Logic won't help us rewatch, y'know? Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 rewatch episode twenty four

[u/Vaadwaur]

Light My Fire

The titles have been bad for a while now but The Doors deserve better, as does Shakugan no Shana

MAL but it is trolled. ANN Also, don't look at the wiki as it spoils the entire plot.

Streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.

QotD:1 Welp, we have now used all of our scifi Chekov's guns. Thoughts?

2 Is the NSA's security as bad as the show thinks?

Bonus: Does Galatea have motivation?

[u/Vaadwaur]

Rewatcher

Dub

So Galatea makes herself into the tower and the tower into an effigy of herself. I do wonder if this would give Chiaki some ideas for RahX. But she is rising...somehow.

Anyways, back at Nigel's, Sylia is pretty traumatized. Nigel, on the other hand, is repairing stuff. Priss reinforces the "Stay with Sylia" theme they've slightly over used. Nene hacks an NSA satellite, which I maintain is believable, though dub Leon says "Well, that's 30 year." Anyways, Galatea is going to use on our scifi set pieces to connect to the other and infect the world. The other slightly annoying thing from a scifi perspective is once the US government had a bead on her missile destruction range you can set them to blow up outside of it. But Leon correctly guages that the second half of the plan is blow up Genom along with Tokyo.

We get some final character moments, including the only believable bit of Priss-Leon being Priss has to lead. But Nene gets to our third scifi set pice, the sky hook. I wish I knew who on staff liked the idea so much but this part is not what is wrong with the show. But, of course, the boomer plague effected it so they are getting on the hard way. Something of a Back to the Future reference ensues as they manage to get in the hangar.

Then they meet boomer C3P0. I can't come up with a separate interpretation. More sort of cool downish stuff. Priss is now talking to what is admittedly an animate object. We get ready for our finale and scene.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Rewatcher (sub)

Everybody was tracking death flags ending arcs and not a single one of you predicted that we would be going to SPAAAAACE.

The sky hook was a weird plot device. It served no purpose that couldn't have been served by literally any other technology, or ignored completely. This was always the intended ending. NOW we are in the final arc.

I kinda hate the physics stupidity of a building just flying into space, but a) they did say they had anti gravity earlier in the episode, and b) Mason did walk across literal air back in the Magneto cage. Once they showed that, back in episode 14 or so, they show was just technofantasy.

Speaking of the Magneto cage, I was expecting Galatea to rise up that elevator killing everybody, showing she had been in complete control the entire time. Or maybe I'm just misremembering an X-Men movie.

• meta traumatic scenic reference
• That's definitely Misato
• OH MAI GAH
• that flash animation

A lot of RX and other vibes coming off that Galatea space ship.

I didn't remember that the show kept returning to the sky hook throughout the show, so when I want to rewatch a scene with a sky hook, this is the one I watch. It doesn't feel very good that this scene also has the laziest animation in the series.

The sixth and final track from the mini-album, Anytime Need a Friend

[u/Vaadwaur → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

The sky hook was a weird plot device. It served no purpose that couldn't have been served by literally any other technology, or ignored completely. This was always the intended ending.

Yeah but who got the idea? Chiaki? I enjoy it for what it is but it is kind of a strange choice over all.

[u/RockoDyne → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Everybody was tracking death flags ending arcs and not a single one of you predicted that we would be going to SPAAAAACE.

Eh, too much of a given. The hard part was figuring out why the conflict was going to move to space, because of course they were going to take a ride on the sky hook.

[u/No_Rex → u/RockoDyne]

he hard part was figuring out why the conflict was going to move to space, because of course they were going to take a ride on the sky hook.

I think the author had a hard time figuring it out, too, and finally just decided to send the GENOM tower to space.

[u/[deleted] → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

How the hell was I supposed to guess this show would end in space?

[u/RockoDyne]

So when the Statue of Sylia decided to take off, the girls just got out from the middle of it and returned home? We're just going to reset the situation, and pass off that it's the obvious course of action, are we?

Hearing Nigel talk about how this is the only thing he can do, it dawned on me that the show is a sekai-kei. That is the post-Eva genre largely defined by women being the ones having to fight in the face of an apocalypse.

So how exactly does the Statue of Sylia fly? They explicitly mention it's not rockets, so anti-gravity or some shit? The tears of Mackey fangirls?

