Texhnolyze ep.5-7

May 7, 2004 | 8 Comments

I never thought it is possible, but the mood of the series has gone from dark to darker. At one point during the show, I tried to imagine what it feels like to live in a place like Luchs but quickly realised that this is not such a pleasant thought to have. The city looks like the pit of hell, where never-ending misery and madness happen over and over again to the characters. What is worse is the fact that inevitably, the characters are slowly begin to change for the worse due to the unfortunate circumstances that happen to them. Because of this, it's really hard for me to sympathise with any characters in the series except for Ichise and Ran. It is rather depressing, therefore, to also see these two slowly unravelling and changing possibly not for the better either.

Rogue: 05 - Loiter

This episode begins by showing Yoshii hanging out together with a Lakan leader called Shinji. When they find Shinji's girlfriend in the company of another man, Shinji tells Yoshii that it doesn't bother him to see it because the only thing that binds he and his girlfriend together is their free will. Yoshii disagrees and thinks that Shinji's will and his freedom belong to this city. Meanwhile, Onishi gets a request from the female Doctor to find Ichise because she hasn't completed the installation of the outer layer on Ichise's Texhnolyze. Onishi agrees to help but later on tells his secretary not to put too much effort into it because someone will find Ichise sooner or later. As for Ichise himself, he can be seen dragging his Texhnolyzed leg in the street while Ran follows him from behind. However, because he hasn't got a complete control of his new leg, he ends up falling down the street stairs. Frustrated by his condition, Ichise tries to smash his Texhnolyzed hand but ends up hurting his left hand instead.

The scene then shifts to Yoshii who tries to get a prostitute from a brothel. The owner of the brothel, however, tells him that 'no tools are allowed'. My guess is that they don't accept people with Texhnolyzed body part. Therefore, Yoshii ends up obtaining a 'veteran' prostitute from a pimp who stands outside the brothel. Elsewhere, Ichise can be seen raiding a fridge inside a room but is immediately spotted by the house owner and gets thrown out. The focus then returns once again to Yoshii, who has now settled inside a hotel with the prostitute. At first the prostitute decides to play it 'rough' against Yoshii. However, after scaring her with a fake punch, he tells her that this is not his style and that he simply wants to talk to her. At the same time, while Ichise walks along the street, he spots the people who decapitated his hand and leg. He decides to engage them in a fight but unfortunately, he still can't control his Texhnolyzed body and therefore ends up getting beaten up by those guys again.

Once Ichise is unconscious from the beating, their superior, Isshii, orders the thugs to throw Ichise's body into the sewer. Unknown to them, however, Ran has been watching them from afar. The story then returns to Yoshii, who's in the middle of getting a crash course from the prostitute, about the organizations that control the different areas of the city. The prostitute also tells Yoshii that she actually wants to go out of the city but she's afraid that she'll be killed if she does this. To prove this, she opens her clothes and reveals scars all over her body. The woman says that when men see her body, they tend to run away and that is why she can never have a relationship with normal men. Apparently, the man who prostitutes her used to be a nice man but then he got involved in a gang and eventually lost his leg. Ever since then, he has forced her to prostitute herself. The focus of the story then returns to Ichise, who finally regains his consciousness and attempts to find a way out of the sewer.

Ichise, however, quickly realises that the place is akin to a labyrinth and eventually becomes frustrated when every route he takes always brings him to the same area over and over again. Back to Yoshii, he can be seen sitting next to the sleeping woman telling her that he'll set her free. This simply translates to going to the woman's pimp and shoot the guy dead. Yoshii then tells himself that although the city is overflowing with life energy, he can't possibly left an unfinished job. The camera then reveals that the woman that Yoshii was with is now dead as well, possibly due to a heavy strangulation. Back in the sewer, Ichise is about to give up looking for a way out but then he notices some Lafia flowers floating in the sewer and realises that they all came from the same direction. He decides to find out where the flowers come from and ends up finding a sewer exit that is barred off. In his frustration, Ichise ends up using his Texhnolyzed arm to destroy the bars. Once that's done, however, he falls unconscious outside the sewer due to over-exertion. The camera then shows Ran approaches Ichise and leaves a Lafia flower next to him.

