SUPER DIMENSION CENTURY ORGUSS
EPISODE 18: SISTERS
ICONIC SCENE: D’awww…
BROADCAST DATE: November 20, 1983
1. So now Manisha is dedicated to finding Shaia, bringing her to justice, and capturing Kei. She has a cute flashback to her and Shaia as little girls running through a field of flowers (and, since they’re both almost thirty, I assume this is our first glimpse of pre-catastrophe Emann). At this point, it seems like Manisha’s character could go either way: she could harden her heart against her sister and become an unredeemable villain, or she could have second thoughts and become a good guy. One thing I like here is that while the overall story is about huge, earth-shaking events, how those events play out is solely contingent on small, personal decisions made by the characters.
2. Speaking of which, Kei is struggling with his new role as both the Singularity Point who must save the world (although he doesn’t know how) and as the guy most likely to get Mimsy pregnant and save her from single life. Thinking isn’t really Kei’s strong suit, so he eagerly jumps at the chance to play with Mome instead. Mimsy sees them and feels jealous of Mome, although she at least has enough self-reflection to know that she’s being silly.
3. Mimsy’s kinsman from last episode, Fudol, talks to Shaia about what her plan is, and the next stage of the plot is laid out for us. Unsurprisingly, it involves another quest: she wants to locate Olson, and then go to the space elevator (which we haven’t seen in the series since Episode 1, although it’s featured in the opening credits, so presumably the audience doesn’t need to be reminded of it). This will allow them to get to space, getting past the Conflict Border, and get to the Big Singularity Point.
And we find out that the space elevator is in South America, which of course is where they started (naturally, since Kei was at the space elevator when he got sent into the future). So yes, after spending all this time getting out to Emann, the rest of the series will be about them returning (although not along exactly the same route).
4. Back with Olson, he’s still hiding out away from everyone, although he has a meeting with Athena here and it’s pretty obvious she’s been helping him out for a while now, bringing him supplies and equipment when he needs it. She’s also definitely not acting like the fierce warrior woman we first met in Episode 12; here, she’s rather motherly towards Olson, including wiping some machine oil off of his face with a frilly pink handkerchief (!!) and generally seeming cute and sweet. If it suddenly seems like there may be a love story in here somewhere, that’s pretty intentional.
5. We follow Athena back to camp, where the Terram soldiers are making merry, and suddenly she’s all business again. That said, the first thing she does is go to the bar and order (in English) “bourbon on the rocks.” The bartender must not have heard her, though, because he pours it and then puts what is very clearly a bottle of Jack Daniels next to her.
(And yes, yes, I know bourbon is just whiskey made in Kentucky, but STILL…)
6. Anyway, some soldiers make fun of her (behind her back, but within her earshot) about how she used to dote on Olson, but now hates him. In a nice bit of play-acting, she slams down her drink, yells at them never to mention that traitor’s name again, and storms out of the camp. It’s an effective scene that shows how closely she’s playing her cards here… she has to deceive EVERYONE in the Terram army, from her subordinates to her superiors, and has no allies or confidantes among them. Like Olson, she isn’t really part of Terram anymore.
7. Some Terram scouts (in a gerwalk which, maddeningly, I’m unable to identify. It kinda looks like a Nikick, but it’s not shown in the This Is Animation Special book) find the Glomar, and tell Athena, who tells Olson. Pretty soon, both Robert (remember him…?) and Manisha know, too, and everyone moves towards Warsaw in an attempt to cut them off.
8. Manisha gets there first, and has an exceedingly tense tea-time with Shaia. She reminds Shaia of when they were children and Shaia wanted to help an injured dog, and was bitten. Shaia says that even knowing that she would be attacked, she’d still help the dog. They says their farewells, and it sure looks like they will never be allies again.
9. Then the Terram arrive, and there’s a battle that seems like it should be really important (since it involves the Glomar, the Terram, Olson, and two opposing Emann factions) but is over fairly quickly and seems to be there primarily to allow the Glomar to escape amid the chaos. Although, at the end, we see that Olson and Athena have evaded the net as well, and are hot on the factory’s trail.
10. So now we’re past the halfway point of the series, and, as I said, the plot is now about getting the Glomar back to the space elevator. But it’s obvious there are still plenty of twists to come, since loyalties could shift at any moment. The intrigue is well done here, not just with Athena betraying every one of her comrades in order to help Olson, but also in Manisha’s obvious anguish about opposing Shaia. After last episode, it feels like the series is back of firmer ground.
OBLIGATORY ASS-SHOT: Another two-for-one!
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