Episode Eight - Broken Hearts Aplenty/Yaburareta Kokoro (A Heart Smashed to Pieces)
Picking up where the last episode left off, Ranban congratulates Aoi on having enough guts to touch him/her (I'm going to keep refering to him as a him, for simplicity's sake), but reassures him that he is merely wearing a mail suit, and his true form, just like Mito's, is beneath the surface. Seeing Ranban's mail suit, Aoi suddenly remembers the rest of the flashback he had last time: his mother trying to open the hatch to get away from the flame, his toddler self crying, and Mail Suit Ranban appearing from nowhere. Ranban goes on to explain that the mail suit is modeled after the first Queen of the Galaxy, and all members of the royal family wear them. Aoi is thoroughly confused: if his mom is royalty, why is she also a pirate? Speaking of Mito, she opens up communication with Ranban, and agrees to come quietly. Her crew tries to say their farewells, but Mito assures them she'll be back soon. While Mito is escorted to the bridge, Mutsuki tries to get to Aoi. Barred from the elevator, she finds a ladder and climbs, all the while wondering what Aoi's true intentions were the other day. On the bridge, Mito and Ranban exchange "pleasantries" before getting down to business: Mito will give Ranban the amulet once he lets Aoi go. Reunited, Mito asks Aoi for the bracelet he wears, and Aoi once again guesses that it's the seal, although Mito still doesn't give him a straight answer. As he takes it off, he feels a strange kind of shock run down his spine, but he gives the bracelet to his mother regardless. Before Ranban can take it, Mutsuki arrives, still trying to get to Aoi on the bridge, despite being captured by the guards. Mito takes the interruption as a chance to kick some action, and her ridiculous ribbons become electified, shocking most of the guards in the room. Shin, who bypassed the sensors due to being synthetic, manages to surround the rest, leaving Mito free to target Ranban directly.
Ranban easily swats away the ribbons, but then Mito's glasses start emitting a high-power fire beam that Ranban still manages to evade. In the ensuing fracas, Mutsuki gets knocked down, and though Aoi runs to her, Masatsuki gets to her first and warns Aoi to keep away. The room is suddenly filled with warning bells and signs on the screens, and Mito tosses the bracelet back to Aoi. She and Ranban continue their fight, and soon it looks like Ranban has the upperhand, which he claims is because he has the strongest of the royal family's mail suits, and without a suit, Mito has no hope of defeating him. But just as Ranban's about to strike the finishing blow, his light saber merely slashes through Mito's ribbons, as she managed to manuever herself into the air and behind him, the perfect location to activate the suit's glitch.
As the glitch takes hold, Ranban's light saber falls in front of Aoi, and he remembers even more of the firey flashback: Ranban and Mito fighting suit to suit while he cried in the background, a chunk of the ceiling falling, Mito suddenly suitless, and him crawling on suitless Mito, begging her to give back his mom. Back in the present, he watches the deja vu-y fight between Ranban and Mito (guess the glitch doesn't last as long in a stronger suit), and picks up the light saber. With a mighty yell, he powers it up (holy phallic imagery, Batman!), and strikes a blow in the name of his mother...that hits Mito. She falls to the ground with a smile on her face.
Stunned by what he's done, Aoi is powerless to stop Ranban from just walking up to him and taking the bracelet off of his arm. While Ranban crows, Mito uses what little strength she has left to reach the controls in her glasses, powering up the Shonagon (the ship she took to the Dainagon) and striking a blow from the inside, the signal for the Chunagon to start firing. The ship extends a sword-like protuberance and prepares to ram the Dainagon, which is in a chaos Ranban tries to contain.
While all that is going on, Aoi kneels beside his mother, still prostrate on the floor, and is finally able to call her Mom. She's just glad he's fine, and as the Shonagon approaches the bridge, Shin and Aoi prop Mito up and take her to it. Ranban catches them just in time, and Mito's pure rage for Ranban getting her son mixed up in all this gives her a second wind, granting her the energy to leap at Ranban, knock the light saber from his hand, and knock him to the ground. The two royals grapple with each other, and Mito yells for Shin to get herself and Aoi out of there. More guards arrive, and Ranban shakes Mito off, but Shin and Aoi are able to get away. Aoi, just like his mother, immediately wants to go back, and it's only a quick slap to the back of the neck from Shin that keeps him from commandering the controls.
