Short Synopsis: Thankfully, the hiatus “only” took two weeks. This week: Neiro’s background.
Highlights: Kaiba’s back! Kaiba’s back! Kaiba’s back!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Okay, this time I didn’t care about the raws. I just wanted to watch Kaiba again as soon as possible, so I just settled for a horrible one. For this episode, we were promised Neiro’s background, and it doesn’t disappoint at all. This anime very cleverly wraps up about 50% of the questions that the previous episodes left hanging, while keeping the vital questions still a mystery, for the final two episodes to answer.
As it turns out, my theories were wrong. Kaiba is the real Warp, and he got the name Kaiba for no particularly important reason: Neiro gave it to him, because when the two met, he again had lost his memory when he met Neiro for the first time. Therefore, he didn’t know his name, so Neiro named him after the legendary plant, and only later he started to remember again. How this exactly works is unknown, but Kaiba possesses some sort of power that unconsciously erases and recovers his memory, which gets activated with either a huge mental of physical shock. Every time this power gets activated, the hole in his body increases in size.
Also, the fake Warp didn’t shoot Neiro at all, it was the real Kaiba, in order to protect her from that AI-manager who we’ve seen bothering the fake Warp a few episodes back. He properly revived her and brought her back afterwards. And as it turns out, Warp never killed Neiro’s parents in the first place. That too was just some alteration by Popo (or the memory guy, on request by Popo). That AI-manager also turned out to be one of the villains in this series. It used the fake warp to prevent Kaiba from finding out information about his parents, whom he thought he killed himself. Kaiba turns out to never have been evil, but this image was just spread by this AI-manager.
We now also know why Popo didn’t kill Kaiba when he had the hance. I can imagine how the guy needed to get a weapon strong enough to destroy Kaiba’s indestructible body, and failed to get there on time before Kaiba woke up. The shot he fired was indeed aimed at Kaiba, and not at the enemy. This gave the memory-guy the chance to escape with Kaiba, and with the help of that girl in dress (forgot her name), they managed to smuggle Kaiba away from Popo.
Now, the question remains: how did Kaiba get his first hole. Before he crashed in front of Neiro, he already had a hole inside of him, which suggests that he lost his memory due to some sort of shock before that. Also, what role is the plant Kaiba going to play in the end? And why did the memory-guy alter Neiro’s memory, if he was on her side? Was it to fool Popo?
Aagh, only two more episodes to go. I demand a second season. Or at least a series in the same style that goes on for longer than just 12 episodes! This series is too good for the treatment it’s getting.
I am actually fine with the short length of the series as long as everything is wrapped up nicely and there wasn’t more that could have been told (well okay I am sure they could have done more side stories like they did in the beginning). But so far with what we got it seems the 12 episodes are the perfect length for this series. Sometimes there is too much of a good thing so I am just happy that they have a sense to end Kaiba at a natural point and not drag it out. It’s always better to want more I think. 🙂
Check out this hilarious guy at the 2008 AX! http://bushleague.tv/2008/07/08/anime-expo-place-holder/
I agree with Kim-Kaiba is perfect at its current length. It really doesn’t seem like there’ll be any more to tell after these 12 episodes, and what’s there has been done perfectly so far.
For the memory guy, at least, I’m guessing he had nothing to do with anything at first, but came to sympathize with Neiro and Kaiba after seeing Neiro’s memory, and decided to do what he could against Popo from where the situation had already ended up.
And damn you, I forced myself to at least wait for a decent quality raw.
hi there (: i was hoping you could tell me where i can watch episode 10? thanks
Luka
Well, Kaiba its one of the best anime short-series that i view on my “otaku carrer”. The 12 episodes are fine: don’t make the series heavy. (Sorry for the bad english) n_n
I am waitin for the fansub n_n
The wait was cerntainly worth it. A very good episode to explain the bulk of the backstory. I really loved the quirky moments in this episode.
I think the length is okay. Although 12 episodes are little short, but it fits the plot nicely. There isn’t much of a filler you can find in the series. The minor characters were used wisely to support the main plot and the main theme of the anime. I think this series will be remembered for years to come!