Shinkalion Change the World Ep 31: Dark Reckoning

November 30, 2024Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
After a traumatic arc for Morito, Shinkalion CTW hit us with another dark episode where we are shown the suffering of Reiji – the masked man who is threatening ERDA – detailing what happened to him 7 years ago, and why he’s carrying out an assault on ERDA. This might be the most disturbing events that has ever happened in the entire franchise.

At the start, we get a heart-warming meeting between Morito and all the pilots, especially Tsukumo and Yamato – who hasn’t gotten much screen-time lately. And we also get a training sequence where the N700S and 500 Kodama showed off their finisher to “remind” viewers of what they can do. It’s definitely a sequence to keep them relevant while not really contributing much to the plot. At the end of the training sequence, Tsukumo and Yamato logged off – but Taisei, Ryota, Akane and Morito couldn’t. They are caught in the same phenomenon as Reiji where their consciousness are trapped in the Metaverse. And this is where the dark chronicle begin.

The gang were in there for a short time before they saw Reiji’s residual shadow – or rather his memory when he was trapped here. And we see all the stages of grief slowly running through Reiji like a train (pun unintended). And Taisei, Ryota, Akane and Morito all got to see first hand what he saw and how he was feeling during the hellish years that Reiji was stuck in the Metaverse, and why he turned into how he is today.

At first, Reiji was strong and hopeful, confident that Kacchan and Ina will find him and get him out. Because Ina – if anything – is an impressive genius, even the adults have to acknowledge her creativity and passion. And his trusted teacher – Kacchan – is probably one of the few adults that support him unconditionally. And from his time at ERDA with everyone, he believed that ERDA will do everything they can to save a life, just like how he saved Ryota’s.

However, all that surround him is silent. Nothing, noone. He was extremely patient to wait for help, but none ever came. He must have lost track of time from being locked up in a virtual world. However, his avatar began to age…much faster than time passing in the real world because his hair even turned white at a later point. Now here’s a time dilation issue pop up. He realizes that time in the real world is passing by, just like in the Metaverse. And that everyone is living their normal lives while he’s stuck here. He’s missing school, he’s missing time with everyone he loves. And he didn’t see a hint of hope or any signs that anyone is coming for him. The isolation is literally killing him mentally and metaphysically. He broke down in tears and slowly feeling himself fade away, expensing every bit of mental fortitude and sanity he had left.

And Taisei and team is watching every moment of it – of course fast forward because there’s no way they are watching the entire 7 years. And yeah, stuck in a place like that for days or weeks is enough to make a person go mad – but Reiji was stuck there for 7 years. The Drivers couldn’t help but feel frustrated and pity him, seeing Reiji literally losing his mind right in front of them. Among all, Ryota and Morito is probably the most affected. Because Ryota really idolizes Reiji, and seeing someone he admired breaking down in front of him must be tough. And for Morito, he hates Reiji for what he did with Ido, but now seeing Reiji going through something so terrible, he must be quite conflicted.

And then came the breaking point. Reiji’s metabody began breaking down. His body slowly got corrupted and the “space” he was in starts breaking down due to a “delete” order. Reiji thought it was ERDA that was doing the deleting. And from the thoughts of them abandoning him to the thoughts of them discarding him altogether finally snaps the final strand of his sanity. He was in denial, believing ERDA and Ina would come for him, then he was in acceptance – that noone will be coming, and finally – anger. He wanted revenge, against the people who made promises to him, but ended up leaving him for death.

And then we get some really insane revelations – that Tender was the person that came to Reiji’s rescue, and that it was also him that showed Taisei and the team Reiji’s memory. I’m not sure if professor Chikugo’s consciousness was inside Tender or if he’s just acting as an autonomous AI, but his words “I’m glad I arrive in time” sounds really sinister. Shinichiro Miki is a genius at making good guy voice sounds evil as hell. It even made me think Tender was the one who trapped him inside the Metaverse – or at least prevented every rescue effort from reaching Reiji. Basically create a perfect scenario for him to swoop in and take Reiji away.

Then on the side of ERDA, we got another revelation as well. After telling Kacchan and Ina everything, they recounted Commander Kaiji’s words of seeing Reiji getting out of his room even though it was near impossible for him to move on his own. Something seems fishy with his words, as it seems like he was trying to hide something. Furthermore, his relentless aggression towards anything that threatens ERDA even though it was his former comrade was very unreasonable. It feels like there’s more hidden behind what actually happened.

And that is episode 31. An insane chronicle depicting Reiji slowly falling into despair in 7 long years and then turned to revenge against his former comrades. This is by far the most traumatic and disturbing character arc in Shinkalion as a whole. In Z, Abuto Usui was the child of two worlds at war, but his story didnt get anywhere as dark as Reiji’s. A teenager trapped in a virtual world, slowly got his hope chipped away and at the end of the tunnel was utter betrayal and despair? And all of it could just be a plot someone cooked up to deceive him? Now that’s some dark mature stuff. Shinkalion is really going for an older demographic this time, because I couldn’t imagine a kid under 10 watching this episode and not getting traumatized by it. Heck, VR might go down in sales if everyone saw this episode. The episode ended on a cliff-hanger, and I’m looking forward to if they will keep pursuing this arc continuously or return back to the MotW format for a while.

=Aaron=
Check our more reviews here: