February 12th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari OVA Ep. 10 Review
異世界の聖機師物語 OAV Episode 10 (DVD version)
War on Geminar – 10
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Dagmyer’s forces destroy the capital of Shurifon as Kenshi battles Doll in her Black Seikijin to a draw, allowing the evacuation of the citizens of the capital. After the Swan escapes with Aura on board, Doll uses the Church’s teleportation to attack both the Head Church and the country of Havoniwa. The Church sends Reia Second out to find the Swan but her transport is found by Dagmyer’s forces and attacked. Reia escapes and her pod is captured by Kenshi in his Seikijin and brought on board the Swan.
After Reia communicates with Lashara, the Swan heads to Havoniwa where they discover it has already been attacked. Lashara assumes Maria and her mother are dead but before the Swan can leave, they come under attack from Cordyline, who’s taken control of the capital city’s main defense, the Meteor Fall. The Swan is soon trapped and Meteor Fall is in position to destroy the ship when Yukine arrives in her Seikijin and makes a surprise attack on the command deck 
of Meteor Fall, causing it to lose altitude enough for Kenshi to take out one of its supports.
With Yukine on board the Swan, she leads them safely to the underground city where they are met by Maria and Flora. A meeting of the government of Havoniwa reveals their state of readiness, but the matter of Kenshi has to be resolved, namely which country, if any, will control him. Lashara realizes her control over Kenshi is gone and is 
depressed. Kenshi is told to make his decision and after consulting everyone, including the sad Lashara, he convinces Lashara to give him the Swan. He then declares Swan to be an independent nation and with himself as ruler, he takes on new citizens, to include Lashara, Aura, Chiaia, Wahanly, Maria, Yukine, Reia, and more. Their first act is to ban the excavation of crystals from Swan, something Kenshi loves to do.
Thoughts/Review:
Well, we certainly have an interesting mix of things happening here from action to comedy to even a heart-felt moment.
It is clear that the Church underestimated Babalun’s ambitions, otherwise I can’t imagine they would have let him go as far as he did. The teleportation pads they held were a bit of new technology which had not been previously introduced, even as a concept (at least, not that I’m aware of). I’m just trying to think of why the Church would need such devices 
to instantly get from one kingdom to another. I suppose in the end, it does not matter “why?” The devices allowed Doll to rapidly attack Shurifon, Havoniwa, and the main church all in a short space of time.
Babalun’s methods are fairly interesting. In addition to taking control over the three countries that surround Seichi, he also has them as visible proof of what his forces can do, stirring fear in other countries. No doubt that Babalun plans to use this fear to his advantage.
The Gaia Shield. Man, that is a strange artifact. It has been shown eating part of another Seikishi and again, I can’t help but think of Evangelion when I see that. I’m guessing that Gaia may actually belong to the Seikishin since Seikijin, even when a gifted Seikishi like Doll is in control, can’t handle the strain of massive use, as witnessed when Kenshi battled Doll to a draw. Yet she was able to recover and attack Havoniwa and the main church HQ.
This brings me to the politics of things. Kajishima-sensei is a fan of political intrigue. This comes 
out to a degree in the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki series and a bit more in the Tenchi Muyo! Galaxy Police Transporter series. He explores this even further in his Tenchi novels and doujinshi. I see lots of political intrigue in ISM as well, starting with the basic notion of Babalun wanting to take over, but then expanding further into the Church and the other nations. Since the Church controlled the weapons, Kenshi became the ultimate weapon out of everyone’s control and thus the need for him to be an independent entity outside of any one nation’s control, or the Church’s.
Speaking of the Church, there’s the new character Reia Second. I’ve seen that people say she is Neizai and that may well be. Regardless, I found it very interesting that (1) she has the same name as Kenshi’s mother and that (2) she seemed very interested in Nobuyuki (who clearly hasn’t matured any since the end of TM!R OVA 3). This may end up being a red herring but if Kajishima-sensei is providing a clue to something else, I haven’t grasped it yet.
Finally, there’s Lashara. From the start, I liked her as a character. Despite her youth, she showed herself to be savvy, witty, patient, greedy, intelligent, and an opportunist. She wisely made the decision to make Kenshi hers after figuring out just how special he truly is (above and beyond him being a male Seikishi). Throughout, I’ve never sensed her having any deep feelings for Kenshi (the ED image aside).
