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DS Wants You! To Watch Toku(-inspired) Anime!
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07-17-2020, 05:02 PM
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53
DreamSword
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,414
Stop.
If by some chance you've been reading these posts before watching the episodes yourself, do NOT do it with this one.
Seriously. Go watch the episode first, and go into it with as few details and outside bias as you possibly can. The ending has proven to be rather divisive amongst those who see the show through to the end(yes, all six of us).
As such, I want everyone who's even remotely interested in this anime to see the ending with their own eyes, on their own terms. Once you've seen it for yourself, feel free to come back, read this post, and discuss things afterward. Are you ready? If so, let's begin...
Episode 17: The Fate of Pinocchio
Gill has everything he needs to fully awaken the Armageddon Lord. His army is immense, Akira has been sealed within the machine, and SHADOW has become the newly resurrected DARK. Our heroes don't have much time before Gill begins his siege on the world. And unlike before, there is no help from someone on the inside. No Saburo, no Akira, no one.
As they prepare to make their move, Bijinder has a talk with Rei. Further enforcing the schism between machines with hearts and those that don't, Mieko expresses sadness over the loss of her sister, whereas Rei tells her, rather coldly, that it's merely a system malfunction and that she should simply accept whatever happens. His only function is to fight alongside his brothers, and that's all his mind need be concerned with.
In the end there isn't much in the way of a plan, however, as the Armageddon Lord makes its move on a nearby city, and its destructive power is immense. There's no time for a stealth mission here; The party's' only option is a direct attack on the giant mecha. During which they can only hope to find a way inside to rescue Akira, who's locked in the literal heart of the machine. It's also here that Rei demonstrates another aspect of him being an early model; A supercharged, yet very unrefined version of Electro End.
The siege is largely a failure, however. The Armageddon Lord's' armor proves too strong for the group, and everyone but Jiro finds themselves captured and eaten. It's here that Gill orders the troops to let Kikaider inside. Jiro acknowledges that this is most likely a trap, but he doesn't have any other choice. His number one priority is to save Akira and disable the Ultimate Weapon. He reaches Akira, but it's here that Gill-Hakaider reveals another step in his Grand Scheme. That Jiro was a pawn all along, and everything he did merely helped Gill get to where he is now. And he's not the only pawn anymore either.
Gill has taken control of Kikaider-00 and 01, and unlike Jiro, there's no chance of them breaking free. They literally can't put up a fight. They don't have the Gemini, and Jiro's' words won't reach them where they are now. Even Akira, who did begin to grow more of a heart thanks to Jiro? The feelings he's grown to learn have been twisted by Gill. Those very same feelings now fuel the machine that will cause mass destruction. Everyone and everything that Jiro worked so hard for has turned its back on him. Twisted and corrupted by a malevolent, outside force who seems to barely have empathy for anyone, and thinks only of themselves. The man who's barely even recognizable as human anymore, Gill.
Jiro can't bring himself to fight back against his brothers, nor risk hurting Akira, and as such he is easily captured. Bijinder, too, has been made a slave to Gill, and Gill reveals the final step of his plan. While Kikaider was disabled, Gill installed a Submission Circuit into Jiro's' brain. It's also what he implanted into Jiro's' comrades in order to make them subservient. Gill claims that because the Gemini is so integral to Kikaider's' internal makeup, he couldn't risk removing it, but seeing as the Gemini was incomplete anyway, the Submission Circuit should work all the same. Once more, Jiro's' descision to try and make a good life for himself and those he cares for is turned on him, twisted into something nasty, and Gill enjoys every second of it. He leaves Bijinder to guard Kikaider.
Not all is lost, however. While Akira's' fears and anxieties are what power the Armageddon Lord, they're also the source of Akira's' will to fight back. His bond with Jiro is proven real, when through his own power and his desire of not wanting to see Jiro get hurt, he causes the Doomsday Weapon to malfunction and the system to begin to meltdown. Gill shows that in his own twisted way, he does care for his son, as he orders Akira be removed from the heart, and calls for Bijinder to be his new guard for awhile. Even later on, when the leader of SHADOW threatens to shoot Akira, Gill destroys the robot himself, not wanting his son to be killed. Calling Bijinder came with a price, however, as seeing Akira awakened within her the thing that Ichiro and Rei lacked, her own developing heart. She guards Akira with her very life.
