Earth Maiden Arjuna 25 Years Anniversary Rewatch Episode 9 Discussion
# Episode 9: [Before Birth](https://files.catbox.moe/384vf7.jpg)
***
[Previous episode](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1qes2d8/earth_maiden_arjuna_25_years_anniversary_rewatch/) | [Index](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1q2dzfb/earth_maiden_arjuna_25_years_anniversary_rewatch/) | [Next episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL2HPPHdPAA)
***
## Links, useful info:
[MAL](https://myanimelist.net/anime/812/Chikyuu_Shoujo_Arjuna) | [Anilist](https://anilist.co/anime/812/Arjuna/) | [Anidb](https://anidb.net/anime/107) | [Kitsu](https://kitsu.app/anime/chikyuu-shoujo-arjuna) | [Livechart](https://www.livechart.me/anime/5910) | [ANN](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=602) | [AP](https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/arjuna)
***
## Streams:
[Tubi](https://tubitv.com/series/1960), but that service is only in certain countries. [Otherwise](#piracy)
***
## Questions for the day:
1) Why a magnetic shift is happening right now?
2) If Kaine is pregnant, then why is she smoking? And also why she wants abortion?
3) Can you understand the dialogue between Juna and Cindy regarding newborn babies and their voices with the intention to live?
***
## Highlights from yesterday:
1) The final scene of the episode was very emotional, as u/mr_beanoz points out:
> Man, that final scene, hopefully we don't see a broken friendship as an aftermath.
2) Looks like the SEED mobilization means something big:
> Sayuri shedding tears, SEED being suspiciously active and cautious, the main duo finally reconciling, and most importantly — rain. Rain is a bad omen. The anime is preparing to hit us with something disastrous!
> The SEED plot in the background is interesting. I'm curious to see where it goes.
***
## Disclaimer notice:
Dear rewatchers, please be nice to the first-time watchers by simply not spoilering anything. But if you want to discuss spoiler-territory things, use spoiler tags instead. Thank you for your understanding.
For example [this is] >!a spoiler!<
***
[Previous episode](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1qes2d8/earth_maiden_arjuna_25_years_anniversary_rewatch/) | [Index](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1q2dzfb/earth_maiden_arjuna_25_years_anniversary_rewatch/) | [Next episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL2HPPHdPAA)
***
## Links, useful info:
[MAL](https://myanimelist.net/anime/812/Chikyuu_Shoujo_Arjuna) | [Anilist](https://anilist.co/anime/812/Arjuna/) | [Anidb](https://anidb.net/anime/107) | [Kitsu](https://kitsu.app/anime/chikyuu-shoujo-arjuna) | [Livechart](https://www.livechart.me/anime/5910) | [ANN](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=602) | [AP](https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/arjuna)
***
## Streams:
[Tubi](https://tubitv.com/series/1960), but that service is only in certain countries. [Otherwise](#piracy)
***
## Questions for the day:
1) Why a magnetic shift is happening right now?
2) If Kaine is pregnant, then why is she smoking? And also why she wants abortion?
3) Can you understand the dialogue between Juna and Cindy regarding newborn babies and their voices with the intention to live?
***
## Highlights from yesterday:
1) The final scene of the episode was very emotional, as u/mr_beanoz points out:
> Man, that final scene, hopefully we don't see a broken friendship as an aftermath.
2) Looks like the SEED mobilization means something big:
> Sayuri shedding tears, SEED being suspiciously active and cautious, the main duo finally reconciling, and most importantly — rain. Rain is a bad omen. The anime is preparing to hit us with something disastrous!
> The SEED plot in the background is interesting. I'm curious to see where it goes.
***
## Disclaimer notice:
Dear rewatchers, please be nice to the first-time watchers by simply not spoilering anything. But if you want to discuss spoiler-territory things, use spoiler tags instead. Thank you for your understanding.
For example [this is] >!a spoiler!<
Commentaires
Well fucking gee, I guess I praised the show too hastily yesterday, because after [another intermission](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE-XZdlfi4c), not only are the characters acting stupid (why did Tokio give Sayuri a ride and take her bento AFTER yesterday's incident, instead of clearing things up with Juna first?), and not only preachy nature of the show returned, but it's was also a damn pro-life episode promoting childbirth outside of a hospital.
