We return to Kaiba today with a look at its fifth episode, titled "Abipa - The Utopian Planet". This episode seemed fairly normal, until you realize the issues that really are involved and being shown to the world.Kaiba 05 - Abipa - The Utopian PlanetKaiba, Patch and Quilt in Patch's body factory.Episode SummarySeemingly a Utopian planet, Abipa does have some of the ideals that Utopia, in Kaiba's world, might have. Free food for all, the ability to change bodies any time you want if you can afford it, a free world, basically. There are also people going around taking care of the itty bits of society, such as automatic junk collectors and things like that.Yet as we also find out, Abipa is not as good as it seems. Patch for one certainly was angry at the way he was treated hundreds of years ago and at how his products turn out for society to be used as fashionable statements instead of what he originally intended, which was the sake of necessity. Upset at the way people threw away old bodies just for new ones in order to look better, he started churning out bodies he found useless, and people still bought them anyway.Since his memory is jam-packed he cannot remember anything new, each day is different for him and yet the same. He gets through each day blind as well, since he gave his eyes to his dog, Quilt. He had salvaged Quilt from the disposed bodies of dogs from long ago, and made her body a patchwork of discarded dogs all but the eyes.We then find out that Quilt is actually using the memories of a woman who found Patch and cleaned his workshop, and took care of him throughout her life, even beyond her body's death, when she converted to a memory chip. Patch never knew of her existence until he saw the chip and inserted it into Quilt's body.It is inferred that the hooligans appeared at the end due to the "gold" that both Kaiba and the man mentioned, but this is not explicitly stated nor confirmed. Whatever the reason, Quilt lost her body but her memories were intact, while Patch was broken by the hooligans later. And at the end, Quilt once again becomes the woman she once was, and expresses her will to once again take care of Patch, by repairing his body, keeping her love for him, despite him not knowing her, alive.We also finally get a hint to Kaiba's past - the legendary Warp, prince of the universe and controller of memories. Nothing else was mentioned and it is expected that later episodes might yet shed more light on Kaiba's past. It is interesting that Popo gave him the nickname in episode 1, and is likely that there is some sort of connection.Patch and the woman in the flashback from the stationary camera.IssuesJam-packed with issues we always overlook in a sense. First of all Abipa, as mentioned, looks like but is not exactly a Utopian planet. Indeed it seems ideal for the masses, but there are always disgruntled minds around. The free food is also taken from discarded bodies, a great way of recycling but one wonders about the food.Then, the next one comes from Patch. His monologue regarding how his bio-tech got copied for entertainment and fashion purposes and not for necessity as he originally planned much describes mass consumerism in the world today. Something that was created for necessity, and later became a fashionable statement or used for entertainment purposes instead, I suppose we could think of many such examples if we put our minds to it. People then lap these up eagerly in their search for "happiness", thinking that owning something or being "fashionable" can help them stay in with the times or make them blend in. In short, did they need what they buy? Most likely, like the real world most of the time, the answer is a firm "no".The final huge issue comes from the revelation of exactly who Quilt is. As Patch observed in the flashback Kaiba saw on the stationary camera, he always had everything he needed around him, and yet he never bothered to know the source of where they all came from. Much like Patch, most of us take for granted the existence of many things and issues that come to us, and never bother to think about where they originated from. The woman was not ignored by Patch, but rather just never seen by him. It certainly deeply reflects how many developed countries' peoples behave and think nowadays.One minor issue was at the end of the episode, where the man mentions that Warp probably did not want a town such as this. This brings us back to the first point, which was the question of whether Abipa was truly Utopian.Warp, the Prince of the Universe and the controller of memories.My ImpressionsWonderful episode in turns of issues. They really masked the issues well and put them across in a very nice way, such that if you did not think about it, you probably might just forget the episode for all its honesty. I really loved the way Patch described Abipa, it seems to be a description on a minor scale of contemporary society today.Then there was the woman who later became Quilt, her devotion to him through the years never waned. And yet Patch did see her, she was always in his memories, but he never remembered her. Perhaps this is an allusion to the fact that some things we see are never remembered by us truly for what they are until they are gone...or sometimes, we may never remember them at all. Patch definitely did not remember her despite having her images inside his head, as Kaiba saw.The stationary camera also explained the situation perfectly, and how the woman kept quiet throughout the recordings was kind of legendary in the sense that it showed the viewer just how we ignore or take for granted certain things, just like Patch did whenever he worked on his projects. When he was hungry, food was there. When he needed recharging, the plug went in. When he needed tools, they were there. And finally, when he required a memory chip, there was one. Yet he had not the slightest idea how it got there, or how any of the things were always there for him. He never bothered about their origins and took for granted everything. In a way, it might reflect how absorbed he was in trying to rebel against the world, but it certainly was sad too that he never chose to see the one who truly cared about him.As for Warp, even if it is truly Kaiba, I question now if he can ever get back his real body after losing it in episode 2. Not to mention, there seems to be a reason for why he experiences all these side stories while searching for his lost memories and looking for his past. Interesting inferences that the story tries to have us make, indeed.
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