Story and art by Ryuko Azuma
See it in larger format on Comic NewType here
Narrative reads right to left
Right side: Linne Aigis stands in an area, surrounded by interrogators
Left side: Carlos Jones asks her where she intended to take her assigned ship, the Mark 7, after she avoided surveillance to enter space station Vimana. She answers, “Out of your reach” and says her intent was to gamble on luring out Seireness. A new character wearing a mask (Cess Cardinas, chairperson of “Nirvana”) says she won the bet thanks to Linne and Yu Yamato.
Linne growls that Cess played a dirty trick, and Cess replies that it was the space-time crystal that chose Yu Yamato. “You boarded the Mark 7 to protect him, what’s your complaint?” Linne states that the game is well-designed to find candidates for Topness, but the members of Topness don’t know the real rules. Cess explains that the pieces in a game don’t need to know the rules. “Destroying Seireness…we are the players who perform the scenario of mankind. In this space, all souls are saved.” The scene transitions back to Linne in her own quarters on Vimana.
“The scenario of mankind…or the scenario of you and Nirvana?” Chapter 4 title: NIRVANA
The scene shifts to an unknown space. Yu Yamato wakes up being cradled by Linne. She tells him they are in the “Cocoon of Intelligence.”
He gapes at a huge, deformed version of her with an arm dropping off. When he turns back, the “first Linne” also loses her arm and tells him, “The diva is coming here soon. It’s chasing you. You’re really dumb, but…”
“I’m sort of happy. Goodbye, Yu.” Yu wakes from a dream and is startled to find the real Linne in his bed. He tumbles backward and hits his head on the floor.
Right side: Linne tells Yu that if he keeps hitting his head, he might end up as a college student. (Mifune pops up to explain that research proves most college students got hit in the head as children.) Yu gets an eyeful of Linne’s cleavage and turns away, embarassed.
Left side: She asks what’s up, and he describes his weird dream. Linne is shocked by the description and immediately calls up the command room. “Seireness is coming!”
Right side: Abby and Alexei rush to the command center to hear that energy readings have risen sharply, a sign that Seireness is attacking for the second time. The members of Topness have entered their core ships. As the core ships dock into the vessels of NerfThis fleet, Yu wonders how Linne knew this was coming.
Left side: The launch process continues. Abby tells Nina (Mark 1 pilot) to take careful measures, and she answers that there will be a delay before her “Second Sight” [overall field data] can be interpreted. All seven ships launch and Nina deploys her Second Sight drones.
The Seireness warp in, instantly attacking the fleet with a glowing sphere.
Right side: In the Vimana control room, all the pilots’ vital signs are spiking. Their connections will soon be lost. Linne names the enemy weapon: Magneta.
Left side: Alexei realizes that Seireness is attacking with a strong magnetic field. Marina (Mark 4 pilot) asks Linne what they’re facing, and she explains that it can de-magnetize water and destroy their cell tissue. She tells everyone to get away from the glowing sphere as fast as they can.
Right side: Hugo (Mark 3 pilot) doesn’t think they have a chance of outracing this attack. Nina says that the magneta is supported by a gravity field, which can be disrupted by combining the Yu’s Wave-Motion Gun with Hugo’s Lightning Bolt attack. Hugo launches his Thunderstorm.
Left side: “With the two of us together, we’ll grill them like fish! LIGHTNING BOLT!!!”
Seireness counterattacks, blasting their song at Hugo. Marina shouts his name…
…and deploys her Frost Aster shield in Hugo’s defense. Yu reacts as a Seireness pushes its giant arms through the shield and pursues him. Hugo tries to reach Marina, but she’s out cold.
Right side: the control room announces that the Fraser Ship (Mark 4) is down. Nina orders Aisha (Mark 5) to tow her out of danger. Yu is about to be caught when Linne calls out, “Deploy Gravity Shield!”
Left side: Linne flies in (in the Mark 7) and cuts off the Seireness chasing Yu. Nina tells Linne to break off as soon as Yu gets clear, but now it looks like Linne’s ship is about to be lost, too. Carlos Jones chooses that moment to leave the command room, puzzling both Abby and Alexei.
Right side: Carlos is back in the Nirvana arena from the start of the chapter. He updates Cess on the losing battle and says, “If a Cocoon of Intelligence occurs here, our scenario can’t be carried out.” She orders him to release their copy of the space-time crystal. “The anti-matter giant is the last dagger for the future existence of Seireness. The Mark X cannot be used.” Carlos protests that at this rate, the original will fall into their hands, and mankind cannot then be led into Nirvana. Cess answers, “Don’t worry. The Mark 3 Topness (Hugo) will know what to do in this battle. Leave this fight to him and Maya’s son.”
Left side: The four remaining Topness ships flee together. Hugo ponders their options, then asks Laine (Mark 2 pilot) to pierce his ship with Bind Needles. Laine says Hugo will be caught by the enemy. Hugo ignores him, asking if Yu is ready to fire the Wave-Motion Gun. He asks what Hugo is up to, and Hugo says that he will be the one to shield the fleet now. “If we miss this one chance, it’s team death. Shall we…?”
