SYNOPSIS

Gije, Abadede and Damido discuss their next move while they wait for reinforcements to arrive with Harulu. Gije wants to continue with pursuing the Solo Ship. Abadede lends him his own Dogg Mack heavy mecha for this purpose, with Damido's Gil Bau squadron backing him up. Meanwhile, the Solo Ship has landed on the unknown planet for repairs, finding it populated with dinosaurs. Bored, Deck and Ashura sneak away from the ship to explore the planet. Lotta soon notices they're missing, and Bes scrambles the Ideon units to look for them, despite Sheryl's pragmatic objections. Cosmo soon finds the kids, but has to protect them from a dinosaur stampede. Before he can get them onboard the Sol-Amber, Gije appears in the Dogg Mack.

Gije captures Deck and Ashura, and challenges Cosmo to a duel. With no options, Cosmo accepts. However, Gije doesn't take fighting a child seriously, and easily disarms him. He lets Cosmo live, and instead challenges Bes when he arrives in the Ideo-Nova. Bes is a better fighter, knocking away Gije's sword, but Damido has already mobilised his squadron to attack the undefended Solo Ship. Gije refuses to accept defeat to Bes due to this distraction, and his subordinate in the Dogg Mack threatens to kill Ashura and Deck if Bes doesn't release Gije. The exchange is made, and back onboard the Dogg Mack Gije insists on waiting for the others to return to the Ideon units. The units combine to form Ideon, and eventually take out the Dogg Mack. Gije escapes, and Bes refuses to use the Ideon to kill him when he's unarmed, much to Kasha's chagrin. The Ideon returns to the Solo Ship, soon driving off Damido's jets. Deck and Ashura receive a telling off, while Kasha berates Bes and Cosmo for not killing Gije when they had the chance.

NOTES

Gije Zaral: Gije reiterates that he considers himself a samurai. He seems honest enough in the duel, and genuinely unaware of Damido's plan to attack the Solo Ship. He even allows the colonists to get into the Ideon vehicles rather than striking them down unfairly.

Fard Malaka: Fard is invited along by Deck, but stays onboard the Solo Ship. Deck clearly doesn't think too much of him.

Dogg Mack: The second Buff Clan Heavy Mobile Mecha, the Dogg Mack again has a crew of two, and has a pincer fitted to one 'arm'. This example, the personal mecha of Abadede, is the only one seen in the series.

Cosmo Yuki: Cosmo clearly doesn't think much of Sheryl's rather detached view of things, though Deck is a good friend of his. He seems unfamiliar with the word 'samurai'.

Lotta Banda: According to Lotta, she's responsible for cooking, cleaning, laundry, looking after the animals and planting crops. She probably does as well - Lin doesn't seem to do much other than look after Lou, the lazy cow.

The Solo Ship: The ship seems to have an inventory of spare parts for the Ideon.

REVIEW:

Something of a mixed bag - the first half with Deck and Ashura exploring the planet is rather predictable and more than a little puerile - we're just waiting for them to run into dinosaur-related trouble, and you have to ask whether Sheryl doesn't have a point about the wisdom of sending off all three Ideon units to find them.

However, once Gije arrives it gets much better, and his interaction with Bes and Cosmo is great stuff. That said, his internal conflict with Damido badly needs to go somewhere - indeed, the overall story grinds to a halt, and Abadede isn't the only one hanging around for Harulu to turn up and kick things up a gear.

There's also more mediocre animation for the Ideon itself - odd, considering the rest of the episode is once again well-rendered.