I can accept that none of them died, I can accept Takemikazuchi wiping out a platoon, I can accept Hopkins as a Roman hating bastard that still has a sense of decency for Helvetians, I can accept that Kanata was able to confuse for a while, but what I find hard to accept is how Amazing Grace caused such a long pause and how both Roman and Helvetian Field Armies were insight of each other but not shooting, either optics are just that bad or they have trouble drawing distances.

THAT Anime Blog

This is just… unbelievable. The ending went well enough, I guess. It was a bit melodramatic, but okay. Then the action starts, and the spider somehow is totally fixed again. Despite that, it’s not something that was too bad, and I had seen far worse endings at that point. However, then Kanata started playing the trumpet. And every single soldier stopped and listened. What a headdesk moment!

Star Crossed

I think it would have been more impacting if Rio had left earlier in the series rather than being gone for only 1.75 episodes. And the fact that Kanata’s performance of “Amazing Grace” in the final episode, though beautifully done, was able to get the attention of and halt an army of hundreds or even thousands of soldiers in giant robots was kind of far-fetched, as was Rio’s grand reappearance at the exact moment that the army was going to resume their attack.

Anime Yume

Pretty much everyone talking about the last episode of Sora no Woto is hung up on that final scene. Kanata playing Amazing Grace to stop the war with Rio coming in at the last minute with a peace treaty, of course it’s bloody corny. I honestly expected exactly this to happen. Amazing Grace was always going to make a final emphatic return. Rio was always going to come back and save the day with a peace treaty. That doesn’t make the ending any better, just annoyingly eye-rollingly inevitable. However, in it’s defence, it did make Amazing Grace relevant to both sides in the last episode by having Aisha playing it on the trumpet. This wasn’t something they pulled out their arse, they did plan this relatively well. Still doesn’t stop it from being cornily convenient though.

My main complaint is that the ending was too happy. Both versions of the legend imply some degree of sacrifice by the maidens, and the version Yumina told in particular had a bittersweet ending. The ending here, however, was devoid of that. I think what really got me was Rio’s return in the epilogue. I was okay with the combination of Amazing Grace and Rio ending the conflict since both were solutions that they were building up in past episodes, but I don’t like how how the emperor just let his fiancee return to her old military post. I thought the point was that Rio was giving up her own life by marrying him to ensure peace and save lives, but now that she’s back, there’s no element of sacrifice left. They didn’t need her to return to have a happy ending, and by doing so they made it too happy, in an artificial sort of way.

Random Curiosity

Slightly different take on the ending. That final scene with Rio returning to the outpost felt like nothing more than a bit of fanservice to have a surgery sweet ending, especially since the ending credits were rolling while this scene was playing. This is a very fair point by Omni even if this wasn’t how the legend of the Flame Maidens was supposed to have been portrayed in the story, but there are other people who felt the story of the flame maidens played out in a different way altogether.

I had wondered as the series progressed how the writers where going to incorporate the legend of the flame maidens without sending the series into BS mode , so I was quite delighted when Aisha played the role of the demon/angel, with the girls protecting her instead of killing her.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

This version of how the Flame Maidens tale was told in the story makes more sense than Omni’s version with Rio, although it still makes Rio’s return awfully artificially happy anyway. However very few of the writers I checked out made this connection between the tale of the Flame Maidens and protecting Aisha, although maybe they just didn’t write about the fact that they did (Crusader from THAT did mention it but he writes so much that he’ll obviously cover everything he thought). Maybe I’m just thick and looking back, it does certainly work quite well. However for as big of a deal as they made out of the Flame Maidens tale, this felt like an awfully odd way of re-telling it with the platoon at Seize. It’s probably because I was looking out for something a lot…bigger and more dramatic as a retelling of the Flame Maidens tale that I feel a little bit dissapointed by this version.

The theme of ‘the world will end/have ended’ wasn’t developed as much as the show should have making it seem a bit overdramatic and maybe to some tiresome. More than once it is mentioned the ‘end of the world’, however, the lack of information on the biggest point of concern in which the story heavily relies suffered from under development with only a couple of scenes such as Filicia’s flashbacks finally shedding light on the war. Also how they disregard other aspects such as explaining the urban legends and even going as far as mentioning angels (even showing proof) in the last episode by quickly introducing elements that we weren’t sure of their existence in the first place make the story seem sloppy or just something we  have to ‘accept as it is’

Just as Planned

Heck, the world seemed more interesting than the characters (…well actually it still is), and I think there’s quite a good opportunity to expand the universe here. Not like they haven’t capitalized on it, with a DS game coming out and all. And there’s also still 2 more unaired episodes as well, not like it’ll probably contribute anything big to the whole story or whatsoever.

Kurogane’s Anime Blog

For the series as a whole, you can divide it into three parts. The fascinating world that the characters lived in that was unfortunately never fully developed and took the back seat in towards the end of the series. Then the characters, who gave the show its tag of being military K-ON (a tag the show still hasn’t been able to fully shake off) thanks to their moeblob appearance and conforming to archetypes. They grew on you as the series went on though (my personal favourite being Rio) but were never great characters in the true sense. The last part was the actual story which started off interesting but, as we can see from many of the reactions from people here, ending very disappointingly.

Episode 7 told me that Sora no Woto would be the best show of the season no matter what, and I even wrote this on it out of pure shock and joy. Episode 8 does not count.

