Short Synopsis: Kushima didn’t only go brain-down, but his entire cyber-brains went missing. This episode shows attempts to recover it.
Highlights: Lots of metal-eye-candy.
Overall Enjoyment Value:8,5/10
This episode was much better than the previous one. Not only because I actually was able to follow what was going on, but also because the focus returned back to the characters. The thing is that RD really is a series about its characters. Most of the episodes had absolutely no plot whatsoever, so any attempts to introduce an overall plot would fall a bit short.
So, basically Kushima was attacked and his brain was removed off-screen, because he posed a threat to Jennie’s plans, whatever those may have been. Souta manages to find this out with the help of the secretary general, who she still turns out to have feelings for. It was pretty brave of Souta to show up in front of her, along with Holon.
In any case, now that this show is about to end, I do have to say that this series has disappointed a bit: it wasn’t the masterpiece you’d expect from such a stellar director. Overall, it’s still a good series, but I expected better (damn those expectations again). Now that the main storyline has started, and this series is done with most of its building up, I realize that this has been a very unbalanced series.
I don’t have a problem with the episodic cases (in fact, I love them), but you have to know how to use them. RD spent way too much of its early episodes on Minamo, which left too little time for the other characters. As the result, Minamo has turned into a downright excellent character. Holon, Souta and Haru also were fleshed out enough throughout the series, and they too are great characters.
Kushima, but especially the secretary general and Jennie needed a lot more screen-time than they actually got. I absolutely feel no connection to Jennie, even though he’s supposed to be the upcoming bad guy. The scuba brothers also are really underused characters. I think that if the creators scrapped the haunted school-building episode, the book episode and perhaps the blind girl episode, and used these episodes to flesh out Jennie and the scuba-brothers a bit more, this series would have greatly improved. The result right now is that two absolutely useless characters are fleshed out more than most of the important ones. As funny as Minamo’s classmates are, they’re really not that important to this series.
In any case, the thing that stood out in this episode was the metal itself. Because the concept of the metal is so original, the artists in this series really could do with it whatever they pleased, which resulted into some very nice eye-candy. Souta, screwing up at the end of the episode and basically erasing Holon’s entire memory also had a lot of impact. Such a tragic love-affair.
hmmm…i must say that though i agree with u considering lack of connection with Jennie, i don’t think she’s the “bad guy” here..She is a person who is goal-oriented and has a morality issue, still, she is a woman in a man’s world who must’ve had a tough time getting to her position and gaining her credibility and respect.. Somewhere on that way she lost a part of her identity and moral BUT not all of it! She still knows what love and emotions are even if it’s in a socially immoral way and also she appears to not have known of complete agenda of the commitee..all that’s why in the end she still gave Souta the info. And just imagine her confronting Holon – the opponent she lost to..with the image of herself?! Emotionally rather hard, eh?
The true and complete “nemesis” here is The Trust Commitee, the companies, everpresent MONEY CONSUMING PPL… Even now globalization is destroying society as we know it..big companies and conglomerates are leading countries from the shadows and toying with ppl’s lives..they are “the bad guy” here, without a shred of doubt..
Srry about the past comment, i was a little distracted, so i misunderstood who Jennie Yen is.. ^^’
The other part of the comment is still my opinion..
…still, i’m off to commit a seppuku :]