Shinkalion Change the World Ep 32: Crime and Punishment

Finally, everything comes to light. After we witnessed the madness that Reiji had to endure for 7 years, we finally found out who was responsible for that. And it turns out to be someone we’ve had our eyes on all along. Commander Kaiji Hama was the one that caused Reiji’s suffering of 7 years – but not in the way you might think. In the end of the last episode, he disappeared from ERDA, and Ina and Kacchan were hot on his tails…

We started with a literal car chase between Commander Kaiji and Kacchan. With Ina’s skills, they were able to track him down and Kacchan caught up to him in a literal cabin in the woods. Of course since he drives a GTR painted in the E5 color – that’s the highest level of drip someone can have. And in that cabin, Commander Kaiji was frantically disconnecting life support equipment from someone – and it was none other than Reiji. Ina flew into a rage and tried to stop him, but it took Kacchan to brought him down. They arrested him and brought Reiji back to ERDA. The entire chase sequence feels straight out of Initial D with some Taken mixed into it. This is the first car chase in Shinkalion, and it was an intense one. Starting from last episode, the emotions have been running high and never dropped.

At ERDA HQ, Commander Kaiji reluctantly spilled everything. He was the one to brought Reiji out of the hospital and kept his body locked up. He detected that Reiji’s consciousness was in the Metaverse but kept the info to himself, trying to rescue Reiji out of the virtual world to no avail. Of course since he is an idiot and he should have brought Ina in immediately. Instead he was trying to keep ERDA around and running, he said he didn’t want to fail his colleagues, but it’s obvious he just doesn’t want to lose his job. He knew and intentionally kept Reiji in the Metaverse for 7 years, and in the end, when he couldn’t do anything, he decided to delete his consciousness instead. And now, with Reiji back for revenge, he’s trying to kill his physical body as well. His words at the end – “Just trying to get my hands dirty for the sake of peace” – is utterly selfish and ignorant. Everything he has done ever since Reiji fell into a coma was wrong and self-centered. Just like Ina said, if he had told everyone, Ina would have definitely saved him, or at least let him know that they are still trying, and that he isn’t forgotten and abandoned. Everything could have turned out significantly different, definitely 180, if the Commander hasn’t been a complete idiot. Of course, he’ll definitely be punished and the seat of Commander now belongs to Kacchan.

And then Reiji launched an assault, this time near the hospital where his family member was hospitalized before. And he sent an Unknown that resembled an MRI machine with a bed as well. This reminds me of Roujin Z where an AI-powered hospital bed went rogue and turned into a giant mechanical monster. Facing the situation, Ryota didn’t want to go, he think that what Reiji is feeling is completely justified, and that he couldn’t fight someone who was treated like that. He tried to talk to him but to no avail. Ryota even placed some doubts in Taisei’s heart – one of the Driver swho was more affected by Reiji’s incident. Taisei’s mental was shaken, and he couldn’t sortie. In the end, only Folden and Hanma dispatched.

It was a hard fight, Folden was captured and almost got his Shinkalion drilled through if it hadn’t been for Hanma’s ingenius shooting. I swear this dude is Juzou Naniwa in his teens or something. He was able to calculate a perfect ricochet shot to save the E6 and finish off the Unknown. Absolutely phenomenal fight.

Reiji did heard what Ryota said, but just punishing Erda isn’t enough to satisfy his vengeance. Furthermore, it seems he’s also after something else as well, probably as per Tender’s instruction. This might have something to do with what Professor Nabeshima found out about the Unknown.

It seems we will be pursuing the Reiji arc continuously from this point on and try to bring his consciousness back into his body. Every episode is filled with different emotions. The last one was despair and betrayal, this one is disappointment and hope, but also filled with doubt as well. With Ryota and Taisei shaken to their core, next episode will have to find a way to get them back into the Shinkalion with a new purpose. This time they need to resolve to save Reiji, and understand that fighting him is not to defeat him, but it is a necessary effort to bring him back. Although with Reiji’s mental damage, I’m not sure even if they managed to wake him up, he’ll stop his revenge against Erda. Since it isn’t something you can just…let go.

=Aaron=
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