Shangri-La - 08
This was a very strange and unusual episode. It was a nightmare for physicists, it featured some strange coincidences, but despite that I still like this series. If only because of the sheer GUTS it had during some of the scenes in this episode, which really showed that this show really isn’t going to pull its punches. This definitely is the most controversial series of the season.
To start with the lesser parts though, Kuniko’s escape is definitely going to raise some eye-brows, but then again, this series has always had its share of strange physics. There is carbon-trade, so why not make a hot balloon fueled on fermented orange juice that’s able to carry two people? That solar eclipse also had a bit too convenient of a timing. But then again, with all of the weird technology it’s of course also possible that the nanomaterial the girls found in the junkyard offered the solution. This is science-fiction, after all.
And yet I really love the rest of this series, and especially the characters. This series definitely has its issues now and then, but Kuniko is truly a remarkable lead who has the guts to go where most people wouldn’t even dare, and inspires others to do so as well, up to the point at which the fellow inmates start flirting with the prison guards in order to get all the preparations for the balloon right, and start offering their bodies.
And god… I was really shocked with how this episode ended. Kuniko has escaped, everyone is happy, people are starting to feel confident that Atlas can be beaten and that they have control… only for all of the inmates to be killed off by a simple order. WTF! It feels nowhere near a heroic sacrifice, and much more a death due to stupidity, and yet these girls did such a wonderful job of getting Kuniko out of prison.
The whole way in which everyone close to Kuniko reacted to the news of her execution: nobody getting scared, and everyone just thought that it was going to be another heroic escape from her with the necessary help from Momoko. It all shows how they’re trying to rebel to Atlas in even the smallest things. And then this episode comes and gives them a wake-up call even though they don’t even know what happened.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I can really imagine that the cynics like Hanners are going to hate this episode, but for me it served its purpose: I was seriously shocked by what happened here.
I generally agree that this is a better than given credit for anime. With all the shots going off in so many directions it sometimes misses its target, but overall it’s one of the best of this season.
I also think it’s time for Lady Ryoko to reap the whirlwind!! I suspect that it’s a bit premature, plot-wise, but I’d personally pull the trigger on her.
Comment by Dagmar — May 25, 2009 @ 23:59
“only for all of the inmates to be killed off by a simple order. WTF! It feels nowhere near a heroic sacrifice”
welcome to the reality for people in certain parts of the world: people who help others and kind hearted just get “picked off” like nothing.
Comment by john — May 26, 2009 @ 5:27
I think the only “coincidence” in this episode was in Kuniko landing to find Momoko waiting for her — and landing near where Mikuni’s entourage were playing hide-and-seek.
The eclipse is not a coincidence — it’s “the sun meeting the moon”. Ryouko chose this day for Kuniko’s “execution” (I think Ryouko was waiting for her escape, and was maybe curious about how it would come about) because it was the day of the eclipse — early in the episode she insists on how the execution must fall on this day at this particular time.
It’s not a hot-air balloon, it’s a hydrogen balloon, filled with the hydrogen used to create explosions in the logging operations, catalyzed by alchohol distilled from the fermented orange-juice.
Just about everything that happened in this episode was fore-shadowed earlier in the series or, at least, earlier in the episode.
On initial viewing, I was very disappointed in this episode, but after thinking about it, I’m increasingly impressed with how it was put together and how much was shown without being explicitly said.
Still, it feels like the seams show a bit, or credulity is strained just a bit too much. However, I think this series can survive this, and, this episode may come to seem much less contrived when viewed in the context of the entire series.
Dramatically, I do believe the massacre at the end was heavy-handed. We already know that Atlas is evil and Ryouko callous and cruel. The massacred prisoners is almost a manipulative cliche.
Comment by dm00 — May 27, 2009 @ 0:11