CROSS ANGE: Rondo of Angel and Dragon Episode Thirteen: Arzenal in Flames

Arzenal in Flames

First Aired: January 3rd, 2015

Synopsis: A fleet lead by Julio show up to Arzenal, ostensibly to relieve the Norma but in reality to kill them all. Jill tells anyone who wants to surrender to do so, but everyone's ready to fight. She heads below Arzenal, where a ship is hidden, and starts preparing it. Meanwhile, Hilda, Chris, and Rosalie start fighting back against the humans who have infiltrated Arzenal. Some humans capture Vivian and take her away. Ange, meanwhile, is escorted away by Salia, who says that she has to get to the Vilkiss and escape, but Momoka saves Ange. Embryo appears before Ange and tells her where to find Julio. She makes her way to the Vilkiss, and after saving Hilda's squad, pinned down by fire, she flies off to go after Julio.

Tusk manages to save Vivian from the people who have captured her, and rides out over the water with her. Ange is still fighting cannon fodder as she makes her way to Julio, but Salia shows up and tries to stop her. Ange incapacitates Salia, saying that she's grown to like Arzenal and that she wants to defend it, then activates a power-up for the Vilkiss, turning it blood red. Hilda's squad, meanwhile, flies out to assist, but Chris is shot in the head by a wounded soldier as she leaves. Ange manages to take out ships and reach Julio, and forces him to call off the attack. She tries to kill him but Embryo shows up in his own mech and stops her. He sings the Endless Song and then kills Julio. By now Tusk has nearly reached Ange, and he tells her not to engage with Embryo, but Embryo fires on Tusk, seemingly destroying him and Ange as she flies in to save him. Elsewhere, Jill finishes activating her ship, the Aurora, and says that she'll send out the coordinates of where to meet up to everyone in battle.

 

Subplots:

• Embryo approaches both the dying Chris and a distraught Ersha, healing a dead Norma child that the latter is cradling. We don't see what happens afterwards.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• We get a new OP this episode, which makes sense given we're roughly halfway through the series. It's fine, I guess? The new credits are pretty much the same as the first - show pictures of people while playing dramatic music
• Yeah yeah, I know I didn't actually post this on April Fool's and this is a post I'm writing in the future. Things have been busy recently; so sue me.

Review: I mentioned last episode that I'm not super hot on Embryo, and I've gotta say that things are pretty much the same here. I get that we want to change the scope of the series - we can't just have Ange fighting DRAGONs all season and then suddenly resolve everything in the last episode or two - but most of what he does isn't that interesting to me. There's all this stuff about him singing the Endless Song, and not wanting Ange to waste her anger or whatever, and it's not really what I'm here for. I hope that he gets more interesting as time goes on, but I'm worried that he's going to end up blabbing on and on about destiny, or mankind's purpose, or some faux-philosophical crap that really isn't that deep or interesting.

What is good is, as usual, the atmosphere of the fights and the environment within Arzenal. Yeah, this show gets a bit ecchi at times, but the fights are still gritty and not portrayed as a power fantasy - Hilda and her crew get pinned down by fire, Momoka is almost killed by Julio's troops, and we see Norma kids get slaughtered. Chris's death is also fairly unexpected (assuming she hasn't been saved by Embryo, but you know what I mean) and helps to raise the stakes a bit. It's very engaging, and I'm glad that it doesn't pull its punches.

Looking forwards, Arzenal is destroyed but we've now got a new base, the Aurora. Will the Norma continue to fight DRAGONs, or are they going to rebel against the humans? What exactly is Embryo up to, and will he be the main antagonist now that Julio has been killed? I'm keen to see where we go from here - the show feels like it's still got plenty of potential it's willing to tap, and I trust it to be enjoyable enough in doing so.