Rogue: 06 - Repetition

A shot of a factory opens the episode accompanied by a voice-over from a man saying that he'll never forget what happened back then: the eye colour of the people who live in the city had changed and they turned mad. Those who live in the mountain, however, managed to endure 'it'. The episode then shows a shot of a factory worker turning on some power on a machine while the voice-over mentions about how their work is essential to the citizen of Luchs whether or not it looks unnatural or unreasonable. The episode then pans over a bright light materialising from a place inside the factory. The light eventually spreads over to the entire city of Luchs, implying that the company manufactures sunlight for the livelihood of those who live in the city. The sequence ends with the voice-over saying that he thinks that was not the first time that the eye colour of the people had changed.

The scene then shifts to Onishi, who finds his wife talking on the phone even though it is clear that the phone is unplugged. When asked by him, the wife simply answers that she was talking to 'the city'. Onishi tries tell her about the impossibility of such action but it is all for naught because the wife insisted that she can hear 'it' just fine. Meanwhile, inside a small warehouse, Ichise begins to practice using his Texhnolyzed arm and later on trying to walk up the stairs in the middle of the city using his Texhnolyzed leg. Yoshi, on the other hand, is seen inside a moving train carriage, surveying his surrounding with binoculars. He spots a Jeep speeding in the area and comments that wishes do come true. It turns out that the female doctor is the driver of the Jeep. She, however, seems to be in a bad mood and silently mutters about how she despises people who call her 'simple'. The show then returns to Onishi talking to his secretary, Hirota. Hirota tells Onishi that she hasn't received any news about Ichise. Onishi, however, suspects that Isshii may know a thing or two about Ichise.

Back to the crazy doctor, for some reason she manages to drive the Jeep over to a guardrail and off into the edge of a cliff. In her anger, she ends up kicking the bumper of her car and proceeds to take a walk down the street. Meanwhile, Onishi is seen interrogating a smug-looking Isshii who claims that he hasn't seen Ichise and wonders why Onishi wants to find that 'scum'. Onishi promptly scolds Isshii and tells him that if Ichise turns into a 'scum' that is because of Isshii's fault. Isshii is offended but decides to not continue the argument. Back to the female doctor, she eventually arrives at her lab and is immediately greeted by Yoshii. Despite seeing her icy-cold demeanour, Yoshii reveals that he knows that she used to live on the other side of the 'gate'. He has in fact, admires her ability to transplant tissues from corpses and to 'deceive' the immune system from creating any kind of resistance when the transplantation process starts. Yoshii therefore wonders if this has anything to do with Lafia, a Moss which can only be found at the center of Luchs.

Yoshii believes that Lafia gives a reason for Luchs to exist and thanks to the flower, humans can continue to live on. So in some ways, he thinks of Lafia as God's gift to mankind. Because of this, Yoshii wants to know if the doctor's reason for moving from the other side of the 'gate' is because she wants to bring 'God's blessing' to all living mankind and not just to those who live above the ground. In reply the doctor coldly tells him that 'The Class' is still the ruling layer of this world and the truth is, she hates this place as well as the other side of the 'gate'. She simply likes the opportunity to use Lafia in her experiment to advance humans. Meanwhile, Ichise, who now has a better control of his Texhnolyzed arm, manages to stop a Lakan thug from stealing drinks at a street shop. As a thanks for his effort, the shop owner rewards Ichise with foods. The shop owner also wants to know if Ichise can stick around to help the people in the area fighting against Lakan's henchmen.

