Texhnolyze S1E7: "Plot"

After that disappointing detour into early nineties American animation, we're back to the early aughts Japanese animation we'd been working through. This episode is called "plot," so I'll be disappointed if we don't get a lot of story progress or at least story explanation. I already pumped myself up with the OP, so let's jump right in passed the title card.


The previous episode had Ichise being subdued via surprise cranial trauma for the thirty millionth time. This one starts with Onishi and Doc approaching a sealed underground vault guarded by Organo soldiers that has some angry rattling noises coming from behind it. So, either the show is pulling the rug out from under us by randomly choosing this time to reveal the giant robot spider monster that Onishi's had in captivity this whole time, or they've got Ichise in there.

It's definitely a downgrade in accommodations, but Doc has proven many times over that she's not capable of keeping him under control in her lab. On the other hand, he's being guarded by someone other than Doc, so maybe it's not such a downgrade after all. Again, assuming this is Ichise and not a giant feral cyberspider.

The guards open the door for them, and yeah, it's Ichise. If there was a giant spider in here, he must have eaten it.

Those look like craters from his cyberfist all over the walls, so it must have put up a good fight at least.

The pair of Organo head honchos stare at Ichise, and he at them, for a minute in silence. Then, Doc tells Onishi and the guards to leave, and they oblige her. It's just her and Ichise.

Slowly, she steps toward him, and starts tenderly fondling his cybernetics. When he doesn't he react, she gets out her toolkit and starts repairing them. He's given that textexte arm and leg a real workout - especially the fist - so she has to replace quite a few nuts and bolts. She even layers some extra insulation over the metal this time. Not full-on imitation skin, but enough soft material to protect the joints a little longer than last time. Through it all, Ichise is still and silent. Twitching just slightly when she replaces an especially deep rivet or resets a computer node.

When she's done, she takes a step back and tells him that "he's finally become her type." In response to which he throws a punch so hard that it craters the wall deeper than any of the previous fist-marks, and makes Onishi and his men outside jump up in alarm.

Did he miss on purpose, or did she dodge that? The way it was shot makes it hard to tell.

With his tweqrfwrega fist buried in the wall beside her head, he asks her what she meant by that, and she smugly replies "nothing." As in, he's become a nothing, just like she prefers. Though him throwing that punch - deliberately misaimed or otherwise - suggests that he isn't yet as broken as she wanted to think.

She then walks over to the vault door and opens it. Onishi and the others are outside, armed. Ichise cautiously limps toward them, and they stare him down.

Doc asks Onishi if he's going to kill him now. Erm...if so, letting her go in and fix up his cybernetics first would be kind of a waste, no? Onishi stares at Ichise for a long time, and then wordlessly steps aside and lets him exit.

Their motives have me pretty baffled at this point. Didn't they just go through a lot of trouble to recapture him? Why are they letting him walk free now?

Onishi asks Doc how long she's going to have the Organo continue humouring her little pet project. In response, she just chuckles. Next thing we know, Ichise has been clothed (and probably fed, as he seems to be walking with much greater strength now) and is exiting into the morning pseudo-sunlight. Onishi and Doc just stand by the door of the building he just left, watching him retreat.

Doc says that the city of Lukuss is "a more suitable companion for him" than she herself is. Onishi grumbles that the city has no room for an upstart like Ichise, this is all a terrible idea. In response, Doc asks whose willpower Onishi thinks has been keeping Ichise alive up until now. Hers? His? Or the city itself's?

I'm sure that "a little psychic girl" would have been her fourth guess, but she never makes it that far down the list. So close, Doc, yet so far away.

Granted, Ichise himself has demonstrated pretty superhuman will to live by this point just on his own. She doesn't seem to want to credit him with this, though.

A beaver-rat comes up to the two of them and makes little squeaking noises. Doc jokingly asks if maybe this should be her new companion.

On one hand, this is the most relatable thing Doc has said so far taken at face value. Just look at the little fluffball.

On the other hand, thinking about it a little further, one of the things that she wanted her previous companion for was rape. So, um. Yeah. Time to GTFO while you still can, beaver-rat.

We follow Ichise as he wanders away through morning Lukuss for a bit, and soon he sees Ran standing before him. She's making herself clearly visible, unmasked, and holding out one of the same white flowers that she used to guide him out of the sewers. He just walks right passed her without reacting, prompting her to look over her shoulder at him sadly.

