The House of AnimeJB

Episode Summary

Amami Haruka auditions to be an idol singer, and even though she was extremely nervous and her voice was scratchy, she made was accepted to go to Tokyo to become an idol. As she cheers, a silver and gold trinket flies out of her envelope into the air. In Tokyo, a blue-haired woman lays flowers on a grave, and another blue-haired woman similar in appearance to the first is riding on a boat with a small blond girl. The second blue-haired woman has Haruka’s profile on her cell phone, and frowns at it.

At the train station, Haruka has a phone conversation with her friend, Yayoi, because her Yayoi can’t come pick her up in Tokyo. The reception goes out because of the interference from the asteroid belt surrounding Earth, and in her haste to catch her train she drops her Trinket. A girl by the name of Hagimara Yukiho returns it on the train, and has the same trinket. The two decide to go to their dormitory together. Haruka notices her trinket glowing, but gets distracted from mentioning it.

In Tokyo, Ritsuko, apparently an Idol pilot, cajoles another purple-haired Idol pilot into meeting Haruka at the station. Yayoi also shows up at the station wearing a penguin costume for Haruka, but when they call each call Haruka they find out that Haruka has already left the station and is pretty much lost in Tokyo. Yukiho is with her.

In some sort of base, an alarm is going off and they confirm that a “drop” is happening - when an asteroid from the belt surrounding Earth is going to crash into Earth. They send out a giant mecha (known as an Idol), Nebule, piloted by Makoto, to destroy it. Haruka and Yukiho are in that area and run to see it. Haruka is fairly impressed, and notices her trinket glowing again. In the background is the first blue-haired woman from earlier, watching them fondly. Elsewhere, the other blue-haired girl, now known as Chihaya, and the blond child are coming ashore.

Haruka and Yukiho’s crude map has led them to the sea, where they see the beautiful aftermath of the meteor being destroyed. The first blue-haired girl is still watching them. Haruka notices her trinket glowing again, and Yukiho says hers hasn’t glowed at all. We also learn that the asteroid belt used to be known as “the moon”. As she talks, we see her on a video screen inside another giant mecha, who begins to move on its own. The sealed Prometheus 1 escapes, breaks through all the doors, and leaves the base.

The blond girl from earlier appears on the railing by the sea and tells Haruka and Yukiho she wants to play. Chihaya holds a laser knife to the other blue-haired girl’s throat. Chihaya says she never thought the other woman would come in person. The blond says she wants Haruka to come with her and proceeds to jump off the railing with Haruka in tow.

The earthquake from Prometheus’s escape allows the blue-haired woman to escape Chihaya’s grasp. They both witness Prometheus surfacing out of the sea, and the mecha’s gravity field is making debris float in the air. Both women refer to it is “Imber”. Blue-haired woman seems happy to see Imber, while Chihaya is not. The blond escapes, leaving Haruka in midair. Imber looks at her, and when she starts to fall it catches her in its cockpit. Chihaya has called her own Idol, Prometheus 3 - Nubilum, to the scene, while Haruka sits bewildered by the images of herself in Imber’s cockpit.

Characters

Amami Haruka

Calophi: Haruka seems to be a really simple girl who gets nervous easily and worries about silly things, such as wearing penguin panties instead of nice panties to Tokyo. In fact she seems to be associated with penguins a lot - her phone is a penguin and Yayoi dresses as a penguin to meet her at the station, and the episode is called “Penguin Going to Tokyo”. Haruka seems to be very cheerful and tries to keep her cool even when she’s afraid. We don’t really know how talented she is as a singer, but it’s clear that as a pilot she will be the center of things.

Hagimara Yukiho

Calophi: Yukiho is built to be the quiet and understanding girl of the series. She also may be a narcoleptic or something, as she falls asleep at random times, in the middle of conversations, though it also may just be a quirk for her character. She’s got a very kind personality and I’m not sure she will be able to easily adjust to piloting an Idol.

Blue-haired Woman

Calophi: Even though we don’t get her name, it’s clear that this woman is very important to the series. She seems like an officer or something for the Idol people, and will probably take a roll similar to that of Misato from Evangelion, like a guardian figure. She doesn’t seem to be a very dynamic character, but is fairly cool and collected, and able to really get around in high heels, which is always impressive.

Chihaya

Calophi: Chihaya seems to be a very unhappy person, or at least unsatisfied. She looks an awful lot like the blue-haired girl, and I’d be surprised if they weren’t sisters that ended up on different sides of…whatever’s going on with the Idols. Chihaya pilots an Idol herself, so maybe the original organization ended up splitting due to conflicting views.

Blond Girl

Calophi: This girl is a brat, and she has some really weird skills. She can jump really high and far, and she’s got a lot of strength too, to be able to jump with another girl twice her size in tow (or to even be able to pick up Haruka at that age is unnatural). Chihaya told her to back her up, so she must have more skills, and perhaps an Idol of her own.

Purple Haired Girl

Calophi: This girl is also a brat, but more along the lines of stubborn than a rich brat like the blond girl. She probably is living in the dormitory that Haruka is heading to, making her an Idol pilot also. She’s also probably fairly strong, since we see her training with weights.

Ritsuko

Calophi: Ritsuko also lives in the dormitory and is a lot more happy-go-lucky than the purple-haired girl. Probably also an Idol pilot, she is the inventor type of character. She’d managed to rig up purple-haired girl’s room without her knowing it so that when a cord is pulled, the bed tilts down and a tunnel dumps whoever’s on the bed outside the dorm. She’ll probably be pulling out comic-relief situations like that throughout the series.

Makoto

Calophi: Makoto is the pilot of Nebule who destroys the meteor in this episode. We only get a brief glimpse of Makoto, but from that I can deduce that she is the wild girl of the series. She’s very confident in herself and seems to really enjoy piloting her Idol.

Yayoi

Calophi: Though she seemed like a minor character of this episode, as Haruka’s friend I’m sure we’ll be seeing Yayoi around every so often. She’s also a cheerful girl and cares about Haruka a lot, suffering stares at the train station in order to wear a penguin costume to greet Haruka in. She’s involved with acting and it’s possible that she may be a normal-idol herself, if not an Idol pilot or an eventual Idol pilot.

Storyline Thoughts

Calophi: We now know that the moon has been blown to bits, and those bits are crashing to Earth. How did this happen? I’d really like to know! It’s also clear that there are two different organizations with Idols at odds with each other. I’d like to know what sort of major difference would cause that sort of contention since as of now we haven’t been shown anything deeper to be going on other than destroying moon-pieces. Finally, what is up with Imber being sealed, and what are the requirements to be compatible with an Idol? I’m VERY interested in the storyline of this series!

Eurkos: Like Calophi said, I’m interested in this series as a whole. There’s a lot of questions that will probably have interesting answers, like the moon being destroyed, or the compatibility things with the Idols, or why Imber is sealed, or why he’s a stalker mecha. Interesting stuff.

Final Verdict

Calophi: This series has definitely captured my interest and passes to the 6-episode test. I really wasn’t sure how much I’d like it at first, but having girls doing the piloting really appeals to me, and the art is great, and the storyline, though maybe it’s been done before, is still interesting enough that I want to know how this world got the way it is today. Now that I’m done writing this review I can finally watch episode two!

Eurkos: Definitely gonna keep watching. This one’s closer to the top part of my list, though not one of the top three. I really don’t have anything more to add that Calophi didn’t already say, which is why I didn’t do character comments. I may have more for the episode 3 review. We’ll see.