Paper Flower

Somehow this manages to sum Sora no Woto up quite well. One episode would be fantastic only for the next episode to be poor. Each part of its overall picture excelled in some areas only to fail in others. Even those who generally like the show a lot can’t go crazy over the show because they know the faults are there as well. An average score of 7.51 on MAL tells one story, looking at the breakdown of the ratings shows you the true picture. For 7.5 shows, it can be split into categories of ‘love it or hate it’ and ‘kinda good all round’, both of which result in the same average score. Sora no Woto falls into the latter category. It has its fans but honestly, I’d be surprised if this was remembered several years down the line. It’s sad to think that it might only be remembered as military K-ON but I can certainly see that happening.

And that’s the end of this metablogging project. It was interesting to try out but, as I said here, it didn’t really suit me. Finally, I’d like to make a special call out to Omni from Random Curiosity who, if I didn’t quote him in an episode, I certainly stole his screencaps. This monster blogger is retiring at the end of the season and now I’m left in panic wondering where I’m going to go to steal screencaps when I’m too lazy to take my own.

But yeah, finally, Soranowoto’s living up to it’s “war anime” billing. Good thing I stuck through it. Now I hope to at least see some people dying before Rio inevitably stops the war with her trumpets efforts.

Kurogane’s Anime Blog

Rio stopping this war seems inevitable in one sense, but stupid in the other. We’ll have to wait and see~

Filicia was supposed to be the combat experienced leader that would keep the girls as safe as possible even in a war situation, and make no mistake, once the girls found a Roman soldier inside Helvetia territory Filicia should have known they were back at war. Once Kanata, Kureha, and Filicia searched A’ishah’s pack even a fool could tell by the light nature of her load that she was an advance scout and the main force would be close by. It might have been a different story if they found the scout lugging an 80 pound pact with a few weeks of food in it but that wasn’t the case. Filicia didn’t call HQ and report the incident. Hell, the least she could have done was put the fortress and town on higher alert, she could have sent the girls out on a rotating basis checking for the enemy. What was she going to do, just sit around like normal and wait till the enemy captured the town and fortress and end up having the girls captured, raped, killed, or maybe all three.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

Very fair point. Part of me believes that Felicia has some extra information we don’t know about that caused her to take this decision, but it would have to be a fucking good reason not to do so. I expected nothing else from the bright-eyed Kanata and Noel clearly wasn’t in her right state of mind over the course of the episode, but Felicia really should have kept her rational head. I’m with Kureha on this one, they should have contacted command when they found the scout. It’s easy to forget with so little happening in Seize but they are at war. It’s not much use to your young female soldiers saying you will take full responsibility when enemy soldiers have taken the town and are killing and raping and stuff.

Right now my own constructed timeline is that 200 some years ago the Angel of the Apocalypse (Rodan) gave civilization and the ecology of the Earth a good thrashing before it was finally killed, possibly by fire maidens with a Type 0 tank, from the ashes rise competing states one of which becomes Rome and another becomes Helvetia. Religion takes over as science and technology decline, the religious question of the “purpose” of Rodan causes a schism that prompts conflict (though wars are not necessarily religious in nature they provide an additional dimension to the political struggle of Helvetia for continued independence and Roman Imperial ambitions).

THAT Anime Blog

Relatively similar to what I had in mind. Although the last episode might prove otherwise, these Angels (or single Angel? I find it hard to believe that one Angel caused all that destruction, although I’m hardly an expert on the destructive capabilities on Angels. Depends on the strength of their AT Field) probably no longer exist in this world and the ending probably won’t have a supernatural twist, although it would be interesting if it did to see how they worked it in. In that sense, this world (which at this stage is almost certainly earth) has gone through its terrible apocalypse and is now on the road to recovery rather than the slow death I originally thought it was on. I’m tempted to say that without this current war the world would be in better shape but when you remember the amount of technological advances made in WWII and tie that in with the main reason people are working on the lost technology is to build war weapons de-values that theory.

And I must say, Japanized German sounds surprisingly good. The European languages all sound very different when the Japanese try to speak them. Their Dutch is fairly good, mainly because a lot of our vowels sound similar (for an example of that I direct you to a certain episode of Samurai Champloo). German also survives fairly well, as this episode showed. English is a bit different, as it often gets raped by voice actors who have no idea about their pronunciation. By far the worst I’ve heard, however, is French. Seriously, whenever the Japanese try to say it, it’s not French anymore. Its just become gibberish.

Star Crossed Anime Blog

Curse my total lack of multilingual abilities! I’ve always wondered what different languages sound Japanized. Of course I dare say there’s several levels of skill in each language depending on the VA you hire because the levels of Engrish you hear vary hugely. I wonder how well the Count in Gankutsuou pulled off his french opening lines? I got the interesting experience of hearing the Irish language in Durarara recently but with a grand total of 4 words spoken, one of them simply being a repeat, it was hard to get a guage on the Japaneses ability in pronouncing Irish, not that the Irish themselves are able to pronounce the bloody thing. The choice to sub the German was an unusual choice because the Japanese would’ve been sitting there listening to jibberish. At first I thought it was a bad choice by the subber until I realised how much she blabs away in German in the episode, some of it never translated into Japanese, so all things considered it’s probably better it was subbed.

I’ve been looking forward all season to the girls using Takemikazuchi in battle, and the online preview hints that it’ll finally happen in next week’s finale.

Random Curiosity

Fuck yeah mecha action!