Honestly, this episode probably annoyed me the most in the entire series, because unlike previous environmental themes such as farming or pollution, this approach actually puts other people's lives at risk. Like, in the episode itself, the doctor said that it would be better **for the mother's safety** to give birth earlier, but the episode still treats this as a bad thing. *No, no, the baby knows best when it should be born, you should put yourself in danger!*
The way the idea of abortion is presented in the show is no better. Perhaps they wanted to add nuance when Juna's sister told her that she was pregnant by “a guy she doesn't love,” but not only was Kaine already presented as a less... pleasant character, insensitive to other people, which makes her arguments questionable, but this revelation didn't even make Juna reconsider her opinion, because immediately after that she goes: “*Why can't they understand what BABIES feel and think? Can't they forget about their own circumstances???*”
And that's not even mentioning how Episode was... ***weirdly uncomfortable*** with Cindy. Like, I don't even think that whole story about her experience in her mother's womb really adds anything except a cheap shock effect.
So, uh, yeah. Not big fan of this one.
Not going to tell you want to get annoyed at, but the author's idea of food production would probably starve 75% of the world's population, so I am not sure I'd call it harmless.
Anti-nuclear: Germany tearing down their reactors.
Anti-GMO: Europe raising hell against using or importing GMO food.
"Natural" agriculture: "biological" products.
Modern production polutes the planet: Greenpeace etc.
I'd argue that the author's stance about natural births is less adopted than many of his other ones.
- [Can confirm, same for vegetables.](https://i.imgur.com/WOu25Ai.png) (My dad grows a bunch of stuff during the summer & one of my uncles is a farmer.)
- [Uh-oh.](https://i.imgur.com/VPzMiLo.png) [](#emiliaohdear)
- [And *you* shouldn’t be smoking inside.](https://i.imgur.com/P8mQa8C.png) [](#nyanpasu)
- [Oh, is Juna’s sister pregnant?](https://i.imgur.com/naUVuo8.png)
- […Sayuri made Tokio lunch?](https://i.imgur.com/2BFLQxa.png) [](#sakuraconcern)
- [O](https://i.imgur.com/OrCe7tO.png)-[Oh…](https://i.imgur.com/KVZCimn.png) [](#hahahawhat)
- [Is this true?](https://i.imgur.com/A2qnWR2.png)
- [What does her sister need that kind of money for…](https://i.imgur.com/hKMhmZ5.png) [](#sakurathink)
- [Ah…](https://i.imgur.com/EvgYvYd.png)
- [This is pretty!](https://i.imgur.com/GGPK5Ks.png) [](#saberawe)
- [Shimmering sky!](https://i.imgur.com/UvObURQ.png)
- [That *is* a legitimate thing to be wary of, yeah.](https://i.imgur.com/IgckdaS.png)
- [A callback to episode 1!](https://i.imgur.com/HQwgYhw.png) [](#rengehype)
- Cute ED with Juna and her sister growing up. [](#anko)
I think you should continue the farming tradition.
> And you shouldn’t be smoking inside.
That's so old-timer.
> Shimmering sky!
Atleast this is also suffice if there was no "sore demo" so far.
I don't know, but given that the director has been consistently wrong about literally everything that the anime preached about, I would guess no.
If you start to think about the size of a baby and the size of the birth canal the baby needs to be pushed through, and the forces involved in that, the baby crying afterwards seems very natural to me.
> That is a legitimate thing to be wary of, yeah.
I wonder whether the director considers condoms unnatural. It is a given that he would hate the pill...
Oh, it's the end of the world coming. How lovely! Is this finally the reason for S.E.E.D. to exist?
Has Juna actually eaten anything for the last... however long it's been? We always see her refuse to eat things, but we never see what she actually *does* eat.
Are we sure she's not just anorexic?
Ah, it appears Juna's sister is pregnant. Oopsies. Well, birth *is* the apparent theme of the episode. I will say that smoking in the family breakfast table is pretty wild, pregnant or not... and 2001 or not!
[](#peasants)
Cindy is being nice today, I guess? At least she's almost having an actual discussion in between her usual insults.
Yep, it's definitely a birth themed episode. I could've done without some of that womb imagery, it was kinda horrifying!
[](#scaredmio)
I'm more or less past the point of commenting on every claim and comment the show makes, but suggesting that newborns only cry when born in a hospital, and that it's somehow wrong to birth children in hospitals in general, is a bit... I'll just say that the reason why hospitals do things the way they do is not merely "that's just how it is", ancient civilizations absolutely did not know more about healthy births than we do today, and the main benefit of maternity hospitals is that *mothers and children are significantly less likely to *die**. And I'll leave that at that!
[](#kaguyasigh)
Juna sure is the queen of tact, the way she approaches her sister about her pregnancy. It does seem like her sister does have a change of heart towards the end, or at least thinks again about smoking right now. Heavy themes this episode!
