Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari OVA Ep. 01
異世界の聖機師物語 OAV Episode 01 (Blu-ray/DVD version)
War on Geminar – 01

*SPOILER REVIEW!*

Since the Blu-ray version of the first episode of Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari contained extra footage, I decided it was time to go back and watch this episode again. However, I’m not going to post a summary on this episode as I’ve already done that for the pay-per-view version.

As a huge fan of the canon Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki titles, I have long stated that this is a series that (1) needs to be watched in the original Japanese and (2) needs to have a careful and accurate translation for the subtitles. I don’t say this to be an elitist or anything, but rather I’ve learned that unlike 99% of other anime titles, Kajishima-sensei’s works (especially TM!R) require special care. That’s because Kajishima-sensei likes to place little hints, foreshadowing, and other table settings in his anime titles. These things can be wiped out due to careless translations or the rewrites common in English dubs.

The same holds true for ISM. It has been eight months since I watched episode 1 of the series and as of this posting, I’ve watched the first nine episodes. Regardless, as I watched the first episode again, complete with the new scenes, I was amazed at how well Kajishima-sensei laid things out for us when it came to the main plot, yet these subtle things went over many people’s head at the time, including mine.

For starters, we recently learned that Kenshi was not summoned from Earth to Jemina Geminar, but rather had been sent from Earth to Jemina Geminar. The opening sequence of this Blu-ray version of episode 1 has some text onscreen and now it seems clear that the people talking in the text are the ones who sent Kenshi from Earth. The identity of these people still is not known, but it seems probable that the Choushin (Washu, Tsunami, and Tokimi) are involved somehow. I actually imagine it to be Washu who sends Kenshi over considering her use instant travel (the door to her lab for starters) but we’ll see.

Next up is Lashara’s coronation, which is new to the BD-version. Some of the female Seikishi remarked on how Dagmyer had brought over several male Seikishi. Even in episode 1, we knew that Dagmyer was following his orders to take out Lashara, but we now can see that even back in episode 1, Dagmyer was building an army of male Seikishi to pilot the Seikijin. That recruiting effort continued until the attack on Seichi.

The biggest element is the Doll-Mexiah connection. Seriously, who really suspected that Mexiah was in fact Doll in disguise? Kajishima-sensei did the other thing he’s great for, misdirection, when he presented Neizai helping Lashara from the shadows but also helping Dagmyer in later episodes. While I took no position in this debate, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of Neizai being Mexiah. I don’t recall anyone postulating that Mexiah and Doll were the same person.

Now that I rewatch the episode, it is so blatantly obvious, I think, “Why didn’t I see this?” *lol* The answer is easy — Kajishima hid her in plain sight.

When Mexiah is introduced, what are we given? She’s Chiaia’s “neechan” and she’s an instructor at Seichi. That automatically puts her in the “good guy” category, right? So we don’t suspect her and there’s no reason to. Yet the first episode has Mexiah-sensei arrive on the Swan, do her thing, then Doll suddenly appears to rescue Kenshi. Doll’s departure in the black Seikijin also throws us off the scent because Mexiah arrived in a different-colored Seikijin. However, it is Wahanly who notices that Mexiah’s Seikijin is missing right after Doll leaves. There’s our clue again.

Mexiah reappears after Kenshi is rescued by Aura and her being missing is briefly questioned, but the situation brushes that issue aside. Mexiah and Aura head out and split up, where Mexiah turns into Doll, her Seikijin goes black, and she fights Aura until Aura activates her “Dark Elf Field” and causes Doll to freeze up before apparently returning to her Mexiah form. Then as Mexiah, she returns to Aura with the herbs that Kenshi needs to survive. It is all a neat package.

Finally, when Dagmyer pleads with Babalun to have Doll used once more to try to take out Lashara, Babalun rejects his plea, saying Doll is asleep until the appointed time. Well, we know that appointed time was in episode eight when Doll transformed from Mexiah in front of everyone.

This is what makes Kajishima-sensei such a good writer when he’s on his game. The reveal that Doll and Mexiah were the same person is a huge plot twist, yet as I have pointed out, Kajishima-sensei had properly set the table for this plot twist to happen. Thus the audience goes, “Whoa!” and does not have that negative, “What the heck is going on here?!” when the plot twist occurs.

Now, I’d like to briefly cover some items that I noticed in this second pass of the episode.

1. Kenshi’s Seikijin goes black and white just before he ejects himself from the mecha and confronts Lashara personally. I think that we may see this happen again before the series is over.
2. On a related note, I noticed that Kenshi’s Seikijin roared. I hadn’t noticed that for some reason on my first watch and only noted it when the main story kicked back into high gear.
3. The Seikishin reacted to Kenshi while in the Swan. Most interesting.
4. The Church was well aware of Babalun’s plans and did nothing about it.
5. A warning was given about Wahanly, who wasn’t on Lashara’s staff at all when the episode started. Indeed, Wahanly wormed her way into Lashara’s service. I don’t think Wahanly is a traitor because I think she is what she is — a maniac inventor who’s not going to bite the hand that feeds her. Plus, Lashara is an excellent judge of character, as she’s proved when she took Kenshi in, she allowed Chiaia to do her thing and then try to kill Kenshi, and I believe Lashara may have known about Mexiah (though I need to rewatch those episodes as well).

I have four more episodes to watch in this OVA series, but I got to say that while Kajishima-sensei may have gotten lost in the drapes during TM!R OVA 3, when given thirteen 45-minute episodes to play with (with episode 1 being longer), Kajishima-sensei can indulge his fondness for “day in a life” stories and still have plenty of time to do a proper main story. We’ll see if things pay off in the end though.