Seems we’re given a bit of new date info here. From the ‘yearbook’ that Rio is looking at, it appears that each picture has a single or pair of dates beneath it, presumably birth and death years, with the years marked as ‘AP’ (After /something/). Illya’s is marked with death year AP 269. Since that was two years ago, that puts the current year at AP 271, and thus 271 years since the great cataclysm.

Comment by David on THAT Anime Blog

This is why you shouldn’t just read blog posts on feed readers. You miss out on comment gems like this one. Visit the site instead of just reading off google reader.

Given the vagaries of the casus belli for the war other than what Kureha said part of me is tempted to dub the War between Helvetia and Rome to be the War of Iliya’s Honor since at casual glance the war started after the Emperor was rejected and he seemingly invaded Helvetia to claim Iliya for his dirty rotten hetero-harem. I don’t think much can be said about the opposing force other than their Emperor seems to be a lecherous bastard or some wicked man who wants to hold princesses hostage. I am glad that after Rio heard that the Roman Army was already mobilizing that she knew what she had to do and did it. With any luck Rio will be saved from an cruel fate when Takemikazuchi gets full mobile again as Noel seems to have finally started to get all the parts she needs to fix her mecha

THAT Anime Blog

I must admit, I was surprised by the total lack of gloating done by Crusader of THAT. He called the ‘Rio getting married off to foreign fellow to settle the conflict’ several episodes ago. It seems like an awfully stupid way to start a war. Guy doesn’t get the latest addition to his harem so he wages war on them? Of course there was more to the thing and I’m sure there were hundreds of other political and economical factors but the fact that the Duke being rejected by Iliya was the spark that set the war off seems like such a ridiculous reason. I know soldiers only really comment on the political affairs as small talk to pass the time, which the platoon here frequently engage in, but the idea that the soldiers on the Roman side are going to war for that doesn’t sit right in my head. How much power does this duke of Rome have anyway?

There’s something about Sora no Woto brings different stories and reminiscence the past of the platoon’s members in each episode that just works. Felicia’s story about how the war changed her life, the person Kureha looked up the most, and in this episode the sister that Rio couldn’t be with due to political affairs who turns out to be person Kanata met before. Seemingly simple stories have served to explain parts of the story and to make the viewer understand of the world they live in a simple fashion. This episode was no exception.

Just as Planned

It is indeed a very simple formula and I hadn’t noticed how this has pretty much been how most episodes run. This time though, it fell flat IMO. Rio’s angst never felt very well done and her leaving didn’t feel right either. It felt sudden with minimal buildup and the use of Amazing Grace yet again felt like cheating. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but the whole episode just felt off-beat. I never cared about the old lady’s story and the connection they made between her and Rio felt forced. I’m using the word ‘felt’ an awful lot but that’s what happened here. This was no plot fault or annoying out-of-character. It’s the way everything was presented in the episode.

Noël has almost finished rebuilding the tank.  Since they already put it to use to save Klaus and Kureha, I doubt they would spotlight it again unless it will see another use.  I think the second DVD bonus episode will focus on how they got the parts.  Second, they still haven’t resolved the fire maiden plotline that started in the first episode.  The story shunted the legend off to the side for quite a while, but in this episode, they bring it back into focus.  However, this has served its purpose by reflecting Rio’s character, so we can safely live without a blatant resolution.

Borderline Hikikomori

Now I want to say that this likely won’t be the last time we see Rio, but with only two episodes left (not including the two extra DVD/BD ones), I’m not so sure. It all depends on what kind of conflict they build up next episode, like if there’s going to be another outbreak of fighting or if there’s going to be something connected to the legend appearing. The preview on the official site doesn’t seem to point to either of those though and instead indicates that the girls will meet a hostile soldier.

Random Curiosity

Now, with only three episodes left, the climax has finally begun, though not exactly in the way that I expected, now that Rio is gone. I really wonder whether the final three episodes are going to her, over Kanata who’s supposed to be the main character. To be honest, I’d much rather that the focus would stay on Kanata and the town that we’ve been in. It’s too late at this point to suddenly introduce politics.

Star Crossed Anime Blog

Ah, ending speculation again. There are two episodes left (get your facts right psgels!) with some more extras on the DVD/BD. These extras almost certainly won’t be central to the plot or anything. They’ll probably explain something that happened in the middle of the series, such as how Kanata found out about the illegal brewing done by the platoon. Otherwise, the departure of Rio leaves a bit of an empty feeling around the platoon now. I don’t think they ever specified that there would have to be 5 fire maidens and I would be shocked if they left that part out of the finale seeing as how much time they spent on foreshadowing the events. The tank being given legs also shows that it will make a reappearance before the end. As I said before, I feel the quality of this anime depends hugely on how it ends. I know it’s cliche to say this, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they won’t fuck this up.

We find out that Claus wasn’t the famous Desert Wolf, he just didn’t have will to break Kureha’s hero worship. Hell, I really don’t blame Claus for letting Kureha go on about the whole thing, who doesn’t want to be worshiped by a cute girl from time to time.

Crystal Tokyo Anime  Blog

Personally, I prefer to be tsundere worshipped by Rio but I’d take Kureha if that option wasn’t available.

You know when you hung round younger kids, like cousins or something, and your word was absolute, wasn’t that feeling of immense power delightful? You were the mediator and the one they looked towards for advice and guidance. For that reason, I can see why Claus didn’t tell Kureha his secret. Kureha, being all immature, would have that same effect that a wide-eyed kid would have. In that one persons world, you are the greatest. So while a lot was made of him not wanting to destroy Kureha’s feelings, I’d say his own feelings also came into play in keeping his identity secret.

