FINAL THOUGHTS: Ozuma

With the appearance of Ozuma, all hell breaks loose. Maya reveals that she is the one who called Ozuma on the first place so Bainas and her crew could only watch in stunned horror as Ozuma swallows Maya, Sam and Mimei whole. However, they survive and Maya finally reveals Ozuma's true nature: the mechanized creature gathers and grows life forms for the day when Maya chooses to let loose this new life on earth. Maya has been hesitating because a new life means the end of the era of the Ideal Children and humanity will no longer control the planet. But now she has come to a decision and she goes off to unite with Ozuma. Meanwhile, Theseus attacks the Zone with depth charges, which angers Ozuma, leading it to retaliate. Fearing that the entire place will collapse and get destroyed, Bainas makes her own decision of using the special weapon that Dick made specifically against Ozuma. However, the gun only works with Dick's genetic code. Bainas runs to the weapon area to override the command only to find Gido there. She asks if he is still Gido or Dick. He doesn't answer and just turns his back on her with his left fist raised. At that moment, Bainas realizes that it's Dick but she's too late because Dick is already inside the weapon's control room on a suicide mission to stop Ozuma. The weapon is fired, destroying Ozuma but not before Ozuma totally annihilates Theseus' army, killing the General in the process. In the end, a dying Ozuma releases the life forms into earth, paving the way for a new ecosystem on the planet.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Well, okay. That was actually fun. And Sam wasn't as annoying in this episode as the previous ones. The BGM did its part during that farewell scene between Bainas and Dick. I wouldn't have felt anything otherwise. I actually felt sad for these two. The ending monologue was a little too ham-fisted and preachy for my taste. Yes, love nature and stuff. I just feel like there was a better way of sending off that piece of Aesop. Dick, how corny is that hand gesture? The General got an honorable end. We barely saw him in the show because the producers spent all their money storyboarding Sam shouting "Maya-san!" instead.

For the art overall, meh. You'd think they'd spend better money on production values since there are only six episodes, but no. Some parts, the characters look downright ugly.

Did I like this show? Not really. Would I recommend it to my worst enemy? Yes. What about my friends? Yes, if they like the style and post-apocalyptic worlds. The rec won't come with high praises though.

more screencaps from episode 6:

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Ozuma 4-5: Oh captain, my captain!

With Maya back with the Theseus, Sam goes against his captain's orders to attempt a rescue. Bainas' chief mate muses that Sam is acting a lot like Dick. The mention of the name forces Bainas to recall a painful memory of the last time she's seen Dick. She remembers that Dick had a theory about the goddess of Theseus being able to control Ozuma. With this knowledge, Bainas decides to come after Maya herself. Meanwhile, Sam finds the enemy location but before he could launch a rescue attempt, Mimay sabotages his hover craft, forcing him to wait until the Baldanos shows up, which is soon as it turns out. Then follows a very exciting submarine chase and shooting exchange that showcases Bainas' sharp insticts as well as Gido's exceptional ability to determine the enemy's moves. In the end, Bainas forces the two ships to surface and she comes face to face with Gido. Their encounter is short-lived, however, as Ozuma shows up at that moment, forcing the ships to dive once more in order to avoid being sucked into Ozuma's quantum transition force. After things settle down a bit, both ships find themselves right in the middle of the Zone, a subterranean world that is able to support life. While Sam explores this new world with Mimei on board his hover craft, they discover the heavily damaged Theseus ship. Against Mimei's advice, Sam tries once more to save Maya and gets captured as a result. Gido uses him as hostage to force Bainas to give control of her ship to him. Maya appears and attempts to stop Gido who, instead of stopping, just goes and blurts out his plan of ruling that underground world with Maya by his side. Sam takes advantage of a moment of distraction and succeeds in freeing himself as well as giving Bainas and her crew to overwhelm the enemy. Bainas ends up shooting Gido in the face, shattering his mask and revealing to her, Sam and Mimei that he is Dick in person. Gido then slips and falls into the abyss. After securing the enemy, Sam and Bainas search for him in vain. Maya later reveals that the Ideal Children's minds and bodies are deteriorating due to frequent cloning, leading them to implant their own minds into the bodies of Natura, which have a higher ability to adapt to their environment. This means that even though it is Dick's body, the mind belongs to Gido. Maya adds that she is one of the original humans and has actually lived for many centuries due to frequent cloning. This is the reason why her body is much closer to Natura than to Ideal Children. Further conversation is interrupted by the arrival of more Theseus ships under the command of the General himself.