However in this episode, Lashara has a momentary breakdown when faced with a situation of her losing Kenshi. I felt that this wasn’t because she was losing a powerful weapon or a bargaining chip, but she was losing a companion. Her remarks on her training making her seem so mature (at least when Maria isn’t around) struck me. There’s training but Lashara seemed to rise above standard training. 
Regardless, she was born to lead and takes her fun where she can but matters of the heart are not something she’s really had to deal with. She was OK with Kenshi marrying Aura providing Lashara got something out of it but when Kenshi might actually leave her, everything stopped.
Basically, I’m being rather wordy to say that I like seeing this new side of Lashara’s character.
So, some final questions.
- Why is Ceres so important? Will that also include Hazuki?
- What exactly is Gaia? Obviously, it is more than a shield.
- What exactly can we expect at the Barrier Workshop?
- Are Reia and Neizai the same person?
- Why is Reia so interested in Kenshi’s family? Is there anything to her family name being “Second?”
Three more episodes, assuming Kajishima-sensei doesn’t get some sort of special OVA (which he’s done before). I’m looking forward to seeing the next episode.
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Once again another good post astro….I really enjoy reading your reading you posts about the episodes to see another person’s thoughts of the show, and to clarify things….do you feel that Lashara is developing romantic feelings for kenshi? or will this be a tenchi/sasami like relationship….and I PRAY kenshi mentions tenchi soon, its like he’s mentiones everyone else BUT him….I wonder what their relationship is like
@J-Boog:
– “do you feel that Lashara is developing romantic feelings for kenshi?” – well, it’s Kajishima’s work. This fact alone is pretty much self-explanatory.
– “and I PRAY kenshi mentions tenchi soon, its like he’s mentiones everyone else BUT him” – after all, the title of the main series is “Tenchi Muyo!” and translated to English means “No Need for Tenchi!”. So,… this is also pretty much self-explanatory. 😀
@Astro:
– A teleportation is used in the OVAs (ship-ground and ground-ship) and in at least one episode of GXP (some of the girls enter something resembling a telephone cabin in the street and then they teleport). So, I guess that teleportation is common thing in the OVAs universe. And since this universe probably have at least some connection to the Kenshi’s it is possible that Church’s teleportation devices are very old version of the current teleports.
– Also, I guess that the Church has an agenda of its own and planned to use the teleportation devices. Or they just collect all of the old technology to have monopoly over it. Either way, I see the Church as power hungry and wanting to control the world.
– About Ceres – I guess that Dagmayer’s men don’t know that Kenshi is the one who beat the crap out of them, so they think it was Ceres (the only one who didn’t join them). Otherwise, I don’t know why they’ll hate Ceres more than Kenshi. If you watch the scene again (around the 22nd minute), I’m sure you’ll reach the same conclusion.
– Reia and Neizai might be the same person or Neizai might be just another personality of Doll. Or.. she could even be the headmaster of the Keishijin school (the old one) who was talking with the Church’s headmaster. Either way, probably we’d be very surprised when we find out her real identity.
P.S. Astro, can you give some translation or explanation to “Seikishin”, “Seikijin”, “Seikishi”, etc., because I’m starting to get lost in this words and I can’t remember which one which were.
Watch Episode 11 as to why Ceres is so important. Here’s a clue: Ceres is Kenshi’s best friend from school.
Regarding the questions…
1.Why is Ceres so important? Will that also include Hazuki?
2.What exactly is Gaia? Obviously, it is more than a shield.
3.What exactly can we expect at the Barrier Workshop?
4.Are Reia and Neizai the same person?
5.Why is Reia so interested in Kenshi’s family? Is there anything to her family name being “Second?”
Without saying too much…
1.) This will be revealed at the start of the next episode. Suffice to say that Dagmeyer really screws up…
2.) All I know is that any shield that has a mouth that eats opponents is probably a “Bad Thing(tm)”. :p I would hazard a guess that it’s connected to the prophecy of the black seikijin (i.e. Doll) destroying the world.
3.) The Barrier Workshop is where Chiaia’s father works – i.e. the person who discovered Doll and “adopted” her. I don’t think I really need to add anything to that.
