Texhnolyze E13: "Vista"
These episodes were fast lane commissioned in advance of the queue by @WheelOfFortune. Sort of. They paid the fast lane price for the final three episodes of Texhnolyze, but by the time I got there in queue I still had almost half the series left before that, so I'm just going to give this month's slot to episodes 13-15 and give the final episodes the same main queue slot that the penultimate ones used to have.
With that out of the way...
I'm sort of dreading this. Not because I dislike Texhnolyze, but because the show is very dense and hard to follow even in the best conditions, and picking it up again after leaving it alone for nine months, right in the early-middle of a new subplot, is an extremely daunting prospect. It's not nearly as long a hiatus as I took with Mob Psycho, but Mob Psycho is nowhere near as difficult to keep track of in the first place. I reread my review of episode 12 to bring myself hopefully back up to speed. We'll see if it ends up being enough.
I forgot how much I liked this show's OP. Visually and musically both. The escalation from classical Flemenco to techno to metal throughout "Guardian Angel" is especially unique. Anyway, open on Toyama and Ichise looking out an upper floor window of Organo HQ. And, Ichise speaks multiple full-length sentences. I was so surprised that I was sure it had to be a voiceover from another character at first, but I rewatched it, and no, that's Ichise. He muses about how he's been living recently, how he was living before that, whether or not his mother can still watch him from inside his prosthetics like he used to believe she did through the tissue in the jar, etc. They exchange some more words that I don't understand at all (Toyama talking about how Ichise has been acting "these last few days" as if he's known him longer than that, etc). Then, Toyama congratulates him on his promotion to full Organo membership, the ceremony for which Ichise is all dressed up for.
Then, he takes Ichise's tie off, and the episode title appears as the scene slowly fades to black.
Huh. Is Ichise actually about to have consensual sex? That's a new one.
Also, male homosexuality portrayed this frankly, and in a seemingly positive light, in the early 2000's. Bold move. And laudable.
Next thing we know, Onishi, his secretary, and a handful of other underlings (including Ichise) are riding the train to Gabe. Onishi's secretary has a bunch of paperwork for him, seemingly from the Class, due to him now having reclaimed his role as leader of the Organo. When asked if the paperwork is any different than the ones he had to read and sign before, she tells him that it isn't, which prompts him to annoyedly tell her not to bother him with it right now then.
She then asks him why he sees it neccessary to take a trip to Gabe at a time like this; several concerned parties are wondering. He irritably retorts that now is the PERFECT time for a trip to Gabe, and his tone of voice makes her realize that she should really leave him alone right now.
Meanwhile, in a different car of the mostly-empty train, Ichise is sitting alone by a window when another of Onishi's henchmen - an older man who I can't remember if we've met before or not - comes and sits by him.
Ichise asks him what the hell he wants. He smarmily says that the train isn't Ichise', he can sit wherever in it that he wants. And then starts talking about what a great boss Onishi is, accepting oldies like himself and troublemakers like Ichise into his entourage.
I wish this show had more dialogue scenes that weren't just chains of nonsequitors.
Needless to say, this is all intercut with long, loud stretches of the train driving passed or toward the camera against a blistering white background with harsh engine noises. To remind you of how arTiSTic this all is, in case you'd forgotten.
Meanwhile, in Gabe, the Sage is sitting in his half-flooded ruin staring gravely out into space. He warns Ran, who I guess is either sitting here just offscreen, or is hearing him telepathically from Lukuss, that she's just going to catch a cold if she keeps sitting there doing nothing. It's not like she's going to be able to change anything by sitting there like an inanimate object anyway.
Turns out that she was just offspring. And skinnydipping in one of the fish and dragonfly infested pools. Going by her grandfather's description, that water isn't anything close to "warm," so that can't be comfortable. Nonetheless, she remains in place, staring even more grimly into space than he is. A new challenger has appeared, and it's of his own blood!
As this energetic discourse plays out, Onishi and his entourage arrive in Gabe and get off the train. Some locals - politely NOT donning their dreaded kitty masks, on this nonviolent occasion - meet them at the platform and begin escorting them to the Sage's lair. As they talk, Onishi comments on how little Gabe has changed since the last time he saw it. One of the locals tells him that yeah, it's not like the city with all its violence and drama.
To that, Onishi simply replies that being more violent and dramatic doesn't make Lukuss any less static or more dynamic than Gabe. Just more dangerous.
The Gabeites also give Onishi their condolensces about his wife. He seems surprised to hear such a personal sentiment, but thanks them for it.