IMPRESSIONS:

Well, I still hate Sam Coin. I hate his stupidity and the fact that he's always telling Mimei to shut up even though the latter is right. He is an idiot and he really annoys me.

That aside, I really quite enjoyed episode 4. Those submarine fighting scenes were pretty exciting to watch, despite the bad CGI. And Bainas is really cool even though her surprise at the big reveal at the end of the episode is hilarious. Really, Bainas? You didn't figure it out? The voice was the same. The hair style, too. Wasn't the guy your lover or something? Or at least, he's her lover. Well, anyway, yeah.

more screencaps from episode 4:

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FIRST LOOK: Ozuma

Well, this is a late. As I write this post, I'm downloading the latest episode of Ozuma on torrent. I'm also downloading the second episode of A Game of Thrones S2. Do I have to tell you which one I'm more looking forward to?

Let's look on the bright side. This series apparently has only six episodes. That is very...weird. This isn't an OVA, as far as I can tell. But still, that's good news. The shorter this series is, the more palatable it is. Probably.

So what is Ozuma about? It's about a futuristic world that's been reduced to sand and sand whales and submarines and government ruled by geriatric tools and the military force peopled by clones called Ideal Children because of their supposedly superior DNA. And there's a blue-haired girl called Maya who's running away from these Ideal Children, whose leader wears a mask for no apparent reason, and an annoying boy on a hover bike of sorts who rescues her and brings her back to his submarine, which turns out to be captained by a woman who looks like a pirate. There's a chase and tense times and Maya is apparently a strange creature thing, or that's the doctor woman with the old lady's voice would want you to believe. By the third episode, Maya runs away from the boy, who is actually named Sam Coin, and gets captured by the men she has been running away from in episode 1. Full circle.

IMPRESSIONS:
The story is okay, I guess. If a bit derivative. Clones and such. Humans (the series call them 'natura' as opposed to the perfectly unnatural Ideal Children) captured so that their bodies may be used as containers for the geriatric population. Might turn out to be interesting, especially with the expected conflict that will arise when it is discovered that Sam's older brother is alive in a tank full of water, his body getting readied for its worthy function as a container. I am not in the least bit curious about Maya's true nature. Off the top of my head, she's an offspring of an Ideal Child and a Natura. That would explain her weirdness.

I don't like Sam Coin. He is annoying. But I like Captain she-Pirate. She reminds me a lot of another tough captain who held a torch for a dead guy and guy who turned out deader. I don't give a damn about Maya though. I would have been glad that she got captured by her pursuers if I didn't just know that Sam and his friends would launch a rescue. On the antagonists' side, there's a big hulking dude who has no eyebrows. He's surly and has the tendency to wax philosophical on stuff. Then, of course, there's the masked dude. Both of their outfits are more interesting than their personalities.

The one thing I do like about this series is the art. It's something new. Or rather, it's something old. At any rate, it's unique in today's standard fare. It also reminds me a lot of the old anime series I used to watch when I was a kid. There's the dramatic hair and the bad-ass eyelashes. So retro. It's no Casshern Sins but it  does what it does.

The music's okay, too. The BGM is...actually, I didn't notice it. The opening theme is typical anime stuff. The ending theme sounds like Nakashima Mika though I could be wrong. It's been a while since I've heard her work in anime. Since Blood+, in fact. And that was a long time ago. I never even saw that anime. Yeesh.

So what's the verdict? Will watch it. Hell, it's only six episodes.

more screencaps from episodes 2-3:

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