One particularly interesting line Gazelle dropped was that Ao isn't a fan of his father. This is noticeable on two levels. The first being how does Gazelle know this? It implies that he knew Ao on some level before the events in the first episode even though this wasn't implied previously. It would make sense though considering the size of the small town and how it seems everybody was already in Ao's business anyway. The second and more interesting component of all of this is that Renton is finally being mentioned in some sort of capacity. While we don't know how much Ao knows about Renton, the fact that he's being brought up means we will see Renton somewhere down the line, something I was actually worried about. It also ties into the whole father abandonment thing that Bones loves to death(see FMA, the original E7, or Star Driver).
Another interesting line was how the Nirvash and Mark I aren't the same thing. It seems publicly they are however in reality they're two separate mechs. The Mark I is the original mech upon which the others are built off of. My obvious guess is that theEnd is the Mark I and since they didn't want that to be public knowledge, just stated that it was the Nirvash. What I want to know is how Eureka ties into this as she wasn't really a mechanic anyway but she should be familiar with theEnd to a very limited extent.
The major theme of this episode was the importance of politics. It looks like Christopher has to deal with pressure from the US, which further emphasizes the whole UN comparison. He also it seems doesn't like being bossed around and pushed back in his own way. Right now it's really hard to gauge certain characters in Gen Bleu as their depictions really seem to differ at times. My first thought in the prior episode is that Stanley and Rebecca were doing their own thing but I'm starting to think they're working for the Americans and keeping tabs on Christopher. Christopher seems more competent than I gave him credit for. Another interesting line was how he's been losing a lot of teams lately which would somewhat explain why we've only seen Goldilocks as they might be short of teams right now. The whole episode though reinforced the Cold War atmosphere with the terrorist references and the Scub Coral plant being a substitute for nuclear energy.
As for Fleur and Ao's interactions, they get along relatively well. Certain flags were raised but we'll see if they go anywhere. Fleur has misplaced hatred towards her father, mainly she feels Survivor's Guilt and shifts it on her father who did what any father would have done. They finally fleshed her character out to a certain extent. I wonder if they'll bring up that suicidal streak later on. Elena though really does seem like the comedy relief of the three but as a whole their reactions to each other was fine. They all seemed like kids like their whole chit-chat in their cockpits.
The Secret itself continued the motif of looking manmade, this time something like a Viking ship and later a coffin. Not to mention the whole Nordic, lightning theme.
I did like the location change and I hope they keep the variety in settings. It really gives the show a bigger international feeling compared to the very restricted Star Driver.
Naru is being dropped like she's hot shit. We only get one sequence where Ao even thinks about her. For the main heroine, not much interest or thought is being put into her. I'm really starting to think she is the red herring in regards to the love interest but the importance of Yoshida drawing her isn't to be underestimated.
