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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 27 September 2007 17:00 |
 After dealing with the memories of her predecessors, Helga decides that her first priority is to honour a promise Tina made during her last moments on Greecia: to find & meet Soran on Earth. Meanwhile, GED Group’s preparations for the first use of their transference device continue, and at least one of the Children of Befort decides that it’s time to start working with Dumas, instead of against him...
19 - The Vow
Heavily wounded, Seth wanders back through the rubble created by Tina's attack. Her Orsel emmissions have stopped - thanks to Soran's intervention - but to prevent a recurrence the scientists need to act quickly. The plan is to remove the device that had been implanted in her, but when they go looking for it they find that it's disappeared. Meanwhile, Gueroca's forces are taking advantage of the chaos to launch their own attack, attempting to seize control of Greecia from Tina's father. With time running short, and facing the possibility that Tina's weapon side could reactivate, the scientists reach a decision: to send Tina's soul to Earth...
20 - Revolving Lives
Dumas has some bad news for Hesma and the other Children: if they transfer their souls back to Greecia, they'll have at most two months to live - their bodies have been ageing back on Greecia while they've been gone, and even with the differences in passing time between the two worlds (23 Earth years to one Greecian year), time is a harsh master. Dumas claims to have a solution to the problem, but his price is high. Helga, meanwhile (or it that Tina?) has questions for the other Children, beginning with: what happened to Soran? Despite hearing that he was killed, she's determined to remain on Earth until she finds him again. Thoma, meanwhile, doesn't take Helga's new identity well...
21 - Dumas
While Thoma, Tarland and Hasmodye chase after Dumas and Helga, Cooks catches up with Aghi and Soreta. Faced with the people he's been searching for for so many years, he doesn't exactly react like a professional, especially after Aghi mentions his grandfather, and he allows them to escape. Dumas, meanwhile, is having problems getting Helga to see things his way - despite his best efforts, all she wants is for him to release her, and that's quite a blow to his pride. He's not about to see his own plans come to nothing, however...
22 - Incoming
Hasmodye, Tarland, Chitto and Thoma enter Dumas' spacecraft and begin searching for Helga. Meanwhile, the GED Group begins preparations for the first major use of their transference device - but Professor Gherta has had second thoughts about the work she's been doing for Dumas, and while she doesn't quite have the nerve to destroy the Fragment herself (a piece of the transference device originally used to transfer Tina's soul to Earth), Aghi and Soreta do it for her. Cooks arrives on Kuril Island just in time to see the build-up to the activation, and the arrival of a number of high-ranking VIPs - but with the Fragment destroyed, will the activation take place?
As with the last volume of Fantastic Children, there’s a lot going on here, both in finding out about the past and also a few little twists and turns along the way, as Dumas and Gherta are revealed to have closer connections to Helga and the other Children than had even been hinted at before now. Episode 19 is the final episode based on Greecia, for now at least, and covers the decision to send Tina’s soul to Earth along with the heartbreak she had to go through immediately before the transference took place. One thing I hadn’t expected when I started watching Fantastic Children was for it to take on a love-story aspect, but that’s what we get with the connection between Tina and Soran, and their final words on Greecia play a large part in decisions Helga takes later on Earth. For Thoma, learning that Helga’s developed an interest in someone she’s never met is hard to handle – he’s clearly developed feelings for her himself, and jealousy is kicking in – but given the visual similarities between Soran and Thoma, I can’t help but think things will turn out alright for them both. The final volume will tell.
There’s also an interesting exploration of identity. After seeing her past lives, Helga develops the Greecian white hair that Tina and the Children all have, and as far as the Children are concerned, from that point she is Tina – but Helga has a different view that sets the cat amongst the pigeons a little. “This soul no longer belongs to Tina alone” – it has shared experiences with the people who have “hosted” it, for want of a better word – including Helga. For the other Children, who have each passed through a number of hosts over the years, this creates a bit of a dilemma, and it’s fascinating watching some of them trying to deal with the implications of that. That also plays into revelations about Dumas and Gherta that will affect how the Children deal with them – for Dumas, in particular, there’s a slight softening of the character once you get a better glimpse at his motivations and see the pressure he’s under from his father. It’s not enough to turn him into one of the good guys, but it certainly leaves his less of a demon and paints him more in shades of grey.
Inspector Cooks and his sidekick make a welcome reappearance, although without an explanation of what happened after they were caught on the GED Group’s ship a few volumes back. That sort of gap in the story is very unusual for Fantastic Children, and disappointed me a bit. Cooks also doesn’t seem to have learnt anything from the experience and simply goes back to his investigation of the Children, apparently even more determined than ever. I had originally liked the Inspector and his arc of the story, but it’s the one aspect of the series that hasn’t been handled well – pushed into the background for long periods, aspects of the arc left unresolved, and no real development for Cooks himself. In part that’s because there’s so much going on elsewhere, but it’s still a great shame.
Despite one or two little flaws, Fantastic Children continues to be a hugely impressive story, with plenty going on and enough twists and turns in the storyline to keep you on your toes. Some story arcs aren’t dealt with as well as they could be, but the way the show drags you in and doesn’t let you go compensates for this. It’s a huge shame that this series doesn’t have a higher profile – it really should be essential viewing. Highly recommended.
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