Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA - ep 07

The show plunges straight from last weeks all out action to quiet drama in this episode. The episode hints at Haruka’s personal problems, quietly expressing Haruka’s recovery from last episode’s fight.

Panic reigns as the mechanic crew start their repairs on Imber. Even Yukiho seemed a little out of sorts until the captain gives her a chance to visit Haruka, saying that everything else is under control.

Meanwhile, Nebula is recovered as well, with a frustrated Makoto inside. As the story goes, it seemed that Makoto had attacked Nebilum, and was one blow away from finishing it off, but Azusa had forced her to make rescuing imber the priority.

Meanwhile, Iori is caught pacing outside Haruka’s ward, resulting in her being red-faced. In the end, she only enters after Yukiho arrives as well.

While visiting, Makoto arrives, but reacts indifferently to Haruka, instead asking the nurse to quickly give her the after mission checkup. This of course pisses Iori off, while Makoto explains away that what happened had nothing to do with her, especially since Haruka was already unconscious by the time Makoto had arrived.

Back at the Turiavita(the enemy), Chihaya faces up to how “mother is very angry” for having failed the mission. Riffa as well is “debriefed”, and says that there’s no way they can be tracked to their location.

Meanwhile, captain and naze are briefing to the central organisation as to what happened to Imber, covering everything up as an accident.

Haruka is plagued by what happened, finally waking up when everything in Imber’s cockpit seemed to go blank. Azusa who was beside her explains everything about the Turiavita.

Yukiho and Iori receives news that Haruka had woken up. But when they arrived at the base, they find Haruka staring at Imber while seated in a wheelchair. Haruka cannot face Imber without thinking about how her parents had hated her and abandoned her. Totally depressed, Haruka even declined to meet Yayoi, not wanting her to see Haruka in her depressed state.

The next day was a start up test for Imber. Yet it failed to start up successfully, leaving Haruka once again with images of her parents.

While it rains outside, Iori questions Haruka. Haruka explains that Imber seems to have gone all quiet. It was all Haruka’s fault that Imber got hurt so badly, if only she had trained harder, and Imber probably now hates her. There’s no turning back once a person hates you.

At night, Haruka sneaks out to talk to Imber, and tries once again to start it up, but fails to do so.

Another day passes by, this time Makoto is assigned to test start Imber. However, just as she climbs into the cockpit, Iori suddenly catches hold of her and drags her out, jumping into the cockpit herself.

Iori proceeds to scold Haruka for being stupid, but Imber was being real stupid as well.

At the same time, we see that Haruka had returned to her home town without a single word. Lying on a grassfield in spring time, Haruka cannot help but let the tears flow as she really felt alone.

Surprisingly though, Haruka finds Imber landing behind her, though she does not notice Iori standing in the trees. Even as a flower drops into her palm, Haruka can only express thanks to Imber.

Thoughts

I couldn’t quite help but feel that Haruka is a pretty messed up character. Not that she’s horrible, but people with a traumatized background shouldn’t be pilots, much like what Makoto has been saying about feelings.

Though lacking action, this episode had this subtle and interesting way of developing characters, what I feel anyway. So overall things were still pretty interesting to me. It’ll be interesting to see how the idol and its master will develop from here.

Next episode will see some beach scenes!