"軌道樹"

Hey, what do you know, the words are in Chinese/kanji. I could actually read that. :P

Good deal! This is the real reason why I follow you, I need a translator so I can enjoy all the nuances that add flavor to the storyline!
......I mean, in all sincerity, for me personally your commentary really helps a plot!

.....I just hope that your translations are truthful, I'd be at a serious disadvantage if you were....plotting against me.

.....Afterall, you could be an artist nuanced in lies, so that when I inquire about a specific section...you'd drop it like it's plot.

.......then again maybe it wouldn't matter because if you tell a tasty enough story, we could still sit down to enjoy a nice....hot plot.

XDXDXDXD Okay okay I'll leave before I'm booted out.XDXDXD

Wait. Characters in Chinese are also called Kanji? Or is that just cause we're watching anime?

Kanji is just the term for characters the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese language, so yes, kanji = Chinese, even though it’s normally used specifically when referring to Chinese characters that appear in the Japanese language. Actual Chinese/Taiwanese people don’t use that term when referring to characters from their own language.

Kanji (漢字) literally means Chinese Character (漢 = China/Chinese 字 = Character). They are borrowed characters from Chinese.
Actually, Japanese writing system were fully based on Chinese. They just developed their own characters (which also derived from Kanji) just centuries ago.

Kanji is based on Chinese's Han Zi, which explained why it looked so similar/same.

Japanese kanji are basically based off of Chinese writing.

I know they share ancestry, I would have thought that after all this time they would have different words for Letters and such.

Kanji (漢字) is the Japanese pronunciation of Hanzi (Chinese) - in a way, it's different. Koreans call them Hanja. Japanese have different writing styles - Hiragana, Katakana, but they are still based on Kanji. If you want to know more, search wikipedia for "Kana".

To make it easier to understand
Original =Chinese (Traditional)

Chinese(Traditional) = 漢字
Then, Ancient Japan Empire adapted it...
Japanese Kanji = 漢字 (The writing are all based on Chinese[Traditional] if not changed)

Then many centuries passed,
People be like: Ah... Chinese(Traditional) is so hard to write...
Thus, Chinese (Simplified) is born and majority of Chinese people used it.

Chinese (Simplified) = 汉字
This is how it looked to you now.

The only place that still use Chinese(Traditional) would be Taiwan. I don't know about Singapore though.
And since Japan adapted it since ancient times, they just stick to traditional writing style.

Me too if I actually bothered listening to my dad teaching me while I was a child. （─.─||）

its weird that the language is a mix of Kanji and What can only be Mandarin Chinese.

Then again, it could just be chinese because the symbol that looked like "Fire" is also used in Chinese writing.

Mandarin is a spoken dialect, not a written language. The text was just straight up Chinese, or kanji if you prefer to use that term since it’s a Japanese anime.

I thought I saw some english there too, but maybe I was just seeing explanatory subtitles. XD

That was the beauty of Kanji - Cantonese, Mandarin, Old Korean, Old Japanese can all understand each other through writing, because the characters were the same, even though pronunciation was different.

That would make you a sage then

This episode has given us alot to unpack!

I am going to leave what I believe to be a clue to defeating our gundam you saw in this episode:

Go back to episode 1, where Kaina is talking with the Signkeeper. He recites a phrase from one of the signs he has no idea about. It has to do with "authentication ceremony".

So we found the map, and the anime has revealed another answer to a mystery:

the world was united at one time, and they knew the water issue would arise again.

The Map told us the following:

1. The world that made this map was united. You don't map an area that large with only one faction.

2. Our ancestors left directions and technology (the sailstone I believe they called it) behind with the foresight that their problems would be foisted onto a future generation.

3. The World of Canopy and the Surface kept in contact. The Map had the location of Kaina's village. That means that Surface and Canopy dwellers moved between one another.

-

Another thing to consider is in regards to the war. If we were once united, what caused us to divide?

The Mech you see in this episode. Does it look made for war? If our ancestors went through so much trouble to leave clues to water, what happened to fracture us to this extent?

Canopy went from a nation to a place of myth...

-

Personal theory? I think that the destruction of the Orbital Trees caused communication with Canopy to cease to be. Canopy was the only place that could read the map.

So the ancestors of the Surface held onto hope: If there is even One Canopy Village out there, we must keep its existence alive. We cannot read, so we will tell a story about the Sage.

The Sage will come bearing the ability to read, and when we give him the map, We can find the First Orbital Tree.

...But we took so long finding Kaina that the people lost hope, and this is where we are now with Valghia vs Atland. One nation that still passes the legend of the Sage down, and another that believes it a fairy tale.