The make it to the Sage, who Onishi consults about how best to recover from the recent unpleasantness. In particular, and on the topic of his late wife, the "Voice of the City" has been silent ever since Yoshii's rampage. Onishi could never hear it anywhere near as reliably as his wife, and since her death it hasn't spoken at all. Onishi feels that the will of the city has receded. Recoiled away from the malevolent outsider, and still hasn't reemerged from hiding.
Unfortunately, the Sage can't really give him any actionable advice. The voice of the city keeps its own time, he says, and as for the recent events...well, that's far from unprecedented. The city has been invaded before, many times. The invader is always destroyed eventually, and Lukuss returns to being exactly the same as it has always been.
I feel like he might be implying that the "voice of the city" might have never had anything to say really worth listening to in the first place.
Gabe, the Sage explains, has become a sort of refuge; a monastery for those who understand the eternal fruitlessness of Lukuss, and who have made up their minds to accept it and just try to live away from it as best they can. When Onishi asks if there really is no way to change things for the better, the Sage says that their might be. However, he'll have to look outside of Lukuss to find it.
I thought he might have been hinting that it's time to go exploring the damned surface already, but then the camera hangs meaningfully on Ran. She's standing next to the table the two men were sitting at, and wordlessly holding up a flower. Onishi didn't seem to notice her until now, though there's no telling how long she was standing there for.
There's a short little interlude of Ichise sitting in Ran's greenhouse where she grows her flowers and staring at them, as if considering possible futures himself, and that old guy coming up and trying to convince him to leave the Organo "for his own good." Lol yeah whatever. Then it's back to Onishi, the Sage, and now some other people, who have set Ran up on this ritualistic stage with pseudoreligious props and candles and such. Some half naked attendants formally introduce "the Seer," who conversely is fully dressed including her kitty mask. The significance of those masks seems to be either too broad or too intricate; they wear them to hide their identities, to fight, and also to give prophecies I guess.
Previously, Ran didn't seem to need any rituals to see the future, and the Sage didn't seem like he felt it improper to consult her without them, so maybe this is just a prank they're playing on Onishi idk.
Ran foretells of a terrible downfall in Onishi's probable future. He is in danger of being destroyed by the return of that which he has lost; his original organic legs. Right, I forgot Onishi was a leg-replacement tecknogecko. Anyway, she sees his legs returning. He and the city of Lukuss both being destroyed. The city collapsing. And..."he."
There's a short little interlude of Ichise sitting in Ran's greenhouse where she grows her flowers and staring at them, as if considering possible futures himself, and that old guy coming up and trying to convince him to leave the Organo "for his own good." Lol yeah whatever. Then it's back to Onishi, the Sage, and now some other people, who have set Ran up on this ritualistic stage with pseudoreligious props and candles and such. Some half naked attendants formally introduce "the Seer," who conversely is fully dressed including her kitty mask. The significance of those masks seems to be either too broad or too intricate; they wear them to hide their identities, to fight, and also to give prophecies I guess.
Previously, Ran didn't seem to need any rituals to see the future, and the Sage didn't seem like he felt it improper to consult her without them, so maybe this is just a prank they're playing on Onishi idk.
Ran foretells of a terrible downfall in Onishi's probable future. He is in danger of being destroyed by the return of that which he has lost; his original organic legs. Right, I forgot Onishi was a leg-replacement tecknogecko. Anyway, she sees his legs returning. He and the city of Lukuss both being destroyed. The city collapsing. And..."he."
The show seems to think that it is important that we see this fish, so I am showing it to you all.
Apparently, one female child per generation is born with the power of prophecy in Gabe. The Sage doesn't explain why this is the case, and Onishi doesn't ask. It's unusual for the girl to serve as the Seer until she's reached adulthood, but unfortunately the previous Seer died young, and Ran was forced into the role a bit earlier than anyone would have liked. She's having trouble handling the responsibility, as one might expect. Accepting the futures she sees, and using them to guide herself and everyone else around her, well...it's a lot of stress for anyone, let alone a kid.
Onishi says that it seems like it must take a rare sort of person to just casually live with the knowledge of fate and destiny in general, regardless of social expectations. The Sage tells him that that's not necessarily true; or rather, it is true, but that's down to cultural factors. The Gabe commune has fate (and fatalism) as their religion. Someone born into their culture has an easier time with this sort of thing than most Lukussites.
The conversation is then interrupted by Onishi's secretary, who reports that Ichise just came to her about a suspicious man he saw sneaking around the factory area. Also, in a possibly related note, the factory had a big work crew busy making guns in it.
That last bit seems to have gotten the attention of the secretary after Ichise brought it up offhandedly. His own attention was on the suspicious man. He didn't know that gun production in Gabe was *not* in fact business as usual.