The one part I didn’t like — and got really frustrated watching — was the scene between Seiya and Kureha. As I’ve noted for other series, I abhor stubborn and bratty kid characters like that, so I was rooting for her to knock him out and just drag him to safety.

Random Curiosity

This isn’t the only time I’ve seen this complaint. Kids in anime, unless they are of the Hanamaru kawaii variety or unnaturally mature, are generally viewed as annoyances by the anime viewing population, myself included. Take the kids in Eureka Seven. Oh god were they the brattiest bunch of kids imaginable. Sometimes a series manages to pull off kids without them being annoying, such as Noein or Dennou Coil (and even then I’m sure there’s those amongst you who hated them too) but they’re certainly never found in fans ‘favourite characters’ lists.

My biggest fear here is Rio: in this episode she may have been a bit too angsty for her own good. If she was trying to make a difficult decision that we don’t know about, then okay, I can understand that. But please don’t tell me that she was angsting like a teenaged girl who hates her father and who is trying to make her do things she doesn’t want to.

Star Crossed

When Rio was doing her jazz scene, both the people in the show and the people watching the show were going “ah yes, Rio is being angsty and wondering what she should do with her life” and so on. I was far too busy thinking “yeah Rio, bust some moves!”. But anyway, it appears Rio’s story will be the main point to finish up Sora no Woto, although we have yet to have a proper Noel episode as of yet. One more episode for Noel and then the finale is what I’m expecting.

(Generic comment I’d like to make about this ‘fanservice’ scene. Fanservice means that it’s tossed in simply for the fans of the show and has little to nothing to do with the actual anime itself. This scene of the girls pratting about in their underwear showed how close the lot of them are. You’re generally pretty good friends when your all sitting around in your underwear together. If this was episode 1 or 2, there would be a bit more shyness from the characters from being exposed. Not so here, hence the relative importance of the scene)

Sora no Woto was one of my most anticipated shows of the winter season. I had high expectations of it since it was supposed to be my replacement K-ON for the season but after a couple of episodes I realized it actually wasn’t what I was wishing for.

Lyrical Spark

Finally picked up this series, during this relatively quiet winter season. I had been somewhat put off by how the characters resembled the KON! cast. I enjoyed KON! just fine but the idea of it being transplanted to a military context was very unappealing. Thankfully Sora no Woto is quite a different kettle of fish

Hontou ni

Sora no Woto has never able to break away from the K-ON typecast comparisons, even though there were mountains of people when it first aired declaring that it was NOTHING LIKE K-ON RAWR RAWR RAWR. I wonder if it will ever lose that stigma?

I wasn’t sure after last week’s great episode if they were going to go back to the light-hearted stuff or if the rest of the series was going to be serious. The answer — for this week anyway — is more the former than the latter. And based on how excited I was about the direction the series was going, I have to say that I was at least a little disappointed

Random Curiosity

Which seems to be the general fan reaction to the episode. Certain fetishers were delighted. Most of the rest of us…not so much.

I have to say that watching Kanata perform her phone watch was very funny. Lesson 1 Kanata, NEVER VOLUNTEER FOR SHIT! If I was Kanata I would have been really pissed at Noel for not checking on me. I mean, come on, it’s the job of NCOs to check on the welfare of the junior troops when pulling guard duty, she failed as an NCO.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

I found it funny that the blogspheres two resident army veterans, Crusader from THAT and Animewriter here, both were quite adamant on bringing across that when in the army, you do NOT volunteer for anything ever. Not only that but they both gave out about a rather lax Noel. It doesn’t matter what country you live in, all armies appear to work the same way.

I highly doubt that Rio would be the bearer of Iliya’s Trademark item if she were simply a relation. I think they are leaning towards Rio being somehow related to the ducal line…but if it is as I suspect that Rio is being asked to be a head of state then she has quite a challenge ahead of her. With the peace talks still involving even the mention of reparations then it must not be going well since there doesn’t seem to be a clear cut victor from the last war. If on the other hand, Rio is designated as being royalty but not named heir, and the other side is run as a monarchy then Rio is probably going to end up in a political marriage if things get real tense. Given how low the population is it might not be too far fetched to bring out previously unknown nobles after all the recognized ones were lost fighting the war

THAT Anime Blog

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t made the connection from Rio to Royalty watching the episodes themselves. They made it pretty darn obvious too, what with the bell-on-a-chain on both Rio and Princess Iliya. What this means for Rio is up for debate, especially with such an ambiguous statement as ‘Save Helvetia’. What has become clear is that she will be the main focus once the show starts hitting its finale, although I predict an episode on Kureha and Noel before we hit that finale.

Indeed, episode 7 appears not only to be the culmination of what came before but also the start of the rest of the show–at least if the ending of episode 8 is of any portent. Discovering hints of the past is giving way to how the future–what is left of it at any rate–is going to be saved, even if it’s only on a small scale. What Felicia said the meaning of her life has become at the end  of episode 7, to make sure that those under her do not suffer as she did, may become a real live mission in due time. Of course, linking the characters to the story of the Fire Maidens from the start, especially in the OP sequence, was a ready signal that they were going to re-enact its events at some point.

