And with this post, I officially have caught up to the wonderful releases by two certain great fansub groups who have combined to do the series. Huge thanks to them. This episode, we take a look at the true history behind Kaiba and Neiro, and the role of Kichi, the supposed degenerate merchant, in all of this.Kichi, Hyo-Hyo and the currently comatose Warp.Kaiba 09 - Shoot Warp!Episode SummaryThe episode starts off with the fake Warp being questioned by what I believe to be the supercomputer helping to monitor the "kingdom". Having left something on the fake Warp, Popo manages to contact him and fool him into thinking that one of Warp's copies was the one who contacted him, thus leading him to his eventual termination later.Cheki, Popo's and Neiro's friend since young, also questions why Neiro suddenly changed, attributing it correctly to alteration of her memories. However she is foiled by the woman who likes Popo, and later has her memories of Popo and Neiro erased and only ones of admiration for Popo downloaded into her. Neiro somehow regains part of her altered memory through their conversation and later in her room, but with Cheki denying things, she is unable to gain a control of her memories before Popo appears and says a code word to set off her hatred for Warp.It would appear from her memories that Warp had caused much tyranny and Neiro's parents were direct victims of such tyranny, and that because of this, Dada gave her a new life after she was killed by Warp, in order to fight him and rid the world of a tyrant for the common good.The capture of Kichi and his comments before his capture reveal that Warp is indeed someone really amazing in this world. No drive in the universe could store such a tremendous amount of memories, lending credence to the statement at the end of episode 5 that Warp is the controller of memories and perhaps the protector of them.Warp is brought back in his original body by Popo, though most of the work was supposedly done by Kichi (whose sister, the woman who loves Popo, sold him out). However Warp has, by this time, regained all his memories and likely knew Popo was not true to his words. His question about what happened when Popo met him in episode 1 proved it.Neiro arrives in a machine known as the Carbile, with her hatred for Warp evident in her eyes. She fires off huge devastating beams but keeps missing. Hyo-Hyo and Kichi break free, and the former tries to rescue Warp the entire time while Kichi tries to stop Neiro from her madness.When down at what could only be called the suburbs, Kichi's revelation that her memories had been altered by him, and how Warp came to love Neiro and stop his tyranny, manages to keep Neiro from completely destroying the current Warp. Popo tries to stop it, but Warp shows off his power at this point. Indeed, from the scenes in this particular part, Warp certainly seems like the controller of memories.Neiro fires one last shot on Popo's instigation and perhaps the hatred instilled in her, but she is unable to stop crying after that. Popo leaves them to their own devices and exits the scene while Neiro moves down to Warp. Kichi keeps referring to Warp as Kaiba at this point, and mentions that Hyo-Hyo is indeed Neiro, and has her true memories, unaltered.The body Hyo-Hyo is in was also shown near the start when Popo's underlings try to catch Kichi, but this time, instead of one missing, there are two. I wonder if this could be a prelude to something later on.Kichi's sister in the foreground with two underlings.IssuesWhether or not this is a coincidence, episode 9 of Bartender also touched upon the same issue that this episode tried to put across, for perhaps at least half the episode - that of memories defining whether a person is alive at all. As Cheki put it, memories are living people, lives that should not be destroyed. In Bartender, Minegishi Ryuuichi also informs the Kami no Glass (Glass of the Gods, bartender Sasakura Ryu) that memories are proof that a person has lived, and was alive.This has implications for everyone in general. Indeed, how do you define someone as being alive when you have lived? In the world of Kaiba, memories are now alterable, in terms of chips, yet for those who have not converted, they are still living, albeit in the form of memory roes. Memories without a body, who keep on going, even if they are not truly alive, they are to be considered, as Cheki mentions, to be lives in themselves. Even the copies of Warp were indeed pained at how Popo kept destroying their old brothers' memories, shouting that Popo had no regard for memories. Indeed, what would you think, in such a situation? I certainly am with Minegishi, Warp's copies and Cheki on this one - that memories are to be treasured, proof that a person has lived.Hatred-filled Neiro on the Carbile.My ImpressionsOther than the issue on memories, we have finally gotten the back story to Kaiba and Neiro's past, along with confirmation that Hyo-Hyo is indeed Neiro. We also now know part of the plan of Popo, and shown the power of Kaiba. Indeed, the fact that Kichi keeps referring to the current Warp as Kaiba is of deep note as mentioned. I can only wonder, what we will be shown here from now on for the remaining 4 episodes.
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