Shin drops Aoi on the beach back on Earth, then goes back to the Chunagon to report what all happened on the Dainagon. Sobo finally gives us the backstory on Aoi's flashback: when he was four, Mito took him to space so he could meet his grandmother, but Ranban captured them instead, and that repressed memory was why he had such a hard time accepting Mito's true form (the dub further elaborates that this memory is why he shot his mother, an action he would have taken when he was younger if he had the chance). The Dainagon retreats, but not before shining a bright light on the entire town that erased all memories of any aliens from the entire town. Aoi, still on the beach, suddenly sees the entire series so far flash before his eyes, before falling over. The Chunagon follows after the Dainagon, while everyone left on Earth wonders what they were just doing.
In her quarters, Mutsuki sits, depressed, and can't even muster a shred of enthusiasm for Masatsuki, who has become a member of the Elite Forces. Ranban, rehelmeted, watches Mito suspended in a tube of liquid (what are those things called, anyway?). Back on Earth. life is going on as it usually is. On his way to school, Aoi notices his bracelet is gone, but as he wonders what he did with it, he hears the voice of his father call out to him...
Episode Nine: Ranban and Mito!/Ranban to Mito!
Masatsuki narrates the official order from Ranban to eliminate the memories of all aliens from (stupid) humans, and his own farewell to the plan, but goes too far and narrates the episode title (which is usually silent). Six months have passed since that climactic battle. Aoi often dreams of his mother and father leaving him, and feels that his dad is trying to tell him something through these dreams.
At the Galactic Patrol Headquarters, Ranban takes some time outside of his mail suit, only to be caught suitless by a servant, whom he sends down a hole through the floor, before suiting up, both in the mail suit and his cloak and helmet, once again. Meanwhile, Mutsuki has quit the Galactic Patrol and spends her days playing happy homemaker while Masatsuki is away on missions. Lately, he's started to question Ranban's tactics to maintain his rule at any cost, but he keeps his doubts to himself.
Mito has been imprisoned all this time, and on this particular day Ranban pays her a visit, trying to get her to reminisce with him. It seems that when they were young, they promised to rule together (considering that Mito is over 12,000 years old, and Ranban is likely close to that as well, how long ago was this, anyway?). Ranban also goes on about how their royal blood has special stuff in it which gives them unlimited power, but Mito writes this off as just meaning they can marry anyone (and by 'marry,' I'm pretty sure she means 'mate with'). Ranban wonders what would have happened if they had been united (and by this, does he also mean mated? I never picked up on that before), but it's all moot since he was barred from being in line for the throne (and Mito was told he simply disappeared), and forbidden to reach maturity(they talk about this more in a later episode, but I still don't quite understand what happened), so eventually he took over by force. Out of the blue, he offers to let Mito see her son, and even assembles the special forces to take them to Earth.
Meanwhile, Sobo, who has been captain of the Chunagon in Mito's absence, meets with the leaders of two factions of the old Royal Army, who inform her of the huge fortress Ranban has been building. They pledge their allegiance to Mito and join the crusade against Ranban. With that in mind, the Chunagon follows the Dainagon to Earth. Ranban allows Mito to go to the surface without any hindrances, but warns her not to try and escape. She immediately finds Aoi, but it's obvious he doesn't remember her. Once Aoi and his friends leave, Ranban teleports down to rub Mito's face in the fact that her son will grow old and die long before she does, and point out that she already lost her husband. This touches Mito, and it seems she will tell him the the truth about the Amulet (the bracelet wasn't it). Before anything happens, the Chunagon attacks and Shin arrives to take Mito back to the ship. Mito is not pleased to see that the Royal Army was brought in, but as her mom points out, what choice did they have? Mito immediately takes charge and sends Sabu and Shin to go get Aoi. While they're off, Mito manipulates a hand-held model of the Chunagon to attack the Galactic Patrol's forces with the real ship.
The appearance of the spacecrafts jogs everyone's memories of what happened six months ago, although Aoi, having more to remember than anyone else, has a bit of a breakdown as the memories come flooding back. The town gets it a lot worse in this battle than it did in the last one, believe you me. Ranban, thinking back to the last episode, has an idea and calls for Masatsuki. He reinstates Mutsuki and orders the two of them to capture Aoi for him once again.
Episode Ten: Disaster Revisted/Wazawai Futatabi (Calamity Once Again)
The battle between the Galactic Patrol and Mito's forces rages on into the night, and Ranban, for reasons of his own, seals off the battlefield, including the town below, with a forcefield shield. This done, a huge Kaizou-kun is sent down to Earth, creating a mecha from everything it landed on top of, all as part of the special forces' search for Aoi. Masatsuki leads the troops on the ground, and Mutsuki awaits her battilion's deployment with trepidation.
