Rideback - Episode 7

The end of the last instalment of Rideback looked to be the end of the road for Rin, as her rash actions in trying to save her brother from GGP and their new white Rideback experiment came to a sticky end culminating in the arrest of both herself and her brother.

It doesn't take long for GGP, bad guys that they are, to break out the instruments of torture (and no, I don't mean the Allison to Lillia box set... They aren't that evil), using them on Kenji so that he will "confess" to the murder of his own partner in crime during the violent spree which led to his arrest previously. Things aren't quite so tough for Rin, as GGP have clearly taken an interest in her Rideback skills, and are looking to transfer her to their own facilities as a result.


Of course, it's during this transfer that the terrorist BMA group break her out, taking hold of her themselves for much the same reasons as GGP no doubt. So, like it not Rin is now well and truly entrenched in the politics of the country - I questioned early on how they'd manage to pull this off, and now we know how. At the moment it's questionable how much use Rin will be to either group however, as throughout this episode she's very much pulling a "Shinji Ikari", not wanting to get involved with the whole scenario and basically shrinking away inside herself rather than showing any desire, even for her own freedom. It also seems that Tenshirou Okakura is going to be dragged into BMA's plans to boot, although he seemed to be taking matters into his own hands for reasons unknown anyway. It's nice to see that he at least knows a good and proper way to delete his secret data though, making use of the Gutmann method to wipe the lot.

After truly enjoying Rideback's free-flowing episodes that remained largely free of politics, the jury is still out as to how well this series will evolve to dumping Rin in the middle of this particular scenario. This episode can't really be used as a judge of this as it was largely Rin free, a situation which actually went to show how much of an important focal point she's been thus far, as the structure of the episode sagged around the edges somewhat without her to hold it all together. It did also beggar belief somewhat that GGP transferred Rin without making use of the highest security measures possible, but I suppose that bit of artistic license was needed to progress the series.

So, this instalment was more about bolting the storylines together above all else, which didn't particularly make for the most watchable episode - Let's get back to some decent Rin on Rideback action next time around, perhaps?