Anime Diet

I certainly hope this is the case. One thing I’ve been worried about is Sora no Woto never actually having a story set in its own time. The girls would stay on that mountain and gradually reveal each of their pasts and the past of the world itself with no conflict happening in real time apart from maybe a conflict with their emotions. But if we take these foreshadowing at its literal sense, there’s certainly a sense that the fire maidens story will play out. There’s been hints of the flying monster type creature and, if my memory is not mistaken, there was mention of a spider in that fairy tale. Which cements my theory that the fire maiden story was based less on mythical legend and originally involved high-tech machinery.

I bet that they’re [the last 5 episodes] going to be completely different from what we’ve seen from this series so far. I really hope that the creators weren’t too ambitious with it, I’d much rather have seen a finale that would focus on the characters. For this final arc, the creators are really going to have to take care to not overdo it and suddenly have our five-some god-mode themselves through this war. That’s the thing I’m most afraid of.

Star Crossed

Sorry Mr.Psgels but I don’t think I could disagree more. What’s worse is that he suggests Ride Back as an excellent example of how this should pan out. Now I personally couldn’t think of a worse way for this series to end. Ride Back ended its run by focusing on its rather dull lead character at the total expense of the main plot and resulted in one of the most horribly anti-climactic ending in existence. If Sora no Woto failed to answer its questions and instead had some ending where Rio stops running away from her noble duty or something like that then I’ll be mightily disappointed. In fact, I wouldn’t mind a god-mode ending if they managed to connect it properly with the rest of the story, although I seriously doubt that will be the case. Because really, if life returns to the sea then I will facepalm.

Going into this episode, Felicia was probably the biggest enigma of the cast to me — she’s the mom-type character who watches over everyone else, but she didn’t have a whole lot of depth. This episode changes all that, as you see what she went through during the war, her guilt at surviving the battle, and her despair at defending a dying world. This episode wouldn’t have worked without the six that came before it, either — building the peaceful setting of Seize and everyone’s everyday lives gave the actual scenes of the war that much more impact by contrast.

Suguru’s Dame-Dame Anime Blog

Could not have put it better myself.

People certainly took to this episode across the anime interwebs. For the first time since the series began we have finally seen actual war, with tanks and explosions and everything. Everything thus far had only been hinting at war behind the scenes, such as no-mans land, so to finally see these moeblob character designs in a battlefield was something I’d be anticipating ever since the show revealed its war-torn past. Will the war ever reach the characters in the present day?

Anyway, it would appear that Filicia fought in some battle a few years ago, but prior to that there was a major conflict between either different countries or between humanity and and some other, perhaps alien, force. That could fit with the legend, so the idea of Kanata and company fighting a monster with Takemikazuchi isn’t so far off anymore.

Random Curiosity

So what were humanity fighting that lead to this war and the state of the earth as we know it? Remember that the Felicia scenes were barely more than 5 years ago so it’s not like the fighting has ground to a halt or anything. It also highlights the fact that they were still desperate enough to hire teenage girls to pilot tanks in those times as well. The idea of an alien force isn’t unbelievable but there hasn’t been any hints at aliens in the show so I’m not inclined to agree with that idea.

First of all, the Japanese somehow took over Europe. After that, or during that, there followed a technological boom, and what I expect is AI going out of control (humans in machines don’t control them like the way they moved in that flashback). In order to get rid of them, nuclear weapons were used. The Japanese died of the aftereffects of the fallout, and the French resettled the area. My guess is that we’re currently at one of the few areas that were unscathed.

Star Crossed

Wild theorizing from psgels, most of which I think is absolute nonsense (I still have my doubts that this is even earth and why is everyone so obsessed with the idea of nuclear weaponry?) but he did hit upon the idea that those spider tanks were not acting the same way the human-piloted tanks were.

Well, the use of “them” is quite interesting, because, to me, that word would seem to imply that they were fighting something “other”, meaning other than human. So, what I’m going to assume is the “them” was some form of human technology or AI that got out of control ala The Matrix or The Terminator; I know I’m jumping to an conclusion by excluding the possibility of some sort of alien invasion or just a plain old human vs. human war of annihilation, but I’m leaping.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

The use of ‘them’ is an odd one because it could just as easilly mean the human enemy. Of course, ‘them’ could just be a fansubber-brought idea but the fact that psgels and Omni, both raw watchers, came up with relatively similar ideas suggest that they are fighting something that is not human. I was in the camp of the AI vs Humans, however what dismantles that theory slightly is an earlier episode where Kanata pointed out that the tank is just a machine and that it’s the people inside that do that. She wouldn’t be making a statement like that if the tank was acting by itself. OK, Kanata is a bit on an idiot but Noel would know if a tank kills people by itself seeing as she’s the one repairing the thing. With that in mind I think I’ll stay on realistic ground and blame this war-torn planet on a simple human vs human war.

They explain an awful lot without directly telling the audience and I quite like that aspect since it’s rather fun to put together the pieces.

THAT Anime Blog

Which is pretty much what I spend every episode doing. In fact, it’s what I spend my time in these posts doing.

What was also great was seeing how the two parallel stories that came together by the end, emphasizing the themes of coincidence and fate, kind of like what Durarara has been doing lately.

Random Curiosity

It’s a very simple and yet very effective way of telling a story and I’m surprised it happens so little. There’s something great about a show letting you work the pieces out for yourself and there’s that grand moment of realisation when a later scene explains an earlier one. Sometimes it can just be something as simple as a wine bottle in the last episode that makes me feel smart for spotting the relevance. Where this can fall apart is when a show tries foreshadowing and makes it’s so thinly veiled that it just looks stupid when they try to do grand reveal later on and you think ‘well that was obvious’. Sora no Woto has this foreshadowing thing down to a tee. Not obvious enough to spot straight away but easy enough so you can connect the dots once they do appear.

