After a break, thanks to certain blog stuff and other news and posts, we return to Kaiba, with a look at episode 4, Grandma's Room of Memories. I know I am rather behind, since the latest episode I watched was episode 7 already, but heck, I do rewatch these episodes to get a better understanding of them and to be able to give a clearer post as to what the episodes try to get across to the viewer. It is good to rewatch them to appreciate the beauty, just like I rewatched Bartender as well to absorb everything. Beautiful series are like that.Before I begin, I would like to thank the anonymous comment poster for correcting me regarding what Chroniko called Kaiba last episode. She called him "Hippo", "kaba" in Japanese and not Kaiba. Thanks. Anyway, here we go.Kaiba 04 - Grandma's Room of MemoriesThe Grandma that finds Kaiba and fixes his hippo body. Episode SummaryRather touching episode as well, though it did not make me as sad as the previous did. Episode starts off by showing Vanilla chasing after Kaiba (in Chroniko's body) on this light gravity planet, which looks more like a rotating asteroid, with a lighthouse on it. Kaiba switches to his hippo form to avoid Vanilla, and in so doing an old woman finds him and sees his wound sustained from episode 2. She brings him to her place, the only one on the entire planet, in front of the huge lighthouse.Because of this, Kaiba comes into contact with the old woman and her grandsons, and Vanilla also catches up. In an action-packed scene, Vanilla manages to get frozen, while the other twin brother returns and both start talking about their dead grandfather, the mention of which immediately threw the old woman into a deep sleep.Vanilla also manages to see inside Kaiba's memory bank, which is different from the norm, he mentions. This is a first look inside Kaiba's newly imprinted memory bank since he has officially lost all his memories. It may be that his old ones are hidden somewhere, as will be seen later.The kids then forced Kaiba into their grandmother's memories, afraid that Kaiba was after their treasure, which they wanted for themselves. Here is where it gets interesting. Apparently she has a memory bank in place, a fake one, full of blank books. On top is hidden an entry into the real memory bank, a vast room of books of the old lady's memories. She then sits at a table in the center of the room, and Kaiba advances to her. Seems he can talk in his hippo form in her memory bank, and thus he brings to her the reminder that her lover, the grandfather, is really dead, reviving old memories.The old man later appears in her memories, and explains why he died. The grandmother then decides to join him on the other side, and thus dies with Kaiba still in her memory bank. While running away, Kaiba hears her final words to him.Kaiba also manages to tell the kids where the supposed treasure is, but the treasure is nothing more than photos and memories of the old folks' past, as well as photos of the kids when they were infants. He then unfreezes Vanilla after returning to Chroniko's body and asks Vanilla to make a grave for the old lady. The part where the hochi flowers bloomed at the graves of both old folks was particularly beautiful.Kaiba also regains a fragment of his memories at the end when Vanilla shows him a sort of food that had a third "hair" growing on it. This is quite the hint that he might yet regain his memories.Kaiba at Grandma's table in her Room of Memories.IssuesNot surprisingly, the first issue we find is the one that the grandma mentions of her grandsons, that of not looking beneath and instead always setting their sights on something that they could not possibly obtain without first getting their foundation right, as well as seeing how they were affecting the world around them in a myriad of ways if only they would take a closer look. This is a prime example of mankind doing the same - affecting the world around them without bothering to take a closer look all the time, and setting their sights on the wrong things without a good foundation first to get them off the ground.The second is mentioned as the grandma moves to the other side. The world is the same over, no matter big or small, she said, because what truly matters is the size of your heart. Again, I wonder how many will keep this in mind.Lastly, the twins dying in the ship at the end of the episode and the dialogue between the two shiphands who found them is of worthy note. As they observed, it is hard to live elsewhere after you lived at a certain place for a long time, especially if the two places are worlds apart.The planet showing the lighthouse and the small house that the grandma and her grandsons live in.My ImpressionsI liked this episode. The focus though was not so much on the issues that were observed beforehand as much as the love between the two old folks. All the grandfather wanted to do was to give his wife a chance to smile again, and having found the rare flower that cemented their love in the first place, certainly he could not pass the chance to give her a reason yet again to smile. Unfortunately, the risk he took was too large and he died.The memory bank is an allusion to the subconscious side of us. This can be confirmed by the unlocking of the old woman's memories when she was reminded that her lover had died. I am sure many folks know by now that our subconscious, in an attempt to protect our minds, sometimes hide or "forget" traumatic events and incidents. But they can also be found or "unlocked", like in this episode, through various means and jolts.The old woman helping Kaiba with his wound was expecting some reward in return. Seems like it was telling me there is no free lunch in this world, though Kaiba certainly wanted to give her something in return, evident from the way he rubbed his newly patched part, when he was looking at the fake memory bank.I loved the way they presented the effects of the twins on the world around them, and how the old woman remembered it all and noted it down, yet she still feels sorry for them in the end because their parents left them in the lurch and made them what they were today.Great move on the part of the producers by making the old folks grow through the times in their conversation. If it was the same seiyuu throughout for each (I doubt it), I would have to say they did a fabulous job switching from young to old voices throughout.Finally, a hint has arisen as to Kaiba's memories being hidden or locked somewhere, and the fact that his memory bank is different from the norm seems to subtly tell the viewers that Kaiba is no ordinary person. Yet no further clues are available except to Neiro being his girlfriend in the past at the end of the episode.Overall, this was another fine episode. The next episode will have more issues connected to it though.
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