ReviewsXabungle

Xabungle Ep. 48: Lord Arthur Forever

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Summary

Horla’s Emperor landship comes upon a landship and Horla lets Geraba shout out the orders to shoot. We quickly realize it is Timp’s Gibros landship and they communicate with Horla to cut it out. Timp and Horla both claim to be aces and argue about their inability to take Elchi. The two landships purposely crash into each other. Suddenly a group of Dorans, piloted by Greta approach. Greta ceases her attack upon realizing who they are and claims she is heading after the Iron Gear. Both Horla and Timp want her to use their landship as a base of operations but she refuses. Meanwhile at an Innocent dome, Kashim, who had been listening angrily tells his men to shut off the communication. He asks Biram the state of the battle. Biram tries to blame the inability of Timp and Horla to get along on them being civilians, but Kashim angrily points out that wasn’t an issue for Salt. Kashim plans on them heading to X point. On the Iron Gear, Kotsett tries to detect Timp and Horla but doesn’t hear anyone nearby. Rag wants Jiron to leave Elchi to Medick and Maria and complains about him being concerned about another woman in front of her. Suddenly part of the Iron Gear explodes. The three of them rush down and find Maria injured, with a hole in the wall due to an exploded grenade. Elchi punches out both Fatman and Medick as Jiron and the others enter the room. She throws Fatman and Jiron when they try to stop her. Jiron tries to kiss her, wondering if that will help and she just scratches him in the face. Plopopieff and Lovely Rose also put on a puppet show for her hoping that will help. Elchi’s face calms down. Through this they are finally able to hold Elchi down, and she complains about her head hurting. Medick takes some x-rays of Elchi. Arthur knocks on a makeshift window made between the medical room and his sealed chamber. Maria heads in to tend to him and Medick tells Jiron that Arthur has less than a week left to live. Horla and Geraba spot Kashim’s plane departing as they approach the Innocent dome. Geraba says they’ll get a new Walker Machine if they head to point X. Timp is frustrated about Salt being behind them and wonders if Kashim has any ulterior motives. Kashim tells Biram he doesn’t have to worry about Elchi cooperating with the enemy. In fact he thinks things will go well if she’s in close quarters with Arthur. Jiron and the others on the Iron Gear spot the Innocent and Breakers going to point X. Blume excitingly proclaims this will be the final battle. The Iron Gear starts firing. Greta watches from a cliff nearby thinking everything has gone according to her plan. Kotsett wonders if this is an ambush. The Xabungle and Gallier head out to the battlefield and fight against Greta’s Dorans. Medick has Maria assist him and neither notice Elchi waking up and having a devious look as she sees Arthur nearby.

Elchi breaks out of her bonds and neither Medick nor Maria are able to hold her. She breaks the window into Arthur’s chamber and heads in to attack him with a wrench. On the battlefield, Jiron is told about Elchi running wild. Horla tells Greta to get out of the way and that she’s ruining their plans. They will fire upon her if she doesn’t get out of the way. Jiron, Fatman and Kotsett all head to the medical room to try and hold Elchi down. Elchi grabs Arthur, trying to strangle him. Jiron holds Elchi and Medick is able to use a sedative on her that knocks her out. Maria says Elchi’s time as her former self is fading away. Arthur requests to see Elchi’s brainwaves. At point X, Kashim throws out orders. He tells Dr. Manet that Elchi is by Arthur’s side. Rag communicates with Kaldas and the other Salt forces on their battle tactics. Rag and Blume get on the Xabungle and head out. Rag is angry at everyone, Jiron in particular, focusing on Elchi as he’s their leader. Inside the Iron Gear, Arthur looks at Elchi’s brain waves and says they aren’t normal. He claims a copy of another personality is interfering with hers. Elchi wakes up and starts breaking out of the ropes holding her, forcing them to tie her up with chains. Arthur says they have to draw out Elchi’s mental energy and send it into his brain. He claims this is more than brainwashing, but someone else’s personality laid on her. He admits he will attain a second personality but this is the only way to save Elchi. Outside, the battle between the various landships and Walker Machines continues. Medick prepares releasing Elchi’s mental energy into Arthur. Arthur tells Jiron he may have to kill him once this happens. Outside, Greta wonders where the Gallier could be. Biram is pleased with the fighting, but Kashim thinks it is just a waste of their forces. He is told by a subordinate that they are ready to fire off a missile. In the Iron Gear, Medick continues the transfer of Elchi’s mental energy. Jiron gets worried and wants to stop, but Arthur says not to. The device transferring the mental energy explodes. Fatman cries over Elchi but she seems calmed down. Arthur on the other hand starts going crazy and tries to strangle Jiron. Arthur chases Jiron down the halls but an explosion hits him, knocking him to the floor. Arthur says he knows whose personality was imposed on Elchi’s, Kashim! He says farewell to Jiron and jumps out of a hole in the Iron Gear to his death. Jiron heads out on the Gallier, angry at Kashim. He blasts a Doran and jumps on top of another one. The remaining Dorans flee. Suddenly a missile is fired. Jiron shouts out to Kaldas to watch out, but the missile explodes, killing Kaldas and a lot of the Salt forces. Another “ascension of light” takes off from the Innocent dome.

Commentary

With this episode, the long running story of Elchi’s brainwashing finally comes to an end with Arthur sacrificing himself to return her to normal. In very odd fashion, it seems like whoever wrote this episode didn’t watch the previous one, as the fact that Elchi has Kashim’s personality implanted on top of hers is portrayed as if it’s a first time revelation, when we were already told about it. We also find that as part of Kashim’s plans, Elchi being near Arthur with that personality can result in her killing Arthur. While this doesn’t go according to plan, Arthur does die by his own hands, so Kashim has somewhat gotten his way. This episode continues with in fighting between Timp and Horla, showing that the Innocent haven’t been the smartest about relying on them. Greta also returns after being absent for a few episodes to take part in the battle. The Innocent fire off what may be (but isn’t definitively said) a nuclear missile at the episode’s end, wiping out much of the Salt forces and making one wonder why they don’t start relying on that for their main strategy instead of the unreliable Horla and Timp. Perhaps they will. It was odd that they fired it only at minor characters though and not the Iron Gear.

Overall Rating
3.5/5

Xabungle Info

Director:
Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer(s):
Tsunehisa Ito
Fuyunori Gobu
Soji Yoshikawa
Yoshihisa Araki

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Yutaka Izubuchi
Tomonori Kogawa
Yoshiaki Akutagawa
Yoshiyuki Tomino

Character Designer:
Tomonori Kogawa

Musical Composer:
Koji Makaino

Format:
50 episodes; 1 compilation movie

Airdates:
Japan 02.06.1982 – 01.29.1983

Theatrical Release:
Japan 07.09.1983

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