We really have to be taking the piss. But the screenshot above takes place towards the end of the episode, so we have to start from the beginning.

— I love how these episodes always have ominous titles like… Activation. We all know the title is referring to the super powerful weapon that Kobayashi is secretly developing, but therein lies the problem. An entire episode can’t center around a single weapon, and unfortunately, the rest of the episode is meandering slice of-life crap. Only the very best from anime.

— First things first, Izana “cooks” for our hero. It’s really just onigiri. It’s like the food mascot for the entire series.

— But oh no, the ground is shaking! What’s going on!

— I… I don’t even know what he’s grabbing here. Is that supposed to be a boob or what?

— There’s no mistaking what this is, though! But yeah, how did she even get here? Did the chimera literally wind herself through the myriad of Sidonia’s pipes until she managed to find Izana’s home? Just how long is she supposed to be?

— Man, I wish we had peace. Let’s kick the Gauna’s ass already so we can finally have peace!

— We skip ahead in the story to see Nagate testing out a new propulsion system. All that this really amounts to, however, is a cringey moment where he gets to hold hand with his moemoe penis, and together, they fly amongst the stars.

— Is it possible that this is even worse than that incest scene in SAO? Hm, naaaah. We haven’t quite hit rock bottom yet, but we’re getting closer! And of course, Nagate’s bond with Tsumugi is greater than his bond with any of the other pilots. As a result, their benchmarks are out of this wooooorld! In other words, it’s just more power level creep. The characters just keep getting stronger, and the Gaunas just continue to diminish in threat level. In fact, we keep mentioning that giant hive cluster over and over, but there’s no real fear there. We’re not sitting here, thinking and feeling as though Sidonia is potentially fucked.

— So we finally got all the boring stuff out of the way, and the real story can now kick in, right?

Nope. Like every anime out there, Nagate just goes from one hot, sexy anime babe to another. There are definitely males in this universe. We’ve seen them before! But like every anime ever, their existence is merely implied. Instead, we have a line of girls just dying to flash their panties at Nagate whenever possible.

— So what is Nagate doing here? He’s looking for a new one. More specifically, he’s looking for a home around the outer wall so that Tsumugi can have an easier time reaching him. Awwwwwwwwwww what the fuck happened to this story?

— We see Yuhata enter one of those model shops. Why would Sidonia have one of these? Who’s manufacturing them?

— Later that night, Nagate invites Izana to come live with him on the outer wall. Yet another scintillating development in the story. At first, she pretends as though she isn’t happy that she’s just an afterthought. But it’s cool. None of Nagate’s haremettes can ever stay mad at him for long.

— And would you just look at that home? Nagate’s first room was this tiny, utilitarian box. It suggested that Sidonia has limited resources, adding to the dire atmosphere to the story. Well, you can just throw all of that out of the window, ’cause just look at this fucking awesome home that Nagate will get to share with his girls. Sure, he’s a superstar pilot, so it’s possible that he deserves these perks. But why would this place even exist in the first place?

— Yes, the pipes are quite roomy. Usually, pipes are used for, well, carrying stuff. I have yet to see anything in these pipes besides a giant pink penis.

— Nagate thinks back to what Shizuka had said way back when: “Isn’t it possible [humans and Gaunas] are just too different to communicate on any level?” It’s kind of like an ant stumbling upon a ten-lane highway. Can it even comprehend what a ten-lane highway is? Of course not. It’s an ant. But likewise, perhaps the Gaunas’ actions are beyond our comprehension as well. We’re not ants, of course. We are not perfect beings, but we have the ability to learn and the ability to adapt. Even if the Gaunas turn out to be superior beings, wouldn’t it be possible for us to eventually understand them if we are given enough time and enough resources? Perhaps. But perhaps there’s a higher state of awareness that our human minds will and can never reach. For instance, we experience time in just one direction. Could we ever hope to understand a being who can experience time forwards and backwards? That’s an interesting questipbbbffffftttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt…

DISREGARD EVERYTHING.

RETURN TO HAREM.

— Elsewhere, Kobayashi and Ochiai-as-Norio marvels as their graviton beam thingamajig is complete:

Are you serious? Does everything have to be so goddamn phallic in this anime?

Yeah, I’ll bet. But gravitons, huh? So does it do anything cool with the power of gravity?

Oh, it just puts holes in shit like every other anime weapon.