UFO Robo Grendizer 3.11

Kirika's Disappearance in the Ice

or Kirika, the young girl that disappeared in the snow

or L'ours polaire (The Polar Bear)

Commander Kirika develops a freezing ray. She is continuing the work of her brother who is now dead. Vega Daio orders her to use it to capture Grendizer and kill Duke Fleed. She has her doubts but agrees to do it.

Kirika arrives on Earth in her spaceship and tests the beam on a small town. Everything is frozen. She attempts to use the beam to kill Duke Fleed, who is investigating the frozen village. Maria is with him. Kirika puts up a fight but they are able to disable her. Duke Fleed and Maria take her back to the Space Science Center. She is disoriented when she wakes up.

Duke Fleed and Kouji go back to investigate the frozen village while Kirika is still at the Space Science Center. Duke Fleed finds her spaceship. He sees the door is open. He steps in but then the door slams shut and he can't get out. Freezing jets of air cool him down.

Kouji radios back to the Space Science Center for help. Maria and Hikaru bring Kirika to her spaceship and ask her to open the door. She is conflicted but goes ahead and does it. She wants to complete her mission but when she sees how Maria and her brother look out for one another she can't bring herself to freeze them. Their relationship reminds her of her relationship with her brother.

The Vegans send a saucer beast to help Kirika complete her mission. Duke Fleed and the others leave Kirika's spaceship and take to the skies to battle the saucer beast. Kirika starts to hallucinate. She pilots her spaceship right at the saucer beast. Her spaceship crashes and she is mortally wounded. Grendizer defeats the saucer beast with some help from his friends.

The episode ends with the team burying Kirika on a mountain side. 

Thoughts

This episode starts with Kirika's memory of her nameless brother's death. What a downer!

Kirika did not disappear in the snow or the ice and there was no polar bear in this episode. What gives? Ok, she hid in the snow briefly but based on the title I was expecting something a little more dramatic than that.

Gandal and Zuril are seen in this episode but don't get very much screen time. There are no scenes that take place at the ranch or that include Danbei.

This episode follows a familiar formula: the Vegans send someone who bears no real ill will toward Grendizer or Earth to kill Duke Fleed. The emissary is captured and develops second thoughts about what they are have agreed to do.

Duke Fleed slaps Kirika when she is in bed recovering and refuses to take the medicine he offers her. This is not the first time physical violence has been used in this series in a domestic setting.

What happened to the frozen village. There was no follow up that I recall to explain what happened to the village or the people that lived there.

This was an ok episode, not quite as weird as some previous episodes. There were rats or swans loaded with explosives. Kirika looked like she stepped out of another anime series. For a moment at the beginning of the episode I wondered if this was a backdoor pilot or crossover of some sort.