Random Curiosity

Summary:

As she works on some last minute adjustments for the play after everyone else falls asleep, Michiko starts thinking about Hagino and about what she had overheard. Mari and Hagino then return together from their pool encounter to check on her, and Michiko notices that they’re holding hands. She’s glad that the two reconciled, and taking their hands, she thanks them both for everything up until now. Early the next morning, unbeknownst to the students or festival attendees, Shivariel and the Novaal engage the human defense forces in battle. The Japanese fleet is no match for alien firepower, but Tsubael eventually steps in and protects them with the Blue. She then returns fire and scores a direct hit on the enemy ship, sending it crashing into the ocean. Tsubael’s goal is to prevent anything from happening to interrupt the play and to protect Hagino. But with the fighting taking place in the airspace above them, a large explosion shakes the auditorium in the middle of the play and alerts Hagino to what’s going on. Yuuko then barges in to alert everyone about the evacuation order that’s been issued, and as explosions rip through the school grounds, the crowd quickly clears out.

All around the world, giant disk shaped UFOs now cover the skylines, and many flying girls appear. However, these girls start exploding and wreaking havoc on the cities. Back at the school, Yuuko returns to the auditorium after evacuating everyone to find that all of her students are still there. Hagino quietly apologizes because she knows that all this is the fault of her race, and she then takes off her costume and apologizes for not telling everyone about her true identity. She starts to leave, but Mari stops her and tries to get her to say that she’ll come back. Hagino, however, just responds with a goodbye. Once she’s gone, the other girls start thinking that Hagino was an alien spy, but Michiko stands up for Hagino by claiming that she left to protect them. With all of her fond memories of Hagino, Michiko refuses to believe that Hagino was a spy. This leads to Mari deciding to go after Hagino, and she runs out towards the docks. Onboard the Blue, Tsubael reports to Hagino that the Novaal is headed in their direction, and she apologizes for not being able to protect the school festival. Hagino, however, blames her own original selfishness, and she thanks Tsubael for what she’s done.

With everything going relatively according to plan, Shivariel starts thinking about Mari who she refers to as a catalytic telepath. She then launches all of the Novaal’s aircraft at the Blue, and the Blue isn’t able to hold up against the bombardment. Just as the Blue is about to get hit by the next wave though, Azanael seizes control of the aircraft and redirects them away from the Blue. With Azanael’s intervention, Tsubael and Hagino are able to launch the Blue out of the water, and right as Hagino is thinking about Mari, Mari appears on the docks. Hagino at first can only see Mari on the video screen though and can’t hear her, but Mari then notices a sea gull and chases after it. Mari’s calling out to her as Jeanne causes Hagino to start crying, but Hagino nevertheless gives the order for the Blue to take off towards the Novaal, leaving Mari behind. Up in space, Shivariel gets frustrated enough by what Azanael did that she orders the Novaal’s Genocide Mode. When she finds out, Tsubael curses because they don’t have enough energy to stop it. To Tsubael’s surprise, Hagino salutes her and thanks her for all the work she’s done. Before Tsubael can realize what’s going on, Hagino ejects Tsubael in an escape pod.

Alone on the Blue now, Hagino teleports the ship right in front of the Novaal as the Novaal is about to fire its cannons at Azanael’s fighter aircraft. The Blue crashes into the Novaal, destroying everything, and in her last moments, Hagino recites the line from the play about how, no matter the blade, the single rose blooming in the wilderness inside of her cannot be cut. The name of the rose is Jeanne. Back on Earth, as she watches the bright light in the sky, Mari recalls the line about Jeanne being the one who sows the seeds of hope across the world. Fast-forward 30 years later, and the woman on the shuttle going to the negotiations - Michiko - looks at a copy of the play’s script. Her fellow negotiator comments on how they can finally lower the curtain on the war, but Michiko disagrees because she thinks it’s still up. Regardless, she feels that it’ll be okay.

Ah, I had a gut feeling that Hagino wouldn’t survive, and it looks like she didn’t. Still, taking out Shivariel isn’t a bad way to go. And the scene where Hagino was fighting the tears and her own feelings while Mari was calling to her (well, Jeanne) was so full of emotion and really touching - it was probably my favorite scene from the ending. You could just see how much she didn’t want to leave, yet for her sake and for Mari’s sake, she had something she had to do. On that note though, I was a little disappointed that more wasn’t said about what happened to Mari afterwards, and I think they could have done more to show what made Mari so special with the telepath thing. It would have bothered me if just that had been the end of the series, but fortunately they then came full circle back to 30 years later, giving the show more closure. I had honestly completely forgotten about the beginning of the first episode, and Hagino even recited that same line, giving it a lot more meaning this time around.

Final Thoughts: I didn’t think Blue Drop started out that great (a bit slow and dialogue heavy), but it got progressively better as the series went on and more of the sci-fi stuff got introduced. And while I didn’t ever appreciate the series as much as some people did - all 22 of you who voted this the best of the year - I think it’s got an interesting mix of yuri and sci-fi, so it’s easy to recommend this for fans of either genre.