Endride – Episode 2 [Endora]

Well, the first half of this episode can be summed up by Shun and Prince Emilio continuing their pissing contest, combined with everyone continuing to get frustrated with Shun for not knowing what they know (despite that no one has bothered to take 30 seconds to explain anything to the poor kid).

In said first half, Emilio and Alicia are leading Shun to the workshop of a man who used to lead all of the research conducted at the castle. His name is Pascal. En route however, they get ambushed by a couple of boars, giving Emilio yet another opportunity to look down his nose at Shun and berate him for not automatically whipping his weapon out. The joke’s on him though, because while Emilio is only able to keep his boar at bay (and that’s with the help of Alicia’s Warp Relic sidekick Falarion), Shun is able to use his Warp Relic sword to easily slice the boar’s red horn in half, defeating it.

Unfortunately as soon as Shun kills the boar, he and Alicia are scooped up in what’s revealed to be one of the Pascal’s traps. Emilio kills the other boar by using another one of Pascal’s hidden traps, after which Pascal naturally chooses that moment to show up. He frees everyone and they head back to his workshop.

Once there Alicia and Pascal prepare the boar meat in the kitchen, while Emilio and Shun sit out in the living room and fight some more. Ugh. While they’re focused on their meal, we see that they’re being tracked outside by some purple Orthrus-like creature; King Delzaine is trying hard to find Prince Emilio, now that he knows the young prince is no longer rotting in prison.

Shun and the others finally sit down to eat, and he finds the food disgusting. Seeing what they had to eat I don’t blame him at all. Pascal starts by explaining the very basics of Endora to Shun, and that’s where this episode finally starts to get better.

The Earth is hollow, and Endora is the world inside the empty centre. There is a gap in the Earth over the North Pole, and that’s where sunlight streams down to Endora. However in lieu of a Sun, Endora has a massive, gigantic crystal suspended in the sky called Adamas which acts like a giant solar panel. It absorbs sunlight (from Earth’s Sun) during the day, giving Endora a sun, and at night it releases the energy it collected during the day, giving Endora a moon. There has been minimal contact between Endora and persons from what’s dubbed “the surface,” going back to when Endora was first created, but that communication is no more. Shun looks at a book that Pascal shows him, and is surprised to see that there has been surface-Endora contact from back before he was born, which I thought was pretty neat.

Shun asks how contact between the surface and Endora occured, and Pascal tells him about a place in Endora called Babylon. And yes it is mentioned that Earth has a place called Babylon too. At the Babylon on Endora, people could use a device called Babel to travel to the surface; however it was damaged in some kind of event, and that’s why people from Endora can’t travel to the surface anymore.

Pascal then asks Shun to summon his Warp Relic for him so he can see it, which Shun manages. But Pascal “just wants to see it”, leaving both Shun and myself confused. (Maybe Pascal was just trying to distract Shun from Babel?) Pascal goes on to say that not everyone can summon a weapon like Shun and Emilio can – either you got it or you don’t. Pascal himself lacks the ability, and he’s a little sore about it, but he explains how such weapons are created by something called Warp Particles. They only exist in Endora, not on the surface.

Shun starts going on about wanting to go to Babylon in Endora to use Babel to get himself home, but Pascal is not very enthusiastic about the idea, and neither is
Alicia. Emilio doesn’t care one way or the other, but it’s hinted that he has a hidden motivation for Shun going to see Babel. As for Pascal, we see from his inner thoughts that he used to work for King Delzaine, until he sabotaged Babel because he didn’t support his king’s ambition to have contact between Endora and the surface. After Pascal fled, another researcher fixed his mistake. So now while King Delzaine is pursuing Prince Emilio, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were also chasing after Pascal too. It’s understandable now why Pascal doesn’t want to go to Babylon or Babel.

Outside the two-headed beasts and a small platoon of guards have caught up with them. Pascal urges them all to flee in his hidden rocketcar, blowing up his workshop behind him as they leave. Once up in the sky, Pascal wants to fly them to a safe hiding spot, but Shun wants to go to Babylon immediately to find Babel.

My thoughts: I’m still trying to like this show. Some things are done really well, like the background and environmental graphics, but other things are falling short in my book. I think my biggest issue so far is with the characters, namely Shun and Emilio. The opening and ending segments show that the two guys do eventually get along, but I’m having a hard time with the near-constant bickering. I’m reminded of Mari from Nijiiro Days – no one wants to watch a constant sourpuss, it detracts from the show.

I did however appreciate the scenes with Pascal explaining Endora to Shun. That was really helpful and I now, as a viewer, feel like I have a better grasp on the show.

I don’t really know what to expect for next week, I just hope that the fighting between the two male leads is toned down. They hate each other because they’re both young and stubborn, we get it. :/