| Title: | Silent Mobius |
| Episode: | 12: Sister |
| Synopsis | |
| Episode 12: Sister / 呪われた絆 = Norowareta Kizuna = A Cursed Bond While LH attack various locations in Tokyo, the important events take place in AMP's headquarter - and damage is done. | |
| Comments | |
| The whole episode description is ONE HUGE SPOILER - you have been warned! - - - - - - - - - - "I love the acid rain - it treats us like the humans", says Ganossa Maximilian to Rosa. In Rallys office, Lebia complains about the increasing Lucifer Hawks incidents and asks her superiors for support by other departments. Suddenly, a red mark appears on Rallys forehead, which she instantly hides, and Mana orders Lebia out, back to the girls' office. Lucifer Hawks are the topic as well when Roy and Katsumi meet for a date. Roy isn't too happy about that. Telephone calls for both put a sudden ending to the date - more cases of 3rd attraction. The AMP is out in the streets nearly permanently now. Rally senses a gloomy mood about all that - and has a flashback: Two young girls running from a gang of people with torches, who were out to "burn these witches" ... "Sayonara", said Rosa to her older sister back then, when they parted and Rosa went to the place where she would be accepted as she were. A dream? "A nightmare", says Rosa, who is floating through Rally's office. Katsumi confronts a LH2 and defeats him, using Grospolina. "How many years has it been?", proceeds Rosa. Rally presses a button under the table that locks the door to her office. She doesn't welcome her sister too much - "for this you should have arrived in your human form", earning her a bitter laugh. Lebia returns to the AMP headquarter. A locked door isn't going to stop a visionaire, so she can listen to what is spoken inside. "I can't forgive these humans", says Rosa. "But aren't we humans as well?", Rally replies. "Humans? With these powers?" Rosa breaks the office window by telekinetics, and Lebia learns that these sisters are halfbreed Lucifer Hawks. Kiddy and Nami defeat lots of these unusually aggressive LHs, but there are still more of them. Lebia opens the door and rushes in. "Rally a LH? Can't be!" Rosa smiles: "If I am one, my sister must be of the same type - ask her." Hesitatingly, Rally admits; Lebia falls down on her knees. Katsumi has finished off the last LH, but has lost radio contact with Lebia. Yuki spots Lebia in Rally's office; Mana orders the AMP to head homewards immediately - they have been tricked. Rosa makes Lebia float through the air, provoking Rally: "Show your full power to save your subordinate!" Mana approaches, but Rosa closes the door. Kiddy smashes the door into pieces. The AMP open fire, but Rally demands this is her business. Rosa changes the laws of gravity for this room, now controlling everyone except Rally. A spinner crashes through the broken window, hitting Rosa and setting the others free: Katsumi has returned at last. She makes Grospolina form a blade, but Rosa repeats what only Lebia heard before: Rally is a LH. Now Rally confesses, and Mana explains: 30 years ago there was peaceful contact between humans and LH, from which these children descended. When Rally found out who she was, she cursed her body; but when she learned to use her skills, she started to fight the LH, eventually building the AMP. Rosa applaudes - and asks Katsumi how she thinks about this story, "you as one of the same kind - where did you believe your powers come from?" This is more than Rally can take - she hits Rosa with all her power. Rosa strikes back: "I only want you, sister!" After an infernal standoff, Rosa retreats. Nearly all of AMP declare they are still on Rally's side. "But can you fight - against your own kind and your sister?" asks Katsumi. For she cannot: "You told me I would learn during the fight - so that was it, slaughtering my kind?" Katsumi runs out into the rain. From a nearby rooftop, Ganossa Maximilian watches her - smiling. Stretch: Based on the preview, I had thought that maybe Rally was getting a signature episode of her own, even though I'd been told that this episode was the one in which the main story really begins. As it turns out, both impressions are correct. We learn something far more important and interesting about Rally's past (and Katsumi's, too) than we did about anybody else. What I didn't get was the sudden turnaround Katsumi did after learning that she was half L Hawk. All of a sudden, foul creatures which she despises become "people I'm related to"? Technically, I guess this is quite true, except that I doubt if she ever pictured them as "people" up 'til now. I would think she would be more likely to be horrified and disgusted with herself than suddenly start seeing Hawks as her "flesh-and-blood". The Hawks are so confusing, ranging from the devilish human-like ones to completely witless monsters, that it is hard to make sense of them. Still, an undeniably interesting plot twist which leaves me wondering where things will go from here. For one thing, the Hawks' attempts to "recruit" Katsumi make sense now. Devil Doll: you're absolutely right: Katsumi isn't just falling in love with the LH now that she knows her origin... well, does she really? Do we have more than Rosa's word for it? Rally didn't actually comment too much on it, and Katsumi's parents aren't available for asking them... then again, we have "seen" both of Katsumi's parents already (in the dream Grospoliner sent to Katsumi), and which one looked like a LH? Who is to be trusted here anyway? Who is telling the truth? The importance of "blood relation" elements was referenced before when Grospoliner asked Rally for permission to send Katsumi memories about her parents, commenting how touched he as about the connections between blood related humans. (Watch that scene again and you will see that Rally was sensing Rosa's presence already at this point in time while watching her childhood photographs.) Consequently, being blood related to the LH is quite an issue for Katsumi, and her parents being the link to the LH isn't that easy to swallow either. (Reminds me of another 26 episodes anime series that you haven't reviewed yet that kind of begins with a revelation of this type...) You now know the reaction of Rally to the same issue (forming the AMP), and it will be interesting to see how Katsumi deals with this shocking revelation. The very next episode will start to cover this issue already... and it will provide some nice dialogs. Episodes 12-14 are heavily related to the background story, only to let episodes 15 and 16 provide two surprising twists and a kind of last time-out before the landslide begins... You have seen most of the story elements already (Rosa, Katsumi's link to the LH and Rally holding back the truth as already indicated by her discussion with Grospoliner, that's what episode 12 provided to push the story forward), it's just that playing out the dependencies will lead to the drama this story provides. Several elements that look like side story material so far will still become important in this series. The unconvincing episode 11 came closest to "filler" in this series, being the weakest of the character features but Lebia's abilities as visionaire are in here for a reason as well. And you do remember when and where you saw her grandfather before? Lebia's Grandfather has already appeared in the series: Episode 1 - Stephan L. Maverick was the one running the Cyclotrone, shouting: "Switch it off - no, rather rip out the cables and destroy everything!" By the way, each episode has two titles in the Japanese original, one English title in Roumaji and one Japanese title in Kanji (Example: Episode 12: Sister / "Norowareta Kizuna" = "A Cursed Relationship"). Those titles are quite different at times... in many cases both titles together provide a lot more information. (Another parallel between Silent Möbius and Evangelion...) | |
