Tetsuwan Birdy DECODE – 02

Summary:

Unfamiliar and uncomfortable with being in the same body as Birdy, Tsutomu panics as he watches her leap through traffic and across rooftops until he finally just blacks out. He wakes back up in an alien environment and is met by Tute who asks him not to be surprised. Tsutomu is shocked when Birdy starts talking from within him, and she explains that he’s actually inside of her right now. She then takes back over control of her body and introduces herself as Space Federation Police investigator Birdy Cephon. Birdy explains that she’s pretending to be Arita Shion so that she can investigate a criminal on this planet, and when Tsutomu still doesn’t get it, she tries to tell him that she killed him. She has a hard time saying this though, and it’s ultimately her commander Megius who breaks the news to Tsutomu. Megius reassures Tsutomu that they’re going to reconstruct his body at a medical laboratory, and when Tsutomu still doesn’t understand, Megius shows him the damaged body. This makes Tsutomu finally realize that he’s inside of Birdy instead of the other way around. Tute then brings Tsutomu home, and Tsutomu tries his best to cope with the new voice in his head.

The following day, Tsutomu goes to school as usual and finds out along with Natsumi that their classmate Nakasugi Sayaka was involved in an accident. Natsumi is very concerned, and she turns angry when she overhears Tsutomu talking to himself – in truth, explaining to Birdy – about cremation. Their group of friends decides to pay a visit to the hospital, however Tsutomu never shows up because Birdy took back over control of her body and has to go do a small television role as Arita Shion. Unfortunately for Birdy, the role turns out to be a trap, and she and Tute are attacked by Geega’s accomplice Bacillus who is looking for something called the Ryunka that he thinks she took. Bacillus intends to eat Birdy and gain her memories, but she puts up quite a fight and Bacillus has a hard time holding together the human body he had acquired, so he eventually has to run away. Unbeknownst to either of them, a journalist who’s been following Arita Shion catches everything on camera, however he gets buried when one of the towers on the set topples onto him. It is at that point that he’s noticed by Tsutomu, and Tsutomu forces Birdy to help the guy instead of chasing Bacillus. Tsutomu recognizes this man as Muroto Keisuke, an alumnus of Tsutomu’s current school who’s now a journalist, and Birdy proceeds to destroy the camera while he’s still unconscious.

In the aftermath, Bacillus returns to Geega in defeat and eats Geega because he’s so hungry. As for Tsutomu, he has to explain himself to Natsumi the next day at school, and it turns out that Nakasugi Sayaka has already fully recovered.

Preview

You know, the more I watch this show, the more I like it. The plot here doesn’t get as complicated as CODE GEASS or anything, and so I see it as an easy-to-enjoy action series that’s perhaps a level above shounen action staples like Naruto and Bleach. This second episode really starts to diverge from the manga (at least up to what I’ve read) with anime original character Nakasugi Sayaka and what happens to her. It still not clear exactly what the Ryunka actually are, though from the sound of it, they’re parasites of some sort, and they’re the reason why she was able to recover so fast. If that is indeed the case, then her long term survival chances don’t look so good, especially if the other Altarian watching her is as ruthless as she looks.

I’m still planning on following this show, but for the time being (as you may have been able to tell from how late this post is), it’s somewhat low on my priority list. I had been meaning to catch up on it because I had an interest in blogging it after the first episode, but other stuff kept coming up (Xam’d, Clannad Tomoyo episode, Daily Dose-worthy news items, etc) that required my attention, so I kept putting this off. As my schedule begins to settle down again – or so I hope – maybe I can get to blogging with some regularity like I do with everything else.