The measure of peace Katsumi has found in Tokyo, with
Kiddy and the AMP and Roy, is about to be shattered. Ganossa, emissary of Nemesis, attacks the AMP
head on, dealing damage that pushes the team to the breaking point and drives
Katsumi to vanish from sight. When she
does reappear, Katsumi is changed, different, but only Kiddy seems to notice
that her friend might no longer be her friend.
Has the darkness truly taken hold of the AMP’s heart and soul and what
danger does this mean for Tokyo?
As I start typing this review, I can say I have mixed
feelings about this weeks set. Silent
Mobius started out with such promise and has squandred that promise week after
week. The stories have been rapid fire
with no emotion, no energy and no real interest in commiting to telling a
story. The characters have predominantly
no purpose other than to just stand around and pretend to look competent at
their jobs. Only Katsumi and Kiddy have
shown any signs of being good at their jobs, and having a believable friendly
bond built up over time. In short, this
series is frustrating as hell. Why bring
this up now? I should save this kind of
an intro for next week at the series finale.
Well I start with this because this week, the potential to tell a great
story shined through…but faltered because this show has come so far with it’s
many problems and will always be held back by them…and those problems are only getting
worse.
We did get to see Katsumi in a sexy swimsuit though…of
the many things that have made me dislike this show, I cant fault it for
showing me that.
Oh Roy. He pretty
much had a 50/50 shot at getting out of this story alive. He finally confessed his love for Katsumi,
literally stood against the forces of hell and unlocked a power for Katsumi
that could stand against the Lucifer Hawks (that’s the power of LOVE btw). I’ve often spoken of how Roy and Ralph should
have been made AMP members and replaced certain time wasters like Nami and Yuki
and this time is no different. Having
Roy around made Katsumi stronger, same with Ralph for Kiddy. And what’s more, Roy didn’t have any power
other than his love for Katsumi and he still fought the monsters of the
night. If anything, that makes his
demise all the more tragic, especially after he and Katsumi finally got to
share a night together. Katsumi’s power
unleashing was terrifying and it looked like Ganoza and Rosa were finally going
to get what was coming to them from the Super Sayian level Katsumi….
But then we got another time skip, man this show enjoys
those.
As hard as it is to believe, we’ve covered the span of 5
years according to this show (starting in 2024 and now we’re in 2029). I’d say how time flies but I just say, wow
this show is being so lazy with developing anything it’s no wonder it feels
like we’ve slept through most of it. I
guess that explains why Lum Cheng was trying to be Katsumi’s voice of reason to
keep her hooked up with Roy. In the
(apparent) two years she’s been with the group, Lum continues to avoid
character growth, or if she is, her annoying attitude is making it hard to
see. Even Kiddy, who’s been the bull of
the group, has shown a softer side around Katsumi and Ralph. And yet they try to shove the growth in for
Lum Cheng rather than ANYONE else on the show who has been here since the
beginning and hasn’t changed at all.
Yuki’s still annoying. Nami’s
still…there. Lebia isn’t doing much
either. And Isozaki and Rally just
continue to look in charge while keeping secrets. Nothing has changed with anyone besides
Katsumi and Rally on the main team. Even
Ralph and Roy have gotten more on screen character development. You know what, I’ve held this in long
enough…ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Ok, let’s continue with the second half of our set.
Well rather than taking the fight right to Ganoza’s
throat, Katsumi vanished for six months and then showed up again. I like that Kiddy was the one to notice that
something was off right away. Everyone
welcoming Katsumi back felt very much in line with how their characters have
all be handled. Kiddy’s different
though, enough to ask the right questions and brace for the sad answers. I liked that, of the five remaining teammembers,
Katsumi’s disappearance weighted heavily on Kiddy. They’ve been through a lot together: starting
off on bad terms, protecting each other in the field, bonding over their not so
human origins. They’ve taken good time
to bring these two together as friends and it paid off in this set of episodes. It even lead to a moment where Kiddy doubted
her theory and hated herself for suspecting her best friend might’ve been an
enemy. The hug she shared with Katsumi
was genuine and easily a moment that shines in this series for me. Sadly, her hunch was right. But Katsumi hasn’t gone truly “Dark
Phoenix”. Her inner darkside hasn’t
fully taken hold, she’s just been ensnared by a new enemy, a sword no
less. And now the AMP has an even bigger
problem than getting shut down by the Police top brass…they now have to contend
with an enemy possessing the person who did like 90-95% of their job for them.
Before I close out, I’ve gotta say: another comparison
between this series and Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 just occurred to me-the
villains. None of the one off Lucifer
Hawks or their supposed commanders, Ganoza or Rosa, have seen all that
interesting or that threatening. There’s
little difference in any of the main monster LH’s, even their respective
designs are starting to feel recycled.
Meanwhile Ganoza’s motivations have never been fleshed out, especially
in the flashback episode. His sudden
freak out over not being loved came out of nowhere. Rosa should have more importance considering
she’s Rally’s sister but that hasn’t been explored nor has it gone
anywhere. It’s like the villains are
here to be as annoying, generic and unmemorable as the rest of the main cast.
We got some good (Roy’s death, Kiddy handling Katsumi’s
departure), we got some bad (the villains, the naiveite of most of the team),
we got some things that drove me crazy (Lum Cheng and this shows general
incompetence). This show should have set
things up nicely for a kick ass finale.
But right now, I’m just happy I can put this series behind me in one
weeks time.
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