Ok -- it's time for a dumb (but probably necessary) question: Is that room inside the robot?
I've had the suspicion that it is, I wasn't sure, because the idea just seemed to silly. But after watching Episode 6, I kind of think it must be. At first, I thought it was inside the robot's head, but now I think it's in its stomach (or abdomen, or whatever), right behind that jewel-like thing that glows when it wakes up (and which seems to be the window/view-screen that they were looking at at one point in the episode).
If that is the case, it raises some major questions (some of which can't have any sane answers :)) ) And it also makes the room even more awesome than it already is!
^ I was going to ask the same thing. I've always assumed they were inside the robot (without any explanation of how they get into it or why their parents let them walk into a war zone). I didn't understand why they got excited on episode 6, It looked like they've just found out they were inside the robot but I thought they already knew :-?
It seems like it would be kind of hard not to know, since they'd have to get into the robot from outside (and through the war zone), but it looks like that's what's going on. And that room! How did it get inside thr robot? or do all giant robots come with ultra-cute teenage hangout rooms? :))
But if it is inside the robot, then that kind of explains the 甲殻 in the show's name (and the robot's kind of bug-like antennae). If it's a crustacean robot, and if they're in it's middle, they they really are ebi chuu -- in the middle of a crustacean. I hope they meant it that way, because it's just too good! :))
Rina As always she appears out of nowhere and side-eyes everyone. We still haven't seen much of her on this show, she either judges from a distance, reads a book or threatens people. In my own particular version of Robosan she's an A.I. in charge of taking care of the girls.
The first episode starts with the professor asking the girls why they let themselves inside the robot, and why they're even in an restricted part of town. They say it's close to their homes and, really, isn't it great that students from different grades and schools have a meeting place? We even brought a fridge and games. Nobody was here anyway!
He calls it the main control room. It's the closest thing to a cockpit researches have found. I assume it happens to line up with a floor on the building behind, allowing access.
^Thanks for the information -- that helps, and somehow, it makes the whole concept even more wonderfully insane. :))
And thanks for the gifs, Invader!
"Oh, let's all hang out inside the control room of that giant combat robot in the middle of the battle zone! We'll just bring over a truckload of stuff and make ourselves at home!"
I have a spare refrigerator that's about the size of the one in their hangout. I had to move it from the garage into my kitchen recently because my main fridge had a problem, and now that I've fixed the main fridge, I'm kind of putting off moving the spare back into the garage, because even with a hand-truck, it's a lot of work. And that's just a short distance on level ground, with only two low steps. If they could transport their refrigerator through several blocks of smashed-up urban battle zone (while watching out for giant killer robots), up several flights of stairs in a half-ruined building (or however they got to the entryway into the robot), and down those metal steps into the control room, maybe they do have super-powers. It wouldn't surprise me at all! :))
I'll take more creepy Rina -- and lots of Aiai's crazy intensity.
I forget how may, but it's been years since the last invader, so nobody is afraid. Back then the robot was thoroughly searched, so maybe the government built an elevator.
How many of you that don't learn Japanese are watching this?!
I've go maybe 25% comprehension of written Japanese, and much less with spoken Japanese, so I only catch a few phrases as I watch the show. I should replay short segments of the show and listen to the dialogue until I start to pick it up. I was doing that with the on-screen text in Ebichu Global -- stop, read through the text, check the unfamiliar kanji with a Japanese dictionary, then listen to what they were saying. It was good practice, and trying to pick my way through spoken dialogue without any on-screen text should be even better practice.