Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova episode 2

Good morning lovely readers. Is it morning? Usually I like the Fall Back portion of Daylight Savings time. But now my body is like um no you needed to be up an hour ago. How dare I not sleep in. No it is more important to wake up and attempt to go back to sleep only to have a scary dream about a spider and a restaurant full of people trying to hurt me. X___X

Yay for overkill!

But it is morning and not late at night. I am feeling slightly more awake than last night. I was like zombie Tenchi after watching the Walking Dead. So here are the two posts I should have had up yesterday. Up first is Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova episode 2.Because posting episode 3 first would be silly. Spoilers for so many terms all over the place.

Peace out little decoy.

Episode Summary: Fog Ship Takao is sitting in the ocean looking for Iona and her crew. She fires a missile but it is determined she sunk another decoy. Frustration. Back at 401 Iona reports another decoy has been sunk. The crew is trying to determine long big Takao's range is which apparently is rather large. They are trying to reach a certain port and Takao has planted herself in the middle of said water way. Add in the tropical storm that is approaching/there and things have to be planned rather seriously. Various crewmen talk to Gunzou about what they think he should do. Iona and her pod of energy is busy giving stats and input as well. The original plan was to use the decoys and go around Takao's range at the bare minimum. But since Takao is acting a bit odd given her stats perhaps it would be better to use the decoys in a different way and take a longer way around. More terms are thrown around, how they should use missiles and attacks and what. Gunzou decides that if they go with route B, the longer way around, she could still follow and their destination might be bombed as collateral damage. Instead Gunzou suggests using the storm and decoys and attack Takao directly. There is slight WTF as Gunzou's main idea is using a weapon they haven't tested but off they rise. Takao then almost blasts them into pieces but Gunzou realizes at the last second Takao knows exactly where they are. They manage to escape but lose all the decoys in the process. Takao is shocked she “missed” while Gunzou starts to put it together. Takao is a war ship, not a submarine. But a submarine would be the only thing that could detect them as such a distance. Gunzou comes up with a new plan. The 401 comes close to the surface so Takao is like okay time to attack. Missiles are flying all over the place and exploding but eventually Gunzou reveals his secret weapon. He has taken a Super Gravity Cannon from one of the fallen Fog Ships. This forces Takao into the air, exposing the submarine that was attached to her. She was unable to prepare for this as she was hitched to the thing and slow moving. Floating helpless in the air Gunzou fires...on the submarine, leaving Takao weaponless for 24 hours. The group continues on their way towards the port. Iona does question why Gunzou is concerned about her as she is a weapon, she should be used as one. Takao then has a “meeting” with Kongou to discuss her failure. Takao had started off the battle strong and almost stoic. But after her lost and meeting with Takao she slowly has started to lose her little battle ship mind. She wants revenge as she floats along in the sea. She knows that Gunzou had the chance to destroy her but he didn't. Why? Then Takao decides she wants want Iona has, a human crew that can help her reach her full potential as a weapon. Or a woman. Either way.

I understood the word decoy though so yay?

That was....super technical. Super duper technical. But I guess that is what you get with this kind of show. Also when was the last time I watched this show? I am surprised I remembered anything but then again I only watched episode 1 so it wasn't like I could forget a lot.

I am sure that board is full of confusing terms too.

But yes this Arpeggio of Blue Steel show...I foresee a lot of terms and situations and a LOT of terms and situations that might be confusing. Confusing to me and everyone else who is not familiar with submarines. Or alien run submarines. I mean it wasn't like I was totally in the dark. Putting what was going on into context was easy to do. I think. But if you had to ask me to repeat what they were saying I would laugh in your face. It was sink submarine and torpedoes this. Flank that and fire this and a lot of thingy things going on. If you are looking for a post full of super duper explanations of what is going on...this is not the post you are looking for. This will be the post that will break it down in simple terms. My poor little brain.

Do the Fog Ships ever run out of ammo? I mean...no one is refueling them you know?

So what happened in this episode? Gunzou and his crew were hired by someone to get to America. The Japanese have grand plans for a super weapon but won't be able to put it together themselves. They need someone with the space, equipment, and land locked ability to create said super weapons. That means traveling by sea to get to the United States. I am assuming that even though Fog has taken over the seas air travel is also not possible. You know, with missiles able to blow them out of the sky and satellites being knocked out. So by sea it is.

