Isla’s forces endure great losses at the hands of the enemy.
What they Say:
“Episode 8 – The Name of the Bird”
The latest and greatest in the “Pilot” series! With today’s top staff and cast, it’s at last being animated! To find the end of the sky and sea, we went on a journey aboard the flying island Isla. A boy who lost everything in the revolution. The lonely girl who calls the wind, who became the revolution’s symbol. The young pilots set out aboard the flying island Isla to find the end of the sky. Friendship, love, adventure… and each of them have something they want to protect. An epic story of love and dogfights begins now.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers).
The enemy forces are about to make their way inland on Isla, and as the sirens blare, Claire makes the bold decision to leave her handlers and, along with Ignacio, rush to everyone’s aid. In the meantime, Kal and the rest of his squad have intercepted the enemy planes and make moves to set up a perimeter with their planes. It’s soon clear, though, that they’re technologically outclassed by the faster, more maneuverable enemy planes, and once they’re surrounded they start getting picked off one by one. Every one of the students is forced to engage the enemy, whether in the air or on Isla’s surface. With their primary aircraft carrier two hours away, Isla is an easy target and they need every last soldier.
Kal and Ari work alongside Fausto to get their squad turned around and ready for retreat. Unfortunately, they can’t catch a break and the enemy continues to diminish their number. Eventually Kal and Ari find themselves alone, outnumbered, and just trying to make it back safely. Ari suffers a dire injury and begins to pass out. Without his sister and navigator, Kal begins to lose his mind with emotion. They’re rescued at the last minute by a mysterious blue fighter plane emblazoned with a seagull insignia, who shoots down all the hostiles in pursuit. It’s by the skin of their teeth that Kal and Ari limp back to their home base.
In the aftermath of the battle, Ari makes a poignant peace offering to her brother as she recovers from her injuries, while the authorities puzzle out a message left by the mysterious pilot who saved their lives. There are others, apparently, who follow the teachings of Saint Aldista, and they wish to offer their aid to the travelers.
Much like the previous episode, this episode is defined by its incorporation of senseless death in a military conflict involving children. There’s kind of a sweeping demolition of most of the supporting cast throughout the battle, with the students’ forces getting decimated in the air and harshly attacked on land as well. Thinking about it though, I feel a little bit like how I felt after watching the first episode of Ga-Rei Zero in that the deaths carried with them some shock value, but not much in the way of lasting emotion. It wasn’t as if I knew many of the characters who were killed that well; they showed up a few times during some of the happier episodes, but almost always felt like window dressing. He was the big guy, she the cute girl, him the rich jerk… to their dying day, they remained archetypes, collateral damage in a story where we can be nearly certain that the central few characters (and at the very least, the main couple) will probably last throughout most or all of the actual series. The emotional stakes were pretty low for this battle, come to think of it. At most I just feel a little bit down that the redemption obtained by a few of the characters (Fausto in particular) was so short-lived.
The real appeal of this episode isn’t in its huge conflict, but instead stuffed inside the quieter more poignant moments that occur after the fighting has stopped. Ari’s acceptance of Kal as her “big brother” is kind of a sweet note to their relationship; to me it doesn’t so much represent a deferral to his character or a loss of her own self-respect, but rather Ari’s new appreciation for the abilities Kal has developed since they left on their journey. Whatever is to come with the two characters, at least it seems as if they’ve made some peace within their familial relationship.
Of more interest to me, since I’m generally much more fascinated by the anime’s story and setting than its characters, is the revelation brought along with the fighter pilot in the seagull plane, whose message of solidarity and promise of more forces like him or her opens up the scenario for a whole slew of new questions to be answered. I’m curious to know who’s out there waiting to help our characters and whether they’re the benevolent beings they seem to be on the surface. Whoever they are, this is definitely an unexpected turn and one I’m very interested in taking.
In Summary:
Sending teenagers to fight their elders’ battles is an aspect of anime that’s been around for a great long while, and as it’s used here its effect isn’t really as dramatic as intended. But offered alongside some of these worn-out cliches are the seeds of new mysteries waiting to be solved and broader horizons for this tale to tread. I’m excited to see what the rest of the second half has to offer.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Acer P235H 1080p LCD Monitor connected via DVI input, Logitech S220 2.1 Speakers, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