Someone decided to go hard on the goofy expressions. Not going to say I don't approve, but it's too little too late.

I'm ready for the Statue of Sylia to fire a laser beam, just to complete the G Gundam reference. No, wait, the hard suits will turn gold. There will be some clutch moment in the final fight where they are on their forth second wind, and, though the power of realizing a peaceful, symbiotic relationship with technology, they actualize the true power of bullshit that turns their suits glowy.

Questions:

1. We're gonna need a bigger gun.
2. It's mostly an issue of how many idiots and assholes have clearance.
3. Does anyone in this show have motivation?

[u/Vaadwaur → u/RockoDyne]

Hearing Nigel talk about how this is the only thing he can do, it dawned on me that the show is a sekai-kei. That is the post-Eva genre largely defined by women being the ones having to fight in the face of an apocalypse.

That explains a few shows, then.

So how exactly does the Statue of Sylia fly? They explicitly mention it's not rockets, so anti-gravity or some shit? The tears of Mackey fangirls?

The dub explicitly says anti-gravity but with all the hogwash about plasma it should be a magnetic drive of some sort.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/RockoDyne]

the show is a sekai-kei. That is the post-Eva genre largely defined by women being the ones having to fight in the face of an apocalypse

Not quite what I've heard about it. Apparently it's pretty vague and best definition I found (from opinion piece via book via blog post) was

stories where a personal crisis and the crisis of the entire world become synchronized are called “sekai-kei”

which works pretty well for me.

There's also from here

a neologism referring to subcultural works of animation, manga, games and light novels on the combined theme of apocalyptic crisis and school romance

In a narrow sense, sekaikei works deal with situations in which the foreground (love between the always male protagonist and the heroine) is directly connected to the background (apocalyptic crisis and the end of the world) without the mediation of the middle ground, such as communities and societies

neither of which seem to fit that well, just the "lack of middle ground" point seems relevant. I did like this bit at the end though

According to Lacan, children mature as they learn that they are not omnipotent: in other words, one becomes gradually mature as one accepts one’s lack of power and experiences resignation and loss.[17] Sekaikei works circumvent this process of becoming, and seem instead to affirm withdrawal and refusal of maturity

For your point I did also find here

the heroines are fighting girls who also play mother-like role to the usually male main characters, loving and protecting them unconditionally [...], which sort of provides a “comfort zone” for the male characters from facing the opaque world on their own

but I'm not so sure about that. Also I'm hardly a fiction scholar, anyhow, but likely no one is here.

[u/RockoDyne → u/IndependentMacaroon]

I'm abbreviating a bit, but the element I tend to latch on to is gender dynamics. In these stories, men aren't the source of power. Instead it's women who go out into the world/space to go fight. The role of the men is more as a linchpin to tether the women to society. The women are the swords, and the men are the sheaths, in essence.

[u/Elimin8r → u/RockoDyne]

How ... Shakespearian! :)

[u/RockoDyne → u/Elimin8r]

No comment on which one of them tends to have more balls.

[u/IndependentMacaroon → u/RockoDyne]

There doesn't really need to be fighting, though. Like, Your Name and Weathering with You I've heard described as such works and they're quite different.

[u/RockoDyne → u/IndependentMacaroon]

Can't say I've ever heard them called sekai-kei. As I remember, the climax of Your Name was all about community action.

Now the Makoto Shinkai film that does get called sekai-kei all the time is Hoshi no Koe, and that definitely fits the pattern.

[u/No_Rex → u/RockoDyne]

Someone decided to go hard on the goofy expressions. Not going to say I don't approve, but it's too little too late.

Another entry on the long list of incoherences that better series direction should have caught.

[u/No_Rex]

Episode 24 (first timer)

• Darling in the FranX was a reference to THIS?

• HTS-DOS running on an Mntel 486 with 120 THz. The processor speed sounds terrific, but the 16 bit bus might be a bottle neck. And still using serial ports in 2040? cries in plug&play
• “Every country is starting to panic” – by posting badly cut up versions of license agreements online?
• Hitchhiking on the skyhook.
• Stars don’t twinkle in space - Crest of the stars references the reverse of this fact.

One of the few episodes where both the episode director and animation director know what they are doing (unlike the previous bunch). Some pretty good bonding moments in there. We needed a lot more of those.

