SYNOPSIS

Disliking that they have little control over the ship, the colonists take the Solo Ship out of Null Space flight. It lands back on Solo, at a deserted oil refinery. Abadede's Gil Baus make an attack on the ship, hoping to give Gije the chance to rescue Karala. The Ideon is still not fully repaired, and the robot is knocked down by the attack, only for the Buff Clan to withdraw - much to the colonists' surprise. It serves its' purpose, though, and Gije is able to sneak up to the ship and contact Karala. However, Sheryl sees them making a break for it and intervenes. Gije knocks her down, but Joliver arrives and chases him off, with Sheryl recapturing Karala (who was reluctant to leave anyway).

Gije escapes, while the colonists try to decide what exactly they're going to do with Karala. However, they don't get far before Gije returns and stages another attempt to snatch her, firing off a grenade as a distraction. He takes her onboard the Solo Ship, along with Mayaya, planning to steal Ideon as well. However, the robot won't respond to him, and Bes arrives to stop him. The three Buff Clan are interrogated by Bes and Sheryl. Karala tells them off a Buff Clan legend - a long time ago, the Queen of the Buff Clan was imprisoned by a monster. The monster was defeated by a hero, with the aid of the fruit of Ide. Since then they have been trying to find the Ide. Cosmo mocks the story, angry that so many have died over a fairy tale. However, then Damido initiates another attack on the Solo Ship, and as everyone rushes to battle stations, Gije is able to knock out their guard. However, he becomes separated from the others. Karala decides it's time to make a truce with the colonists. She's nearly crushed by a falling tower, but Bes uses the Ideon to save her. On Karala's orders, Mayaya transmits the signal for a cease fire to Damido.

NOTES

Kasha Imhof: Kasha is really starting to show the spiky, aggressive streak that marks her out as something other than a generic anime soppy female.

Gije Zaral: Gije's not the type to let chivalry get in his way - he really thumps Sheryl. Twice. And clobbers Cosmo when he's not looking. This from a self-proclaimed samurai. To be fair, when he's on the Solo Ship he makes a point of ignoring a bunch of civilians after he's gunned down a soldier.

Joliver Ira: Joliver's fairly tough as well as a grumpy engineer, having no qualms about trying to chase Gije down. He can't shoot straight, though.

Damido Pechi: Damido reveals himself to be the king of morale. His orders to his pilots include the dynamite motivation of "Be ready to eject!". Sensible, sure, but hardly inspiring.

The Ideon: The balancing mechanisms for the robot are located in the Ideo-Buster module - from this, Kasha controls Ideon's legs; the Ideo-Delta controls the upper body, while the Ideo-Nova is an engine room. That said, Bes seems to control the robot when saving Karala - presumably all three cockpits have some sort of override ability.

Buff Clan: The Buff Clan's Earth is also known to them as simply 'Buff'. According to Gije, its' location is Dabro Groa Rata, whatever that means.

The Solo Ship: The ship fully integrates the Ideon, with small capsules on rails running the pilots back and fore from the cockpits. There's also an explanation of the DS drive, or Null Space flight (with diagrams!) - the gist being it really speed things up, but isn't 100% reliable. The Sixth Civilisation is so named by the Earth colonists due to them having had some form of contact with five races previously (all indirect - i.e discovering artifacts and the like) - the Buff Clan are, therefore, the seventh alien race they've found evidence of, and the first they've had direct interaction with.

REVIEW:

The Solo Ship's immediate return to the planet and another round of trucks loading stuff is something of an anticlimax, and the repetitive nature of Gije's schemes is start to really irritate (he utterly fails to rescue Karala on three occasions this episode), as is Karala and Mayaya wandering around the Solo Ship after yet another half-hearted escape.

Don't get me wrong, there are some good bits - even though the Buff Clan legend is melodramatic in both content and rendering, it at least gives them a motivation beyond 'power-crazed bastard aliens', while there's palpable anger in the behaviour of Cosmo, Kasha and Bes - these people are hurting.

However, add in a lack of decent action, and I can't help but feel that this and the previous episode could have been compacted together, reshuffling the scenes slightly and deleting some of the repetitive stuff.