This episode showed us that the military is in quite bad shape because it can’t pay its soldiers on time or with real cash. In the military we had a rule called the three M’s when it came to taking care of the soldiers (meals, mail, and money), meaning that the morale of the soldiers depended on the soldiers receiving those three things.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

I must admit I am just as gullible as Kanata is. It never once entered my mind that these girls wouldn’t get payed and when they started going on about their illegal drink trade I thought that the show had suddenly taken a turn for darker territory. That means when this scene showed up, I genuinely thought it was real.

Among all the fake out scenes there was one thing for sure, that they all stick like family in good and bad times . We learn that what they are doing could send them to jail if the army were to find out. Kudos to Ficilia in her role as a godmother and the rest for playing their parts like pros.

Just as Planned

Truth be told, I suspect this is just a vehicle for us to see all of the girls (except Kanata) dressed as gangsters, but to be frank I can’t really complain about that seeing as it actually looked rather awesome.

Hanners Anime Blog

Thanks to the glories of twitter, I had seen a bunch of people make Mafia references to Sora no Woto and I had thought they had gotten the wrong show or something but yikes, I got quite a shock at them suddenly all acting badass. Thankfully it wasn’t real, and if it was it would’ve been an awfully stupid with a total lack of foreshadowing, but as Hanners said, I can’t deny that it was pretty darn cool while it lasted.

The ‘invisible reaper’ I think is radiation poisoning. I did some research on the bombings in Japan, and found out a common problem was even if people survived the bomb, they could suddenly become sick with radiation poisoning and die. This was a possibility even up to years after the bomb went off, and there is no cure. They either survived or didn’t. If so, that definitely confirms that there was nuclear warfare that destroyed the world.

Black and Blue Socks

I am not sure if the “invisible reaper” is necessarily a biological, chemical, or radiological weapon since the kid survived instead of her mom, I would have expected the opposite since children are more susceptible to biological and chemical agents. Since there was a period of hyper advanced weapons of war it might have been a surprise attack by cloaked units but I am thoroughly intrigued as to what invisible weapon wiped out Vingt.

THAT Anime Blog

So, this invisible reaper eh? I’m definitely on the side of a cloaked attack. As I said at the start of this post, Sora no Woto would give us foreshadowing to any later event and there has yet to be a single mention of nuclear weaponry. When an apocalypse is referred to alongside war, people are quick to place the blame on nuclear weaponry but mankind are more than capable of destroying the world without the use of the big bomb, especially given the level of sophistication of their technology. Cloaking has been mentioned, albeit very briefly in the tank, so that seems like a more likely option. If it is cloaking though, that means armies nowadays have access to cloaking devices, since that kids parents must not have died that long ago, so the idea of cloaked units attacking our division is quite the scary one. In fact, the idea of anyone attacking our platoon with any sort of advanced weaponry fills me with fear. Even with their fanciful performance as gangsters, I can’t imagine how they’d react in a real battle situation. Remember, these girls are the absolute worst the army have and that’s why they’re so far away from the action.

But the main reason why I’m petrified of an attack? Because I’ve grown attached to these girls…

If you thought this was silly, you haven’t seen 200 guys running around the woods shouting “SHOT, SHOT, SHOT, BURRRRRSSST!“.

Jinx

The aniblogsphere is a good measure of how accurate the depiction of military life is in an anime by the number of people come out to reveal they also spent time running around with bags full of rocks in their bag (I’m convinced those bags were made heavier with a few rocks just for the training exercise. That will make them feel any later bags feel a lot less heavier).

We already knew that there was some kind of no-man’s land which was probably created through nuclear fallout, but actually seeing it had much more impact. What we saw there very much looked like huge craters, and it’s very much possible that those were caused by nuclear bombs.

Star Crossed

It is a beautiful landscape whose beauty is marred by the ruins and desert that mark the start of No Man’s Land. What ever was the cause of the great catastrophe it seems that is was significant enough to reduce a major city to a sterile desert, and given how you still have big tall chunks it might not have been nuclear. I wonder if those observations posts were put up before or after the calamity. Certainly being short and stout would have helped as opposed to the tall skyscrapers and offices.

THAT Anime Blog

The reveal of No Man’s Land was quite a shocker in the episode. There’s been brief mentions and signs at the apocalypse, such as the lack of fish in the ocean (and yet still fish in the streams, as you may have noticed), the hyper-advanced machinery and the derelict school, but this is the first sign we got of the true horror of the destruction. One thing it did highlight was that this apocalypse was indeed caused by warfare, probably the exact same war which they’re fighting right now. It’s hard to really tell how far back No Man’s Land was created. I was of the opinion that it was a looooong time ago but this episode made me think otherwise. Nuclear vs non-nuclear is a bit of a moot point though. Humans are fully capable of wrecking havoc without nuclear weaponry, just maybe not as quickly.

I feel the series hits the right tone in how it portrays military life in a non-combat outpost type of setting. While at first glance, Kanata, Kureha, Noel, Rio, and Filicia might seem to be tropes, but I can tell you for a fact that I’ve meet many a soldier that I could just change their names to any of the girl’s names and it would be almost a perfect personality match.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

The way Sora no Woto quickly decided how we should assume its characters to function actually shows tremendous potential for continued, well, not necessarily character progression but character exploration. Think of determining the supposed character archetype as barely scratching the surface of what’s underneath.