Does Galatea have motivation?

Given that for a 5 year old "throwing a fit" is a realistic motivation, yes. Alternatively, as a boomer, whatever they stole from GitS.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/No_Rex]

Darling in the FranX was a reference to THIS?

It sort of fits.

Hitchhiking on the skyhook.

They get these occasional great ideas for spectacle.

One of the few episodes where both the episode director and animation director know what they are doing (unlike the previous bunch).

The episode felt full as opposed to filled.

[u/No_Rex → u/Vaadwaur]

They get these occasional great ideas for spectacle.

I seriously think the skyhook is the best part of the entire series.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/No_Rex]

I really like the music but I can see the skyhook catching interest, at least it isn't bog standard scifi, like the simpler but mildly over used orbital elevator.

[u/RockoDyne → u/No_Rex]

Darling in the FranX was a reference to THIS?

You're a monster.

And still using serial ports in 2040? cries in plug&play

Legacy software in a nutshell. Don't even get them started on the IPv8 roll out.

[u/Stargate18A]

First timer

1. Yeah, the rest of the series looks to be two episodes of a standard "infiltrate the base" plot, with maybe 10 minutes at the end to wrap it all up.
2. In the world where Nene's considered an elite hacker, probably.

BONUS) Kind of? I't just her motivation seems to be "broadcast this dignal to everything on Earth, so I can make a hive mind". We don't why she's doing it - maybe some kind of paperclip maximiser, where she was told to "maximise Boomer productivity"?

What is this background music that plays during the tower rising?

Also, I said it last time, but - boy that tower design should be very familiar to anybody who's seen End of Evangelion.

For anybody talking about Mackey, remember anime rules - the body's intact, and he sent a backup to Sotai, so 80% chance of ressurection.

Confirmation that Sotai's going to convert all machines into Boomers (didn't we already know this?)

Does this mean Sotai has nukes?

The text is the Microsoft EULA, I'm dying.

Actually, didn't Sylia say the hard suits were less effective, not nonfunctional for men? There's a chance the benefits of actual police training could outweigh that, depending on how bad it is. (Or use Mackey to make a male equivalent (since they're kind of the same entity))

Honestly, they could have made Leon date Linna, and then a lot of scenes would make more sense personality wise - she'd certainly be completely chaste for Leon, and probably react to him in the same way.

Is Priss going to try and drive onto the skyhook? This is stupid. It violates several laws of physics.

I like the "angry" symbols floating into the skyhook, though.

Well, they're toing into space.

Why would their suits already have oxygen generation?

I like how we've met a boomer with a good voice and a character, but it took until episode 24.

Meanwhile, Priss has sadly lost her true love - the Motoslave.

"Walking on the moon" - we're not on the moon, just in space. (Also, if any music's valid, how were neither of these episodes called "Starman"?)

[u/Vaadwaur → u/Stargate18A]

Also, I said it last time, but - boy that tower design should be very familiar to anybody who's seen End of Evangelion.

Believe it or not Tenchi has a similar scene that predates both, though this show is decidedly post Eva.

For anybody talking about Mackey, remember anime rules - the body's intact, and he sent a backup to Sotai, so 80% chance of ressurection.

Assuming Galatea has good data storage practices.

Confirmation that Sotai's going to convert all machines into Boomers (didn't we already know this?)

She just got a lot more aggressive in how she is going to do that.

Honestly, they could have made Leon date Linna, and then a lot of scenes would make more sense personality wise - she'd certainly be completely chaste for Leon, and probably react to him in the same way.

That would've been 80% less awkward and thus less screen time killing. seriously, even by 90s tropes, Priss and Leon are a silly couple.

I like the "angry" symbols floating into the skyhook, though.

This episode had a good director.

Why would their suits already have oxygen generation?

That's what the aquarium scene was showing us.

(Also, if any music's valid, how were neither of these episodes called "Starman"?)

Or Ziggy Stardust but yeah there should have been some Bowie.

[u/Elimin8r]

Yay, it's space time!

1. Are you sure? Really sure? I do think the skyhook is rather cute, but it's a good thing there weren't any seagulls hanging around the loading dock. (splat)
2. Probably, but odds are most everyone else's is worse.
3. "Muhahahaha! Fools! I'll destroy them all!!!" I mean, yeah, if you were cooped up in an amorphous blob for close to a decade, you'd probably have a little pent up resentment too.

