As Katsumi settles into her role as a member of the AMP, things
get a bit more intense with the war against the Lucifer Hawks. The enemy is calling to her, beckoning
Katsumi to help bring about humanity’s end.
But another voice is reaching to her, one that seeks to enhance her
power for good. Meanwhile, the rest of
the AMP have their own demons to tend with as Kiddy and Yuki must both confront
their pasts to move on with their promising futures. All the while, the true enemy lurks in the
Shadows, almost ready to reveal itself to the AMP…and Katsumi.
Heading into week two of Silent Mobius, I really needed
the show to step it up. The premise is
incredibly unique and has a ton of potential.
Sadly, nine episodes in and the show seems content to do just about
nothing when it comes to the central plot.
There’s a good episode and a half of good content here but calling that
a high point isn’t necessarily a good thing…well it kind of is cause when the
show is good it’s good but overall, it’s proving to be kind of a letdown.
With the main plot established, we got to spend some time
developing the team a bit. Kiddy got the
best episode of the week, a case that had nothing to do with the Lucifer
Hawks…so you know she got to be useful without getting her butt kicked by an
other dimensional entity. No this time
Kiddy got to tango with a Replicant…I mean rogue cyborg who nearly killed her
years prior. It revealed that Kiddy’s
strength is not supernatural, but rather she is a combat cyborg following her
brush with death. It gave the episode
the most Blade Runner feel this series has had besides its city designs, with a
hint of I, Robot. The revelation that
Wire, the cyborg, had an expiration date and was seeking to settle the score
with Kiddy definitely was reminiscent of Roy Batty’s story in Blade Runner:
trying to find a way to extend his life and, if he couldn’t, make the most of
the time he had left. Kiddy’s episode
also got to show she and Ralph, the cop she quarreled with last week, had begun
a relationship and it made Kiddy even better a character than she already
was. All in all, Episode 6 was the best
episode by far and the show could use more quality effort as we saw here.
Fairing not as well was Nami, who’s quest to prove she
worthy of inheriting her familys legacy was as dull and unmemorable as Nami was
written up to be on the Police Message Boards from last week. It kind of feeds into my complaints about the
AMP concept as a whole. When it comes to
battling the Lucifer Hawks, combining magic and technology is a cool
concept. But none of it seems to have
any effect of the monsters unless Katsumi pulls off her ultimate Sailor Moon
attack. For the most part, the
technology aspect seems to do nothing whatsoever against the Hawks. Nami is the third biggest represenetive of
the mystical side, besides Rally and Katsumi.
She represents old school Shinto magic, which would work well against a
foe like this…she’s just seriously underpowered like the rest of the AMP, save
maybe for Kiddy cause of her cyborg strength.
To be honest, if Nami was taken out of the equation, nothing would be
lost and nothing would be gained. The
AMP would still be seriously out of their depth and Katsumi would still be
doing most of the heavy lifting.
Speaking of Katsumi, even she needed a power upgrade this
week, so soon too. Enter Grosspoliner,
an ancient sword who used to serve Katsumi’s father. In a show filled with beautiful women with a
diverse skill set, it’s strange that the most interesting character on the
series is the weapon of the central protagonist. Sentient and charming, Grosspoliner has some
really good interactions with both Katsumi and Rally. He remembers how Tokyo was before the world
almost ended and he seeks to see things that could remind him of that world he
loved so much. Unfortunatley,
Grosspoliner also has all of the answers Katsumi has been seeking…so it falls
to Rally this week to put a gag order on him.
After all, we cant have the main mystery of the show solved so
soon. We’ve seen this trope a million
times from countless Anime to TV’s Supernatural with the Winchesters. If you keep a huge bombshell of truth from
the main character, it is going to come back and bite you big time. And given Katsumi’s ever increasing power
level, I wouldn’t want to be Rally if Katsumi finds out some unsettling truth
about her father the hard way.
Grosspoliner did get the ok to show Katsumi a memory of her parents and
their love for Tokyo, so that was nice.
That nice memory also fell onto an episode that was
actually entertaining and not so serious.
Homeless following another LH attack, Katsumi got to shack up with each
of her squadmates for a bit. For a
series about magical techno gals trying to slay demons, Silent Mobius can pull
off some fun humor. From Kiddy’s messy
apartment (I wonder if she got that from Evangelion’s Misato), to Lebia’s
teched beyond teched out mansion to Nami’s “get my floor dirty and youre dead”
old school shrine, we got some good insights into each of the team members for
once when their lives weren’t on the line.
Heck, even Roy and Ralph got involved, Ralph passing onto Roy that
Katsumi was looking for a home. Sure
they’re not rooming together but Roy came in for the save again, earning a cute
“honey” nickname from Katsumi. Whodve
thought this show would suck at it’s main premise but be pretty decent at
delivering fun romance?
Still, romance is only part of what I was expecting from
Silent Mobius. The main story needs to
shift gears and either have the girls standing more on their own against the
Lucifer Hawks without the need to get beat up before Katsumi can kill them OR
it needs to bring the backstory on the conflict, and why Rally and Isozaki are
so keen on keeping everyone in the dark, to the forefront ASAP. Oh and could this show make up it’s mind if
it wants to be digipaint or handdrawn?
Jumping back and forth still isn’t working and, honestly, I cant decide
which style I prefer…that’s bad. This is
Magic and Tech vs Monsters…with beautiful women at the forefront. There’s no way a series with that kind of set
up and potential should be floundering this much.
PS, I never got a chance to say anything about them last
week so ill say it here: The opening and ending themes are awesome. The intro has all the energy you’d need from
a genre mash up like this and the end theme is extremely soothing yet fitting
(complete with a nice collage of the casts manga counterparts). Even after a not so great episode, hearing
“Silently” play is somehow a comfort for me.
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