4.) No comment. Though I’ll add that if she is Neizai, then it makes the question of Neizai’s true loyalties even more convoluted. I’m not going to comment any further on this for the time being, however.
5.) If she’s not Neizai, then I would assume that she was merely trying to make up for being cruel to him initially (although that heelstomp suggests otherwise…). The conversation between the girls when Lashara catches them spying on Kenshi and Reia also suggests that Reia wants to persuade Kenshi to work for the Church (as a seikishi) and if that’s the case then she needs to get on his good side. If she is Neizai, then keep in mind that Neizai has been interested in Kenshi from the start, going so far as to ask him questions even when he was trying to run her down following the theft from Wahanly’s lab.
One last item – Miss Thief Juniorette seems to be laying the groundwork to destroy any and all audience sympathy for her when she gets killed. Her casual dismissal of the deaths of Reia’s crew speaks volumes about herself.
Good to see your post up. It’s always nice to read other peoples’ impressions.
Anyways, you’ve been wondering why the church would have teleport devices hidden at each kingdom, but to me it makes much sense. The church seems to be the central peace keeper authority on Geminar. If there’s reason for intervention, then a teleporter right into the heart of a kingdom is of great strategic value. The elven king wasn’t even aware those devices existed IIRC.
BTW in regards to Neizai and her identity, there’s some hints and nifty foreshadowing in this episode, that only became apparent to me in hindsight after ep11.
@J-Boog — thanks. ^_^
I think Lashara is developing feelings for Kenshi, just as Sasami did for Tenchi. Though Pioneer’s translations miss this, Sasami first shows her interest in Tenchi at their first meeting. ^_^
@Evgenidb — I think Kajishima-sensei is purposefully avoiding too many TM!R references beyond the small bones he’s tossed to fans. I really do hope we see full cameos by series end.
I agree with your assessment on the Church. Your assessment on Ceres is an interesting one as well.
Seikishin — the “god” mecha unit that was the stage of Lashara’s being crowned and what Doll used briefly to fight Kenshi.
Seikijin — the bio-mecha units.
Seikishi — the pilots of the Seikijin.
^_^
@Tesaicho — Well, I’ll be waiting to see episode 11 so…^_^;;;
@Junior — Interesting stuff.
As to Lan, I agree with you. She does seem marked for death now.
@Astro and @Junior about Lan:
Don’t forget that K-sensei don’t kill characters so often and so lightly as is in other anime (read anime from creators, writers, etc).
Let’s remember who of the bad guys died in his anime – Kagato (but in the end of OVA 3 it became more “kind of” death to me), Zero (Ryoko’s clone), one of the main pirates in GXP (the really bad one), the bad guys from the movies (but I’m not sure about the second movie – I just don’t remember),… am, hmm, eto… the bad alien in Dual!, oh, and a whole bunch of monsters in Tenchi in Tokyo,… hmm,… and that’s all, i think.
Well, it seems that the list is quite impressive, but if we consider the baddies that K-sensei did NOT kill, the list will be much longer.
1) All the bad guys in TM!R except Kagato and Zero – Dr. Clay, the monster in the forth episode, Z, Seyrio (I think this was his name (the guy with a purple hair)) and even Neja (guess where his spirit lives). Then we have a whole bunch of pirates in GXP, including Seyrio, like Ryoko Balta (oh, that reminds me of the original Ryoko – also a pirate, also a baddie at some point), the pirate Seyrio married (don’t remember her name; she has a blue hair), and Da Luma, the main antagonists in Tenchi in Tokyo (I think that not only Yugi is alive but also her minions, but I watched this series too long ago and I don’t remember now), the baddies from Dual and Photon (except that alien ball in Dual) – lots of them (another five-six rolls just to list them). Even Tokimi you can consider a baddie for trying to kill Tenchi. And the future Misaki. And probably there are a whole lot more bad guys I don’t remember.
Now think what happaned to the bad guys. Some have been redeemed (most of the pirates in GXP and our sweet Ryoko), or have been sent to prison (like Doctor Clay), or have been stripped from all their powers (like Z), and so on.
The good thing about K-sensei’s universe is that it’s never just white and black, neither it’s so simple.
The bottom line, with K-sensei’s works, you never know.
