[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

And if you think I'm overreacting, don't be afraid to let me know. Cause trust me, I can take it.

Dude, if you're telling me there's an episode of like your favorite show ever you have problems with, I am absolutely going to come in here and tell you I think you're overreacting.

First of all, the title is definitely referring to Jiro. It's not about literal dreams you have while sleeping, in case I even need to point that out. The episode emphasizes at several points that Jiro moves of his own volition, be that through rejecting the idea of having his Gemini fixed, or asking Saburou if he's satisfied with being a puppet. Jirou has things he wishes to protect. A life he believes is worth living. A future he desires. He is the machine that dreams. It's really that simple.

Second, and this is the big one: Mitsuko really was just fixing his arm! Honest! I know there's the very suspicious facial expressions and drops of sweat on Mitsuko's face staring at shirtless Jirou, but the whole point of the scene is clearly to evoke that kind of imagery, with the symbolism that this is a very intimate night for them, without actually outright having them love each other that way. The whole scene is very very specific about what it actually shows so that you can interpret it however you want. An easy example of this is how the only articles of clothing we explicitly see removed from Jirou are his jacket and shirt, the sleeves of which would obviously be in the way of the operation, which we also know happened, because the thing that ends the scene is Jirou examining his left hand. Heck, even in that screenshot you used, the fact that it's in silhouette makes it ambiguous exactly where Mitsuko is in that room and what exactly she's doing. The scene threw me for a loop at first, too, but thinking on it, I thought it was pretty clever and a remarkably tasteful alternative to something more explicit.

I thought the whole episode was fantastic myself. The central conflict between Kikaider and Hakaider was great, and having Jirou resolve the situation by essentially just deciding to be the bigger man and walk away, I thought that was perfect. Like, of course the way to beat Hakaider is to refuse to destroy him. Genius stuff.

Mitsuko casually throwing out that she taught herself robotics also totally cemented for me what a great character she is, alongside everything you've been saying about her active decision-making, and healthy emotional introspection that lets her actually work on her flaws as a person. I feel stupid asking this, but is most of this stuff pulled right out of the manga too? I'd legitimately be dumbfounded to find out that's the case, because if it is, either the women's liberation movement was getting s*** done in the early 70's, or Ishinomori was WAY ahead of the curve. It would've so, so easy to write a version of this story where the female lead is mostly there to pine after the hunky robot man, but this show makes their relationship so mutual and genuine. It's a really great love story! I can understand why you'd be so upset about anything you feel undercuts its execution.