Episode 27: "The Lights in the Sky Are Stars"
"We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before. Little by little, we advance a little further with each turn. That's how a drill works!"
Just some disparate thoughts in a bullet-pointed list from me to cover bits and pieces in the final episode.
• Lordgenome's megasized mecha's name is subtitled on the Anime Limited Blu-ray as "Lazengann Overload". I pondered the possibility that the name could also been translated as "Lazengann Overlord", because both "lord" and "load" (as well as "road", actually) would be rendered in katakana as ロード (rōdo, the pronunciation of which is explained in an earlier post of mine.)
• Another bit I love in this episode is the part where Simon smashes drill after drill fighting against the Anti-Spiral's final form. This highly charged sequence shows Simon and humankind's endless determination. It wouldn't matter if Simon had broken one, one hundred, one thousand or one million drills: he was not going to give in.
• Simon's line "My drill is the drill that creates the heavens" is a bit of wordplay in Japanese. The usual line, "Your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens" uses the Japanese verb tsuku. The episode 27 alternative, though, adds an extra syllable on the end to make tsukuru, which is to make or create.
On a related note, "Ten wo Tsuke" is the title of a familiar piece of music from the series:
[SPOILER="YouTube video"][MEDIA=youtube]V_Z5RFBAX2M[/MEDIA][/SPOILER]
• It's amazing how, after escalating the scale of humanity's battle against the Anti-Spiral race to super-colossal size, the series strips it all right back down to basics and settles everything using the smallest robot in the show. Movie #2 takes this one layer deeper to utterly spectacular effect.
• During the scene of Simon and Nia's wedding, I love the rather unexpected design choice of having Yōko wear a suit rather than a dress as you'd probably expect.
• I had completely forgotten that the kid Nakim from the Yōko flashback episode is now a Grapearl pilot. It seems that everyone's been inspired to step up and make something of themselves. It's very difficult with only a single sound to go on, but I think that Gimmy's voice actor in the epilogue might be Simon's original VA. This would fit a theme of sorts, seeing as how Rossiu ends the series with his mentor's voice actor.
• Right to the end, Simon the nurturer and giver of inspiration. Always a believer in the power of hope.
"Sure you can. The lights in the sky are stars. ... Stars where our Spiral cousins are waiting for us."