Golden eyes are the key to figuring out the characters. It shows that they are somehow not human. Ryoko for instance is not human originally, or completely. Lady Saito’s eyes sometimes are shown as gold. Now Reia, maybe a doll or puppet, etc, just not the real deal. I’m not watching the show, just reading the post.
I am a Fire Emblem fan, and in one game’s story is if the character had golden eyes, they were morphs or the dead brought back by chaos magic. I’m guessing uses that in his inhuman characters. Kagato had yellowish eyeballs. Janis(Spaceship Agga Ruter) has golden eyes, can’t remember if kei does, and I can’t find pictures or a moments look at her retina, but her eyes never widening like the other characters tells you something.
@evgenidb — “Tenchi in Tokyo” isn’t a Kajishima creation so that doesn’t count. ^_~
But yeah, Kajishima-sensei doesn’t kill too many people in his stories. Even Z got reborn, though without his powers.
@James — Good grief! I think you just hit on something that I’d never even paid attention to — the golden eye color. I will have to try to remember that as I continue to watch (and as I rewatch older stuff as I have time).
It not just the color od Reia eye, it the shape of them that tell men she is some how related to Ryoko. Now I first thought that shere was related to Misaki, but then I notes she did not have Lady Seto’d red eyes, which all of the Devil Princess’s decendent have.
Now I am working on the theory , because of the eyes, that she may be one of Ryoko’s lost sisters, the two showning th the doujishi several years ago. If I remember correctly, oneof them had hair about the same lenght as Reia.
Also Reia intrest in Kenshi father reminds me of the interest other K-sensei characters that have had no parents, charcters like Noike.
One more thing.
You said Z was born without this powers, I think we’re going to find out just how much power Z was reborn with.
I don’t know that it means anything, but I now notice that Doll has pink eyes. Sasami-chan also had pink eyes. Probably means nothing, but it would be interesting if it meant a tie to the Choushin somehow.
@Shadow — if Reia is one of Washu’s earlier prototypes, she should have similar powers as Ryoko or Kagato.
As to Z, the reason I say he was reborn with no power is that the Choushin can bring people back to life, but they cannot restore the anomalous powers they had. When Z attempted to kill Tenchi, he stated that the Choushin would bring him back. Were Tenchi brought back to life, he would become an ordinary human.
So I tend to think that Z was reborn as a normal person to lead a normal life.
@Astro, we should check the episode where Sasami is shown as a little girl (when Ryoko attacked Jurai and Sasami fell, died, and Tsunami revived her). Maybe her eyes were pink in the very beginning.
@Shadow, Ryoko had sisters??? Darn, I want K-sensei’s doujinshi translated! And the books, and… well, you now what I mean…
Technically, Kagato and Ryoko could be considered siblings since they were both created by Washu.
Hey, it’s James again. Obviously, some of you went to find flaws about my “eye color” theory. In fact, I thought people were going to ignore it as rubbish thoughts.
First, I’m going clear Sasami. Tsunami promised to protect the Juraians, I’m pretty sure Sasami was normal before, and is still normal after the fall. Tsunami didn’t let her lose her life. So I still don’t think her link with Tsunami makes her anything other than human/Juraian.
Astro don’t give up on my theory. Don’t know why sasami was brought up in the first place. It is confusing, how sasami turned to look like the goddess. Shows fate and destiny played the role there in their characterisation.
Kajishima is a character designer. His designs aren’t flat or one dimensional. They usually open more portals on them. Lady Saito is pale in complexion, as well her green colored hair. Like Kagato. Which you can say in defense, is like Akara, but we don’t know why her makeup is like that.
We all that that the characters such as Mishoshi, a Seniwan native. Hence the different ears. Most of characters show alien ears. Ryoko, for instance, and it had be exagerated even further in OAV 3 from TMiL2.
Just because they don’t have gold eyes doesn’t mean that they aren’t fake humans. Characters in disquise change the retina, I hope its that simple of an explanation.
I also wanted to point out, Fire Emblem was the first place that opened my eyes not only on characters eyes but there entire character.
