CROSS ANGE Rondo of Angel and Dragon

Episode 16

Cross Ange has mostly played serious throughout its run, but every once in a while it does stick in a comedy break. The most recent such break is at the heart of episode 16, a challenge between Ange and Salamandinay that starts with tennis and eventually includes baseball, auto racing, golf, table tennis, and a UFO catcher. Given that this is a fan service series, it naturally ends with a sweaty, bikini-clad match of Twister, all at a sports center from olden days that Salamandinay has diligently reconstituted.

As amusingly ridiculous as this sequence is (as it uses many parodies of classic sports tropes), it does also serve a dual purpose. While ostensibly a challenge where Ange's freedom is at stake, Salamandinay is also clearly motivated by a pure sense of competitiveness, as Ange is the first person she has met with both the will and the athletic ability to hold her own against Salamandinay in a fight, whether in mecha or in sporting endeavors. Further, while Salamandinay has adoring subordinates, her position and attitude leaves the impression that she does not really have friends, and Ange, as a onetime princess herself and an outsider contrary enough in disposition not to kowtow to anyone, is uniquely-suited to fill that role. Though Ange remains standoffish about working with the others in any attempt to retrieve Aura, her efforts to use Villkiss to help Salamandinay counteract a calamitous space/time shift (instituted, it is presumed, by Embryo) further reinforces the bonding between the two – a bond that, if the montage in episode 11 was any indication, was destined to happen because of countless past connections between the two over the millennia. (And was anyone else watching that scene thinking, “never cross the streams!” while watching it? Or am I dating myself here?) Even the big action piece isn't entirely serious, though, as Ange engages in a running joke about not being able to get Salamandinay's annoyingly long name straight.

The meeting of the minds of Ange and Salamandinay pretty much composes most of the episode. Aside from that, Vivian is shown getting some additional serious bonding time with her long-lost mother and the dragon people leadership gets word from Riza that Aura's location has been pinpointed, which is sure to lead to the biggest and strongest rescue effort yet. And Tusk gets yet another opportunity to fall on Ange in a compromising way, although this time it actually isn't a crotch-plant. He seems to be second fiddle to Salamandinay now, though, which isn't at all a problem since she is a distinctly more interesting character. Also look carefully for the apparent Gundam Seed nod in the UFO catcher (see above, bottom right corner).

The one unanswered question that the episode does raise is what, exactly, Embryo's purpose was in making the attack, as since he actually needs a steady flow of DRAGONs coming in to maintain the Light of Mana, completely destroying the dragon people seems counterproductive. (Actually there are two other ones: how is Villkiss able to pull an Evangelion on regrowing its missing arm, and how sentient is Villkiss to respond to Ange's requests like it does?) Hopefully we will get answers about that in the next episode, which is apparently going to focus at least partly on what is transpiring in the other world. This one, though, offers a pleasing mix of humor and more light-hearted character development, with just enough mecha component to remind us that this is still a mecha action series.

Rating: B

CROSS ANGE Rondo of Angel and Dragon is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.