It's interesting how much the series focuses on the people, and especially Juna and Tokio's relationship. What with the opening scene about impending apocalypse and whatnot, I thought this would be a magical girl episode, but we're still making amends with the two of them. Tokio is still best boy, and the two have a really nice moment and apparently *nearly* had sex?
Nearly. Poor Tokio.
[](#peace)
On one hand, the anime goes on about listening to babys’ voices and, apparently, trusting them on when and where it’s the best to give them birth. On the other, the outro sequence shows us that "born against its will" baby growing up good and healthy.
Overall, this seems to be further development of the previous episode’s agenda that I’m not really vibing with.
Talking about pro-life stuff and so on… I can’t help but worry about Juna’s sister’s future kid, doubtful it’s going to live in any functional family.
I wondered when was the best time to bring this up… but why nobody seems to care about that thing on Juna’s forehead? Or they like "well, that’s not the weirdest thing about this girl lately".
QotD:
1. To give Juna a chance to save the world, of course! And also I think it was a popular apocalypse scenario a while back, when we thought [the world would end in 2012](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon)? Not sure how much of a fever it was in 2001 Japan, though.
2. She doesn’t want a kid and doesn’t plan on becoming a responsible mother.
One person (Sayuri?) commented on it as if it was a fashion assessory. I do remember that kind of stuff being en vogue for a short while, so I don't find that explanation too crazy.
Feels more like Y2K to me.
* Arjuna’s innovative concept of saving production cost: slide shows are cheaper than animation, but nothing beats RL footage. Zero animation needed!
* A pole shift will mean the end of human civilization – doubt.
* “like a voice coming from inside you” – that is one way to find out your sister is pregnant.
* “Did you have sex yet?” “If I was as dense as you” – I guess Cindy agrees with /u/wloff’s take on Juna and my take on her sex life.
* Ok, that was disturbing.
[](#whatdidijustread)
* Trunk-kun is very forgiving today.
* The way Tokio fell of that chair looked potentially quite painful.
* Callback to the earlier motorbike scene. Nicely done.
Two big themes today that are connected. First, the topic of having babies. I called the scene in the hospital disturbing above, but disturbing does not mean bad. If an anime makes me feel something, it succeeded and that definitely worked here. I feel that the direction is either staying at a high level or getting even better. So many good cuts during the first half of the episode. And the anime also knows how to use music and set up themes. If only there was a way to separate the good directing from the crackpot theories of the director. Seriously, he is doing a speedrun of throwing nutcase theories in our faces. Feels like the worst parts of facebook.
The second part ties in having babies with Juna and her sister. I did not expect my sex comment to become this relevant this soon. I guess you can call this successfully foreshadowing a theme? I like the *Juna & her sister* plot to 90% (and the 10% is me suspecting some “women are made to have babies and need to have babies to be happy” crackpot theory lurking in the background, because the director does not seem to miss a single one of those). Juna listening in to babies is probably the best narrative use of her ability so far.
> Why a magnetic shift is happening right now?
Because the planet has some spiritual problems due to humans messing up the ying and yang of the world and this is a symptom.
> If Kaine is pregnant, then why is she smoking? And also why she wants abortion?
Well, if you plan to abort, looking out for the babies' health is not really necessary.
Man, I don't think I liked this episode.
This was just a really weird one with the whole "babies can talk to you before they're born" thing which is such a strange focus for an episode.
It also has a weird pro-life slant that I'm not sure I like.
Not sure where the subplot involving Juna's sister being pregnant is gonna go but I am kinda worried about it after this episode.
This might be my least favorite episode so far to be honest.
I guess we learned more about Cindy but I'm not sure I liked the way the show's trying to develop her either.
I am hoping we focus more on Tokio and Juna's relationship at least next time. That's like the part of the show I'm most invested in right now.
This episode has actually had one major theme: regarding newborn infants and being living. The main thing is that Kaine is pregnant and smoking, and for some reason she had the decision to abort her children. Juna, being the avatar of Time and the defender of Earth, spoke with Cindy in a long philosophical dialogue that newborn infants have their noises, and voices even before they born, because they want to communicate to their mohters and everyone, they want to born and live in this world. And when they born, they scream because it is their proof they are precious living beings, especially a birth of a new life. In other words, they scream because they are happy to live, even if whethe aligned or oipposed to the parents decisaion whether want to keep it or not.
> 1) Why a magnetic shift is happening right now?
Mayybe somethig big coming. Might be Raajas.
> 2) If Kaine is pregnant, then why is she smoking? And also why she wants abortion?
Habits I suppose. She don't understad what is childcare about.
> 3) Can you understand the dialogue between Juna and Cindy regarding newborn babies and their voices with the intention to live?
All living beings, even before they born, they have an intention to live, and by being born they thanking the world they exist.