Right side: Yu answers in the affirmative, willing to go to Heaven. Laine fires Bind Needles into Hugo’s ship, saying this is crazy. Abby and Alexei watch, amazed.
Left side: The Seireness are incoming. Hugo stares them down, claiming that he learned Fleming’s Law in junior high.
Right side: Hugo dares the Seireness to come at him. In the control room, an observer says, “Electricity is flowing back into the internal circuit! The Richelieu Ship (Hugo’s) is generating a strong magnetic field!” Abby tries to stop him, saying it won’t be enough.
Left side: Hugo answers: “Why else am I here? I made it to Jupiter! Nobody else can beat them now! Good guys and bad guys…the guys who mocked me and the ones who don’t know me…I’m gonna protect all of them from this!! I was a lousy student, but the seniors have to protect the juniors!!!” Energy builds to a critical point.
“Catch this, Yu,” Hugo shouts as he releases his ship’s energy at the enemy, “a killer pass!”
Yu lets fly with the Wave-Motion Gun…
…and their combined energies wipe out the enemy. Alexei realizes it was a magnetic force that did it. Hugo is barely conscious as he looks out at Yu’s ship. “What a strange sight…”
Right side: Yu is exhausted after the battle. Hugo walks up carrying a bag of Sky Ice from the station’s single convenience store.
Left side: Hugo says the previous stock all melted, so he bought this batch before it could sell out. Staring off into the distance, he says, “There’s a lot you don’t know. I’m older than you…if there’s anything you’re worried about, talk to me.” Surprised to see Hugo’s guard starting to come down, Yu asks if he wants to eat some Sky Ice. Hugo wants to get it into a fridge before it can melt, but then relents. “Okay, just a little…”
TO BE CONTINUED
Ryuko Azuma’s Production Memo
This is a Hugo chapter.
Hugo, who played the role of a gatekeeper in chapter 3, is also feeling uncomfortable with his life. In Lambda, all the Topness feel this. I’ve been told many times that It’s kind of a rut, but I want to portray a human drama, and I wanted people to know what kind of person Hugo really is. Ultimately, I think I want to portray a person, not a story.
I brought out Nirvana, the organization that Alexei is after. Chancellor Cardinus is trying to accomplish a different goal with Jones where the Seireness are concerned. The important thing is Linne, and the other Topness are letting Linne speak as a frame to protect her. What Cardinus is up to will be revealed much later on.
He’s wearing a skeleton mask, though. I was asked to differentiate between Cardinus and Jones, and I couldn’t change their personalities, so I changed their appearances. Cardinus is also Mexican-American, so the image is the Mexican Day of the Dead. I hope I was able to make him mysterious and extremely suspicious.
The cocoon of intelligence is introduced. This is a keyword that has been at the center of this story since the beginning. I’ve been struggling with how to deal with this cocoon of intelligence for a long time, and I won’t reveal what it is for a while yet, but I’m sure those with good intuition will find out along the way.
Also, I was reminded that Marina doesn’t really look good in battle. She doesn’t have a lot of offensive power, but she can save the fleet in a pinch many times. It’s a very difficult role that requires good reflexes and a good grasp of the situation. I like her clever personality, which is a bit different from other characters that have been portrayed so far. She doesn’t care too much about the Topness rankings, and protects Hugo, whom she hates, by making quick decisions.
(By the way, Marina is also bullied by Hugo, just like Yu, though she pushes back because of her personality.) In the beginning of the project, I had an image of a character like Aska (from Evangelion), but since Hugo had that image, I settled on the current character.
The next chapter will be about Marina. Why did Marina come to Jupiter? What exactly is she trying to protect? I’m very happy to be able to tell you! Please root for her!
After four chapters, this is sort of interesting in its own right, but as “Evangelion in space” — I can perceive zero connection to the themes, character-archetypes, or aesthetics established by a half-century of “Yamato”. If there *isn’t* a connection, is the goal rather to make “Star Blazers” an umbrella brand for original SF? Possible analogies: how U.S. magazine _Analog_ has an editorial reputation for a certain flavor of written SF, or how the CN “Toonami” block picked action-anime.
In (https://ourstarblazers.com/vault/476a/) Tim wrote “it is the first attempt to transplant the spirit of Yamato into a completely new world with its own history and technology”. What does that even mean, in a lit-crit sense? “The Orville” transplanted the spirit of ST:TNG into a new work in a very obvious way, and you can draw lines from “Evangelion” to “RahXephon”, but I’m struggling to find any similar linkage thus far. Will the Seireness have the thematic function of Aquarians or planetary-goddesses, to demonstrate the innate value of the human spirit of perseverance and compassion?
I think the point is to watch it develop as long as it interests you, and decide for yourself if the attempt is successful. If this writer sees the things we see in Yamato and has worked them into the fabric of his story, they’ll eventually become self-evident. If he sees different things, it might be interesting to watch them emerge. An open mind makes that possible.