HANMYO SPOILER!
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The youngest member of the Anten Seven is a gifted grappler pilot whose battle partners are her cats, Kemi and Mata. Hanmyo is introduced as an assassin sent to destroy Gene, but her most memorable scenes happen nowhere near a battlefield. On a station she meets Jim Hawking without either child realizing the other is connected to the enemy. They practice together, talk and form an awkward little friendship that gives Hanmyo a life outside the Kei Pirates for a few hours. Then both return to their ships. During the next battle, Jim's improvements help the Outlaw Star defeat Hanmyo's grappler, killing Kemi and Mata before the vessel is destroyed with Hanmyo aboard. Jim waits afterward for a girl who can never come back, never learning exactly what happened.
HANMYO THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
KEI PIRATES, MACDOUGALLS & ANTEN SEVEN //
Open page →Jim meets Hanmyo away from the Outlaw Star and away from the Anten Seven.
They practice, talk and like each other. Neither child knows the other is connected to the ship battle waiting ahead.
Jim's technical improvements help the Outlaw Star win the rematch against Hanmyo's grappler. Afterward he returns to the station and waits for the girl he met.
They practice, talk and like each other. Neither child knows the other is connected to the ship battle waiting ahead.
Jim's technical improvements help the Outlaw Star win the rematch against Hanmyo's grappler. Afterward he returns to the station and waits for the girl he met.
Why it matters
The tragedy works because nobody gets the revelation scene. Jim never learns that the enemy pilot and the girl he liked were the same person.
The audience has to hold both truths for him.
The audience has to hold both truths for him.
The Anten Seven are introduced as one elite group, but the memorable members are built around different kinds of encounters.
Leilong turns assassination into a conversation about surviving too many duels. Iraga hides inside a tournament. Hanmyo is a grappler pilot Jim likes before either knows who the other is. Hitoriga belongs to Suzuka's past. Tobigera can be threatening and ridiculous in the same episode.
Leilong turns assassination into a conversation about surviving too many duels. Iraga hides inside a tournament. Hanmyo is a grappler pilot Jim likes before either knows who the other is. Hitoriga belongs to Suzuka's past. Tobigera can be threatening and ridiculous in the same episode.
Why it worked
The group gives Hazanko reach without forcing the series into seven identical boss fights.
The crew keeps meeting the Kei Pirates through different genres of episode, which makes the organization feel embedded in the world rather than parked at the end of a dungeon.
The crew keeps meeting the Kei Pirates through different genres of episode, which makes the organization feel embedded in the world rather than parked at the end of a dungeon.
COMBAT & TURNING POINTS //
Open page →The Outlaw Star's rematch with Hanmyo's grappler depends on technical work Jim helped improve.
That makes the victory cruel in a way no one aboard can see yet.
That makes the victory cruel in a way no one aboard can see yet.
The Breakdown
The ship battle destroys Hanmyo's vessel after Jim has already met her on the station as an ordinary girl his own age.
Why it matters
This is one of the few Outlaw Star victories where the audience understands the loss more completely than the person responsible for helping win.
OUTLAW STAR WATCH GUIDE //
Open page →Jim spends most of the series doing the unglamorous work Gene would rather ignore. He thinks about repairs, fuel, jobs, computers and whether the business can actually pay for the next disaster.
That is why episode 20 hurts. Hanmyo gives Jim a few hours where he gets to be an eleven-year-old boy instead of the responsible half of Starwind and Hawking. He meets a girl, practices with her, likes her, and has no idea that the same girl is piloting the ship hunting his crew.
That is why episode 20 hurts. Hanmyo gives Jim a few hours where he gets to be an eleven-year-old boy instead of the responsible half of Starwind and Hawking. He meets a girl, practices with her, likes her, and has no idea that the same girl is piloting the ship hunting his crew.
Why it matters
Jim's competence is easy to take for granted because the show uses it constantly. The Hanmyo episode reminds you what that competence has cost him by briefly showing the childhood he usually does not have time for.
