Endride – Episode 3 [Journey]

Up high in the sky, Pascal whisks Alicia, Prince Emilio and Shun to his secret hideaway. Their group reaches it after a hike through the jungle from where their aircraft landed. It turns out Pascal has a little home built into a mountainside, complete with a stone table and a kitchen.

They get settled in, and later as the sun is going down, Pascal has a talk with Emilio outside while they have a drink. Pascal asks Emilio where Shun came from, and Emilio explains Shun’s emergence from a ball of light, a portal which showed him a world he’d never seen before. Pascal repeats his belief that there should be no contact between Endora and the surface, for that is what Endora’s ancient texts proclaim. However because some people from Endora have traveled to the surface, Endora is known to them by the name of Shambhala. When Emilio presses Pascal to explain why he’s so firm on there being no contact between the people on the surface and Endora, Pascal insists it’s a scientist’s intuition.

Emilio is shocked to hear that King Delzaine, aka his father, is most likely headed to Babylon to restore Babel. Pascal is surprised to hear such strong negative words about his father coming from Emilio’s mouth, but as we see in a flashback, this is most likely because Pascal was a better surrogate father to Emilio growing up than King Delzaine was Emilio’s birth father. Pascal took the time to engage Emilio and include him in his experiments and projects, and fostered Emilio’s curiosity about the world around him. It looks to me like the king’s decision to exile Pascal might be one of the reasons why Emilio hates his father so much.

Most importantly, it’s somewhat obvious by this point, but Pascal tells Emilio that he wants to beat King Delzaine and his troops to Babylon so he can be the one to destroy Babel once and for all. This way there will forever be no way for the citizens of Endora to travel to the surface.

Inside, Shun explores Pascal’s hideaway and finds an interesting looking rock. Alicia questions him about his interest in rocks and minerals, and Shun explains about his mother being an archaeologist. It hasn’t really been clarified so far, but I imagine Shun’s interest in rocks most likely comes from growing up around his mother’s career, until over time her passion for rocks became his too. Alicia has a hard time believing that the people on the surface don’t know about Endora, but states that she has never really considered actually going to the surface.

Back in King Delzaine’s castle, one of the king’s troops is giving him an update when he is booted from the court by four of the king’s cronies. We see the lion creature and blue-skinned aquatic-looking individual from the first episode, plus two more new lackeys. King Delzaine orders them to assess the situation, but not to kill Pascal or the others.

At his hideaway, Pascal dresses himself up in a disguise and leaves for a nearby village to get supplies. He warns Alicia, Shun and Emilio not to leave unless necessary because it’s still dangerous outside. Naturally once he leaves, Alicia leaves to go get them some water. Once it’s just him and Shun left, Emilio reveals to Shun his plan to leave that night once everyone is sleeping. He wants to go after King Delzaine, and Shun is going to help him. Shun pushes back and the two argue yet again, but Emilio is able to convince Shun to help him. They just have to play dumb until everyone goes to bed, something which is not as easy as it sounds when both guys act awkward as shit trying not to tip off Alicia that something’s up. Finally Emilio drags Shun outside under the pretense of gathering some mushrooms.

Once they are away from Alicia, both Shun and Emilio relax a little. They find another red-horned boar and decide to kill it (whatever happened to mushrooms?). They come up with a big fancy plan, but Emilio trips at the last moment and Shun takes the animal down on his own.  Shun and Emilio bring the boar back to Alicia, who promptly turns it into boar stew.

At night once everyone is sleeping, Emilio wakes up Shun and the two slip out of their hillside hiding spot. They pass through the jungle, coming to a bare cliff ledge. Emilio pulls out a telescope and shows Shun some kind of temporary tent set up below, with symbols painted on it in red and orange.

Suddenly from behind them, a group of four individuals show up and hold two swords to Emilio’s back. They call themselves Ignauts, and say that area belongs to them. They tell Emilio that he’s a dead man, but Emilio insists that they are the reinforcements he mentioned moments earlier. Who are they really, and are they actually going to help Emilio with his plan?

My thoughts: I’m still not in love with Endride, but I’m working hard to find things I like about it. I’m getting used to the animation, and the ending theme song (“go my way” by Ryōta Fujimaki) is starting to grow on me. I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, which looks like it’s going to explain who the Ignauts are, and I hope it will include how Emilio knows of their group. Are they rebels, or maybe fugitives who are hiding from King Delzaine?

Also, for those who didn’t know, a smartphone game is being released in Japan sometime this month titled Endride: X Fragments. If there’s anyone watching the anime who’s thinking of getting the mobile game, I’d love to hear your opinion of it. 🙂