The little incident in the street ends up being reported to Onishi and therefore, he immediately orders his henchmen to capture but not kill Ichise. The focus then returns to Ichise, who can be seen walking through the street market while being followed from afar by Ran. In the middle of his walk, however, the sensor in his eyes detects Isshii's presence inside of a car and recognises him as the guy who dismembers him. Ichise tries to chase the car but he ends up falling to the ground halfway through the attempt. Seeing the opportunity, Isshii decides to get out of the car so he can kill Ichise. But when he's about to stab Ichise with his Katana, Ichise uses his Texhnolyzed hand to grab the Katana and throws that said Katana into the leg of Isshii's henchman. Ichise then proceeds to pummel Isshii into a pulp while Ran watches from far away while eerily whispers that Ichise is a good boy. After he's done with Isshii, Ichise proceeds to walk over to the henchman. But before he can do anything to the man, he got hit on the head by one of Onishi's henchmen, rendering him unconscious.

Rogue: 07 - Plot

The episode begins with Onishi and the doctor visiting Ichise who is now confined inside a small room. Upon opening the door, the doctor asks Onishi if she can be left alone in the room with Ichise. Ichise looks angry but never the less allows the doctor to fix his Texhnolyzed arm. Once the job done, however, Ichise hears the doctor saying that Ichise is now her 'type'. Offended by the comment, Ichise punches the wall next to her and asks what she meant by that but receives no satisfactory answer from the doctor. Onishi hears the commotion happening inside the room and decides to open the door. He is relieved when he sees that nothing bad has happened and after a few persuasion from the doctor, he eventually lets Ichise go. He, however, comments to the doctor that this town has no place for someone like Ichise. Upon hearing Onishi's comment, the doctor wonders whose will actually allows Ichise to leave? Onishi's, hers, or Luchs? Meanwhile, Ichise himself is seen inside an alley. He sees Ran holding out a flower to him but he walks past her. Ran ends up following him again.

The story then shift to Yoshii who is standing beneath a central telephone pole and later on is seen talking to someone that he seems to know well, a train conductor by the name of Tatsuya Sakimura. It turns out Tatsuya used to live in the upper world and came to Luchs because he likes train and wants to be a conductor. He asks Yoshii if 'The Class' is still the same these days. Yoshii tells him that nothing has changed with 'The Class', so much so that it's upsetting. Meanwhile, Onishi is in his office and for some inexplicable reason, seems to have the ability to receive some sort of vision. One of imageries in the vision involves that of Yoshii. Onishi looks a bit confused but when Hirota asks him if there is something wrong, he denies it. Elsewhere in the city, Ichise, who's still followed by Ran, meets a bunch of Lakan members including their leader himself, Shinji. They try to recruit him but Ichise does not seem to be interested. Later on at night, someone is seen combining different parts of a gun together but the camera does not show the face of the person.

What follows, however, is a flashback of Tatsuya informing Yoshii that things have always been dicey between the Alliance and Organ. Ever since Onishi and Kimata talked, things have calmed down a bit. However, the lower ranks are restless and no one will be surprised if something broke out from time to time. Back to the present, the episode shows a bunch of Organ members being assassinated by a mysterious man. The incident obviously enrages Onishi and he immediately holds a meeting with fellow Organ members. Unfortunately, the only thing the other Organ members are more interested in is making jokes at Ichise's expense. Onishi is angered and tells them that this is a serious matter and no one knows if this is indeed Alliance's work to make Organ lose face, or if it's just an uncontrollable lower ranks of Alliance, or if it's someone else's work. Some members suggested that this is the perfect opportunity to get rid of Alliance and thinks that they let their men to get out and get a revenge.

Onishi, however, disagrees with them and tells Hirota to call Alliance leader, Kimata. When the phone call fails to connect, Onishi decides to send one of Organ members as his personal representative to the Alliance. Meanwhile, inside Lakan's base, Ichise is seen trying to train his hand to hold a can of drink while Ran looks on with great interest. But Ichise ends up pressing the bottle a bit to hard and destroy it completely. Seeing the effort, Shinji gives him a glass and tells him to practice as much as he wants until he can control his Texhnolyzed arm well. Ichise seems to be stressed out at the possibility that it'll take a long time for him to control his Texhnolyzed arm. But Ran then puts her hand on top of his and for some reason, Ichise calms down again. Seeing this, Shinji remarks that the two make a good combination. Shinji then sits down next to his friend and girlfriend and is immediately asked why he is being friendly to Ichise. Shinji answers that it's because he thinks there is something special about Ichise.

