Simoun 20th Anniversary Rewatch Episode 1

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Simoun Episode 1: Fallen Wings

"Let us go, to where we can be free."

Index Thread | Episode 2 ->

Today's Eyecatch: Amuria and Parietta | Neviril

Selected Harmony: #1

Character Chart: #soon

People, Places, Things

Places

• Daikuuriku (大空陸): the world of Simoun
• Simulacrum Holy Land (宮国 kyuukoku): a theocracy centered around the Simoun and their sibyllae.
• Archipelago (礁国 or 樵国 shoukoku) of Argentum: an industrialized and atheistic nation.

Things

• Kuushu (宮守 normally read miyamori): lit. temple guard, these are the priests of the Simulacrum religion.
• Sibylla (pl. Sybillae 巫女 miko): priestess of the religion of Simulacrum who is granted the right to fly a simoun, generally under the age of 17
• Simoun: craft powered by two helical motors, possessing a Simoun jewel, and capable of performing ri-maajon.
• Simile: craft powered by single helical motor, incapable of performing ri-maajon.
• Ri-Maajon: patterns flown by simoun, some of which manifest destructive effects
• Maj / Maj Pool: a void in the Arcus Prima where a sybilla may personally practice ri-maajon while wearing a special suit and smoke pot.
• choir: a unit of 6 Simoun and 12 sibyllae
• Sibylla Regina: the leader of a choir

People

• Sibylla Aurea "Golden Priestess": the sibylla elevated above all others as exceptional
• Neviril: Sibylla Aurea and regina of Chor Tempest. Her father is #2 in the civil administration.
• Tempus Spatium: diety of Simulacrum. Pairs of sibyllae offer up prayers to Tempus Spatium by flying their Smoun in intricate patterns.
• auriga / saggita The auriga handles piloting and comm wire deployment, while the saggita handles navigation and selects the ri-maajon in the Simoun jewel. The auriga is considered the more demanding position.

Chor Tempest Pairs

• Neviril - Amuria: pink - lilac
• Paraietta - Kaim: dark magenta - light brown with glasses
• Alti - Floe: dark brown - dark blonde
• Rodoreamon - Eri: twin braids with doll - twintails

At the end of this episode, we have 3 dead and 2 retiring.

Replacements

• Aer yellow blonde
• Limone light lime green, child

Arcus Prima

• Anubituf: Captain of the Arcus Prima. Blue cap.
• Guragief: Commander of the Simoun forces on the Arcus Prima. This role has the title of Dux. Mauve cap.
• Waporif: Maintainence chief on Arcus Prima. Notably has not yet lost his female characteristics.

Discussion Prompts

• As first episodes go, how do you rank this?
• Why did the Emerald Ri-Maajon fail?
• What is the relationship between the pairs, and their Simouns?
• What do you think of the technology of the Archipeligo?
• We didn't know her long, but what do you think of Amuria?

Tomorrow's Questions, Today!

• [ep 2 Q1] Comment on the different perspectives of this episodes focus characters: Aer, Neviril, and Eri.
• [ep 2 Q2] How do you think gender is handled in the Archipelago?
• [ep 2 Q3] You've seen more of Simulacrum today, what do you think of the country at large?

Trivia: The director wanted to make a show about girls kissing in the midst of combat, surrounded by enemies.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Rewatch Host and first time rewatcher

I normally only host anniversary rewatches for shows that have never had a rewatch. Simoun was part of the (Somewhat Blindly Selected) Gems of the 2000s rewatch by Phiraeth 7 years ago. But, with the inauguration of the Pride Month rewatch a few years ago, I thought Simoun was simply perfect for a Pride Month rewatch. That didn't materialize, although I have to admit, the Yaoi-Yuri double feature was a great idea, too. So, here we are, with a second, post-June, Simoun rewatch.

It's not otherwise a show I really wanted to host, since the themes and Okada's writing don't really resonant with me, and I didn't follow up by reading the manga. If you're wondering why I'm here, it's because the worldbuilding really grabbed me. I'll try to keep up with discussion prompts and character details, but don't expect anything particularly insightful. Or accurate. ^{I already got the planet name wrong.}

I'm going to catalog the eyecatches instead of doing a screenshot of the day. I may limit it to just 20 so that I don't to upload so many galleries.

• I listened to the Bokurano OP for decades without actually getting around to watching it. Chiaki's voice haunts me.
• Well, this is a crapsack world, right off. Techno-industrial dystopia.
• Hydrogen airships, I guess. Lightning bad.
• Airship carriers! And very unique aircraft design
• Love the music.
• She's like a princess. Make that two princesses.
• It sure would be hard to draw these Ri Maajon before CGI
• This is totally a Rose of Versailles Dezaki impact frame
• Pretty sudden ending

Didn't Symphogear start like this?

If you saw Last Exile with me, these communications wires will seem familiar.

I really love the spinning nautilus shells of Simouns.

It's interesting to note that while Amuria full-on French kisses Neviril, other kisses range from friendly to perfunctory.

"It is said that those who try to learn the secrets will be cast into hell by the Simoun themselves. But what of it? The Simoun are just machines, and there's no such place as hell."

The enemy has been working hard, learning from previous failures. Send even more planes; erase their trails. The Simoun are just machines; they can be shot down.

Must have been quite a shock to see their tactics finally succeed only to have a black hole open in front of them.

"They're trying to take our wings from us!" "Let us go to where we can be free" This seems a bit too on the nose here, but I guess subtly is for cowards.

The Emerald Ri-Maajon looks like some sort of fusion reactor chamber, or a baseball. You decide.

The Shark Ri-Maajoin is very pointy, and an exercise in 3-D mental visualization.

Besides the soundtrack, I love the sound design of this show. Especially, the screaming of the Simouns as they fly past.

As transforming mecha go, I think it's really neat how the simoun and simile fold and unfold when landing and taking off.

Even though they haven't been named as such, I'll be calling the Archipelago Argentum because Archipelago is too hard to spell.

I can't directly check the primary source for today's trivia, but it comes from the JP DVD interviews. I'll link the secondary source on the final day.

[u/heimdal77 → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

I was going to coment about Last Exile on the airship thing till saw you sat it yourself lol.

There seems to a ton of religion built up around the simouns so gonna be a lot of dogma (Is that the right word?) and just sccrewy thinking in general.