MospeadaReviews

Mospeada Ep. 2: March of a Girl with a Broken Heart

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Summary

A girl named Mint Labule cries over her older boyfriend Ken dumping her. He pushes her away and says she has to understand because she’s an outsider. She suggests they run away together, but he says he can’t do that. Elsewhere, Ray drives through a forest and is followed by Stick, who wants directions to the nearest town. Ray asks Stick to leave him alone, but Stick offers to show him how to use the ride armor in exchange. Ray says he doesn’t need to be a robot, and the two begin racing along a mountain path. A truck comes around the corner and slams on its brakes to avoid hitting them. Stick asks the driver for directions or if he’s seen any other soldiers, but the driver tenses up and tells Stick he should go back the way he came. As the truck drives away, a boy in the back tells Stick he shouldn’t go to the town up ahead. Stick and Ray continue forward, unaware that a Grab is watching them and receiving orders from the Refless to destroy them. Mint cries as Ken drags her out of town and asks if he’s supposed to forget about his family for her. She tells him that he lied to her and begins crying. Stick and Ray then pull up, and Ray confuses Mint for a boy, prompting her to pull up her shirt and show him she has breasts. Stick asks Ken if he’s seen any soldiers in town, and Ken asks them to follow him. He tells Mint to come along and says he’ll ask everyone to reconsider about her. Ken leads them into the lake town where the residents watch them in silence. Ken announces that Stick wants to see his comrades, so he’s going to take them to Lonely Land. Ken explains to Stick that the town isn’t trustful of outsiders and leads them to the bridge for Lonely Land. A Grab surfaces from the lake, and Ken tells Stick that the wounded soldiers are hiding in Lonely Land. He leaves to get food while the others drive into Lonely Land. Ray asks Mint if she’s going to marry Ken, and she tells him he’s the man of her dreams. Ray laughs at that, so she playfully chokes him. Stick identifies himself and calls out to the soldiers, but he gets no response. He looks around the town and sees nothing but wrecked military vehicles. Just then, the bridge retracts and several Grabs surround them.

Stick, Ray and Mint drive off, and Ray tells Mint that Ken sold them out to the Inbit. Stick tells them to hide while he draws the attention of the Inbit. He transforms his MOSPEADA to Armor mode to fight the Inbit and wonders why Ken sold them out. Ray hides and tries to figure out how to transform his MOSPEADA, but it doesn’t work. Stick dodges the Grabs’ fire and jumps onto a building. They continue to fire at him, so he ducks into a building to evade their beam weapons. One of the Grabs quickly finds him, so he destroys it with a missile. Ray still can’t figure things out, so Mint runs off to asks Ken why he betrayed them. Ray chases after her and jumps off his bike, knocking them both into a basement. Ray reminds Mint that Ken tried to kill her, so she should calm down and think about things. She then tries to laugh it off and says she’ll dump Ken, but she breaks down and cries. She then runs outside and digs out a machine gun from a pile of junk, which she begins firing wildly into the air. She then picks up a bazooka and accidentally fires it, which draws the attention of a Grab. Ray and Mint try shooting at the Grab, to no effect. The Grab knocks Ray off his bike and turns its attention to a red Bartley motorcycle that jumped across the lake. After transforming to Ride mode, the Bartley rider destroys the Grab. Stick takes down one Grab but is still under attack by two, and the Bartley destroys one. Stick falls back and destroys the last Grab. He notices that the Bartley rider is a woman, but she says nothing and leaves. Stick then pulls Mint out from under the Grab, which fell on her after it was destroyed. Later, Mint slaps Ken and says she hates dishonest men. Ken says he had to do it, or the Inbit would’ve killed everyone in the town. Stick asks him if he sold out the other soldiers, and a villager says they did because the Inbit are hunting soldiers. The man tells Stick to leave and says if he hadn’t come there wouldn’t be any problems. Stick asks the man why he thinks they came to Earth, and the man says fighting won’t help. They know they aren’t fee, but they’d rather be alive. Stick grabs him by the collar and pushes him away. Stick tells the villagers that he’s not the only one fighting against the Inbit. Ray tells the villagers he doesn’t want to fight either, but he wouldn’t sell people out to protect himself. Mint then hops onto his bike as he drives off. Ray asks Stick what he’s going to do, and Stick answers that he’s going to Reflex Point. Ray tells Stick not to overdo things because he’ll get killed. He says Stick has to get back alive to Marlene, but Stick tells him she’s dead. Nearby, the female Bartley rider watches Ray and Mint. Mint tells Ray to hurry up to the next town.

Commentary

This episode introduces one of the running themes of Mospeada: people turning on each other. Because humanity has been under the yoke of the Inbit so long, they live in fear and do anything they can to avoid the wrath of the Inbit. This includes selling out soldiers and leaving them to die, rather than joining them in the fight against the Inbit. This episode introduces two more members of the cast: the precocious Mint Labule, as well as the mysterious female Bartley rider. Early on in this episode, Ray rejects Stick’s offer to assist with the ride armor, which I’m sure he regretted later in Lonely Land. By the end of the episode, Ray doesn’t understand why Stick is so determined to fight the Inbit, until he finds out that Marlene is dead.

Overall Rating
3.5/5
Mospeada Info


Director:
Katsuhisa Yamada

Writer(s):
Sukehiro Tomita
Kenji Terada
Ryo Yasumura
Satoshi Namiki

Mechanical Designer(s):
Shinji Aramaki
Hideki Kakinuma

Character Designer:
Yoshitaka Amano

Musical Composer(s):
Joe Hisaishi
Hiroshi Ogasawara

Format:
25 episodes; 1 compilation OVA

Airdates:
Japan 10.02.1983 – 03.25.1984

OVA Release:
Japan 09.21.1985

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