Elsewhere in the street, a car carrying the representative that Onishi sends to the Alliance is seen moving through the street. The mysterious man, who has now taken a position on a rooftop, immediately spots the car and aims his Sniper riffle on the car. The episode then shows another flashback where Tatsuya had a talk with Yoshii. Tatsuya mentions how at one point, a sniper tried to take out Onishi. Tatsuya comments that the Alliance always use sniper to do their assassination attempts and even the leader of Gabe was almost assassinated in this manner. Back to the present, the mysterious man aims his sniper rifle at the car and proceeds to shoot everyone inside the car, causing the car to become uncontrollable. The car eventually crashes into a wall and explodes on the spot sending a blaze of fire which can be seen throughout the city. The news of the explosion reaches Onishi quickly and all Organ members immediately want war. Onishi, however, insists that the city doesn't need a war at the moment and wants to talk things with Alliance leader.

Meanwhile inside the Alliance base, the Alliance members receives a call from someone claiming to be an Organ representative, telling them that there's no room for discussion. The Alliance leader, Kimata, asks one of his henchmen as to who was responsible for killing Organ's men but the henchmen can only say that it's still under investigation. Not long after this, however, their base is being sprayed by gunshot, causing the Alliance to believe that Organ is serious about attacking them. Back at Organ meeting, Onishi is told by Hirota that a man from Alliance is on the line telling her that there's no room for discussion. Onishi decides to talk to the man straight away and asks him to connect him to the Alliance leader. The show, however, reveals that someone has tapped the central telephone pole and that Onishi's line has been diverted into a different location. At the same time, Onishi gets another vision and he immediately sees the face of Yoshii walking down the street smirking at him.

Onishi immediately realises what's going on and inquires the identity of the man on the other side of the line. The camera then reveals that the man is none other than Yoshii. Apparently he's been using the central telephone pole to re-route all phone calls to his direction. While talking to Onishi, he smirks at the sight of a truck full of Organ members carrying tanks of gasoline. The story then shows another flashback of Yoshii talking to Tatsuya. Tatsuya wonder about Yoshii's intention for visiting the city and hopes that Yoshii doesn't say anything when he goes back to the outside world. Yoshii, however, tells him that he has no intention of coming back without anything to say. He wants to see more of the strength that the people in this city possess. Back to the present, an Organ members rush in to Organ's meeting room and tells Onishi that Nakahara's men is out for a revenge because their leader was killed in the explosion. Onishi then hears Yoshii taunts him on the phone saying that it's too late. From his window, Onishi can see huge blaze appearing in the middle of the city and realises that Nakahara's men have burned down the Alliance headquarters.

Meanwhile, the Alliance members who manage to survive from the blaze looks at their burned down headquarter with a grim determination. At the same time, inside their headquarter, Shinji and the other Lakan members looks on at the blaze with great interest. Shinji remarks that it will be good if both Alliance and Organ end up destroying each other. He, however, does not realise that Yoshii has managed to sneak into their headquarter and plants a time bomb. Yoshii smiles with glee and remarks that it's about time they fight and destroy each other. Well, who would have thought that Yoshii is actually a sick bastard? I certainly didn't expect this latest development to happen. In fact, Onishi, who I thought will become the main antagonist on the show has so far been quite benevolent and in fact tries his best to avoid large-scale conflict between his organization and other rival organizations. I am also surprised at the suggestion that maybe there is more to Ran than meets the eye. Sometimes she shows one or two sinister look but I'm not sure if it's because she likes to see Ichise exacting a revenge on those who has done him wrong or if it's motivated by other factors. It's interesting that Ichise himself now has the habit of turning violent from time to time. All in all, it looks like the upcoming episodes will be quite interesting to see.

© memento 2003