Captain Earth Part 2 – the continuation of the battle to save earth from the Planetary Gear’s from studio Bones and MVM Entertainment.
“Things are looking grim for Earth’s defenders. Although Daichi and Teppai have managed to slow or stop most of the Planetary Gear’s direct attacks so far using their Impacters and Livlasters, there’s no denying that the numbers are slowly turning against them. Not only have their opponents managed to recruit a half dozen of the Designer Children, but now new cracks are forming in the Midsummer’s Knights’ own alliance.
During a brief break at the seaside, Hana’s confusion over her own nature and her relationship with Daichi comes to a head, leading to an unexpected revelation. But as stunned as Daichi might be, it’s nothing compared to the shock that Kube is about to receive at the hands of his own allies. Twists, betrayals, and amazing new powers are about to be unleashed, a new Livlaster joins the Knights, and Setsuna finally comes out of seclusion to let loose her own brand of mayhem as the war for Earth’s Orgone energy builds to the inevitable climax.” – MVM Entertainment
Captain Earth Part 2 is easily a lot less confusing than Part 1; it felt like the main story was given more focus and while there are still a few remnants of the conspiracy themed storyline, they are tidied up and fit nicely into the overarching story. Having completed the series, I feel that the start tried to have too many story threads going on at the same time, ultimately this left you feeling confused and out of the loop. Thankfully, the series managed to get itself back on track, while tying up loose ends, and focusing on the elements that mattered.
It’s interesting that in my review of Part 1 I praised the pace at which new characters are introduced, especially the Planetary Gears, but Part 2 sees them largely absent from the story with the exception of our main two antagonists. Just when you’re thinking to yourself, as the series nears its end, “where have these characters gone?”, they all turn up but really bring nothing of real worth to the closing story and having not spent too much time with them you don’t really care by this point.
There’s a rather cool simplicity to the mecha used on Earth as opposed to the very grand looking ones used for space, maybe it’s due to the fact that launch time is greatly reduced making more time for battles. It could also be said that in a time of ‘bigger and better’, each new instalment only trying to outdo what came before can be tiresome and these simple mecha actually feel like a breath of fresh air. That’s not to say the Earth Engine Impacter doesn’t look amazing but after the lengthy combination sequence, the battles are short, and even shorter when the Nebula Engine Impacter and Flare Engine Impacter are in the battle.
With Captain Earth Part 2 I actually found myself watching the closing animation every episode, which is rare; the song choice was great, worlds apart from the darkness of the series and visually it ticked a lot of boxes. Employing some awesome wireframe mecha at the beginning then changing to a manga style which I always find enjoyable.
The opening theme song comes from NICO Touches the Walls, titled “TOKYO Dreamer”; another really good opening song for the series. The closing theme song “The Glory Days” is by Tia and for the final episode, the ending “Yoake no Hitorigoto” is provided by the voice actress of Hana Mutou, Ai Kayano, under the name HANA star. Ai Kayano.
Extras on disc include clean opening and clean ending animations, as standard, and a small selection of trailers; The Irregular at Magic High School, Black Bullet, and, of course, Hakkenden.