Onishi very slowly turns to the Sage and asks him to explain this. The Sage says nothing. So, Onishi, his voice hardening further by the second, commands him to bring himself and Ichise there at once so he can see this for himself. Bad idea, Onishi. I'd at least call the rest of your men to your side before doing this. Ah well, let's see what he's getting himself into.
They enter the factory, and sure enough, Onishi's HUD reports that those crates are full of freshly crafted firearms just like Ichise said.
...isn't Ichise supposed to have gone to the secretary directly after seeing the suspicious man, though? If so, wouldn't she have gone directly to Onishi ASAP? What happened to all the workers in those couple of minutes?
Hmm. Granted, it also looks darker outside the windows than it did at the time. Maybe Ichise's snooping is supposed to have been while they were doing the ritual with Ran, and were thus not to be disturbed for anything short of an emergency or something. Idk.
Onishi continues trying to command answers out of the Sage, but the old man speaks not a word. From how, eg, the attempt on the Sage's life by those fanatics in the first couple episodes was portrayed, it seemed like the Sage is very dependent on, and beholden to, the Organo. Onishi isn't immediately pulling a sword on him, though, so there must be more to it then that. My best guess would be that the Class have entrusted the Organo with the Sage's life just as it entrusted them with the raffia mine, so anything happening to him - either by the Organo's own people, or from third parties they fail to protect him from - would mean big trouble for the Organo. And, after the recent near-miss with Yoshii's disruption, Onishi can't afford to ruffle the Class' feathers even more than they've already been ruffled.
I think. My guess is as good as anyone else's. If the show made this stuff more readily understandable, it wouldn't be *art.*
With Onishi's silent approval, Ichise moves in to inspect the boxes and their surroundings. While he pokes around at the products, the creepy old guy from before divebombs him off the top of some machinery and tries to stab him to death.
He's screaming and gibbering like a total lunatic, as if the sight of Ichise specifically has driven him into an animalistic panic. I forget, did this guy witness the death of Yoshii? Ichise was the one who landed the killing blow, so this might have something to do with that.
Ichise probably could have handled this on his own, but the paternalistic older guy who who's been annoying Ichise all episode decides to make up for his earlier irksomeness and saves him the trouble, shooting the guy right off of him. An inspection of the body reveals this to not be the person who I thought it was; rather, this is just some questionably sane Salvation Alliance spy who was poking around at the Gabe gun manufacturing to gather intel for his own faction. It seems to have just been coincidence that he caught Ichise's attention, and thus revealed the gun-making to the Organo.
The Sage still isn't willing to say anything about any of this, and Onishi is still unable or unwilling to beat the information out of him. There's no telling who the weapons are for; it's too many for the Gabe forces or Racan to need, and the Salvation Union couldn't afford it (and wouldn't be spying on it if it was theirs anyway). Nobody says it out loud, but the obvious client would be a faction within the Organo that's still planning a coup against Onishi. It seemed like he already dealt with all those upstarts and opportunists a few episodes ago, but he might have missed a spot. For now, it's a mystery.
A bit later, Onishi and Ichise are sitting alone together. Onishi isn't happy with Ichise's recklessness, apparently, and Ichise is apologizing and wondering aloud why Onishi even puts up with him.
It seeeemed like Onishi had given Ichise the go-ahead to investigate the factory, so that couldn't be the "recklessness" in question. Maybe I misinterpreted the head gesture he gave him? Certainly, if he wanted Ichise to stop advancing into the factory he could have told him to stop, and he didn't. Maybe the recklessness is referring to Ichise having gone exploring Gabe in the first place and thus happening to catch sight of the Alliance spy in the first place? I don't know, that doesn't seem particularly reckless either, considering he immediately went back and reported to Onishi's secretary when he saw something potentially suspicious. Yeah, I dunno what Onishi is mad about exactly.
That said, Ichise has more than proved his usefulness, so...he's definitely selling himself short with that apology.
Onishi goes on to tell him that just as the Organo has a responsibility to and for each of its members, Ichise has a responsibility to and for the Organo. That means, among other things, that if he hurts or kills someone, then the Organo has hurt or killed someone. That's why he's never to do so unless it's either in self-defense, or on the orders of Onishi or another Organo higher-up. Even if the someone is responsible for getting Ichise's father executed.
Ah, I see. He's talking about that, from an episode or two ago. I guess he only found out very recently. Okay then.
...fucking hell though, Onishi, you were there when some Organo thugs cut Ichise's hand off out of petty spite. Well, not at the exact moment, but just shortly afterward. You didn't take those guys to task, or interrogate them about their justification for maiming this man. You just very gently chided them for dragging it out too much and turned Ichise loose with barely another thought.
Onishi basically just told Ichise that the Organo - and Onishi personally - is still responsible for his maiming and the domino chain of suffering that ensued from that. If Ichise decides to take that statement to heart, it might not end well at all for Onishi.
