Buddy Complex

She appears to be everyone's kid sister, and they rib her mercilessly over it. That unit's apparently pretty tight-knit.

Episode 11 will probably confirm whether or not we get a second course.

If Zogilla gets even one of the Coupling units, or just the schematics so they can reverse-engineer their own, we should see a second course because now the Alliance has to adapt their own machinery. If Bizon does something incredibly stupid and mean in this episode (as what the director said would happen), so much that Hina decides to turn on the Empire here by sabotaging the mission, Episode 12 is likely the series finale.

Reminder: the machine that Hina uses in episode 1 is NOT the Fortuna. Its something entirely different, and shares the same cockpit design of Bizon's purple mecha.

Hina's cockpit in Episode 1 is identical to the Aoba and Dio's mechs. IIRC, Bizon's cockpit was different, and he was definitely wearing a different type of suit.

edited 17th Mar '14 9:59:00 PM by HighVelocityPointyThings

Welp, we expected this, but when Bizon saw Hina with Aoba he went full NOOOOOOOPE. Poor Bizon, he just doesn't know being nasty to your love interest will just make her push you away even more.

The NTR has started.

edited 17th Mar '14 10:11:06 PM by Izaak

It's not NTR if there was never any mutual romantic interest there in the first place. Bizon's certainly not scoring any points though.

Hina's clothes have given some interesting fuel for speculation.

edited 17th Mar '14 10:42:55 PM by HighVelocityPointyThings

Okay, shitty revelation in the first half, but that is negated by the potential awesomeness of the second half of the episode. So like, Aoba x Dio is even more top-ship now, and Aoba x Hina ship has only risen. I look forward to Hina's interactions with Dio someday, since she did say 'Dio is waiting' back in the first episode, so I'm curious how their relationship develops...

I'd like to think that what happens next is that Hina joins Aoba's side(naturally), stuff happens, and Hina has to go back to the past so that she can bring Aoba to the future, which in turn causes her to come back to the future, younger and with no memories(Which is probably just time travel shenanigans), which means everything starts all over again. Essentially, Hina is stuck in an eternal timeloop with no escape. And then the anime series ends with just that, everything loops back to the starting point where Hina goes to the past, brings Aoba to the future, and starts over again...

And then comes Sunrise's movie announcement, in which we have another iteration of Aoba who will finally break Hina away from the time loop, and it turns out the entire TV series was setting us up for the movie. That'd be pretty coolio if you ask me.

Episode 11: You Are Not My Daughter

Yeah, Bizon's proving he's not a good person for Hina, and I'm sure Episode 12 will be the end of Part One, unless that episode is a reflection on what Hina had done prior to going back in time.

This episode had Zogilla succeeding for once (much to Margaret's annoyance because it wasn't her idea), but it's clear that the things that keep Hina around for Zogilla are starting to dissappear, and despite having the new machines, Aoba and Dio may somehow make the original Coupling units be stronger than the swiped ones.

Question: where did Hina come from?

On weird answer would be that she was born in Aoba's time and only the mecha and some information were sent back by her future self. When she left Aoba in ep 1 she ending up getting 10 years younger and getting her memory wiped .

The fact that everyone is pretty reasonable most of the time makes the Idiot Ball moments stand alot more.

that would be like asking when were Ragna's sword a coat made. It's a fast way to make your brain hurt

It's interesting that this might be the first mid-season downgrade I've seen in a fair while.

While Hina's uniform looks to be a little big for her, it's not as big as it would be if she just shrunk, and the skirt is a different color. I'm thinking the flashback could be a bit of a red herring.

Judging from the weird scene when the boys Coupled with the old prototypes, I'd say Dio just found out that Aoba was indeed telling the truth all along.

I also think we just found out why were the prototypes dangerous: because it mixed the pilots' minds so deeply that they became incapable of distinguishing themselves from each other.

edited 18th Mar '14 5:21:08 PM by amitakartok

Reminds me of Aquarion actually. Its interesting because my personal theory is that this makes Firebrand and Sky Knight are superior to Bradyon & Luxion.