Too worn down for hope, at this point? Or he's failed to make the connection and is just assuming she's trying to sell him flowers he doesn't want? I'm thinking those are the Doylist and Watsonian explanations working in tandem, though if so I think it's kind of weak since there's not really anything in-universe to connect these two things. There could be something else going on here that I'm just missing, of course.

Cut to Yoshii and a new character (I think? He might have been one of Shinji's sidekicks among the Racan, but I'm not sure) hanging out in one of Lukuss' dilapidated train stations. They chat about this and that, and eventually the subject of the man's hands come up. Yoshii remarks that they look like "the hands of a different man," and the man replies that he WAS a different man until not that long ago. However, his old self - once known as Sakimura Tatsuya - is long gone now, so he can't really answer any of Yoshii's questions. Some psychedelic electronic music starts playing as Tatsuya asks Yoshii in turn what the surface is like nowadays. Yoshii responds that it hasn't changed since he left, nothing ever new up there, and also mentions that he "aspired to be like" Tatsuya once.

Huh.

Yoshii also asks Tatsuya how the hell he's supposed to report "the target does not exist anymore" to his superiors, and Tatsuya looks pained.

So, I guess this guy who we never got a proper introduction to is kind of important, and was one of the people Yoshii came down here to locate. Not the best storytelling, that.

There's a random blur of city imagery. We briefly cut to Onishi's office, where he's looking anxiously out the window and refusing to answer his secretary lady's questions about what's got him so antsy. Then someone - I can't tell who, it only shows the back of their head - cleaning and repairing an old handgun. Then we return to Ichise, still walking zombie-like across the city as the artificial dusk approaches. Ran follows behind him quietly, still unmasked, pulling her flower cart with her. Eventually, they run into Shinji and the other Racan boys.

Shinji, who is apparently a low-grade texnomexnobexno himself, uses his HUD to scope out Ichise's own prosthetics, and is surprised to see someone so haggard and transient-looking with such high end tampax. Ichise, who was bullied by a couple of these guys several episodes ago before he got his snazy new tapioca (though I doubt they remember him), doesn't respond. Just stands there, too dazed or despairing to react to them. Even when one of them remarks that they admired his performance against that first car full of Organo thugs, not to mention his courage in choosing to go up against their organization in the first place. I guess they were watching when that happened the other day. Ichise still doesn't respond. Just tries to walk passed them.

They might not remember him from before his implantation, but I'm pretty damned sure he remembers them.

Not to be deterred though, Shinji follows after Ichise and tells him that the Racan could definitely use a man with his bravery and bionics. There's a place for him in their gang, should he wish to join. Ichise tries to shrug him off, but Shinji is persistent. And, frankly, it's hard to say no to ANYONE offering him shelter and non-abusive company, however dubious they might seem.

Return to Yoshii and Tatsuya at the station. Yoshii is now conducting his typical interview about the state of affairs in Lukuss, and taking his typical notes. Tatsuya tells him that the Organo and Salvation Union managed to avoid all-out war due to their leaders holding an emergency face to face meeting. However, a lot of lower level members of the organization had really been gearing themselves up for war, and unsanctioned battles and near-battles between each gang's henchmen are still taking place.

To illustrate that, we jump to a nighttime(? I'm not sure if this is supposed to have happened earlier or later or what) alley, where a masked Union cultist ambushes and guns down a group of Organo men.

This seems to be a bit of an escalation over what Tatsuya described, so I'm guessing it hasn't happened (or at least, hasn't been learned about) yet. Or else it's just a really dark alley that's heavily shaded even during the "day," in which case it really could be simultaneous.

One of the Organo men is still alive and not fatally wounded. The gunman shouts the Salvation Union mantra, and then shoots him...and everything goes monochrome and distorted, as if he shot him with a reality-warping round or some shit.

Cut from there to Onishi calling a meeting for the Organo leadership, where it's revealed that what we just saw was an overly-artsy depiction of the survivor receiving a ballistic castration.

Several of the leaders are making jokes at their emasculated henchman's expense. Onishi is not. Regardless of how much sympathy they have for the survivor, it goes without saying that this calls for an immediate, overwhelming response.

However, Onishi isn't totally sure who it calls for that response against. This is such a massive escalation, and seemingly so deliberately tailored to injure the Organo's pride and force it to retaliate, that he suspects they're being played. During his recent meeting with Union leader Kimata, the latter struck him as a self-interested rational actor behind the religious bluster. He doesn't think he'd let his goons do something like this. If this was a false flag by someone else trying to get Organo to wipe out the Union for them, then it would be best to unite against that common enemy.