The talk of recklessness prompts Ichise to ask Onishi how he lost his legs anyway. Was Ichise there for that prophecy scene? I didn't think he was. Well, he did see Onishi's legs being tuned up by the doctor way back when, so I guess he knows anyway. At any rate, Onishi tells him that while he did lose his organic legs due to recklessness, it wasn't the kind that Ichise is probably imagining.
Apparently, a teenaged Onishi was coaxed into selling his legs to be grafted onto a wealthy paraplegic boy his own age. Um...okay then. I guess getting the robot legs in return was part of the payment? Maybe?
Also, this is a reminder that Lukuss was less of a shitshow a couple decades ago, and had some kind of functioning economy and infrastructure beyond "street gangs forcing people to work the last struggling raffia mine or else." Not sure how to square that with the Sage's earlier comment, about Lukuss having been repeatedly reborn after near-destruction. Did he just mean within the last couple decades since the raffia mostly ran out, or over a much longer timescale, with multiple epochs and dark ages? Or was he talking about the future? No idea.
That night, the party prepares to return to Lukuss. It looks like they've confiscated all the guns and packed them into a truck as well, which seems prudent. As Onishi and Ichise start to board the vehicle though, the annoying guy who saved Ichise before sits on the steps behind them and pulls a gun on them.
He can't let them leave, especially not with the guns. He'd rather not kill them, he says, but if he told them who he's working for then he'd have to, so no questions. All he's willing to share is that he was turned by someone who offers much better retirement benefits than the Organo, even if he does like Onishi as a person. Oh dear, that's got to be the Class. Not sure why they'd need the Gabe people to kitbash guns together for them, but I guess they do. The guy also tells Ichise that he was trying to pressure him to quit the Organo so that he wouldn't have to put him in this situation; too bad he didn't listen, he really was trying to help him back there.
Heh, well played.
Then, he tries to shoot Onishi in the back of the head.
-____-
Um. Why did you bother talking and getting their attention, then? Why not just shoot? I guess he wanted to tell them it was nothing personal before shooting, but like...they're both cyborgs. What made him think he'd be able to take them both out before either can turn around and close with him?
Well, turns out his apparent stupidity was, in fact, stupidity. He tries to shoot Onishi, only for Ichise to block the bullet with his souped-up sudoku hand.
Seriously, what did he think was going to happen?
Onishi shoots the idiot in the shoulder, and tells him that he'd better start talking or the next bullet is going somewhere that will really fuck with his retirement plans. But then the kitty corps comes out in force, fully masked (but not wearing anything else besides underwear. That means they REALLY mean business. Maybe). The idiot manages to look smug despite the bullet wound in the shoulder as he falls into place behind them, shielded by their seemingly untouchable bodies.
The Sage comes out as well, with a masked Ran beside him. He tells them more or less the same thing that Idiot did. They can't tell him more. It's nothing personal. The prophecies of the Seer must be heeded. Idiot verbally reaffirms that last part; apparently he's joined the Gabe religion, or at least is pretending to have.
Well, at least the Sage doesn't seem to want to kill them. Or at least, he doesn't seem to think he can manage it.
Ichise asks Ran what the hell this is supposed to mean. He thought she was something like a friend. She was helping him. From behind her mask, Ran simply tells him that he is The Destroyer. He, Ichise, will destroy Lukuss. He will destroy everything. He will hurt countless people. He will be a butcher like the city has never seen before. She is sure of this. The events she foresaw have already begun to take place.
Ichise looks aghast, and insists that he would never do that. He doesn't just hurt people like that.
...
Hmm. He had those weird fugue moments where he randomly performed violent acts once in a while, at highly inopportune moments, before. Almost like he was possessed.
Related to this?
...
He begs her for some words of comfort. She just tells him that this future is certain. He will cause immense suffering and destruction, and he will subsequently die a horrible, lonely death. The actions being taken here at Gabe, with the guns and so forth, are being done to mitigate the coming devastation; there's no averting it, only mitigating it.
I guess the horrible future Ichise is going to cause must still be better than the alternatives, considering how much she helped keep him alive.
Or maybe she kept him alive out of pity, in spite of her better judgement, hoping she could avert that bad outcome somehow, but she's now given up.
Maybe.
As Ichise screams and sobs in despair as he allows the Kitty Corps to seize him (and Onishi? hard to see), we cut over to...someplace. Someone in goofy robes talking to his sister about some vague plot coming to ominous fruition. Said sister appears to be a full body replacement cyborg.
These are Class people, I guess. The flying bubble-goldfish are probably just offscreen. Can't say much more than that yet. End episode.
