Yeah, that's definitely where I felt it too. If I remember right, Tow Ubukata took over writing completely at this point, whereas the earlier episodes were already done and he didn't want to delay production by rewriting everything.
The altered personalities really bring Shoko's and Koyo's behaviors into a different light, looking back on it. And the Mark Funf is fantastic, easily my favorite Fafner.
Yeah, that certainly changes a few things.
Anyway, you weren't kidding when you said things are picking up.
Fafner 13
Really good episode. Lots of plot bombs dropped, even though I probably only get half of them at this point.
So, collecting my thoughts: The Festums arrival in Japan spread a virus that made people unable to conceive, among other things. The rest of the world decided to nuke Japan to prevent the virus from spreading.
Alvis is made up of survivors and all the children are artificially birthed and got some Festum immunity due to that.
Michios dad is hiding Festums that have assimilated with humans on the Human Base, one of them is Kazukis mum. It looks like she belonged to a faction that strived to understand Festums instead of fighting them, so maybe she actually let herself willingly be assimilated and the plan is to teach them about humanity.
But things backfire and the Assimilated Ones start an attack on the base with a huge Festum army, which one of them broadcasts with fancy crystal-satellite linking power to destroy morale right after the Neo UN broadcasted some hope-propaganda based on Kazukis Fafner, which made Soushi and co realize Kazuki is fighting there and Mizoguchi and Maya are now on their way to get him back.
Meanwhile Neo UN already gave the base up and start an attack on the island to get the rest of the Fafners.
And it seems like a mech upgrade is happening for Kazuki.
Wow.
