What They Say
The Diversion Team find themselves in serious trouble when the 1st Division brings out their secret weapon, the Iron Spider. As Ibara tries to hold off the Ozu Sisters, Aoi is left with the task of stopping the Iron Spider alone…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
In last episode’s review I spoke about the tonal shift of the show, from contemplative post-apocalyptic sci-fi to comic book super-heroics over the course of the season. Over time, the changes were easier to take. But this episode whiplashes like a beheaded snake, back and forth, front and back with no rhythm but death rattle. One hopes it gets the bad blood out of the system for the final two episodes, but it takes its toll on this week.
As the episode begins, the characters designs seem slightly different, with thinner, more fluid lines. There’s also some pretty impressive sakuga as Aoi is picked up and whipped around by the giant robotic Iron Spider, so it’s not hard to imagine these two things are connected. Ibara is kept busy by the ever-present Ozu Sisters (why couldn’t they have been killed, again?) who now combine their powers into an electric punch that knocks Haruto off his feet. Defeat of the Iron Spider falls to Aoi, who uncharacteristically volunteers to zip line to the top and press the button opening the hatch. One moment, she stupidly rams her finger into the glass over the release button, the next, she absorbs Kanon Ozu’s electrical attack and becomes an ultra-powerful psychic who defends her friends from attack so that the spider can be felled with a single bullet. Somewhat of a deus ex machina, but perhaps deux ex dojikko is more appropriate? At least Aoi has finally proved her usefulness, at long last.
Sadly, before the spider could be swatted it manages to break the commander of Division One out of his prison, and neither he, nor the Ozu sisters can be found around or underneath the crushed robo-arachnid. The engineering team is likely to be in danger of attack. Aoi is now unconscious from her transformation, and Ibara is injured, so Haruto volunteers to be the one to find the problem. Now, the crisis at the electric substation: Gojiro was sent to investigate the problem and hasn’t returned. Haruto decides to help him find the break in the power lines, and while the montage plays, Gojiro confesses guilt at having worked for the power company that caused the meltdown so many years before. There’s a very profound point to me made about power companies slashing safety budgets and inspections that resonates strongly with the events of Fukushima, but the speech is made farcical when we see Gojiro running and holding a giant plug, the phallic cable bouncing back and forth in slow motion.
The power line is restored, but then a power pole falls. The others in the engineering team must attend to that. When Haruto and Gojiro attempt to find the pole, Division One ambushes them and shoots Haruto. Haruto demands that the Division One commander not be killed (AGAIN!), presumably so he can menace them further with the Ozu Sisters.
They make it back to the train, but the train won’t start until the batteries are charged! All hope is lost… when the train starts. Did the batteries charge, or was it just a fakeout? Then, a railroad sign looks as though it will fall on the tracks, until Haruto leaps out to hold it out of the way. He’s about to lose his grip… when the Commander of Division One decides to be a good guy after all and help him hold it. The commander explains that the way Ibara treated him, as though he were still human, made him realize he was, in fact, still human. Okay, then, so why did you shoot Haruto ten minutes earlier? If you’d decided to help then things could have gone a lot easier.
Fortunately, all of the dramatic character shifts and speeches should be exhausted at this point, leaving us with two solid episodes of action to come. If the Ozu Sisters suddenly decide to become good guys, though, all bets are off.
In Summary
Consistency has never been Coppelion’s strong point, but episode 11 hits an uncomfortable number of speed bumps that whiplash between drama and comedy, tragedy and farce. As weekly manga chapters the content may have worked, but crammed together into a single 24 minutes, separate elements that might have been powerful on their own become ridiculously overwrought.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Viz Media
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
