As Japanese troops surround the Osakabe mansion, Professor Osakabe dies after entrusting Makie to Haruna and Kirishima. Both Fog mental models decide to protect Makie (though for different reasons entirely).
Haruna decides to take on the troops, leaving Makie in Kirishima’s care. As Haruna begins to attack the troops, Makie comes out and finds out about Haruna’s true identity as a Fog battleship.
Haruna – Rage Mode!
Haruna creates a clone of Makie made of nanomaterial, and ventures out front to serve as a distraction, while Kirishima and the real Makie escape from the back.
Haruna creates a nanomaterial clone of Makie and draws the troops away…
Haruna, understanding Makie’s desire to not kill anyone, uses defensive tactics to minimise fatalities. Makie, meanwhile, blames herself for their predicament — admitting that she was the one who created the vibration torpedo and says that she doesn’t deserve to be friends with Haruna. She also expresses her desire for “Haruharu’s” safety, surprising Kirishima.
The Japanese troops decide to go all out, sending their unmanned mecha tanks — Rock Crabs — to take out Haruna and Makie.
Haruna faces off against the Japanese goverment’s unmanned mobile armour mecha, Rock Crabs.
During their escape, Makie accidentally alerts the soldiers to their presence and come under attack. With Kirishima unable to use her Klein Field properly in her temporary body, she decides to take them out, kung-fu style — much to the astonishment of Makie.
Beware the kung fu bear!
Makie, who finally finds Haruna, runs toward her and they come heavy fire from the Japanese troops. With seemingly no way out for them, Makie expresses her desire of not wanting to lose any of her friends.
Makie becomes the target as she runs towards Haruna…
“Haruharu” protects Makie…
As Haruna wishes for someone to come help them…
Iona to the rescue!
Iona destroys the remaining Rock Crabs, and together with the I-401, neutralises the threat from the Japanese troops. With the danger over, Haruna, Kirishima and Makie reaffirm their friendship.
Back at Iwo Jima, Takao awakes as an egg-shaped “robot” stares at her and asks why she is here…
Hyuga bot!
If you don’t already know from my hints in previous posts and the quick shot in the opening credits, the “robot” is actually Hyuga, one of the Fog battleships previously defeated by the I-401. While I don’t want to spoil too much, the next episode does at least look set to feature the I-401′s “reunion” with Takao. And if it follows what was established in the manga, it looks to be a pretty funny episode too.
On the topic of the manga, this episode actually diverges quite far from the manga canon — removing the characters from one particular faction in the manga entirely. While it is still pretty action-packed and dramatic in itself, I thought it would have been more interesting had they followed the manga canon instead.