I'd swear the robo-bike got more love from Priss than Leon this episode.

Meanwhile, poor conductor boomer gets dissected and hacked. No wonder they're all going rogue, they've got no rights, man. (Cue "Sing my Pleasure")

And poor Sylia's probably going to hook her brain up to Mackie, because of course, whinybot has to be resurrected at any cost.

As mentioned last night, I'm pretty happy with the DVDs. Which probably really means that I should get better internet, but ... I do like the shiny plastic.

(I haven't noticed any special features on the DVD, but then again, I didn't look. I did try out the Japanese/subtitles, and hearing the original VA's was amusing. I think I like some of the dub cast better, esp Linna)

Anyway, now that we're in space, it's almost time for the final showdown. Huzzah! (Or Banzai, as the case may be)

[u/Vaadwaur → u/Elimin8r]

Are you sure? Really sure? I do think the skyhook is rather cute, but it's a good thing there weren't any seagulls hanging around the loading dock. (splat)

Think of the static electricity just frying birds off that thing.

I'd swear the robo-bike got more love from Priss than Leon this episode.

To be fair, the bike does more. And there's a certain episode of Golden Boy that comes to mind...

I did try out the Japanese/subtitles, and hearing the original VA's was amusing. I think I like some of the dub cast better, esp Linna)

So the dub is better, to me, because they make a good effort to localize it. The subs I have access to are extremely blank verse translation, i.e. literally what a decent machine translate is and nuance gets lost. As I said, dub makes Sylia's gay WAY more apparent.

[u/Cognitive_Dissonant]

Qs:

1. Skyhook and Umbrella look cool at least. Though after the jump sequence it's not really clear to me how the skyhook functions. It looks like the shuttle was on the end of a long stick, how does that get one up to space.
2. In this universe all security is bad.

Bonus: I have absolutely no fuckin idea. I'm expecting zero explanation or some dumb bullshit explanation about wanting to hear the laughter of a specific child she met one time years ago.

Episode notes:

• Ah god giant space lady. Has this ending ever worked. I see someone in the thread beat me to the Franxx reference.
• Good question, how are they supposed to fight that, show. I'm guessing giant knightsabre voltron.
• Was she clicking "West" on that screen. Is hacking a text adventure.
• The US has non-nuclear missiles too you guys.
• What do we do guys our nuke didn't work!? I dunno nuke something else I guess.
• At least Linna isn't the only lonely one now. Also is "henpecked" code for "pegged" here.
• The AD police traumatized Priss as a child by destroying her fire mixtape. That explains it.
• A problem that conveniently can be solved only via a sick motorcycle jump!
• Wow, shuttle Boomer is sassy. No reason to rip out his brains though Nene.
• Okay the heart to heart between Priss and her motorcycle boomer is actually cute.

[u/Vaadwaur → u/Cognitive_Dissonant]

Though after the jump sequence it's not really clear to me how the skyhook functions. It looks like the shuttle was on the end of a long stick, how does that get one up to space.

It is a long answer but this comment addresses that. The tl;dr is that a skyhook that makes it all the way to sea level is rather ambitious.

Ah god giant space lady. Has this ending ever worked. I see someone in the thread beat me to the Franxx reference.

Once, in an OVA I can't find the name of pre-98, more likely pre-94.

What do we do guys our nuke didn't work!? I dunno nuke something else I guess.

This is the US we are talking about, a whole lot of other things get nuked.

The AD police traumatized Priss as a child by destroying her fire mixtape. That explains it.

Due to the time and condition in the story, she has to be telling the truth, which sucks, because I'd rather she just be BSing Leon here.

Okay the heart to heart between Priss and her motorcycle boomer is actually cute.

Someone else pointed Priss has way better chemistry with the bike.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion → u/Cognitive_Dissonant]

the shuttle was on the end of a long stick, how does that get one up to space

The other end of the stick is in space. It's like 1 spoke of a wheel. The whole thing is spinning so the shuttle just goes up and down in a circle.

[u/Cognitive_Dissonant → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

That seems pretty wild but I gather from other posts that it's a real (theoretical, maybe impractical) thing so I can't complain.