Asian Addicts Anonymous

It’s interesting. When Lloyd lectures his class, even though it is meant to inform and teach…it doesn’t seem out of place or forced…whereas in Hakuba, every time Kurosawa starts one of his lectures…it sounds way forced. Go figure. Anywho, this isn’t a bad episode, but I still feel a bit let down while still kind of liking it. Weird, ne?

So Asahi challenges Lloyd to shogi—the game she never managed to beat Reiji at while he was alive. Lloyd downloads the data and easily beats her while she talks about how Reiji always made time to play her (and beat her) even when he was busy and tired and how that is an important memory. Asahi is annoyed that the beginner computer beat her and rushes out the door.

Suppli pops out of the desk drawer and complains about how emotional Asahi is. She does ask Lloyd once more if he would like her emotions program, but the android keeps refusing. So why is Suppli there when she was not called? Suppli says that she felt Lloyd would be needing her help. Lloyd assures her he’s fine and Suppli phases out to paint the town…or meander around aimlessly without a purpose. Right after she leaves, Lloyd begins developing some system bugs. Uh-oh.

Hoshi updates Asahi on Ashimo being alive and well, the bug in the Enigma cloud has been fixed, and oh, by the way, he’s hacked her insurance and found no record of Reiji having gone to a doctor since his miraculous return. Hoshi then shows her the murder list. Asahi begs him to stop digging into this mystery as she doesn’t want him to die. We then get a full shot and see that Lloyd has silently materialized and is holding a gun to Hoshi’s head. Oddly enough, Hoshi does back off rather easily and apologizes for being more like a stalker. However, his intentions are pure as he only wants to protect Asahi like Reiji protected her.

Nanase is feverishly working on her brother’s program with no luck. She starts having an attack and goes to her desk drawer for medicine. She then recalls the Last Queen’s (aka Lady in White) words about ruling the world with the technologies from the future. She scratches her head until it bleeds and up pops Lloyd, startling the girl. He tells Nanase that she is always on his radar and Nanase replies that if she dies, his secret will be exposed. Lloyd says her failsafe program has already been hacked and destroyed. Nice. The fellow students show up and Lloyd proceeds to the lecture hall.

During the lecture, Lloyd talks about how the future is already predetermined. If not, can anyone go back in time and stop Japan from joining the war in 1941? It’s impossible, isn’t it? Nanase disagrees and says that Professor Matsushima theorized it is possible. No, people cannot travel through time because they have a mass, but data has a zero mass and can be passed from past to future, etc. That is correct. Lloyd then talks about how no one person can reign supreme, etc. as the future is always passed on to the next generation. It was a rather nice speech from our straight-faced resident android. I can’t do it justice. It was well written and well acted and for being preachy, wasn’t really all that preachy at all.

During this lecture, just like Asahi has done before her, Nanase starts seeing traits of her brother’s popping up. After class, she thanks Lloyd who replies and says that he wouldn’t have done such a thing except it was a request from his client. Her brother, right? Lloyd queries, and just like before he gets a 404 error. He then quickly leaves as he’s malfunctioning more and more. The Last Queen then shows up and says she was there the whole time, but since Lloyd is such an outdated model, he doesn’t have the tech to detect her. So she’s an android, too? The Last Queen abhors this term for whatever reason. She doesn’t want Nanase to be stopped by Lloyd’s pretty words. What is her objective I wonder?

Lloyd calls for Suppli’s help and she tells him that his emotions are infecting his combat program. The only way to stop this is to reset his system which would wipe his memories. Lloyd gets quiet at this. Suppli wonders if memories are such a big deal and Lloyd recalls his own recent memories and Asahi’s words. Suppli then phases out to leave him think about what she said.

After receiving the miracle drug, Ashimo is working out in his hospital bed puffing away on a cigarette. His daughter scolds him and asks his doctor to euthanize him in a gory and painful way to which the doctor quickly agrees. LOL. Well…Ashimo is tough to deal with. Ashimo’s partner shows up with a change of clothes and an urn. Looks like PI Godai has passed away. Ashimo is quick to change and get sniffing after the case.

He runs into Hoshi who is looking for information and after calling Ashimo’s daughter a whore and getting his lights punched out, the two then begin talking. When this whole thing started…only Reiji’s name was on the hit list, but after Reiji left his computer unsecured and other scientists accessed the information on it, their names were added to the list. As they were killed, major clues were left behind as warnings to Reiji. That is also why Asahi’s name is on the list—a final warning. Hoshi and Ashimo have both deduced that these people are not humans. Ashimo is not happy to also report that it seems this beings are also police officers from the future who are abusing their power and killing hundreds if not more innocent people. What to do? Ashimo then reveals that Reiji is really an android sent to protect Asahi from the future police officers.

All of a sudden, Ashimo’s partner’s eyes turn blue. Uh-oh. Yappari. He’s an android from the future, too! I don’t know who helped Ashimo and Hoshi, but someone stopped the android from killing the two, but who? Is Last Queen interfering again? Who knows?

We then cut to Lloyd who is malfunctioning more and more thanks to his newly developed emotions. This is not good because Asahi is in danger! The android is now after her. Suppli is called in as Lloyd has completely shut down and only has vocal abilities. Suppli scolds him and tells him that she knew this would happen and demands again that he reset himself to save himself, but Lloyd is adamant—no. He then fails to boot up the Asura system. The second time was the charm as he does successfully boot up and rushes to Asahi’s rescue against Suppli’s wishes.

Since Lloyd’s system is failing, the other android kicks his rear pretty badly. Suppli watches all of this and leaves her teddy behind telling him that it’s up to him now. She then phases into the fray and stops the android from killing Lloyd. She then installs a new software in him and while she is doing this, a beam of light shoots towards Lloyd. Suppli quickly steps in to protect him. Just like Asahi had done earlier. Suppli writhes in pain on the floor as Lloyd reboots.

Suppli tells him that the green light is the android’s true form and that he needs to shoot it. Lloyd’s hand shakes and he says he cannot bring himself to pull the trigger. Suppli apologize sand tells him that the only way she could save him and save his memories was to install her full emotional software. She then traps the other android in bright ball of light and tells Lloyd to use atomic disposal on her and the other android. Lloyd doesn’t wish to. Suppli painfully tells him that she loves him and we see flashes of her tending to his injuries back when he was the merciless killer. Well…I wasn’t expecting that. Lloyd thanks Suppli and says he will never forget her or the gift she gave him…the pain in his chest will always remind him of her. He then uses the atomic disposal and the two are deleted. Sad day.

Later when they are at home, Asahi lies in bed and asks if Lloyd is sleeping. No. Lloyd then asks what Reiji was to her. Asahi says it is a difficult question…one perhaps that Suppli’s final gift has left with him. Asahi then talks about objects, their lives, and memories. She is sure that Suppli will always live with Lloyd in his memories, etc. Lloyd cannot believe that there is a human who sympathizes with android like he and Suppli. End episode.

What the what? This…doesn’t really answer questions and I have to say Suppli being in love with Lloyd…doesn’t really make sense to me, but whatever. You may be able to construe her actions as love, but at this juncture it seems a bit farfetched to me. At least it explains why Suppli seemed to have some animosity towards Asahi and wondering why men all liked her and why she dressed up as a journalist to interview Asahi I guess…but that was really to random and weird. And just what is with that Kadokura teddy? Is it really the android who Last Queen supposedly killed? Wasn’t he a bad android? Oh, so many questions, so few answers. I’m really interested in just WHY it is that androids bleed when they are machines…