society, has no fucking clue how shitty the life of a Norma is, and while she seems a decent enough person, she has no IDEA just what sort of shit Norma go through, which adds weight to my theory above IMO.

Ange finally breaks down and realizes Momoka is probably going to stick around forever if need be and realizes Momoka is probably an outcast like herself (but for different reasons), and we also learn Ange feels she's responsible for the kingdom going to hell, which, while it's true her being revealed as Norma did not help at all, the coup d'etat had already been planned, she just provided the usurpers some added justification. Then, before she passes out, she echoes Jill's sentiments that Momoka was used by her parents to hide the fact Ange was a Norma (which Ange now understandably resents), telling Momoka to use the other bed,

Next day, Momoka is still in shock over how Ange is eating standard chow in a mess hall instead of nicer food, and Vivian throws in some comic relief as Ersha expalins what a maid is to her, so she jokingly refer to her tablemates (Salia and Ersha) as her maids, causing them be like "oh hell no".

Momoka gets told to fuck off if she doesn't have any money to buy her meal with, and when she gets explained to just how everyone works on commission at Arzenal, she only manages to look like an idiot as she starts trying to get Ange a seat at Hilda and her toadies table, and for once, Ange agrees with them Momoka needs to shut up, and they take turns telling Momoka she's full of shit.

Hilda and her groupies are actually amused by how Momoka is basically Ange before reality check, and while Ange blows off their comments, Momoka gets so flustered she passes out.  Later, as Ange is explaining how the economy works for Norma, Maggy and some others are running a gurney with a wounded trooper to the infirmary, apparently needing her cyber arm reattached, and as Momoka gets a good look at someone bloodied up for the first time, her hamburger (and ketchup) look way less appetizing, and that's when realization finally hits how unpleasant a Norma really lives, so when asks Ange the truth, Ange tells her nonchalantly "Hunting" and that she has no idea when she'll wind up a bloody mess one day, and Momoka is left in shock, wondering just how much Ange has changed since they last saw each other.

Later on, in an attempt to get her reality back in order, she tries to surprise Ange as she walks out of the shower with a bunch of fancy dresses like in her princess days, but Ange is annoyed and wants them returned as she stomps back into the shower. Momoka still DOES NOT GET IT and redecorates Ange's room to be more royal, but Ange wants it BACK THE WAY IT WAS. Later, Momoka, still being a dumbass, tries to prepare a formal meal for Ange, but Ange upends the table and stomps off.

Later, at the shooting range, as Salia is hitting bulleyes and envying Ersha's bust (even though it's making Ersha's aim terrible), Ange is doing not too badly herself as Hilda and co are whispering so Ange can hear them, revealing what we already know to her: Momoka is dead if she ever returns home since everything about Arzenal and DRAGONs are classified, and then Hilda directly faces Ange and trolls her rather effectively by saying Momoka is just another person who is going to die thanks to being around Ange. Ange tries to ignore this, but her aim goes off horribly as shorthand it didn't work.

Later, at another mealtime, Momoka tries military food again, discovers it sucks, and Ange decides to quit fighting Momoka, figuring Momoka is going to be dead soon anyway, so what the hell. Later, in the bath, we discover Momoka has a cut on her arm from her younger days, which Ange patched up by tearing up a dress and binding the wound, an act Momoka was so touched by she never healed the wound with Mana, which also goes to show Ange was a fundamentally decent person even when she was at the age for short pants, especially since she told Momoka then she was irreplaceable.

Ange is surprised Momka remembers, and her conscience flares up as she tells Momoka (by name) to get the hell out of there. Later, this event is spoiled by another attack incoming, and as they prepare to sortie, Hilda's groupies resume the trolling by telling Ange to do well to earn the money for Momoka's tombstone.

As Jill informs Ange via comms that her watching over Momoka is complete, military hardass Ange is flying the Vilkiss, trying to convince herself Momoka was full of bullshit.

Later, we find out Chris and Rosalie are fucking pissed Ange was a bitch to them during combat, and Salia is pissed at Ange too, for defying orders and still managing to kill every DRAGON by herself.

Later, as Momoka is about to board a military transport (which, as Jill notes, is basically where Momoka is going to be executed since the soldiers have primed weapons on their back, complete with bayonets at the ready), that's when Ange shows up drops four huge bags of money at Momoka's feet and attempts to buy Momoka's safety since her conscience kicked in irregardless. Everyone else is 0_0 over this, but Jill (having figured out Ange would do that to save Momoka) calls off the transport, and when Emma is wondering why the hell Jill allowed that, Jill reveals her own inner resentment for a bit and tells Emma "anything can be bought for money around here". Emma decides it's not worth fighting (and takes the money with her).

As the credits start to roll, Ange insists Momoka calls her Ange now (since she's staying permanently), and this gets promptly ignored.

Next episode looks like we are finally going to focus on Salia, who has been suppressing a lot of resentment and depression (over not being able to pilot the Vilkiss and Ange outdoing her by a fair margin it seems), and that looks like it'll be interesting. We also get some more hilarious bitching from Ange about how the director of the show seemed to think the episode was good as long as it had a fanservicey bathing scene, which is amusing because for a fanservice scene, it was rather understated IMO.

Anyway, this episode had some nice character development and world building, looking forward to the next.

P.S. - For a series that started off on a horribly bad foot, it's actually gotten surprisingly better with time, and while it's not AAA anime, it's not as abysmal as I feared either.

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