Before she left, Jiro also managed to convince Mieko to let him free by doing something he's never done before: Lying. He proceeds to lay waste to the innards of the Armageddon Lord, and when he fails to find Akira, makes his way directly to Gill, and it's here that Gill begins to realize his deadly mistake. The Submission Circuit was the exact piece of the Gemini that Jiro was missing. Now, he has no true limits. When Gill calls upon the Kikaider Brothers to destroy Jiro, their deaths are swift and unceremonious. This time, there is no Mitsuko, no memories, nothing holding back the full power and fury of a broken Kikaider. Unlike their encounter at the DARK base, Gill can't even bring himself to say anything in response to his oncoming demise, knowing full well that everything that's about to happen is entirely centered on him. And it's during his final moments that he sees what his interfering with Jiro's' life has brought him.
It is Jiro, not Kikaider, who is finishing everything this time. He knows what has to be done in order to end all of this, and he reveals that with his now completed heart and this final act, he can finally become human. He IS the chaos between good and evil now, just as every human is. He kills Gill, taking the Armageddon Lord down with him. Akira, Hattori, and countless other lives are now saved, but the price that comes with it is something that will cling to and stab at Jiro's' heart for the rest of his life. I too felt it, as the two, final, major lines of this show are ones that have stuck with me ever since I first heard them:
"And so now, with this act, I shall at last become fully human... but the price that I must pay for it is eternal torment... as the good and the evil inside of me struggle in my heart... FOREVER."
"And Pinocchio became a real boy; and together, he and Geppetto lived happily ever after. And yet I wonder... In becoming human, did Pinocchio truly find happiness?"
It's not often that I find endings to stories I'm fully satisfied with, and it's even less often that I could outright call them perfect. But Android Kikaider is one of those shows. Everything comes to a satisfying, poetic, thematic, and heart-wrenching conclusion with this episode. I mentioned that the "Friends" episode made me get misty-eyed with its ending? Well, the very first time I saw these final scenes, I out and out wept for Jiro. Infact, Jiro's' entire journey of self-discovery and dealing with a world that wanted nothing to do with him is one that I personally empathize and relate with alot. Maybe you need to have grown up a complete and total reject like I did in order to understand, but Jiro IS the heart and soul of this story, as any main character should be. His story, and this anime as a whole, came at a point in my life that I really needed it, and taught me alot about morality, introspection, and the good and evil that can exist within any given person, no matter who they are. It's a tale that is extremely important, and I hope anyone who watches it can even remotely understand.
Android Kikaider: The Animation
is one of the few shows that has absolutely everything. Good animation, great voice acting, fantastic writing, intricate characters, an enveloping atmosphere, and an all around beautiful soundtrack. All this ontop of being the perfect example of what an adaptation should be: Not only great in its own rights, but but being able to identify the strengths of the work you're using and bringing them to the forefront. I am in no way trying to discredit Ishinomori by saying that this anime not only did a fantastic job of adapting both his original manga and the Toku that came of it, but out and out
surpassed
both of them. Even Kikaider Reboot, which tried to find a middle-ground between all the versions of Kikaider that had come before, came nowhere even close. If you EVER want to give the series a try, but are resigned to trying one and only one version of the story, make it this one. Even if you end up hating it, you'll be given absolutely everything that the franchise has to offer. In the end, I give this show a perfect rating of 6/6. I love damn near every aspect of it, and what few flaws it has are so minor I don't even count them.
If I didn't make it clear enough to you all by now, Android Kikaider is one of my all time favorites. Every time I watch it I find something new to appreciate about it(which I even made apparent in earlier posts), and just like my other favorite shows, I make it a point to rewatch it every few years to remind myself as to why exactly I love it so much. As for how my rating system works, it's as follows: 0="Absolute trash, don't even bother." 1="Maybe has like one good thing going for it, but is still terrible." 2="Mediocre. Not terrible, but not really worth your time unless it's a subject matter you're super into." 3="Flat average." 4="Good! Not great, but enjoyable." 5="Excellent. A few flaws here and there, but a great time." 6="Damn near perfect. PLEASE give it a watch!" But, the most important aspect of any thread like this is the discussion. What did you all think of not just this episode, but the series as a whole? I've heard alot of conflicting opinions over the years from what few people have seen the show through to the end, so I am definitely curious as to what you all think. Even if you ended up absolutely hating this show, feel free to voice it. The important part is that you gave it a chance.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 05-22-2022 at
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