Well, the episode begins with our young heroes setting out to recruit the fifth member of the team that will help them in the fight to save the planet—a mission that, needless to say, is quite risky.
On the way to finding this new member, let’s just say that Akira suffered a minor “accident” that caused him to fall straight to the ground and break his arm. The other members were unable to locate Akira, so he was lost for a few hours. It turns out that Akira was found by Yoko Nishina, who saw that something resembling an airplane had crashed to the ground.
We get a glimpse of Nishina’s character—she’s a very kind girl with a strong desire to help others. In addition to taking care of Akira, she also tends to some of his wounds. She immediately realizes that Akira has Theian blood, just like she does, from her mother’s side. Akira tries to convince Nishina to join the team in the fight against EDVA, but she refuses because she can no longer use her Engine. In the past, Nishina tried to save her friends using her Engine, but they rejected her against her will; they told her she was a monster and never wanted to see her again.
The way Nishina’s character is constructed is striking because she’s a girl with the potential to be a heroine—with her power, she could save an extraordinary number of people, something an ordinary person could never do—but it’s that very potential that she’s afraid to use again due to a bad experience. As we know, this isn’t a new approach to character development, because we know that this kind of formula works well.
Incidentally, the way Nishina tried to help her friends was by creating fire—her Engine has the ability to create fire. She saved her friends from dying under the snow on a desolate mountain, but that was what caused her to fear her own power. Perhaps what the story wanted to show us is that uncontrolled power, even with good intentions, can cause problems for those who don’t understand it.
Nishina takes Akira to the place where that incident occurred years ago, and suddenly a “Batanoid”—one of the EDVA soldiers with the power of ice—appears, causing the entire island, the lake, and the mountain to be blanketed in snow in the middle of summer. The battle between the two groups is about to begin.
Eleanor, Lala, and Haruka see that something is happening near the mountain, so they deduce that it’s the Batanoids who have found Akira. They try to fight the monster, but it takes them out of the battle with its ice—which is said not to be ordinary ice. Akira, even though he’s wounded and has a broken arm, jumps into the fray to help his teammates. This leads Yoko to see Akira’s act of bravery as inspiring, as she realizes he is someone who, even in his condition, is willing to put himself at risk to save the lives of others.
This reminds Yoko of her mother and what she stood for: serving others without fear, without hesitation, and beyond guilt. This allows Yoko to use her Engine again and defeat the Batanoid with her fire—this time without fear of being rejected or judged.
I found the character-building elements in this episode to be quite good; the fear of rejection and guilt are among people’s most primal fears. Yoko has enormous potential but also a fear that it might get out of control. She is the fire that can provide warmth but can also set things ablaze.
One thing I definitely found very weak in this episode is the group’s lack of coordination. It’s true that they’re a new group who are just getting to know each other, but it seems like they don’t have a leader—in fact, they don’t—and everyone acts on their own without seeming to have a clear idea of what they’re up against. They seem like kids trying to save the planet without having the slightest clue about anything.
