Shangri-La - 18
Okay, so this episode was mostly building up and it wasn’t as filled with as many plot twists as the previous ones, but nevertheless it had some great ideas and scenes thrown into it. One in particular was an awesome one. It’s a major spoiler, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet you might want to skip this entry.
Because holy crap: Kuniko is Mikuni’s sister! Momoko’s earring turns out to be something she stole from Nagiko, of all people. That gives that whole subplot a whole new dimension and a lot of things make sense now. But most importantly: Kunihito!?
If my theory indeed is true, then that means that the digmas are not just a bunch of random people chosen, but instead the three of them are siblings, and the grandchildren of the founder of Atlas! That’s what makes them so special! That explains why they all have “Kuni” in their names (which probably was a strange idea from their mother). It also explains why Kuniko and Kunihito got along so well: this series wasn’t trying to turn Kunihito into Kuniko’s love interest; they just got along as siblings would!
This makes me even more curious about that mystery mother, who seems to be at the center of all of this. In fact, I’m getting more and more the suspicion that Ryouko actually is the one who fits this description. As disturbing as it may sound, for the three of them to be the next heirs of Atlas, it must mean that their mother holds a very important place at Atlas for them to be considered so special. That can’t be anyone OTHER THAN Ryouko! Talk about a screwed up family. And speaking of which… who exactly is Kuniko’s father?
If that indeed turns out to be true, then we had a nice family reunion in this episode, in which Nagiko manages to arrange a meeting between Kuniko and Ryouko, about trying stop Daedalus. Apparently, even though it was meant to prevent fires Daedalus can seem to burn, otherwise Ryouko would have pointed that out.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I also think Ryouko is the mother, so:
who exactly is Kuniko’s father?
I see a couple possibilities…
1) Ryouko is so hardcore, she didn’t need a man (i. e. artificial insemination; if it’s a holy birth, this show will lose much of my respect).
2) She got one of her assistants to do her. If this is the case, I suspect the purple-haired one. =(
3) That guy from the UN (I think it was the UN, and his name escapes me). That could explain the mutual hostility, theoretically. This is currently my favorite possibility, but not really the most likely.
4) Some mysterious other person, who is probably dead now. Heck, the dragon lady might’ve killed him herself!
-
I don’t see Ryouko in a loving relationship, but then again, we don’t really have much of her background, and this show has already proven its ability to produce excellent plot twists.
Seriously, though, I wasn’t expecting them ALL to be siblings!
Comment by smallDetails — August 4, 2009 @ 1:59
Wait, that would mean either Ryouko or the pops was related to Kuniko’s grandma, right?
Comment by smallDetails — August 4, 2009 @ 3:01
Totally agree smallDetails, I did not see quite that coming as well. The writer of the show is doing a fantastic job :)
Comment by Elvenwarrior — August 4, 2009 @ 3:34
Another possibility would be (considering Hiruko’s rather obscure gender) that Hiruko is the mother of those 3 and Ryouko became the CEO of Atlas only to fill in.
At least it is implied often enough that Ryouko got her position with her nearly godlike luck.
Comment by chounokoe — August 4, 2009 @ 5:54
I would feel so sorry for Kunihito if he really was Kuniko’s older brother. Cause remember the first 5 episodes. He could only remember her by her underwear. The poor fellow. But I don’t think Kunihito has blood relations with either Mikuni or Kuniko. Because clearly, the wild hair colour and crazy abilities don’t exist in him. Either that or it might have skipped him and gone all to Mikuni. Haha.
Comment by Shockinblue — August 4, 2009 @ 6:21
Baaw, I prefer Kunihito not being their sibling, but they do seem to work as siblings too (It really explains all the KUNI in their names)
Ryouko is really a high possibility of being the mother . . . but it also feels so wrong. Hahaha!
Comment by Sapphire Pyro — August 4, 2009 @ 13:23
OMG. That single notion can bring a new dimension to Shangri-la if proven true. I’m loving this series so much.
Comment by AKI — August 4, 2009 @ 17:02
Lol, I definetely didn’t see that coming. As for Kunihito, till now I’ve always thought of him in “Kuniko’s love interest” categories, but the probability of him being her brother right now is indeed very high. And if Ryouko turned out to be their mother, I’d lol very hard - seriously, it would be like Star Wars or something :P
Comment by kagura — August 4, 2009 @ 17:46
Finally I catched up with Shangri-La (Hiruko is so damn scary…I wonder if he even wants to be there, seems so painfull to see the future. Poor Miko.)
So siblings huh. Maybe they all were artificially made or as smallDetails sayed, artificially inseminated or something like that. But since Kuniko’s granma seems to actually met and known her mother I don’t know. Maybe they all have same mother but different fathers.
But Kunihito has parents…maybe they are his adopted parents.
But did they know there would be three successors since Kunihito is Digma 3 and so on (Kuniko Digma 2, Mikuni Digma 1), or did they deside to name them like that when all of them were born?
Well, I think Shangri-La is an interesting series and it’s going well enough. I’m waiting for the rest episodes with anticipation, and wish they will have a lot of good stuff in them.
I really like how this series is made and thought, somehow I like Hiruko and would like to know more about him.
Ryoko’s background would be nice too. Wonder if she was always like that.
Comment by Erias — August 7, 2009 @ 20:29
The numbering of the Digma do seem odd with how apparently older ones are numbered higher (one would think numbers would have been assigned as they were born). It’s even stranger when Digma-0 is considered: if he had survived, there wouldn’t even had been an older meaning higher number correlation.
Comment by Shounen A — August 8, 2009 @ 1:42