With most of the city unsafe, Aoi, among others, is holed up in the school, still reeling from his earlier mental breakdown. Without warning, he runs to the roof and calls for his mother, even leaping into the air to get to her...only to land on top of his concerned classmates. But Aoi isn't the only starting to lose it. Masatsuki goes a little crazy as the build up from his previous missions starts to take its toll, specifically when he realizes the similarity of the frightened Earthlings watching him comb the town to the other aliens that got turned into instant noodles (the Galactic Patrol's preferred method of capture) during an earlier mission. The strain is finally too much for him, leading him to shoot things randomly while chanting, "Justice!" Reaching the school, he demands Aoi give himself up, and begins spouting 'facts' about him, only half of which are true (at one point, he seems to have mixed Aoi up with a gremlin), but he includes that fact that Aoi shot his mother and then ran off, which hits Aoi hard. His friends demand the truth, but Aoi can only sputter, "it's true," leading them to think everything was true, until Aoi spits out the actual true fact and then runs off. As a show of solidarity, his classmates offer to help him get out without being captured, and thanks to some quick thinking on their teacher's part (she made masks of Aoi's face for everyone), he (and a few others) are able to make it to the street. Unfortunately, most of the Aoi-lookalikes were turned into noodles, although Masatsuki, still ranting wildly, assures them that they'll turn back to normal with hot water.
Kafuko leads them to a shortcut that leads to her storeroom of cosplay props, but her two cronies were sacrificed along the way. An announcement goes out to Aoi: give himself up, or the town will be destroyed! Masatsuki continues to terrorize the school, and Miss Okubo (Aoi's teacher) girds her loins to go and distract the troops and protect the students, using her crazy ninjas skills. But despite everyone's efforts to get him out of there, Aoi can't let the town be destroyed and gives himself up. Fortunately, this gets the Chunagon's attention, too, and Mito keeps him from being captured. She tells him to keep running, since as long as Aoi is in the town, Ranban won't destroy it completely. Miss Okubo joins him, and they all continue to run.
Ranban orders all his ships to attack the Chunagon, but the faction of the Royal Army lead by the chicken arrives and gives a big "Who do you think she is? This is Galactic Princess Mito!" speech, embarrassing Mito quite a bit. Apparently, the princess bit is news to a lot of Ranban's troops, and he tries to play it off like a trick, urging his troops to keep attacking. On the ground, Miss Okubo turns on their pursuers with her crazy Teacher Lecture skills, giving the kids more time to run. Meanwhile, the Chunagon is hit and heads nosedown into the ground. The Royal Army factions set up a protective shield in the shape of the royal seal that is able to repel Ranban's attack.
On the run, Aoi and the others find Mutsuki, who pulls out her guns and starts reading Aoi his rights. He calls her by (last) name, surprising the other students, although they do recognize her once Aoi says it. This, plus the arrival of a fully insane Masatsuki (boasting of 'how many' Aois he's captured, thanks to the masks), remove any shred of resolve to do her duty that she had, and she flies off. No matter, though, since a host of troops arrive with Masatsuki and surround Aoi and the others. But one trooper turns on the others, shocking them enough that they don't fire back. It was Shin all along, and Sabu is not far behind. While Sabu takes on Masatsuki, Shin gives Aoi back the bracelet. Masatsuki uses a normal Kaizou-kun to make a mecha from a fallen trooper's gun, and Aoi calls upon his hidden powers to destroy it. The blast is so powerful that only Sabu and Shin remain conscious, and Aoi is nowhere to be seen.
Bonus episode: The Peaceful Days of the People of Mito
A mini-story. Mito is challenged by the pirate "too villainous for TV," Masakado. Mito's cook prepares a salad to celebrate her inevitable victory, made from himself (he's a vegetable alien), and Carson, the rose-loving crew member, gets trampled by everyone else. Back on Earth, Aoi teaches traditional Japanese dance, but he'd rather be teaching karate. Miss Okubo hears on the radio that the horse she bet on won, but celebrates a little too close to the principal. He lets her get away with it...if she buys lunch for everyone. And Kafuko and her cronies spend the night working on cosplay, though she admits only to herself that it's to get Aoi's attention.
Mito defeats the challenger, as always, so Sabu throws Masakado over the side, where she is picked up (and nearly eaten) by some kind of space eel. Aoi eats dinner and notices that tomorrow is the day his mom is coming home. Mito sets a course for Earth, and the caption reads "To be continued in the first episode."
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