>It appears to be a genocide thing; at the very least, it's stated or
>implied in several cases that the occupied countries just ordered
>full-scale evacuations of everyone. I believe the expectation is
>everybody who didn't get out is gone.

They don't get into the details in the TV show, but in the one of the novels I've read a translation of, it's not so much that the Neuroi specifically wipe out civilian populations - indeed, they don't seem to notice or care about them - as that their presence in force makes areas they've occupied toxic to animal life and therefore uninhabitable.

(Mind you, the Neuroi in the books are very different from the ones who appear on TV - less technically advanced, but smarter. In the anime they fight very similarly to the Fleet of Fog: stupidly, but with such superior durability and firepower that it doesn't really matter if they're up against conventional forces. They don't have death rays or anti-gravity flight in the book I read, but they do seem to understand tactics.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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