Begins Simoun

I didn’t know much about Simoun before putting it in my queue other than it was mystical sci-fantasy, had some yuri affection, and pretty character designs. While Simoun has set things up in a way for some convenient yuri action, it looks like the show has a lot more going for it than some good old fashioned pandering. I might even use that placeholder word that people like to use when they’re a little suspicious of something while they are being drawn in and wanting to know where it will go — yeah after viewing the first dvd (eps. 1-6), Simoun looks “promising”.

The interesting thing about Simoun, after the initial loser fanboy “hell yes, anime lesbians rawk!”, are the conflicts present in the setting. The heavy industrialized nation of Shoukoku seeks the divine power of Kyuukoku and will use force to obtain the technological knowledge it wants. The main characters of the show are the pilots of the Simoun, the powerful divine aircraft of the nation of Kyuukoku. Often times in fiction, it’s the “bad guys” who appear to have the superior force, but in Simoun the bad guys from Shoukoku, with their antique war machines are the ones who appear out-gunned. All the Simoun pilots of Kyuukoku have to do is draw a holy pattern with their flight path that unleashes massive destructive power on the Shoukoku forces.

The power bases of each nation leaves Simoun with many options as far as thematic messages go, but after six episodes it’s a little premature to say which way the story might unfold thematically. For this set of episodes the story stays on target with describing the world, the characters we will follow, who they will face, and opening up the emotional consequences of it. Really, I’m supremely impressed by it.

Visually, the contrasts of the two nations are done so well. In particular, the visual cues used for Shoukoku with the grimy antique WWI industrialized look of their machines says a lot about their sickened state in comparison to the divine nation of Kyuukoku which appears clean and bright.

While as viewers, we’re on the side of Kyuukoku and their Simoun, the story begins by describing Kyuukoku and the Simoun through the eyes and thoughts of a nameless Shoukoku pilot flying a mission she knows will most likely result in her death. I found starting this way, amazing. That introduction from the Shoukoku pilot makes all the difference in framing how I view “the enemy” of this war. There’s a perspective there we’re getting right from the start. It leaves me with some sympathy toward the aggressors from Shoukoku — I’m guessing they have been abandoned long ago by (or maybe rejected) the divine grace that Kyuukoku seems to enjoy and are now paying the price.

Kyuukoku’s primary form of defense are the Simoun. The Simoun are aircraft powered by a mysterious divine energy source, a source that the people of Kyuukoku themselves do not fully understand. These aircraft require two persons to pilot and the duty of piloting is given to priestesses, young women who still have not decided what gender they are to be when they reach the proper age — all in the world are born female and then permanently decide on a gender around the age of seventeen.

Now this is where the convenient yuri pandering comes in — these priestess pilots first kiss each other and then kiss a green orb on the ship to. This seems to “turn on” the orb to power up the ship and if that’s not enough yuri for you, the pilots also kiss when they disembark. Whether this is holy ritual or simply how the machine is activated, there’s really no way of getting around the yuri for yuri sake going on here, but at least it’s fairly well integrated into the setting of Simoun. Now, considering that the show goes into the effects of war on the pilots, I expect the interpersonal relationships among the pilots to escalate and the Yuri aspects to become more passionate than the kisses to power up and power down the Simoun.

Personally, the yuri aspects don’t bug me. Some of the characters are a bit on the young side, but so long as the activation kisses with those characters seem lust-less, then it really won’t bug me that much. And if the prettier and more developed characters do get passionate, I won’t complain. I will bear the burden of watching such sweet sweet yuri passion. Actually, while I am joking about it, I don’t think the yuri I’ve seen so far is ero or titillating, but rather it was pretty. I found one of these moments between the pair above beautiful in how it conveyed how much they shared and gained strength in each other.

Mein Gott (sorry, also rewatching EVA), this is getting long!

As an opening set of episodes, I found the first six episodes of Simoun drew me into the world. I don’t particularly have a favorite character yet from this large cast. Sometimes, that might be a sign of trouble, but I do feel a connection to the entire squadron, Chor Tempest, and to the overall conflict to come. Though, I do find Aer (the blond above) interesting. At first she comes off as the overly spunky type, but when she gets her hands dirty something interesting happened.

Of course it’s not all roses and just to mention some shortcomings, I’d have to say that with the amount of time given to character introduction and letting the personalities air out without advancing anything outside of Chor Tempest that the show might run out of time to tell the whole epic in 26 episodes. But, that’s a possible complaint and maybe not one that actually matters if they do indeed have the pacing locked down throughout.

The potential upside of watching Simoun looks enormous. Oh and I find the seiyuu cast fantastic. Okay, I really can’t judge how well the performances really are, but I’m thankful that the cast is not that squeaky and I like what voices were used for which character.

Finally, why the hell is Media Blasters taking so long in between releases. These discs have no English dub, so why so the extra long gap?