| Title: | Silent Mobius |
| Episode: | 11: Alice in Logic Space |
| Synopsis | |
| Episode 11: Alice in Logic-Space / 機械仕掛けのアリス = Kikai Shikake no Arisu = Alice's Machine Mechanism The Tokyo computer network malfunctions. Who is that Cheshire cat laughing from Lebia Maverick's computer screen? | |
| Comments | |
| Spoilers ahead - beware! - - - - - - - - - - The AMP girls are having a party at Lebia's home, when all of a sudden "Hello Lebia", together with a cat's grin, is shown on her computer display, and then Tokyo's computer system is shut down. Communication is offline, even the spinners can't navigate under these circumstances. But six areas are still provided with energy, one of them being AMP's headquarter - looks like this is a game ... AMP decides to split up and inspect each of these locations. When they leave, Yuki believes to see a bird's nest at the wall besides Lebia's appartment ... The AMP girls wonder why Lebia can still hold a wireless connection to them - could she be the one who caused the malfunction? But Lebia explains she is a "visionaire" who can connect all her senses directly to the wired, and has her own network, including her own satellite ... Lebia connects to Lewie, her local computer system, and enters the network. Nami is the first one to arrive at the bread factory. When she enters the building, she finds a doll shaped like an egg - "Humpty Dumpty", as Lebia identifies. When Nami logged in to their local computer, Lebia can enter as well, and faces Humpty Dumpty, whom she easily puts out - only to end up inside the cat's mouth after passing the next door. And offline goes the bread factory. Kiddy has arrived at the rail elevator, facing a number of military vehicles with huge playing cards on their front. Lebia runs through cyber space, pursuing a jumping rabbit ... Ralph Bowmers happens to arrive at the scene with a flying skateboard, stopping one of the vehicles with fire power, which then crashes into the others. But Lebia loses her race, when finally the steps below her dissolve faster than she can run ... the elevator goes offline. Katsumi calls from Neo Waseda station, which looks completely deserted. But then, a train arrives, and Katsumi hears the voices of children ... when she has entered the train, all she can see is a row of laughing sunflowers with sun glasses, and a cleaning robot. The train starts to run again, and the alert break has no effect ... Lebia loses out to the rabbit once more, and round three goes to the Cheshire cat. Yuki is sitting in front of "Alice's castle" at the amusement park, chatting with a large Cheshire cat. Lebia finds herself in a room with five doors, and gambles a 20% chance ... "The Ferris Wheel has stopped, hasn't it?", says the cat to Yuki. One location being left, Lebia takes her motobike and hurries to Tokyo Tower. She logs in, chases the rabbit and catches its leg - but the rabbit is ripped in two, and Lebia falls into an abyss ... GAME OVER. Back in her appartment, Lebia still cannot understand what happened and why she lost. Six names of the locations are on her computer screen, but they don't seem to make sense. Suddenly she hears a bird, and remembers Yukis message ... replacing "apartment" by "nest", now the six initial letters do make sense: STEFAN! She types these on her keyboard - "OK" is the response, and she sees a projection of her grandfather, the legendary creator of the Tokyo computer network, whose birthday is today and she has forgotten ... In Junk Castle, a district of people who love machines, today is a day to celebrate: This Tokyo wouldn't exist without Stefan Maverick. Finally, Lebia joins them and visits her visionaire friends whom she has not seen for quite some time. One of these, named Grover, restarts the computer network and tells her that even Tokyo needs a break now and then. Stretch: I was looking forward to this episode because I knew virtually nothing about Lebia--much less, it seems, than I knew about the other characters even before their signature episodes. And, now that I've seen it, I barely know any more than I did! The only noteworthy thing we learn is that she's a "visonnaire"--someone able to interface with computers using her five senses. A person, I guess, who can enter virual reality at will. But this revelation could have been inserted into any episode as a casual line of dialogue, which would have saved us from this episode which left me scratching my head. It wasn't plausible, because shutting down an entire city as a joke is rather irresponsible; it wasn't cool, because the riddle barely held my interest and I sensed little or no danger; and it wasn't funny, since there were just a couple of modest jokes (AMP team rollerblading was amusing). So, I was left feeling distinctly disappointed at the end. Devil Doll: You're not the only one not to know a lot about Lebia as you will see during episode 11 (which is my least favourite episode of the series, only to be followed by my favourite episode when finally... at long last... the real show will begin!). | |
