A bug in the system.
What They Say:
Episode #20: “UTOPIA”
Sophie finally reunites with her brother, but something is wrong. In his mind, she’s still a 10-year-old girl and the things he says doesn’t match what she knows. At the same time, Sword also meets someone from the past. An illusion? Or something else?
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The state of El Dorado and the plan the Horrors are carrying out are explained to Sword in detail by his long gone sister. Yet she’s no projection or wishful thought, she is actually the soul of Sword’s sister trapped into the machine. El Dorado is a repository of souls that the horrors can feed off of and control and consume at will, and those trapped in the explosion ten years ago were the first victims. Liz’s soul survived the experience because she is the Makai knights bloodline. Also, Liz is super cool and the fact that she has basically been biding her time either waiting to help her brother or to help take the corrupt system down is a sad, cruel fate.
Sophie comes face to face with her brother after so long, and what we long suspected is quickly confirmed. All that foreshadowing about one ring to rule them all and the identity of King. No surprises there, and we didn’t really need a huge twist. Although it bothers me that the Japanese voice actor for Sophie’s brother is clearly a woman. It makes him sound like a twelve-year-old rather than adult man. I don’t get the choice…
Martin doesn’t appear to actually understand that he is a tool. He thinks it’s only been six months, and his version of Sophie is that of a 10-year-old girl. She tries to tell him that she’s 13 now, that people are dying and being sucked into his machine. No matter what she tells him he can’t understand, he even thinks she’s the one being tricked.
I’ve liked Sophie as a character since the beginning of the series, and she continues to be a great character here in this episode. She is obviously rattled by the truth but is determined to break herself and her brother out of the system. Sword is freed with the help of his sister and doesn’t actually end up helping to get Sophie out. She’s able to do that all by herself. (Sword’s unconscious body is dragged out by Luke and Gina, and I really like how the team has come together.)
We’ve been trained to see foreshadowing as something that only clues in the audience, so we tend to forget that information is first given to the protagonists. Sophie was paying attention when everyone told her that once someone becomes a horror you can’t change them back. The fact that she is determined to do the right thing is both satisfying and heartbreaking. Martin is certainly being controlled by Horrors, but we haven’t seen to what level. He was given the ring and that’s keeping him safe, so it might not be a traditional corruption.
In Summary:
There aren’t many if any surprises in this episode of Vanishing Line. A lot of what we viewers expected come to pass and one touching reunion is cut painfully short. If anything it cements what a great character Sophie is and how great the team has become. The nature of the situation with Sophie’s brother feels different than the other incidents with horrors that we’ve seen play out. We’re getting down to the end of this conflict but the solution is far from simple. I’m excited to see where this goes.
Episode Grade: A –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll & Funimation