-

On an past note, I believe the reason that episode 7's essay was deleted (twice, I tried to repost it yesterday) is because I just copy and paste it onto the site. It only stays up for no more than 2 hours when I do that.

I suspect that it doesn't think I am actually typing these (I guess it treats it like a copypasta). The one you are reading here was typed on the fly.

I already have an essay ready for episode 11 that discusses the themes of Kaina of the Snow Sea that have been present since episode 1.

I guess if I just type it in this box instead of copy and pasting it, it won't get marked as spam?

When you put it that way, and that sages are people who can read, then we have billions of Sages in our world XD

Well there are a billion of them I agree, they grow most everywhere in the SW and are pretty good in sausage mix, but I dunno man, most plants don't read very well.

With a little oregano and garlic... Mmmm I'm getting hungry for Italian.

XD If you follow up on that, you may end up supporting the original comment because you would definitely have an encounter...I mean, you'd could undeniably say (you)....sau(w)-sage. XDXDXD

I believe the people who lived on the canopy eventually went down, because theres so many hostile life forms on the canopy (like that giant mosquito). Down on the surface, there are no such aggressive life forms so society was able to grow. However, due to this mass migration, most of the people left on the canopy were old people and they were not able to sustain their population over generations, just like what happened with Kaina's village.

Not only that, the spire trees themselves began dying for unknown reasons as of now. Maybe the mech is involved, and we know that Valghia can bring down spire trees. Heck, Valghia itself looks like a spire tree dont you think so? Spire trees get hollowed out, presumably running out of water and Valghia is just a chunk of a fallen spire tree with mechanisms added for it to navigate.

Also Remember, the signkeeper told on the earlier episodes that, before, there were people who walked the canopy to exchange and learn written words, but with the dwindling population of the canopy people and how hard it was to move up and down the spire trees, this kind of "tradition" eventually died.

I find it might be that the Mech is used for logging because the hands look similar to the claws used to move logs onto trucks and to pile them up.

1st time ? ^^

Thanks essay-kun!!

i am pretty sure the world is the aftermath of a failed colonising gas planet project

must be someone's anus. surely its not your anus. hyar hyar

Ain’t no way you typed all that

Nah, he slapped the keyboard with his dick and that came out. LOL

Understandable

Kaina still has Chekhov's laser gun that was specifically stated to have more powerful settings that he shouldn't use because they apparently incur a cooldown time of some sort.

naw, that move would be too smart for these protagonists. they need to blunder around a bit. wack their heads against some more low hanging door lintels and trip over some more easily foreseeable stumbling blocks.

Well said, that is a good analysis, the satisfaction that these kinds of stories brought are one of the best. I really really love it how some stories just unfold a thing then everything starts connecting.

Gundam Meister Setsuna F Sei Reporting for duty.

"I am the Gundam" - Gundam Meister Setsuna F Sei

This ep had some interesting revelations!

I was completely expecting a biological "monster" like a tree bug or something, but instead we get an ancient mech? Nice twist, now I wonder if that mech aka "Architect" could actually help with water acquisition beyond just stealing it from others, it did look like some sort of "steam" or possibly smoke was coming out of it in some spots.

I sure hope nothing happens to that giant snow foil during the fight. :/

i wonder if giant trench, has any connection to our giant trench :)

Ah ha, I believe you are referring to the Mariana Trench! The deepest oceanic trench yet discovered, and it's in the Pacific ocean if I recall, Yes? .....Not to be confused with the Marinara trench, which is also a crescent shaped cavity that occurs when too many people dip their free breadsticks in the same section of sauce at Olive Garden.

Or are you referring to the custom raincoat made for Paul Bunyon? ;D XD

lol, thx for teaching me something weird xD

XDXDXD My Pleasure! ;D

The fact the mech is called architect would imply that it was originally used as a construction tool and not for combat. But in a world of primitive, even a tool used for construction is dangerous.

You make some good points! I was thinking along those lines as well! Mayhaps we are seeing a glimmer of hope? ;D

This low key actually one of the few series worth watching this season. I like the pace it's moving at, it's like you blink and it's finished. Feels like a Tyson fight lol.

it's One Piece without 1000 fillers xD

Indeed, and without those fillers...the story is all in one piece. XD

The One Great Canopy Tree!

Even the OP mangs feels like a filler at the slow ass speed it's going at. And that Red movie, one of the worst anime movies I've ever seen.

Tbh I'm enjoying it a fair bit, it's one of the weekly ones I look forward to.

Yea, for me along with vinland, momo and the girl with scythe and dog from the top of my head. I'm really missing CSM lol, season 3 can't come soon enough, same for OPM season 3. Really waiting for Hell's Paradise and kimetsu new season as well.