After the opening credits, Ange wakes up, steps outside for a moment for some sun, sees some DRAGONs flying by, and is totally "meh, whatever" at their presence at this point. As she heads back inside, she winds up sitting on Tusk (who she forgot she tied up in his futon to prevent him from doing any funny business, turns out she STILL hasn't forgiven him for the whole "sex ed" incident), decides to untie him, and in the process he trips and falls atop her.
At this point, Sala, Kaname, and Naga walk in, see what looks like Ange and Tusk getting it on, and Sala trolls by telling them to continue, prompting Ange to palm strike Tusk retarded and literally start kicking the poor guy's ass.
Scene cut later, we head to where Vivian and her mom Lamia are having breakfast, and as Lamia tells Vivian she needs to chew properly, Sala and the others walk in for breakfast as well. Tusk is all ^_^ over the food, but Ange whispers in his ear it might poisoned or something (and elbows Tusk top keep him from mentioning he's been eating emergency rations for so long) and she's worried about Vivian, as apparently Ange is paranoid this is lower their guard and gain their trust by killing them with kindness. However, hunger finally forces Ange to dig in.
Later, as Vivian heads off with her mom to see the house she was born in, Ange finally demands Sala drop the crap and inform her of her real plans. Sala says they can't fight on an empty stomach, and a scene cut later, we see they will be fighting in a massive arena (read "arcade") to do stuff like bowling (lol, the bowling balls looks like Haros from the Gundam series), miniature golf, and so on, and while Ange asks Sala what they'll be competing over, an amusing background note reveals golf is a pricey sport.
Anyway, Sala ask Ange if she'll join them in rescuing Aura from Embryo, and points out stopping him is the answer to a lot of their mutual issues (it is, for the most part). Ange is cynical about this just being a ploy to use her, and Sala admits as much, but admits she knows Ange would hate that, hence the option she gives her: Win in a series of games against me, and you get your freedom. Lose, you become my bitch.This pushes all of the proper buttons, and Ange agrees.
First up is tennis: tie. Baseball: tie, Indy racing: tie.Golf: tie. Ping Pong: tie. Crane Game: tie.
And then we get to Twister. Yes, TWISTER.
Both Sala and Ange are pretty uncomfortable but are doing fairly well, and Sala admits she's glad to have a rival who can fight on her level. Just then, Sala uses her tail to touch another spot on the Twister mat, and Ange is pissed this is "cheating" and takes a bite out of her tail. Sala is in obvious pain (tails are pretty sensitive apparently), and both her and Ange quickly get over it as the intermission cues.
Later, as they are showering, Ange mutilates Sala's full name (this annoys her), and when Sala expresses interest in playing laria (sport from Ange's world), Ange tells her, as a Norma, she's barred from doing so. Sala thinks that is shitty what Ange has to go through as a Norma and asks Ange if she wants to do what she once had the power to do (as royalty) and end that shit, and Ange is like "why bother, not a princess anymore". Sala is like "so, gonna sit on your hands then?", and Ange is all "......".
We cut to Vivian and Lamia, and the former is in the middle of telling her about her days at Arzenal, and that when shit starts to shake, and as Ange and Sala go outside, they see the dimension rifts opening up around the Tower of Aura. Sala heads off in her Paramail, Kaname and Naga take Ange and Tusk back to HQ to get theirs, and Ange and Tusk take this opportunity to hop in their own, ignoring Kaname telling them the Vilkiss isn't fully repaired yet.
Meanwhile, as the dimension rifts are continuing (looks like the worlds are trying to merge), Sala tells the people to escape to the temple. Vivian's mom takes a hit for her daughter while the dimensional rifts are still tearing stuff up (and apparently killing those caught in their wake, or at least teleporting them to other side), and the Hugh Priestess tells Sala to retreat since she' pivotal to rescuing Aura, Sala doesn't want to, and Ange shows up to bail her out.
Tusk confirms Embryo is fucking around with time and space and killed his family in a similar manner, which has Ange now really worried about Vivian. Speaking of her, she's by her partially buried mother, asking why she took that hit, and Lamia responds it was her duty as a mother. Tusk heads down to evac them while Ange and Sala are like "how do we stop this?"
Ange suggests pulling out their Wave Motion Guns, but Sala is like "WAY TOO POWERFUL, TEMPLE WILL BE BLOWN UP TOO". Ange is like "so cut power to 70%", and Sala is like "STILL TOO POWERFUL", leaving Ange in facepalm mode.
Meanwhile, Tusk and Vivian are still digging Lamia out, and that's when Ange has a lightbulb moment and suggest she fire a counterblast to cancel out the first shot by Sala once it's served it's purpose. Sala still ain't sure that's gonna work, and that's when Ange throws Sala's princess speech right back at her, and that convinces Sala.
Sala starts singing and is powering up as Ange takes position as well. As Sala's reaching firing mode, Ange starts singing herself. As they chorus together, Sala cooks off a blast, and as she yells for Ange to follow up, the Vilkiss craps out due to not being at full spec, and Ange demands the Vilkiss get off it's ass and fix itself, dammit.
THIS ACTUALLY WORKS!
The Vilkiss fully repairs itself, and as Ange hits the chorus of the song again, she fires her counter blast.
Scene cut later, the Tower of Aura is a wreck, but the dimension rift is stopped. Later, as Tusk watches Vivian reunites safely with her mother, Sala is impressed with Ange helping out and is shocked the song Ange sang was helpful, since it's the one Embryo ended the world with, and Ange tells her that her mother taught her that song, saying it would show her the right path. Sala responds the Song of the Stars was taught them by Aura for the same reason, and as the credits roll, they bury the hatchet, become friends, and start mutilating each others names (loled at Sala calling Ange Anko, or "red bean paste")
The next episode preview has an amusing catfight between Sala and Ange giving each other hilariously insulting names while we see more asskicking, Embryo torturing Riza (he discovered her double agent act), and what looks like Ange and Sala bash brothering up Ange's world (with Tusk and Vivian alongside).
That whole bit with the challenges was way too obvious with some of its references I felt (Yeah Sunrise, we get it. You have to shoehorn all your mecha shows into this one). And that Robots Wars thing is actually a crane game. You can see the crane arm in it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction, Phil, that part of the scene went by pretty fast for me, as I was briefly pausing every few scenes to write this review, have corrected the review as well.
DeleteAlso, yeah, the mecha references are getting so tiresome it's becoming self referential masturbation by Sunrise at this point.
Yeah, but Sunrise has been doing this sort of shit since the 1990s or so. Though i am surprised they've been digging up some more obscure shows though (for example, those two robots in the skill crane scene come from here: http://letsanime.blogspot.ca/2010/11/welcome-to-galatt.html).
DeleteThey even seem intent on making shout outs to their non-mecha shows, hell one of the lines from the last ep was a reference to InuYasha. Next thing you know there'll be a Cowboy Bebop reference, and that'll be the point where I'm convinced the references won't ever stop.
Me, I can tolerate a few shoutouts in limited doses, but yeah, Cross Ange has been avalanching that nonstop.
DeleteI can live with that in shows where shoutouts are kinda the point of the show, like Genshiken and Lucky Star, but yeah, Sunrise keeps whacking off to their own work to a retarded degree, and I concur, it's getting annoying as hell.
It's not Sunrise, but Fukuda self-referencing.
ReplyDelete