Shangri-la - Episode 14

After possibly the most ill-conceived assault strategy in modern times (hire stealth fighter, then fly it in broad frickin' daylight), somehow Kuniko, Momoko and a number of Metal Age's "troops" have managed to breach Atlas' defences. So, what now for these brave forces?

Well for starters, it seems to have gotten dark mightily quickly - If only they'd waited five minutes before firing up the stealth fighter jet). However, once Kuniko's forces are inside, they're met with a surprising sight - Thick jungle and a tropical island no less. What's going on? Some full-on use of holographic technology, that's what.


Of course, it doesn't take Kuniko too long to figure out what's going on, as the desert she sees before her soon disappears, to be replaced with a Tokyo skyline from before the massive earthquake which preceeded this series - And then she falls for the holographic stuff again. This strange, goldfish-like behaviour seems to happen time and time again throughout the episode, as Metal Age's forces say "aha, this is nothing but a mere holographic projection, you can't fool me people of Atlas!..... Oooh love, a McDonalds!".

Aside from this (and some boomerang assisted ass-kicking from Kuniko, it's been too long since we've seen a lot of that), we also get regaled with a fair amount of the back story surrounding the creation of Atlas, stemming from that aforementioned earthquake. This also reveals that the mysterious man who Sergei Tarsian is actually the guy who funded the creation of Atlas, but this revelation pales into comparison against the one which faces Kuniko come the end of the episode...

As episodes of Shangri-la go, this was actually a pretty reasonable effort - Although that back story was told in the dullest and driest way possible it was at least an interesting distraction, and the plot does at least seem to be focusing and going somewhere at last despite the best efforts of Lady Ryoko to be a comic book villain and Metal Age as a whole to be bloody stupid at every turn. It's still hardly a highbrow classic or anything, but there was at least a fair amount of entertainment value to be found here, which is pretty much all we can ask of the series at this particular point in time.