Argento Soma (2000)

The world is reeling from the constant attacks from unknown invaders (think 4 story tall attackers), and Earth does not appear to be faring well with all of the casualties from the unexpected attacks. Studying towards military flight status is the talented metallurgist Takuto Kaneshiro, who is enlisted by his girlfriend Maki to help with her research.

This episode focuses on new characters, a young girl named Hattie and her dog Walton who live in Montana with her grandfather. While playing in the forests surrounding her home with Walton, Hattie comes across Frank. Never having seen anything like Frank before, Hattie believes that he is an elf from her grandfather’s stories.

This episode returns us to Taketo, who is convalescing in the hospital from his injuries. At this point, he’s covered in bandages and restraints and is being interrogated by the military (including FUNERAL’s commanding officer, Commander Ines; a stoic woman who is always in control of a situation) for information about the research facility and more information on Frank. After the questioning, Taketo meets a long-haired man who asks if he wants revenge upon Frank for what he did to him and Maki.

Now with a new persona and a fabricated past, Ryu is transferred to FUNERAL as a SARG pilot with the purpose of collecting classified information for the long-haired man. Ryu intends to try and kill Frank while serving in FUNERAL. Upon meeting the personnel of FUNERAL, Ryu comes into conflict with Dan immediately. Dan senses something about Ryu that he doesn’t like, especially when Dan catches Ryu using the computer system while collecting intel (but Dan didn’t know what Ryu was doing or looking for). The episode ends with the arrival of another invader outside New York (which has already been abandoned because of earlier invasions) and with FUNERAL dispatching everyone except Ryu.

Dan and Guenevere engage the alien with their SARG units, however, during the battle it is discovered that this alien has the ability to stockpile energy and that all of their attacks are merely increasing the alien’s reserve. To engage the alien, it is decided to use Frank to fight but before a plan can be implemented, Ryu takes Hattie with him in one of the SARGs and gets Frank to follow them to the battle zone. After Ryu causes Frank to crash into the alien, they begin fighting with Frank eventually being victorious. However, during the heat of the battle, Ryu’s anger at Frank escapes and he tells Hattie that Frank isn’t alive; this statement angers Hattie enough that she no longer trusts Ryu.

Now that FUNERAL knows that Frank can be somewhat controlled by Hattie, some simulations are being run to determine how well she can give Frank orders and how well he can use them. During the testing, Hattie becomes unnerved once she sees the SARGs firing their weapons because she associates gun fire with losing her parents and her grandfather (her parents were killed 5 years prior during an alien attack and Hattie was left comatose due to ahead injury sustained during the attack). To protect Hattie, Frank escapes from FUNERAL with Hattie and Walton during a nasty storm that prevents anyone from tracking them. Frank brings Hattie back home to Montana where he is mistaken as an invader by a reconnaissance fighter and is fired upon.

With two escapes from the FUNERAL base by Frank, it has been decided by command that some defenses and counters against Frank have to be installed. To prevent Frank from turning on FUNERAL as well as keep tabs on him if he were to escape, a plug is installed onto his neck with a large brace. The large plug assembly contains both a large tracking device as well as a nuclear reactor that could be used to destroy Frank in case he were to go rogue.

This episode serves as an introspective episode with Ryu and Dan being put into the brig for 24 hours for accidentally setting off the alarm during a fight. Each of the two characters uses the time to think about different topics, Ryu outlines the nature of the spying that he is doing for the long-haired man. Ryu is providing technical readouts of the SARG units as well as classified battle information from all FUNERAL sorties as well as mention the primary goal of the alien invaders – to reach the “Pilgrimage Point”, a point in Western Colorado.

Hattie suffers a panic attack after a battle because of watching the SARGs fire their guns and is then tranquilized and placed under medical observation. During a conversation between Commander Ines and the doctor, it is revealed that the doctor believes that Hattie is able to communicate with Frank and not anyone else because of the 9 shards of alien metal throughout her body and brain. After awaking, Hattie escapes from the medical facility and the base is then placed on alert status while everyone searches for her.

The latest alien attack has the FUNERAL group stumped; this new alien has a superior defensive capability that allows it to manipulate its molecular density to defend against external attacks be it ballistic or physical. Ryu devises a harmonic attack using a wave amplifier named “Excalibur” that he designed for the specific alien.