On the Fence

Now this was unusual to read. My main problem with the series, and clearly many others, is how painfully stereotypical each of the characters are. What bugs me is that there’s no attempt to do anything really that different with the character archetypes, or expand on them either. It seems happy to keep to the status quo. But hey, there’s clearly people who disagree with me here. It’s odd how people can often criticize things for being stereotypical when they are very true to life.

The girls are protected by what feels like the last remaining sanctuary of their country; the only place where youth and naivety are still able to exist, and that feeling of moé, of innocence, is woven beautifully into a world on the brink. In a way, it’s like Haibane Renmei, where quiet, hazy days are fritted away on mundane tasks, yet the undercurrent of sadness is palpable. The direction is conflicted, like someone simultaneously celebrating youth yet lamenting its transience and fragility; nostalgia, perhaps? It’s as if the faintest of touches could shatter these girls’ into a million tiny pieces, and that sense of vulnerability is foreboding and melancholy

Batezi Anime Blog

For what plays off like a slice of life, I keep thinking Sora no Woto is going to take a much more dramatic or darker turn later in the show. I wondered why, and then I realized that I couldn’t remember Sora no Woto using one instance of chibi faces or any sort of comic distortion. Everything’s been really, really straight laced, which is shocking for a show that features cute girls with yuri undertones. And then the world they live in reminds me of Haibane Renmei’s Old Home – mysterious but quaint, traditional but crumbling, a dying world filled with hopeful people.

Rabbitpoets

I spend the first episode focusing on how people kept comparing this to K-ON and I was quick to make the comparison between this and Haibane Remnei. More and more people are gradually catching onto this similarity and it has certainly followed the same pattern to Haibane thus far. I hadn’t realised quite the level of similarity the two had until I did my blog rounds though. Ah, aren’t anime blogs wonderful things~

When Kanata and Noel enter the city, it is scarily quiet. I do know that the population is depleted, but still, the city is unnatural. It is suppose to be bustling and full of noise, not a city with empty streets and silence.

Black and Blue Socks

Welcome to the semi post-apocalyptic world of Sora no Woto~

As for the setting, my guess would be that we are in the French part of Switzerland.… A hint of why there is now way that this show is set in Japan is how the saleswoman didn’t mind to be called by her first name. These cultural values are very common in Europe, but I don’t see it happen in Japan, even with a number of centuries in the future. It’s also very plausible for French countries to have English software, especially in the military. Heck, I live in the Netherlands and about half of the software I use is in English. One big question that I still have is: what happened tot he architecture? My guess would be that the buildings we see here are built by by the locals after something wiped out all of the modern buildings, and that they were modelled after local architecture and resources that were available.

Star Crossed Anime Blog

The issue of where our heroes are exactly is one that I’ve found particularly interesting since the start. THAT did a better job of looking through different parts of this country that has had customs lifted out of various different places across our world. The German Uniforms, English writing in the tank but French writing in the letters, Spanish Customs, they all point to somewhere in Europe, which is what psgels here is offering as an explanation. That doesn’t quite explain why there’s a Japanese style school sitting in there. I honestly find myself wondering if they are even on the earth at all although almost everything so far points to them being on earth. For example, how old is that custom of dousing the maidens from the first episode? Does it pre-date the semi-apocalypse?

I like that Sora no Woto isn’t turning military life into nothing but frivolity and fun. Death is present; death lingers around the Takemikazuchi, and evidence thereof can be found throughout the town of Seize. Here we find the sort of balanced approach that I find most desirable.

Pontifus

I don’t think Noel has ever killed anyone and if she’s lucky she’ll never have to shoot some that didn’t deserve to die. Still Noel’s reaction was understandable since not every kid who signs that dotted line has a clear cut idea about what it means to serve

THAT Anime Blog

This is something I also have to praise Sora no Woto for. Up until this episode, the threat of war has never been felt. Actually, the threat of war still hasn’t been felt but the threat of destruction is much more tangible when you have that giant tank sitting around. Most of what they’ve been doing so far in regards to ammunition and other tools of war related activities seem to just be run of the mill duties that might as well be done with toys. With this episode we finally see a bit more of a hint at the destruction that can and has been caused. There’s still no sense that there’s a war going on. More like a war has happened and the places such as the glass factory and the orphan are spin-offs of spin-offs of this conflict.

First of all, we understand that Noel is more comfortable around machines, but her comment that “machines won’t betray you” raises a lot of questions like who screwed her over/betrayed her, her parents, a lover, or the government. I feel a bit sad for Noel if she feels that she needs to retreat to the cold solace of a machine instead seeking human interaction. I could see how emotionally dependant she is on her relationship with the tank is when she basically sought out Kanata judgment/approval of the tank.

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

And so we gradually learn more about each character in the platoon and how they each have something that happened to them into the past. Which is a bit old-hat in terms of how plots usually run but what’s interesting about Sora no Woto is that it never actually tells you what did happen to them into the past. I must say, I’m an absolute sucker for that kind of stuff. The classic strip-tease lesson of it’s not what you show, it’s what you don’t show. I love concocting all sorts of theories in my own head as to what’s happened to people in the past. Granted, I’m much more interested in what happened to the planet and all the sea life than the characters’ pasts, but it’s still interesting enough to keep my mind at bay when I start running out for theories on this apocalypse.

