Ao pilots the mystery IFO being transported on the Japanese war ship and uses it to fight against the G-Monster. Finally we get to see the return of sky-surfing mechs!! Aghhhhh x3!!! A little flyby to show off the sleek fighter form. Summary: Out in orbit, Team Pied Piper start their descent towards the Iwadojima. Back on the island, Ao refuses to hand the bracelet over to Gazelle, so Gazelle and friends instead give Renton a ride to the Japanese warship. The Japanese warship was chased from the waters by Okinawa forces, but Gazelle's hacker friend Han manages to locate the ship. Gazelle and friends approach the warship in the their FPs and Gazelle uses the FP's cable gun to anchor onto the ship. However, the warship has also caught the G-Monster's attention and the G-Monster critically damages the ship with a blast before going back to destroying the island. Gazelle, Pippo and Ao crash land on the ship's deck and Ao is tossed onto the FP being transported on the deck. Gazelle urges Ao to use the FP to defend the island, and Ao complies. The ship tilts and everything falls into the water. Inside the cockpit, Ao suddenly sees the message "Welcome Home, Eureka" and the FP suddenly activates and Ao's hair turns turquoise. Ao sees that the warship is right above and uses the FP's guns to blast through the sinking ship and fly out of the water. On the sea, the officer from the Japanese crew is surprised that the Mark I (the FP they are transporting) took off. Meanwhile Han picks up Gazelle and Pippo from the waters. Ao directs the Mark I to the G-Monster's location and the Mark I then transforms into humanoid mode, making Ao realize that it is actually an IFO. Ao tries to attack but gets knocked around by the G-Monster and ends up leading the G-Monster out on a chase. On the island, Toshio picks up Naru's family whose car had been flipped over during the G-Monster's attack, and Naru is unconscious. Naru's dad is thankful to Toshio, but he still thinks that Ao's mother is to blame for everything. While driving to the hospital, Toshio then sees the Mark I and G-Monster flying overhead, and Toshio remembers the familiar sight of Mark I but painted in different colors. Sky. Surfing. Mecha. You cut off my arm? I'm gonna beat you up with my severed arm! On the Team Pied Piper mothership, the computer reports to Ivica that there is an unknown IFO matching the signature of the world's first IFO, the Mark I. The two Team Pied Piper pilots Fleur and Elena decide to launch to stop the G-Monster from reaching the Scub Coral mass and blowing the island up sky high. As they approach island in their IFOs, they see Ao leading the G-Monster towards the Scub Coral mass. Ao sees the coral and realizes that he is led the G-Monster to the wrong place. The G-Monster fires at Ao and Ao almost blacks out during the evasive maneuvers, but somehow he hears Naru's voice which keeps him awake. Ao lands the Mark I on the surface of the coral and the G-Monster lands nearby randomly shooting at things, and Ao realizes that the G-Monster can't see well when the Trapar density in the air is high. Ao leads the G-monster back into the air and charges at the monster. The G-Monster slices off the Mark I's left arm, but Ao picks up the severed arm and jams it into the G-monster's head, causing the G-Monster to explode violently. After the battle, Ao lands inside the crater and the cockpit opens, and several island residents see Ao. Ao is then hailed by Fleur over radio asking Ao to identify himself, but Ao instead chooses to fly away. Fleur tries to chase down the Mark I but loses sight of it, but she finds Ao unconscious and floating in the sea near an island. Fleur rescues Ao from the water and asks him where he hid the Mark I, but Ao feigns ignorance and Fleur lets him leave. Gazelle and friends have been watching Ao during the whole battle and Gazelle figures that Generation Bleu are also looking for the IFO, and he asks his friends if they want to do some cave exploration. Props for the "I dunno what'cha talking about" face. Ao walks backs home, and upon arriving, Ao overhears some island military members demanding that Toshio tell them where Ao is as the news that the turquoise-haired Ao is the IFO pilot had spread throughout the island. Ao checks his hair in the side mirror of a car and realizes his hair is now turquoise, and this reminds him of a childhood memory where his mother is dying her turquoise hair black. Ao then runs away. At the makeshift camp at the hospital, Naru wakes up and overhears a man telling his father to find Ao so they can interrogate Ao for the IFO. Naru's father return to find that Naru had left. Naru is out on the island trying to find Ao and she finally locates him near the lighthouse. Ao shows Naru his new hair and says that everyone thinks he is a monster now, but Naru hugs him and states that she had dreamed that a turquoise-haired Ao would pilot the giant to save her just like 10 years ago. Ao then leads Naru into the seaside cave to show her the Mark I. Bringing in the lady friend to check out his big new toy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The episode where we finally see some sky-surfing mecha combat, and Eureka Seven AO delivered some fantastic-looking action. The animation certainly looked great with the crisp fast-flying action in the sky, and the music really helped to set the atmosphere. It was one of the best-produced mecha action sequences I've seen in a while. They call the main IFO the Mark I, but it's clearly the Nirvash with a grey and green color scheme rather than the original red and white colors. Ao has no previous IFO piloting experience, but you can tell from all the hints dropped by the show that this was what he was born to do. Ao's hair did finally turn turquoise as all of the promo images, but it looks like his hair color won't stay that way given that in the OP sequence Ao's hair is brown. As for the story at this point, Ao starts his destiny and pilots the Mark I/Nirvash and saves his home island from destruction by defeating the G-Monster, but most of the islanders seem to think that all the problems are caused by Ao and his mother. No love for foreigners at least when it comes to most of the islanders, especially ones that have turquoise hair. Everyone is looking for Ao and a lot of them don't plan to play nice with him. From the look of things (and the OP sequence) Ao's best option is to go with Team Pied Piper. By this point, we probably all figured that Ao's mother (likely named Eureka) was the original pilot of the Mark I, but there are obviously a lot of questions, such as how the Mark I ended up in the hands of the Japanese when it was supposed to be shipped for disposal 10 years ago, and why Gazelle's group was hired to transport the bracelet?

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