Before anyone asks/bitches about episode 25 (and I know someone will), 25 is a recap ep of the first arc. It is not very good. It will be done before the end of the series, but the in the fight between being a completionist and actually being motivated, motivation won; so if you really want a 1996 arc recap, watch the first OVA.
Anyways, these 2 eps are the first 2 of the 1999 arc, as you can guess there’s a timeskip. And knowing the tone of this show you can probably guess what happened in the interim. Also it starts cribbing from Fist of the North Star, and even more dystopias.
Minor translation style choice notes: one of my goals for this arc was to use the word ‘quisling‘, because a plot point that comes up in a few episodes is on the difference between simple collaboration to survive and well, welcoming in the new alien overlords, betraying everything for power with the new regime. I managed to succeed about half way into the first episode of the arc, which is kinda depressing.