And then we have a ship that looks like a high school student....

Despite only having a high school education (and not even finishing) Gunzou and his crew are amazing at piloting Iona. Although I am sure her highly advanced intelligence and self awareness helps. And it wasn't like these kids were in school for their health or fluff. They were all going to go into the military, to work on and be on subs. This new world needs soldiers, not sales people or photographers. So maybe it makes sense that they are so smart and job focused. That and it has been two years since Gunzou took over the ship. Plenty of time for Gunzou and his team to get their act together with Iona and look amazing yes?

It doesn't appear that they are going very far yet with Fog Ships all over it takes forever.

To make it to their next stop (not the United States because that is way too much ocean/sea) the group must pass through Fog territory. Okay I got jokes since all of the water is Fog territory. The Fog ship in question this episode is Takao. The group has been sending out decoy ships to see what her range is and what her capabilities are. Not all Fog ships are created equally and Iona has been separated from the group for quite some time. Got to play it safe or everyone is going to get blown up. I was going to ask where the heck they came up with all those decoy subs from. Are these kids rollin in the dough? But then I thought to myself...am I questioning where they are getting the never ending supply of missiles from? Wait I am? Okay maybe this will be explained later. You know, Iona can create....holograms that are real and stuff....or maybe this is a bit of military backing. I don't know.

What is up with this rule?

What I do know is the kids had lots of plans. And what I like about Gunzou was he was listening to his crewmates. He might be Captain but he wasn't flaunting around his power. Clearly he is a thinker but he needs people to help make these plans possible. The idea of skating by Takao by using the decoys and the tropical storm probably wouldn't work. That would be the safest plan but Takao's range was getting rather large. Shizuka suggested several things. Why not just go around the known range and use the decoys as we create a large path towards our goal. Kyouhei and Sou suggest several things too, on why that might be a bad idea. Gunzou weighs down the ideas and theories and realizes that everything sucks. While there is a Fog rule that they can't attack the land directly if there is collateral damage when chasing a ship that is okay. So clearly this Takao Fog Ship wants them to go to their destination so she can attack said destination.

Any objections? Okay time to attack!

There were a lot more words than that but that is the gist of it. Gunzou has decided....time to fight!!! They have a secret weapon after all. They will use the decoys to get closer to Takao and BAM! They shall use said weapon that hasn't been used in combat before. Iori has the most problems with this plan as she is in charge of energy but in the end everyone is like okay time to go. You too Iona. Thanks for all the input.

Almost was toast there.

Gunzou's plan doesn't work oh so well. Mainly because Takao had something going for her that Gunzou was able to figure out in 5 seconds. Well 5 seconds before they were almost blasted. She saw through the decoys and almost poofed them. Takao was....well rather a blank slate during most of the attack. I said almost because at times it looked like she was getting off on attacking and destroying Iona. But Takao got more aggressive and excited as the battle went on. Gunzou managed to save everyone from being squished which is great. All the turns and dives and missiles and suchies. He correctly guessed that there must be another ship involved because Takao wasn't built to detect things with such precise and distance. A lot of this has to be due because Iona can identity the ships and what not. And she used to be with them so you know.

And why not destroy Takao too? Oh ships are people too duh.

After a lot of terms and explosions Gunzou and gang use a giant weapon from a previous Fog ship to destroy the second ship that was located directly under Takao. Which shocked Takao as the group could have fired on her but didn't. They destroyed the tiny ship and only took a little damage themselves. All this planning and strategy paid off as Takao was forced to lick her wounds in the ocean with no weapons for 24 hours.

But not just any human right?

Takao really started to show a lot of her personality after that defeat. I am sure that Iona is a real traitor in her eyes. However there are a lot of puzzling things going on. As Iona stated she and Fog Ships are weapons. So why not use the weapon to defeat the enemy? A robot ships girls real people too in Gunzou's mind? Kongou rubbing it in that Takao lost really didn't help the ship's mental state. She must have been hiding the crazy inside her soul. Now Takao is teetering on revenge and waiting a crew herself. I am sure she will pass it off as she wants to be a better ship as Iona has a human crew helping her develop strategies. But really hommie is probably in love with the Fog Saver Gunzou. Interesting. Who is the real enemy and what does Gunzou really want if he doesn't want to destroy Fog Ships? Guess we will find out next time!