Andy saves Hyoubu, and Fujiko saves the two of them. Andy is sent to BABEL, where a USEI tracking chip is removed from his skull. Hyoubu is brought to the Tsubomi Manor. The children gain Hyoubu’s location from a BABEl administrator, and Kaoru agrees to let Andy come along, and he confirms that Saotome Eiji hired him. Kaoru donates blood to Hyoubu, who escapes to find Eiji. Tsubomi and Kaoru let him go, and Andy joins him.
Hyoubu and Kaoru are both immensely powerful espers, who could accomplish a lot if they joined forces, just like if BABEL and PANDRA did the same. But that doesn’t ever seem likely, for one very important reason: while Kaoru is always looking towards a future, one in which espers and normals can coexist and thrive, Hyoubu is stuck in the past, devoted to making normals pay for their sins. And ne’r the twain shall meet, and all that. Kaoru faces endless possibilities; but Hyoubu claims to be trapped.
You can’t fault Kaoru for her wide-eyed dreamer optimism, but nor can we dismiss Hyoubu’s thirst for justice, let alone revenge. After all, the man he trusted most in the world shot him dead, and he only came back because he has unfinished business. As far as he’s concerned, he only lives to exact justice on Saotome Eiji and everyone else who wronged him. And yet, we can help but think part of him wants to correct the mistakes he himself has made, which got Yuugiri captured and put his PANDRA family in jeopardy.
Rating: 7 (Very Good)
P.S. We enjoyed scenes with estranged siblings Fujiko and Hyoubu, even if the latter wasn’t interested in any kind of re-connection; we also dug the tense post-betrayal interactions between Hyoubu and Andy; as the episode is quite eager to point out, Hyoubu doesn’t take well to betrayal.
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Kaoru is a young version of what Hyoubu used to be, she looks towards the future but she is still too young, naive, and optimistic. She wants humans and espers to work together, but there’s more to it than simply hoping for it to be true. You have to deal with evil politics, terrorists, and warmongers, not to mention the overall discrimination that seems to plague the world over. The war between espers and humans is imminent and nothing Kaoru OR Hyoubu does will change that. The status quo needs to be changed, and a revolution needs to happen. This is going to take more than pretty speeches, you need a plan and a way of implementing it. That’s why I side more with Kyousuke. He’s older, wiser, and moves globally rather than staying in one country. He knows how to prioritize.
Kaoru shows her naivety by asking Kyousuke if revenge is all that’s important to him. Did she totally forget about the fact that Hyoubu has a large group of espers that are all depending on him? He has a responsibility towards them and he has a responsibility to rescue Yugiri. He has to leave to join back up with them. Yes, revenge is part of it, but there is more to it than that. Kaoru has a lot more growing up to do, if she still only speaks one-dimension-ally.
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