For now, Onishi sends a delegation to Kimata to demand an explanation for this. His response - as well as his reception of the envoys - will hopefully let Onishi figure out if his organization is actually culpable. The other Organo leaders don't look happy about this, though. Their henchmen really want to go kill someone, and Onishi's continual insistence on reigning them in doesn't bode well for his future as overboss.

...

Hmm. The gunman was wearing a brown coat that looked a lot like Yoshii's. Was that supposed to be Yoshii, acting on the intelligence Tatsuya gave him to instigate a war? It's possible.

...

Cut to the Racan hideout, where Ichise and Ran are sitting at the bar receiving refreshments. They just brought Ran in there with Ichise? Maybe they know she's the granddaughter of the Sage or whatever, idk. Ichise tries to pick up a can of something, but accidentally crushes it in his hand, oozing its contents across the bar. Shinji comes over and pours him a glass of beer, encouraging him to keep practicing all he wants, they can always scavenge more cheap drinks and flimsy cups.

As Ichise practices, the Organo delegates drive toward Union headquarters. As the voiceover of Yoshii's interview with Tatsuya continues, telling us about the recent Union attempts to assassinate Onishi and the former Chief of Gabe.

Oh. The "Sage," Ran's grandfather, is the chief, then? And that was probably him working the environmental controls last episode? That does fit. I think.

As the voiceover continues, the sniper opens fire, killing everyone in the vehicle before they can reach their destination. It's the same masked gunman that attacked the other Organo group before, and...yeah, that DOES look like Yoshii. Same hat as well as same coat.

Quick cut to the Racan hideout, where Ran and Ichise are asleep. The room appears to be empty besides them. Hmm.

Then back to Organo HQ, where they've just received word of the ambush and slaughter. The lieutenants all urge Onishi to attack now, what more proof does he need? Onishi first demands his phone, and calls the Union HQ to see if he can get Kimata on the line. He can't normally be reached this way, but Onishi is desperate. He calls the number, but just gets a mysterious voice telling him that there will be no negotiations.

Cut to outside of the Union's headquarters. The phone line has been cut, and reattached to a mobile unit set up in Yoshii's car. Yoshii is no longer masked, and he looks very, very pleased with himself.

Oshino suddenly thinks of the mysterious man who he's seen tailing him here and there around the city these last few weeks. Yoshii, meanwhile, just tells him "Too late, Mr. Onishi."

Cut back to the interview with Tatsuya. Tatsuya tells Yoshii that it's okay if he promises he's going to go back to the surface quietly after learning all this stuff. In response, Yoshii leans forward and gives him a hungry grin and says that no, he's not planning to leave at all.

Back to the present, a truck full of Racan members and petrol drums drive passed Yoshii where he's taunting Onishi on the phone. A moment later, the Salvation Union's main building starts to burn.

Onishi steps out onto his balcony and looks out toward the red glare, realizing what it means. The upbeat, psychedellic techno music comes back, as we see the Union members - including leader Kimata - fleeing their burning base, after having received a fake message from Onishi telling them that their recent aggression is about to be punished.

A few blocks away, Shinji and his fellow Racan members surreptitiously watch the blaze, cheering for their enemies to destroy each other.

And, elsewhere, Yoshii enters a building...I think it's the Racan base, but I'm not sure? Anyway, he enters somewhere, and says "yes, that's right Shinji, fight and crush each other" as he plants a time bomb.

If that's the Racan base, then Ichise and Ran are still sleeping in it. Too bad for them, if so.

End episode.


While I don't think I'm any closer to understanding the plot of the show, the titular "plot" in this episode made itself clear enough. And it's probably one of the more chilling surprise villain reveals that I can readily recall.

...I'm still not totally sure if Yoshii killed that prostitute or not, but it's definitely looking more likely in light of this.

I'm not sure if Yoshii actually is anyone's secret agent, at this point. He may have just been using that as a cover story while gathering information. It seems much more likely that he's a transhuman violence tourist behind a fake smile, nothing more, nothing less. Just like the Doc, only worse.

Did Ran foresee this? I feel like she must have. I'm guessing she has a plan to use him to take out all the gangs, or something like that, seeing the short term bloodbath as worth it for the city's future? Maybe? Perhaps I'm reading too much good intent into her just like I did him.

Well, in any case, Ichise's respite is going to be short lived if he and Ran really are in the same building that Yoshii planted that bomb in. Shinji...is going to regret trusting that son of a bitch. If Yoshii lets him live long enough to regret it.

That was certainly an episode.