I have a lot more on my theory, and I’ll get back to it, but I want to see what else I can uncover and others replies.
evgenidb –
While it’s true that Kajishima rarely kills off characters, it’s also true that we rarely get characters as utterly contemptible as this particular one. Barring some spectacular surprise in episode 13 (or 12 – but such surprises typically get saved for the last episode), everything that we’ve seen about her indicates more petty (key word) narcisism, greed, and contempt for others than I can recall in any Kajishima character – particularly one with so little going for her. While Kajishima has shown us individuals who have elements of those traits before, those same individuals are usually capable of things like stealing GP space battleships, casually crushing fleets of enemy fleets, etc… We don’t appear to have anything like that here.
Now I’m not saying that she’s automatically going to get stepped on by a seikijin before this is all over. But she’s such a ridiculously selfish self-centered brat (above and beyond what we see in any of the other characters) that it would be hard to imagine the audience not cheering if it were to happen.
@caliburmuyo0097, why we should disregard your theory. It doesn’t matter if it’s plausible or not. it’s still a possibility. True, in the end it might turn completely wrong, but before you check it, you can’t be sure.
About Sasami – I see her more as a copy to the original Sasami that died back then. It might be complete copy with no differences from the original but still it’s a copy. If the original Sasami continued to live, the copy would seem just like a copy, although she would be a perfect one. This stuff is sometimes explored in science fiction (for instance, in the movie “The 6th Day”).
Also, I view her as a vessel for Tsunami to travel, since Tsunami and Sasami merged.
@junior – the main point is that with K-sensei you never know. You expect her to die, but he might decide to change that only because no one would expect it.
>Technically, Kagato and Ryoko could be considered siblings since they were both created by Washu.
Nah. Not because of that. He assimilated Ryoko brother, that’s why. Hn and we know that Ryoko is very literally Washuu’s daughter even if there was no father – that means male-Kagato was ALSO son of Washuu, besides being Naja (aka Seto) clone like his “sister”… which in fact leads to male-Kagato being son of Naja and Washuu… WTF… Tenchiverse and it’s family relationships…
@James — I’m not giving up on any theories (and I do apologize for missing this when it was approved). I think you have something with the eye color. I had pondered whether or not other unusual eye colors might mean something as well.
@Evgenidb — Technically, Sasami did not die. Tsunami doesn’t need Sasami to travel since Tsunami had a physical form when she met the man who’d become the first ruler of Jurai. One could say that she was destined to become Sasami because Sasami’s adult form is Tsunami’s form.
However, one could say that Sasami died in one sense since she became something else after the accident and subsequent assimilation by Tsunami.
@al103 — Actually, we think the assimilation stuff was a misunderstanding from the Japanese fan that provided the information many years ago. OVA 3 told us that when Washu created Kagato, Kagato was a hermaphrodite. Kagato simply expunged that part of the body which was female and thus “Kagato-chan” was created, leaving Kagato as a male.
If I win the lottery, I’ll pay for all of the Kajishima doujinshi and books to be translated to English (as well as any interviews I can find) and hopefully get everything straight. Well, that’s the dream. ^_^
Then I hope that you win the lottery! For the sake of every TM! fan!
First, it’s going to be difficult to get all of his works. I know, I’m trying to obtain them, and fall short on funds, becuase they are flying. Second, they ones available are even more outrageously higher then the low starters. I only got a three doujinshi for 100 bucks. heck, GXP 6 is supposed to be 630 yen and its costing me $15 to win it and then shipping to the auctioneers house, plus to my house. He says it very tough to find them and then even get them.
Thanks for glorifying my theory, much appreciated. Kajishima is one to hide things, as you should know, and we should know that every grain of info we know, has 10 more things we don’t. Thats why he hides, becuase he doesn’t want to speak about his work or it will ruin his style. He doesn’t say nothing about how he does character design because it will leave insight on the characters.
I tell you I think Reia is a fake. Those are very wierd golden eyes. Though I should watch this series to know the characters. I think his designs are terrible. He definetly flopped. The purple haired girl is just cheezy, and Lashara looks like Eyvone in agga ruter, which is not bad. I hope this isn’t going to be his trend for the next decade, because thats what, the newest doujinshi shows.
Also, I’d like to note that besides the two ISM doujinshi release, I think there is a novel release as well.
I’ve got the novel on order. Should be here in a few weeks.
@Astro, you have ordered the novel?! Good for you… and for us! You know, that we expect chapter by chapter review while you read it, don’t you?