Ryu is now starting to fall apart – the problems of being around Hattie (who reminds him of Maki) as well as continually working with Frank is bearing a toll on his heart and he is beginning to show signs of emotional collapse. After the top military brass have been threatened by full exposure of Frank’s existence to the general populace, they have reiterated their fear of Frank going rogue to Commander Ines and have ordered her to use the explosive if he becomes even a little unstable.

The latest alien invader is a dangerous new variant, its approximately 1000 times the mass of a regular invader and is about as tall as some mountain ranges. To make things more interesting its surface can absorb shocks so the Excalibur will be ineffective… oh, and did I mention the FUNERAL base is directly in the path to the “Pilgrimage Point”? After a joint attack with the SARGs and Frank fail, Commander Inez decides to employ the nuclear device attached to Frank only to find out that there was no nuclear device on him, it was a dummy warhead. To make matters worse, it appears that Frank may be knocked out of commission from the damage that he sustained fighting the invader.

With things looking bleak at the FUNERAL base, a massive evacuation is ordered complete with the destruction of all classified information at the base. However, for the pilots and Hattie the base is home and they intend to put up a last stand against the invader. Using the final trump card, the FUNERAL base will use the world’s largest charged particle accelerator underneath the base (code named Fefnir) while Frank and the SARGs run interference with the remainder of the air support on base. Just when the Fefnir fires, they discover that this alien can warp gravity with its hands. The final attack against this behemoth is going to require something special, with all units working together.

With the survival of the FUNERAL base (sort of) it's now time for the inquiry and general bookkeeping with the command staff. The meeting serves a twofold purpose, a general showcase of new information and theories for the constant alien invasions as well as reasons the alien congregate towards the Pilgrimage Point. The truly disturbing aspect of this episode is watching the politicians and generals argue over who’s to blame despite the fact that they’ve been involved and are still involved in a prolonged war.

With the extensive damage sustained to the FUNERAL base during the last alien attack, everyone is working to repair the base. All but one of the SARGs are severely damaged and have been sent offsite for repairs, and to make matters worse, Frank is asleep recovering from his injuries. In the interim, Ryu continues to struggle with the thought that every mission success with Frank means another lost opportunity for his revenge.

Being at the research facility has made things more difficult for Ryu, as the memories of his time with Maki keep resurfacing; so much so that he even snapped at Hattie for being too flighty and not acting her age. The group in charge of Frank’s revival are a trio of scientists that intend to revive him by using the templates of four alien heads that were recovered. During the revival program, the four alien heads activate themselves while Frank remains comatose, and they begin destroying the research facility.

Ryu’s cover comes under pressure with the arrival of the latest alien. The latest version of invader is holding orbit above Earth and so the only units that are able to engage it are the Atmospheric Fighter group stationed in Alaska (that Ryu was supposedly a member of before transferring to FUNERAL). To make matters worse, one of those fighters becomes severely damaged and is repaired at the FUNERAL base… but the pilot Rick was a close friend of Taketo (Ryu’s real name). Although Ryu tries to keep his distance from Rick, to avoid his old friend from recognizing him and blowing his cover, Rick seeks him out because he believes Taketo to be dead during the experiment that created Frank. His friend also increases the pain in Ryu’s heart by revealing some secrets to him (such as his betrayal of his friend so that he could try to court Maki) believing that telling Ryu could allay his soul.

In the start of the episode, Guenevere’s SARG is contaminated by an alien’s punch; while the team was returning to base, her SARG broke free from formation and headed towards the Pilgrimage Point. While trying to get Guenevere free of the runaway unit, her SARG attacks Dan and Sue, knocking them out of commission. Because of the imminent threat of reaching the Pilgrimage Point, UN fighters armed with nuclear warheads are dispatched to prevent the rogue SARG from getting there.