Incidentally, did anyone notice that Bradyon and Luxion combined is BL?

I'm sure somebody noticed. I've been studiously ignoring that whole aspect of the show/fanbase because nothing good can come from it.

As for Firebrand/Sky Knight being superior, what have they got to loose? Aoba's too risky to use with any other pilot, and Dio's probably too far gone. It really depends on how far away the next prototypes are.

That probably only works in English however. Honestly, this whole series seems like it was some sort of odd Getting Crap Past the Radar exercise.

Firebrand & Sky Knight certifiably have superior names at least. Bradyon and Luxion sound like a fabric and a light bulb.

edited 18th Mar '14 9:23:43 PM by kiukiuclk

....but BL started out as a Japanese term, right?

If you mean shonen-ai then yes. However, the exact term Boys Love is a Western invention.

Well, yes and no. It's migrated back to japanese, just like a bunch of other words.

It's another ambiguous thing that can be viewed as a yaoi construct. That doesn't mean it's intentional.

Anybody else seeing pilot corruption and poisoning for Zogilla because they will use the Coupling system beyond safe levels without restraint? I'm pretty sure Bizon's outfit from Episode 1 might be a life-support system because of this.

edited 19th Mar '14 11:40:07 AM by JDogindy

@kiukiuclk: Bradyon and Luxon are both types of elementary particles - probably a shoutout alongside Dr. Fermi.

Almost certainly. Granted, Hina's disappearance alone might be enough to drive Bizon to suicidal insanity based on his actions in the latest episode.

edited 19th Mar '14 1:38:49 PM by HighVelocityPointyThings

Yeah, Bizon's a Yandere now. When Hina defects, he's gonna lose it. But, more than that, because Zogilla was entranced by the Coupling system, it's pretty clear that, for an Obviously Evil group, they're not gonna use time limits or restraints... whoever they get to use it, they'll make 'em use it, whether or not that's a good fit or understanding the potential consequences. However, from Episode 1, we can see that Zogilla made that mistake and (hopefully) Bizon was the only one who wound up having to go all Darth Vader and require assistance to stay alive.

I don't think this series deserves a second course, largely due to the fact that the writing hasn't done anything significant, but besides Hina becoming a good guy and possibly what her point is in existance, it seems the mecha emphasis so far has been "Zogilla wants this base and the Coupling units, and the Alliance just plays defense". Hopefully, we might actually see the Alliance play offense for once, and since it appears that the older units might be beneficial to Aoba and Dio's teamwork, they might let them use those until updated units that combine max Coupling potential with awesome firepower are completed. And I'm sure they'll win regardless of what they use.

Also, chalk up Stock Footage to this show, since that scene of the missle ships was recycled from Episode 9 (where Margaret makes a fool of herself).

edited 20th Mar '14 8:38:42 AM by JDogindy

So Hina becomes a druggie, and Bizon becomes mad. Huh.

I have to say, the development between Aoba and Dio is possibly one of the most well-done I've seen in quite a long while. It's not to the point of becoming life partners(Not as in marriage, but the more literal meaning, partners for life, although I suppose marriage kinda does mean life partners, but come on you know what I mean), but they're definitely partners now, and I like it that way.

Nice to see that Dio's stopped doubting everything Aoba says.

Bizon's lack of tact is impressive.

So Hina also has an impressive talent for coupling. Wonder if that has anything to do with anything.

This can't possibly be a 13-episode series. We've just started getting along!

Jesus, that's so obvious it's comical.

You're pathetic, Bizon.

Time to break out the big guns.

I thought this episode WAS the series finale, but it appears that it was a 13-episode installment. Considering Bizon's in his outfit from Episode 1 and that we are finally seeing the Alliance attack an Empire stronghold, I think it's safe to say that next week is the end of Buddy Complex.

It's gonna be hell, and I think it's safe to say that a certain somebody is not going to have Alfried help her when bad things happen... unless a Heel–Face Turn of her own happens out of spite.