@calibur,
We don’t know ONLY 10 things for every thing we know? I think you’re being waaay too optimistic! I think that this might be true for ordinary story, but for K-sensei,… hmmm,… I believe you underestimate him.
evgenidb – You mean if he tries to know and understand what he’s reading. Sounds you think the book is in english.
I didn’t say “ONLY” ten things, I was guestimating, exaggerating, something like that. Just saying that we think we know what is known, but might end up being a faux or false views.
hey, astro where did you get the novel from. If its amazon.jp don’t reply, but tell me the total you paid. What else are you getting, or have of Kajishima’s.
Sorry for the cris-crossing names here. I’m on many computers and lazy to log in. This is caliburmuyo.
@evgenidb — Heh! My Japanese skills for reading novels aren’t good enough at all. Shounen managa is easier simply because of Furigana. Pure Kanji is bad because I don’t know many Kanji. ^_^; BUT, if my skills ever get to that level, then I’ll have them to read.
@James — I had to special order them from Sasuga. You need to give them the ISBN number (I gave them both and the title in Japanese since the folks at Sasuga can read Japanese from what I understand). I got that information from Amazon’s page.
@Astro: *sniff, sniff* *cry, cry*!
@James: No, I know that there are no books translated to English, just two manga series by Hitoshi Okuda (or Okuda Hitoshi?). Well, anyway, I was hoping that when Astro starts to read the book, he’ll start posting some summaries of each chapter, so we can read it as well (well, at least read it in a different way).
Wow, a lot of conversation not about the episode……….
Anyways, I found this episode to be a bit strange. Especially the scene with Kenshi and Lashara. It seems like there was no set up for such a big event. Lashara was the same as she always was up until this episode and then she suddenly just broke down.
Not saying that it was a bad scene, but nothing was leading up to it. I just think they could have done a better job with that scene.
Well, Lashara explained it. She’d been trained to be a queen. Thus, she comes off as more mature at times (her dealings with Kenshi when he attacked her; her ability to realize Kenshi was from another world; her allowing Chiaia’s betrayal to play out; etc.) though she does have an immature streak (Maria) and she is greedy (however, she could claim this as ultimately helping her country). When she had to finally accept the fact that Kenshi might be taken from her, the false fronts she’d put up and maintained came crumbling down.
So yeah, it does come out of the blue, but the way her character has been set up, it made sense to me.
Did you see this, ANB? Funny, I thought that friendship ended because person R turned out to be a sociopathic a-hole, not because person A didn’t have the right temperament for a mod.
Would you mind not sneakily tarnishing someone’s good name by posting anonymous comments to your blog? I know you moderate the comments here, so there’s no way this would have shown up if you didn’t endorse it. If you have a problem with someone, surely you can take it up in a more honorable way.
stop with the anonymous’ss’s’s…. lol
I will reveal myself later, if this gets attention. I have more contradictions to the story.
ANB, did the actual script in OAV 2, Azusa said Yosho got married to the earthling, which made sense at that time, now kajishima shows that really it was a Airian he was married too. In TMiL Forever, we are told Achika’s mother is the midget Itsuki. I can’t help but feel that Mr. K affirms that. Just like how you told us, Hasegawa was pushing Ayeka’s obsession with Yosho, when Kaji didn’t want it that way. There’s just too many things that throw the continuity out of proportion.
It’s funny that Tenchi Muyo, licensing was a harem itself. Each person trying to make their own tenchi. It’s really ruining everything Kajishima is working for, and somewhat covering his style’s impact on the audience.
Man, am I tied up. ^_^;
(1) I was alerted to the forum discussion but thanks for the post about it just the same. No comment.
(2) Actually, I’m not the only one who moderates comments but that’s neither here nor there. Nice to see someone so closely monitoring the comment feeds from my blog though. ^_~
(3) It has been suggested that I force people to use an identity, but I don’t really care.
As to your question, Yosho DID marry an Earthling and her name was Kasumi. She was the niece of Funaho, whom Azusa gave a comb to on his trip to Earth (as documented in the novel “Jurai”). It was after Kasumi decided she did not want to live such a long life after outliving so many people she knew and thus died that Yosho broke radio silence and eventually reconnected to Airi (which is how Seto found him).