Dimension W: Season 1/ Episode 7 “The Voice Calling from the Past” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

In episode 7, “The Voice Calling from the Past,” we get an almost complete background of Kyoma’s life before Grendel and see how he became part of them, and the aftermath. Also, we learn who Miyabi is.

Characters & Story (with Commentary)

Topic 1: Kyoma Before Grendel & The Girl Who Changed His Life (Kyoma)

From the beginning Kyoma has been a mysterious figure. One in which we are given hints and vague information about when it comes to his past, but in this episode we get almost everything you could ask for. Well, to a certain degree. For the primary focus is Kyoma and his relationship with Miyabi, a girl who looks a bit too young for Kyoma, but without his age being reveald, it is hard to say if he looks older than he is or she looks younger than she is. Either way, the mystery that was Miyabi gets solved and we learn that she was Kyoma’s love interest.

Now, as for who Kyoma was before her, and what he was doing with his life? Well, outside of establishing he liked to fight, we get nothing. Pretty much all we see is Kyoma and Miyabi relationship go from him seeming like a protective brother to them falling in love.

Topic 2: The End of Joy & Happiness (Kyoma)

Which of course doesn’t last. But rather than it be Kyoma’s fault, it is a degenerative muscle disease. Leading to how Kyoma became a Beast of Grendel and why he has a hatred for coils. To begin, upon learning Miyabi has this disease, naturally Kyoma prepares to rough up and ask whoever he can to fix her, heal her, or what have you. The only name though which seems capable of giving Miyabi a chance however is Dr. Seira Yurizaki. Who, at that time, was working on what surely were the prototypes before beings like Mira were possible and Kyoma storms past security, and nearly all of Dr. Yurizaki’s guards, to get to her and beg for his girl to be considered.

However, one guard, Colin Keys, he doesn’t make it past. But Mr. Keys is the one which introduces Kyoma to the possibility of becoming a Grendel and notes it is Shido Yurizaki’s idea, the Grendel team. Leading to Kyoma accepting and Miyabi being accepted into the program. Now as for why Dr. Yurizaki started Grendel? Well, that is only a blurb uttered by one of the collectors which hints that rather than New Tesla possibly being the ones who striked first, it might have been Dr. Yurizaki with his beast of Grendel. For, apparently, there was internal conflict for 3 years within New Tesla and it all came to a head at Easter Island. A place where New Tesla performed some of their most dangerous and experimental projects at “Ground Zero.” Hence why the place is like a fortress and now is barren post whatever Kyoma, Al, and etc., did.

Oh, before I forget, the reason why Kyoma doesn’t like coils, despite being a user of such things in his weapons formerly, is because they didn’t save Miyabi’s life. In fact, Dr. Seira Yurizaki made such a mistake that while Miyabi’s body remained intact, she lost her head. Which sort of makes me wonder if Miyabi’s brain is in Mira’s head, but it seems Miyabi’s brain was lost to Dimension W. Leading to another theory that perhaps the figure Salva speaks about in topic 3, could it be similar to the last case Kyoma worked and perhaps that was the writers foreshadowing what was to come?

Topic 3: Salva’s Quest at Easter Island (Silva and Kyoma)

Salva is trying to start a war to prevent one. It is hard to understand, even after this episode, what war he is trying to prevent, but in front of New Tesla’s 59 other tower directors (of which one looks like Steve Jobs), he convinces them to go along with his plan. One which isn’t going to use New Tesla’s own to go to Easter Island and investigate an active coil there, but he wants almost expendable collectors. Of which, there is Elizabeth and Loser; two American representatives in K.K., a black guy, and Jason Chrysler, who is a blonde body builder type; then come the Mexican collectors Scorpion Cat Cassidy and Sanchos who have some interesting looking body modifications; an Eastern European mobster type named Yuri Antonov; and then two weirdos named Harry & Debbie who look like the Ice Climbers from Super Smash Brothers: Melee.

Together they are trying to find this coil which exist within the nothingness of Easter Island in which Dimension W is incredibly weak. All to the tune of 50 million dollars. Something Kyoma and Mira don’t hear about for rather than go on Salva’s ship, Kyoma employs Albert’s New Tesla craft since he wants his gasoline powered car to whip around the island. For, as you know, often Kyoma is at a disadvantage for being coil-less, so even with the weak power of Dimension W at Easter Island, he wants to make sure he can make up for his handicap. Though considering Salva’s ship crashes due to some weird energy ball killing two pilots, it seems he may not have as much to worry about as he thought.

Highlights

Meeting More Collectors and Seeing New Tesla’s Board of Directors: Thus far collectors have come and gone and outside of Loser and Elizabeth, none were on screen enough to present the idea they have personalities. Now with this Easter Island arc however, it seems we are getting a diverse group of unique collectors who are established enough to remember. But the real fun is going to come from seeing them compete against one another for that coil, as well as deal with deal with the conditions of Easter Island.

The Internal Battle of New Tesla: While barely covered, I found the idea that there was a possible internal war between doctors Yurizaki and New Tesla to be interesting. For while a good part of the episode dealt with Kyoma’s past, there does remain the mystery of Mira’s purpose as well as how and why both Yurizaki’s left New Tesla and started doing their work from home. Much less, why was Dr. Seira killed?

On The Fence

Kyoma’s Backstory: With Kyoma’s backstory mostly featuring his relationship with Miyabi, while it answered a lot of questions in terms of how and why he joined Grendel, and why he has an aversion to coils, I feel like we didn’t necessarily get to know him in the process. All we were given was this guy who likes to fight who fell in love and this girl drastically, without asking to, changed his life. But as for why he likes to fight, or why he even had the rough demeanor which only got worse, that isn’t touched upon at all. Yet I feel that something is better than nothing considering how much time was dedicated to trying to answering a few pertinent questions.