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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 27 October 2005 00:00 |
 The final two episodes of Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu
cover a whole lot of territory - running away, attempted rape, mental
breakdown, confessions of love and the end of either humanity or Iriya,
depending on the choices she makes. This is not what you want to
watch when you're looking for a feel-good show, but you do want to watch it eventually. Trust me on this.
5 - The Last Road
Iriya and Asaba head south, travelling for two days before finding a
closed school that they decide to use as a place to stay. It's
not long before their "secret base" is invaded, though - while Asaba's
out buying supplies, a wanderer arrives at the school and attacks
Iriya, who fights back with almost lethal force, but the event leaves
her badly shaken. For some reason, though, her reaction seems to
wind Asaba up the wrong way and he turns on her - with her already in
shock, having Asaba apparently reject her proves too much for her to handle.
With Iriya no longer seeming to recognise him, Asaba has to find some
way of bringing her back to normality...
6 - Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu
Iriya's minders finally catch up with her and Asaba, and return the two
runaways to their rightful places. Enomoto breaks the news to
Asaba that Iriya's dying - it had been his intention to let her spend
her last days with him, but events are conspiring against that, and the
time has come for Asaba to know the truth about his "girlfriend".
She's been fighting both aliens and humans - a pilot of one of the only
fighters able to defeat their enemies, and the only such pilot left
alive. In three days there'll be another alien attack, and if
Iriya isn't able to fight or is defeated, mankind will be
annihilated. On the day before the expected attack, the government
announces the end of the war and life begins to return to normal.
Iriya's nowhere to be seen, but on Asaba's first day back at school,
the military come looking for him - the war isn't over yet, but Iriya's
refusing to fight. When Asaba gets to see her again, his harsh
words to Iriya while they were on the run come back to haunt him...
Running away turns into a painful experience for both Iriya and Asaba,
as Asaba simply doesn't know how to deal with the attack on Iriya and
her response to it. There are a whole string of scenes here that
are positively painful to watch, as Iriya's mind just snaps at Asaba's
harsh words and she begins to treat him as someone else, right up until
their final meeting on board the aircraft carrier. Their last few
minutes together just builds the pain up until she takes off in her
fighter, and which point its Asaba's turn to snap. From there...
..life returns to normal, just without Iriya. There's no happy
ending here, but while there's no devastation on the scale of SaiKano either -
Iriya did her job and protected the boy she loved, and his world along
with him - the impact of the story left me with the same numb feeling that SaiKano's
ending did. Iriya's backstory is all nicely explained at the end,
clearing up the mystery of who she was any why she was the way she
was. Iriya has
turned out to be one of the most touching series I've seen in a long
time - but damnit, I wanted a happy ending...
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