Whatever caused the massive down grade in the tech level and loss of population it had to have been big enough to wipe out most if not all life in the oceans. I am hopeful that there is some life out in the seas they can’t see but if all that algae were gone then that would be a significant loss of oxygen though I guess carbon emissions aren’t much of a problem in this period. Still wiping out all life in the oceans is some feat though it could have been a domino effect of losing one to many crucial species

THAT Anime blog

So what did happen? Why has the population on the mainland been cut significantly and why is there no more sea life? The most important fact I think is not why it happened but when. Did this war start before the apocalypse and therefore cause it? Or did this happen several hundred years ago and these new customs that have been created are in fact based off things that happened back in the days when the technology was at it’s most advanced state. One comment on a previous post pointed out that the legend stated something about a spider helping out these fire maidens. Spider tank anyone?

I have to give the writers and creators credit for getting the feel of what it’s like to be stationed as small military away from the main force correct. Back in the day, when I was a young soldier I spent six months performing duty with the Multinational Force and Observers Group verifying the terms of the Israel-Egypt peace accord in the Sinai Peninsula. When we were stationed  at the remote checkpoint we (about 12 soldiers) lived at a camp that consisted of about three trailers for a period of two weeks at a time and our day went pretty much along the lines of what the girls are doing at the Time Keeping Fortress

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

I am pleasantly surprised that three episodes in I have yet to find reason to shout WRONNNNNNGNGGGGG! at the screen for something woefully inconsistent with military life as I know it. So far it is is in line with instances of garrison life in an all volunteer force though things are different for the poor dumb bastards who get conscripted.

THAT Anime Blog

It’s really interesting to find two army folks blogging this series and both praising its accuracy. With the war in Sora no Woto (I’ve been informed that the W is silent, just in case you wanted to know) practically non-existent, it’s not like there’s much fighting to be had anyway. For the 9/10 times an anime gets military life wrong, it’s nice to see something get it right for once. Mind you, it’s certainly not the most exciting thing in the world to watch. I’ve heard it before that anime fans in the army bring mountains of anime to watch with them because they’re spending an awful lot of their time doing very little with a miserable chance of getting decent internet connection. Reminds me of that guy in the Full Metal Panic Tessa Fanservice OVA…hmm, I’m getting off –topic.

It was amusing to hear a tank, an instrument of warfare, play “Amazing Grace.” Rio’s analogy, that of comparing musical harmony to a tank crew, was also odd. Oh, it isn’t that I disagree… good teamwork neccesarily requires harmony. A tank crew, however, simply isn’t the first thing that would come to mind.

Moe Sucks

Actually, her analogy of music and the tank crew made me laugh a little, but that didn’t take away from what was a heartwarming scene.

Random Curiosity

Certainly a bizarre analogy but I’ve always liked those obscure metaphors, so long as they don’t go overboard (bloody Ride Back and it’s ballet/robot-bike piloting constant comparisons).

I have to give kudos to the ending of the episode and the way it was carefully built up to, from hinting about a link between Rio and the mysterious soldier from Kanata’s childhood to cementing it without telling the whole story

Hanners’ Anime Blog

That blond girl from the past is quite an interesting reveal. What I’m interested in is whether she’ll show up again, or will she stay as that secret bind between Rio and Kanata. Obviously it’s only been 3 episodes but it already appears that Kanata has latched herself onto Rio and Rio is acting like the mother, especially with her superior officer talk, inviting Kanata to cause her as much trouble as possible. Being the betting man that I am, if there’s some actual fighting later on in this series, I’d bet you anything that Kanata is going to rescue or save Rio somehow.

The big question, and the continuing talking point with everyone, is that tank.

On a different note, I found it curious that they emphasized again that tank had a lot of what we’d consider to be advanced technology (with an English menu interface no less), yet it’s considered a relic in an environment where technology doesn’t appear very advanced

Random Curiosity

When I watched Rio activates the tank a couple of thing struck me. Firstly, no matter how you want to argue the point, the tank clearly originates from a technological base that’s totally beyond anything that’s currently operating in the world of Sora no Woto. When the interface popped up, one of the options on the screen was for stealth mode. Hell; none of our current modern tanks come anywhere close to being as advanced as that tank.…so, I’m tending to assume that Kanata’s world is a future version of our world that underwent some great apocalypse that caused the loss of technology and culture. I’m almost to the point where I’m going to assume that something much deeper and darker is hiding/obscuring the truth of the world

Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog

The tank is currently our biggest clue to what is the secret behind this world. I’m siding slightly with the fellow from Crystal Tokyo and that we’re looking at a step-back world in which greater technology was available in the past. What I noticed was the tank had the same owl logo on its login screen as the military Kanata and co. have on their uniforms. So this tank wasn’t something randomly dug up, it’s clear that it’s part of the same army. So they were capable of making these tanks in the past but now can’t. Why? What happened to them? Why have they now fell back to hiring teenage girls and why is there a school way bigger than the population requires? There’s a sneaking feeling of mine that we won’t actually get these answers before the end and instead get bombarded with hints, much like Haibane Remnei. It looks like a tank dominated episode next week so we should get some more answers then, although chances are we’ll get one or two answers and 50 bizzilion more questions.

Also, dear episodic bloggers. A synopsis + whether you liked the episode does not make interesting reading. Discuss the events of the episode please.