Never, ever, let a little kid into your weapons lab.
What They Say:
Daughter of the Zodiac – A young girl with a connection to Zodiac needs Iron Man’s help to escape him.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a few new revelations in the previous episode about Zodiac, mostly in the form that the man who helped him live being a part of the group and that he came to test him, the series is starting to nudge things closer towards a bigger revelation and clarity of purpose. At the same time, we also saw a growing closeness between Tony and Dr. Tanaka, who he now calls by her first name of Chika. And that kind of unnerves her a bit since she’s annoyed with herself for allowing all of that to happen on the island. Tony, ever the man, can’t figure out why she doesn’t want to be with him. It’s not obliviousness, but it’s amusing that he does play up the inability to understand them even as he masterfully beds many of them.
What throws a wrench into things after all of this is when Tony nearly runs into a young girl on the road. She’s actually been seeking him out, revealing her name to be Aki and that she’s the daughter of a member of Zodiac that’s trying to get away. And not just any daughter but one with some powers that are either telekinetic or magnetic in nature which has Tony wondering what her game is. She’s a cute kid to be sure as she causes a whole lot of trouble at his house and displays a temper at that but she also causes some friction between Tony and Chika when she introduces herself as Tony’s daughter. A completely plausible thing, of course. Aki’s past is mysterious though as they do find that she was a sole survivor of a plane crash two years prior and six months ago was adopted by some mysterious people and not seen again.
The first half of the episode revolves around all of this fun and it is a welcome piece that quiets things down for a little after a couple of busy episodes and lets the characters themselves shine. When Sakurai shows up on the scene to take custody of Aki for the betterment of the nation, it just sets off the next Zodiac attack with Virgo making its arrival on the scene. It’s a bit quirky and involved, but the main problem with it when hits the action side is that it tries to do a lot very quickly and the pacing feels off. It’s given an obvious angle to play by tying Aki to Virgo as an elaborate trap, and that gives Tony an even greater connection to things, but everything else feels a little slapdash.
In Summary:
While the second half of the episode didn’t flow as well as I’d like, it has a very good human component to it that works very well. It’s an obvious angle to work as we’ve seen it many times over the years in comics and even Western animated superhero series, but it has a good bit more polish here and really made the characters feel more real and fun. And the characters are fun, especially the banter and silliness and even the mild tension between Chika and Tony. The two have been interesting from the start and the previous episode finally got her to lower her shields a bit and that definitely gives the whole thing a bit more flavor. Tony’s a popular character for a reason and this incarnation is just as much fun and interesting to watch as some of the other best ones. And episodes like this shows a slightly different side of him.
Content Grade: B
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.