Silent Mobius - 6: Megadyne

Title:Silent Mobius
Episode:6: Megadyne
Synopsis
Episode 06: Megadyne / 終わりなき戦い = Owari Naki Tatakai = Endless Battle

Kiddy has to face an open challenge from her past, and Ralph Bowmers is going to take her side.
Comments
Spoilers ahead - beware!
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Kiddy and Katsumi are strolling the street, when they meet Ralph Bowmers. Kiddy isn't too nice to him, and freaks out when Ralph asks about joining AMP: "Normal humans can't do that!"

Kiddy and Ralph then have several dates, although they have few friendly words for each other, as Yuki reports to the curious AMP girls' squad. At one date, Ralph is three minutes late, telling Kiddy "I'm not a machine".

Ralph's next case will be about some Megadyne robot from Nakata industries with buggy software, named "Wire" (for his weapon), who slaughtered 30 policemen three years ago. Kiddy gets very excited about that, and runs away.

At AMP office, Mana Isozaki tells Ralph that Kiddy is a former special cop and the sole survivor of Wire's massacre. Wire's life span is about to end, and he is aware of that.

Kiddy has spotted Wire, and they start to battle. When Ralph enters the scene, Kiddy has to save him from the parts flying around. Her arm is burning, but that doesn't seem to hurt her - when Ralph tries to stop her, he feels a cold solid metal arm ... and becomes aware that only revenge is the driving force in Kiddy's life. So what is she going to do once this case will be over?

Later, Kiddy and Wire are still battling, but Kiddy is severely damaged now. Ralph manages to locate them again, and the showdown can begin. Just when Ralph and Kiddy are both about to be beaten, a miracle happens ...

In the hospital, Ralph tells Kiddy that Wire has escaped and his life span isn't limited.


Stretch:
This one was fun. I was certain we'd never hear from Ralph Bomber again, or that he'd be quickly killed off, but here even he plays an important part and acts as narrator. We get our first serious imformation about the special powers which AMP personnel have, in this case Kiddy--it's nice that her awesome strength has a plausible explanation, instead of her just being "cool". My impression is that the characters are indeed getting the depth which they seemed to sorely lack early on. So, Kiddy has been told a lie about the fate of Wire, so that she won't lose her will to live?

Devil Doll:
The second DVD is the part of the series that I liked least, for episodes 6, 7, 10 and 11 are the four background episodes for the AMP members and as such are a bit detached from the main story (not unlike certain episodes of GitS SAC with flashbacks to the team members' past - not bad, but different).

You will see more of Ralph Bowmers. He's not an AMP member but he is important in his own way. You idea of him getting "quickly killed off" is... interesting. ;-) And yes, Kiddy wasn't told that Wire is gone for good. Despite now having Katsumi on their payroll the AMP still needs Kiddy... more than anyone is aware of at this point. Rally can't afford losing either of them.

Silent Möbius is based on a manga. The first manga volume (of a total of 12) consists of three stories:

1. Cyber Psychic City (100 pages)
Basically an extended variation of anime episode 4 (Katsumi's solo stunt) where Katsumi's body is taken over by a LH (not unlike Evangelion's angel taking control over Touji's EVA-04). Katsumi is already an AMP member but nothing of her background is explained yet. Some parts of episodes 1 and 2 are in there as well, as well as some elements that made it into the Movies. This is the teaser chapter for the audience who learn about the LH, the AMP, their cool weaponry and their magic spells.

2. Nami Yamigumo (60 pages)
The original version of "Kagome Kagome", anime episode 7.

3. Kiddy Phenyl (60 pages)
The original version of "Megadyne", anime episode 6.

You see, the manga started with these rather independent character feature chapters and only later took the path into the Silent Crisis / LH main story whereas the anime is built around the main story and only inserts character feature episodes whenever appropriate. In the anime it's obvious that Katsumi is the "key" character ;-), in the manga that wasn't so clear in the beginning. And the tone of the manga version is less gloomy than the anime, there are quite a few funny scenes and omakes in it.


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