Captain Earth Ep. 3: “I’ve never seen God.”

Word, Teppei. Word.

Episode Summary
Akari joins Globe and comes to live with Tsutomu and the other three kids. After having his sadistic attempts to torture the kids rebuffed by Tsutomu, the Salty Dog representative looks for an opportunity to get rid of Daichi. When Amara attacks, the sketchy man easily convinces Daichi to sortie in the Earth Engine again to protect the planet. Unfortunately, the Earth Engine hasn’t been adequately repaired since its last battle with Moco. Luckily, Teppei saves the day by piloting his own… Kill-T-Gang mecha? Oh, the twist and turns of the plot…

Notes

• The anime is absolutely gorgeous at times. Too bad I still don’t like it.

• It sure feels as though Tsutomu could’ve freed Daichi from the kid’s cuffs a lot earlier, but he instead opts to make some big show of it in front of the Salty Dog representative.

• So the hacker girl is not only Tsutomu’s daughter, she’s also related to some lady aboard the Tenkaido. Strange how she has neither of her parents’ hair color. She’s also a self-professed mahou shoujo, which might be ironic since she’s the most “normal” of the four kids at the center of this show.

• Tsutomu then volunteers to house all four kids in his home. That’s a rather daunting task for a career man who apparently hasn’t even seen his own daughter in the past five years. He’s going to now keep an eye on four high-school-aged kids, two of which have not even had anything remotely close to a normal upbringing. Good luck.

• Speaking of not having a normal upbringing, Hana appears naked in front of her new family without so much of a worry. Naturally, sexual shame is something we learn from society, so a mysterious girl who has rarely seen the world outside the confines of her prison can hardly be expected to worry about such trivialities. Likewise, you’ll notice Teppei has a slightly quizzical look on his face during this scene only because he doesn’t understand the reactions of the people around him. On the other hand, Daichi buries his face in his hands, Tsutomu turns away, and Akari is… dismayed by Hana’s breast size. Daichi even cries for his restraint. Psst, he probably means his boner.

• The island has an old legend about a messenger descending from heaven and leaving behind a huge rock. Inside said rock was an angel. Hana’s probably that angel. Akari even goes, “Which do you think is a stronger heroine, a magical girl or an angel?” This sort of alludes to the tiny rivalry that exists in her mind between her and Hana.

• A cup phone, dude? Really?

• “Hana Mutou is absolutely necessary to the Kivotos Plan. Don’t forget that having her under our control is a top priority for those of us in the Ark Faction.” This anime, man. Wait, there’s more: “Selling the basic theory behind the Machine Goodfellows and the designer children would be enough to earn a fortune.”

• There’s a reason I haven’t touched upon the “symbolism” in this anime: very little of it is actually symbolic of anything. There’s just nothing particularly mysterious about orgone energy or a libido burst. And c’mon, the Macbeth Revolution? You may as well just scream “Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare!” at the top of your lungs. This is not symbolism; it’s all just direct, in-your-face references. This is why I’m so perplexed by the way others have been enamored by the show. There’s nothing to analyze because all the references are straightforward and self-explanatory. Any idiot can look up the definition of Kill-T-Gang, a.k.a. kiltgang.

• As for the sexual symbolism, especially during the fight between Daichi and Moco, sure, it’s there, but then so what? It isn’t enough just to say X represents Y and then just leave it at that. Ah, he punched her and her stomach expanded as if she had become pregnant! Alright. So then what? What does this mean? Why is it important that she became symbolically pregnant? What bigger picture does this imagery tie into?

• For someone who is the commander of his base, Tsutomu doesn’t do a very good job of keeping it together. How does Daichi manage to get into the Earth Engine and sortie without anyone noticing until it’s far too late to stop the kid?

• Oh good, we get to watch the extended robot transformation scene again. To be fair, I didn’t like watching the same shit in Kill la Kill either. I just don’t understand why I would want to watch these sort of scenes more than once. Repeated viewings just seem rather self-indulgent.

• In any case, Salty Dog hopes to sacrifice Daichi’s life in this latest skirmish. Should our protagonist die, it would mean the low-orbit impacters would be deployed next as the planet’s next line of defense. If my hunch is correct, it seems as though the very defense of Earth against an invading alien force is showing signs of becoming a military-industrial complex. Hey, money talks.

• A shoujo channels a great power by singing? You don’t say… but at least Star Driver was goofy.

• So with the help of Hana’s singing, Teppei commands a mecha much like the way the Kill-T-Gang foes control theirs from a distance. So… is Teppei an alien much like Amara and Moco?

• Westvillage: “That earthquake was Blume moving.” Yeah, alright, but what the hell is Blume?

Closing Thoughts
Meh, my feelings on the show haven’t changed. Sure, there’s always lots of foreshadowing at work, but this sort of storytelling just isn’t my cup of tea.