SYNOPSIS

The immediate threat gone, the Ideon robot separates back into its' vehicle modules. Bes begins to reorganise the soliders, although raido interference has cut them off from New Lopia. He bumps into Karala, separated from Mayaya, in the woods. Mistaking her for a civilian, and obviously quite taken with her, he directs her back to New Lopia. On the Gram Zam, Gije and Damido plot the extraction of Karala from Solo, with Gije setting out to locate her. At the excavation site, an engineering team led by Joliver Ira arrives to help the survivors of the attack install control systems and weapons in the Ideon vehicles. New Lopia comes under attack from Gije's force, and the defending military are no match for their Dekka Bau fighters.

News of this reaches the detachment at the Ideon, and refugees from the battle are directed towards the second excavation site as a gathering point. Lotta, Lin, Ashura and Lou pass the Ideon on their way, and are invited onboard by Deck. The main column of survivors from New Lopia run into Karala, and mistaking her for a colonist, take her to the second excavation site with them. The Ideon Gauge lights up when the kids enter the Sol-Amber, and the units move out to meet the Buff Clan force. To Gije's amazement, the craft are undamaged by the Dekka Bau attacks, and then form Ideon. Gije soon realises he's outmatched and pulls his remaining force out - the Ideon Gauge immediately drops to the ground, rendering pursuing the Buff Clan impossible. The Ideon lands at the second excavation site, where Sheryl ponders its' connection with the large ship found at the dig there.

NOTES

Deck Afta : The ever-present tame two-tailed squirrel who follows Deck around for the entire series is named as Rapappa.

Sheryl Formosa: Sheryl mastered in linguistics, and minored in being a total bitch. Well, the second one's conjecture on my part...

Jordan Bes: Bes gives his rank as military cadet (which doesn't really ring true with him frequently giving orders to other soldiers) - a mistranslation from the subtitles? Although, that said, Tomino tends to use very low military ranks for main characters - Bright Noa was an ensign for a chunk of Gundam, for example.

Gije Zaral: Gije served directly under Supreme Commander Doba in the past (it's possible he was hand-picked to guard Karala as a result). He would seem to be a very good pilot, and also recognises the Ideon as the 'Giant God of Ide' from Buff Clan legend.

Debuts: The bulk of the regular cast who didn't appear in the first episode make their bows here, including engineer Joliver Ira, Lotta Banna, Lin Formosa (Sheryl's younger sister), Lou Piper (whose unnamed mother is killed in New Lopia in this episode when she's knocked off her scooter) and Ashura Novak - aside from Joliver, they all already know each other, being on a picnic or farming trip or somesuch when we first see them; they also seem to know Cosmo and Deck. Bento Malus, an engineer who will co-pilot the Sol-Amber (occasionally) and Sol-Vainer almost unnoticed for basically the entire series, makes his first appearance as well. Typically, he isn't named. Fard Malaka can also be glimpsed at the end.

The Ideon: It seems fair to assume that there's some sort of mechanism in the cockpits of the Ideon mecha that keeps them level during transformation, though nothing's ever explicitly shown. Cosmo decides on the name of the robot, backed by what Sheryl has been able to translate at the site. The colonists add multiple missile launchers and Glen Cannon to the robot.

Buff Clan: Aside from slightly unusual hair and eye colour, it would seem physically there's nothing to separate the Buff Clan from the Solo colonists when in civvies (a Gadakka operator even remarks on this).

Dekka Bau: A more dangerous fighter type of the Buff Clan. Faster and more business-like than the Kopola, while the entire nose-section is a highly powerful air-to-surface missile. They seem to have a fixed cannon armament as well. The preferred type of Gije Zaral.

REVIEW:

After the great opening episode, this one is a bit more of a mess. Why exactly Gije's search for Karala turns into an all-out attack on New Lopia is brushed over, as is the full extent of the damage done. This is also one of the few episodes to suffer from noticably bad animation, most prominently on the Ideon itself (especially during the battle with Gije's force).

The character interaction also doesn't have the same spark, aside from a couple of brief exchanges between Sheryl, who's a bitch but in a good way, and Bes, who's a bastard but in a good way. There's also some good (and surprisingly violent - none of this 'planes being shot down' lark, Tomino shows us pilots being seriously dismembered, and then the planes being shot down...) action between the air forces of Solo and the Buff Clan.

However, it feels like the series knows where it wants to go, and is just in a hurry to get there as soon as possible.