Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta – 11-12

Team foreveralone

I wrote my thoughts on episode 11 a looong time ago, but never got around to posting them. So here they are separately from episode 12 because I don’t want to rewrite anything to make this post flow better. Hooray laziness. I didn’t have much to say about episode 12 anyways, so things kind of worked out.

Episode 11

Obviously, the Isla head officers in charge of this expedition are all participants in the “worst military command ever” competition. Why the hell wouldn’t they trust a student report if they’re going to force them to be a part of the battle? Also, wasn’t it a student plane/flare that originally saved all of their asses (and was subsequently shot down afterwards) when they couldn’t figure out where the enemy was because they’re all terrible at this whole military tactics thing? Though of course, the students flying so close to the main ship in order to observe it was also a really, really terrible idea on their part. Couldn’t they have done that from afar? And maybe not have dumped their weapon/ammo over the edge of the plane?

Rainbows make everything better.

Well, there was a scare with Benji (yay for short nicknames) and Noriaki, but what else is new. Hell, they even almost died twice, because Koiuta apparently enjoys screwing with people. The two definitely had their death flags raised this episode after the confession. …Or at least, Benji had his up and Noriaki had the misfortune of being in the same plane as the guy with the death flag. But anyways, it seemed rather likely that they would join the long list of side characters that died in this battle. Fortunately, they were injured, but relatively unharmed, minus an arm. How did Benji lose an arm while the rest of the plane is relatively fine? Who even knows. At least the scarf ended up than being more than just a marker in order to distinguish Benji’s plane/character from the other ones. Plus the one of the teachers saved them (since no one else was even going to bother looking for them apparently because again, “worst military command” competition), so everything worked out.

Apparently the pink eyeshadow was also attached to the wig. Somehow.

Kal powered up apparently. He’s never shown any sign that he was actually a really talented pilot before. In fact, the last time he flew a plane, he almost didn’t land properly. However, the rage of having even more side characters killed unlocked his hidden talent or something. Plus he wasn’t the only one with a ridiculously convenient power up. Claire finally regains her wind powers! Due to… true love… or something. Why did they even disappear in the first place? Who knows. Well, at least Kal has forgiven her, she’s come to terms with the guilt of ruining his life, and now they can be happy together provided that they don’t die tragically in the finale or anything.

Episode 12

But suddenly there’s absolutely no fighting, so maybe it’s okay that Isla was full of incompetent military staff. Maybe the Sky Clan killed off pretty much everyone side-character wise, but things seem weirdly peaceful after they made a deal about Claire. She was pretty okay with going over there considering how many of her friends they killed due to their stubbornness. Perhaps the true enemy here was culture differences. …Even though we know next to nothing about the Sky Clan in that regard. Perhaps due to Claire going over there and doing whatever she’s destined to do, everyone can get along now.

It seems like they’re focusing on the lesser issue actually, in regards to that. Rather than learning how Kal is doing without Claire, the big thing here seems to be that Claire is going to a completely foreign place as a diplomat (or something of the sort). Shouldn’t we have seem at least a little bit of how Claire is doing over there? Or what “over there” is actually like? It’s like the whole Sky Clan thing was ignored after they stopped attacking Isla. They never even explained why the Sky Clan was attacking in the first place other than something to do with territory or… something.

Admittedly, this scene with the petals was cool to watch. 

And the whole adventure was because… well, hell if I know. I don’t know if it was because this series is terrible at explaining lore, or I just wasn’t paying attention, but I honestly have no idea why they flew Isla right into the end of the world. How the hell are they going to get home? Do they have enough food/fuel to last all the way back, or do they have some kind of pit stop regarding the Sky Clan or Levamme? But oh well, the characters accomplished what they set out to do (whatever it was), Kal and the remaining characters are proper pilots, and everything is okay now. Hopefully Claire is doing okay too, though apparently whatever it she’s doing is less important to the plot than watching a giant island disappear in a pink light. If only Claire had regained her powers a couple of episodes ago. Maybe all of those character deaths could have been avoided.

Well, that’s one way to render all of the previous character deaths meaningless. Everything was solved peacefully with seemingly minimal effort, and nothing that happened before seems to matter anymore. Of course, Kal and Claire’s relationship matters in the long run (and the same applies in regards to Igna and Ari), but everything else? I don’t even think it was mentioned once in episode 12. I suppose it’s been 6 months and everyone’s over their trauma by now for the most part. But at the same time, it seems like everything was resolved way too quickly and conveniently. Especially considering all of the time and angst the fighting took up. So on the bright side, the resolution between Kal and Claire was cute, Igna seems like he’s grown over his angst, and Ari apparently had a thing for Kal that she’s hopefully gotten over by this point in time. Now I guess the final thing to sort out if Kal and Claire’s reunion. Hopefully they won’t just breeze over it like they did with everything else.

At least we know that Ari is (probably) still around. Not that anyone is in any danger anymore.

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.