Coppelion Episode 2
What They Say
From the team that brought you K comes the new sci-fi action series COPPELION, a story of three youths who vow to save the lives of those forsaken by the rest of the world. In the not-so-distant future, a catastrophic event has turned the old capital of Japan into a wasteland, forever changing the lives of its people. Decades later, three schoolgirls set foot into the now forsaken city. They are the Coppelion, genetically engineered humans created by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force to operate under the lethal conditions of the contaminated city. Trained since birth, the girls must use all of their skills and resources to carry out their one and only mission: to rescue those left behind.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I have to confess that as I watched this second episode, I was rather cynically disappointed with how unbelievable this episode’s plot was turning out. But the show is smarter than I gave it credit for, as my disbelief merely ended up contrasting with the girls’ naivete.
At the end of the first episode, Ibara and Aoi were chasing a blood trail that they believe belonged to their friend Taeko. Fortunately, it turned out just to be the blood of a wild dog, and Taeko was uninjured. Unfortunately, the dog was injured trying to protect Taeko from an armed gunman, and Aoi and Taeko have just wandered into a tense situation. The man is in a panic because his nine year old daughter had gone missing. Somehow, this man, his wife, and a small child had been living in this nuclear wasteland, living in the reinforced shelter of a nearby hospital. And if this situation seems too suspiciously neat and tidy to be real, that’s because it is.
The reason this family is still living in the wasteland is because they are escapees from a prison, who were able to flee during whatever apocalyptic event brought Tokyo to its current state. Returning to civilization means returning to the judgement of the law. And so the three of them had lived together, until, for seemingly no reason, the young daughter decided one day to visit the grave of her true mother, located in a nearby racetrack. Another inexplicable coincidence, and yet one hiding an even darker secret.
While Taeko and Ibara and the girl’s father head out to the gravesite, Aoi stays with the girl’s step-mother, and explains how the unit can survive in the environment. The unit’s name, Coppelion, indeed is a reference to the ballet Coppelia, and the girls sometimes consider themselves dolls, which leads to the show’s sometimes overbearing doll imagery. Having trained all of their lives for this rescue mission, they are led above all things to try and help the people they discover, without having the real world experience to understand why or how survivors might be willing to lie to them for selfish reasons.
While the science and logic of the whole nuclear disaster may be shaky, it’s clear Coppelion is aiming for science fiction as allegory rather than so-called “hard” sci-fi. The girls may not realize it yet, but there’s a very real reason for their apparent military training and armaments, and it’s not to protect innocent survivors from feral dogs. These survivors, who have chosen to stay in the ruins of Tokyo for years and years, do not all intend to leave. And in some situations, Coppelion may have no choice but to force them out.
In Summary
In delivering what seems to be an unbelievably cliched plot, Coppelion in fact reveals its hand, shedding light on the young girls’ naivete at the same time as it fleshes out the cruel, harsh world of post-disaster Tokyo. The mission the girls have trained for, and the mission the girls think they are on may be tragically at odds. It gives the show an unexpected layer of depth, and lets us know that there are more sacrifices and tragedies yet to come.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Viz Media
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
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