Shangri-la - Episode 20

Even though Tokyo has been smashed to smithereens by Kuniko's plot to destroy the Daedulus plants that were threatening the populace there, things don't really get any easier for anybody as Shangri-la hits its twentieth episode. Indeed, they certainly don't get any easier for me, because I still have to watch this nonsense every week.

With nothing in the way to hide the secrets of Atlas and Tokyo any longer, we find out about a pattern that spans the city with Atlas at its centre - I'm not really too sure how to explain this plot point apart from it being "some crazy hippy stuff". This revelation somehow ties into the three knives carried by the three "Digma" citizens... Something which Kuniko discovers just before managing to lose Kunihito's knife (having sold her own earlier) in one of those atrociously, toe-curlingly embarassing action sequences.


Then there's Medusa, which is still on the rampage and making a pig's ear of the world's carbon economy, while also somehow managing to create typhoons to protect itself from attack by the UN. The same can't be said for Karin, who becomes the UN's new target at the behest of Ryoko, who continues to play the cliched "evil ruler" stereotype with boring precision. However, Lady Mikuni now holds all three Digma knives, which is probably important somehow, but to be honest I've lost the will to explain these convoluted ramblings which pass for a plot in this series.

Yet again, an episode of Shangri-la manages to tackle death, disaster and love and turn them all into heartless and unimaginative trifles that dare not get int the way of a plot that is, much like Medusa, spiralling out of control into the depths of moronic insanity. It's not even really a case of coherence any more, the entire thing is simply a mess, and no amount of rationalisation will help with that - Shangri-la has somehow managed to become some kind of ironic natural disaster, of the kind you'd be best advised to shelter from as quickly as possible.