With the discovery of Frank’s sentience, as well as the discovery that the SARGs were built from alien corpses instead of reverse engineered from technology has left a bad taste in the pilots mouths, especially Sue who continues to express a fear of using a SARG ever again. Ryu continues to suffer from constant nightmares, especially ones where his past is perverted into beliefs that Maki didn’t love him at all. Making things more confusing is the burgeoning relationship with the healing Guenevere who is pleasantly surprised by Ryu’s new actions towards her and has made her feelings for Ryu known. Despite this pleasantness, Ryu is having trouble differentiating between Hattie and Maki in his mind; especially whenever Hattie is speaking to Frank now that she is trying to teach Frank how to speak.

So much going on in this episode, it’s easy to get lost. Upon arrival at the forward base, the FUNERAL team with Frank is not sent out to engage the alien but instead watch as a new alien fighting team is activated – complete with the black SARGs that attacked Ryu and Frank earlier. With the revelation of the new SARGs, Ryu realizes that his spying was so competition to FUNERAL could be created and that his revenge was merely used to keep him pliable towards the needs of the long-haired man. These new SARGs ruthlessly attack the alien, blowing off all of its limbs until the alien activates its motor which allows it to fly many times faster than the SARG units and move unfettered towards the Pilgrimage Point. At this point, Frank is dispatched to fight the invader and is dragged all the way to the Pilgrimage Point before defeating the alien. During the battle between Frank and the alien, Ryu kidnaps Hattie and also reveals his true identity to all FUNERAL members present. Flying after Frank in the Pilgrimage Point, Hattie and Ryu witness the destruction of the alien and then the subsequent dissolving of Frank’s left arm to reveal a giant ring exactly like the one that Dan and Sue saw on their last sortie.

The first half of the episode is a retelling of Yuri Leonov’s last flight – a married man working in the UN flight program who leaves his wife for another mission only to be unintentionally sacrificed for science when his flight was sent to investigate a gravitational anomaly. He claims that his last memory was of seeing the anomaly up-close before returning to Earth in the form of the alien invaders. The flashback includes some other interesting developments – the long-haired man who turned Ryu into a spy was Yuri’s mission commander on Earth named Colonel David Lawrence who also was a close friend of Yuri (and was coincidentally against using Yuri’s mission to investigate the anomaly).

After returning back to base with a comatose Yuri, the FUNERAL base is seized by the new invader fighting group (the ones piloting the newer SARGs) and Commander Ines is removed, but not before the other traitor is revealed (don’t worry, I won’t reveal it… it’s just too damn good). With the capture of the FUNERAL personnel, the high end staff members are being transported to another base for interrogation; but the group discusses the known facts and are able to trace the extent of influence that this new group has had, running back to their interference with the original creation of Frank at the research facility. Thankfully, David Lawrence shows up in a SARG unit to force down the transport, but his news isn’t good. David tells the FUNERAL staff that another invader is approaching Earth… one that’s over 8,000 km long and possesses enough mass and magnetic forces to destroy the planet.

Now that the remnants of the FUNERAL team have evaded capture, they begin to plot the recapture of their home. David Lawrence donates his SARG to the team, but leaves the team to engage the base. The plan is as basic as it gets: the cruiser will fly low under radar and fake an emergency allowing them access to the base’s airspace. Once in the airspace, Guenevere will deploy in their one SARG to occupy the defenses while Ryu and Hattie enter the base to free Frank… Yuri… the eX-1… Mr. Elf… the big guy!

Another packed episode. The traitor holds Ryu and Hattie at gunpoint, and he suddenly betrays the guards by locking them out of room that they are in. Telling Ryu and Hattie to go on ahead, Dan heads towards the brig area and frees Commander Ines. On the surface, Guenevere is trying to battle the alien but is not having much success. To even the odds, Sue takes control of one of the damaged ZODs and joins the fray. Guenevere spends the entire fight closing on the alien while trying to save the captured pilot on-board the alien. Her SARG manages to free the pilot before failing due to sustained damage. At this point the alien unleashes its’ primary attack, a supernova with itself at the center. Unable to move, Guenevere and the saved pilot are now directly in harm’s way.

The “true” final episode of Argentosoma. Now 6 years later, the members of the FUNERAL team have developed in their own ways. Hattie, has just completed her doctoral studies and is getting ready to leave on a shuttle mission from an orphanage that she has been helping to run. Hattie is to be the mission specialist on the up-coming flight of the Ulysses and is preparing by saying her good-byes before the launch.