| Man or Machine? Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier | |
|---|---|
| Season 2, Episode 6 | |
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| Air date | June 2, 2002 (TV Tokyo) July 24, 2004 (Cartoon Network AM block) |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Monster Island |
Next Frozen Time |
Man or Machine? (機々械々, A Machine's Machinery) is the sixth episode of the second season and the thirty-second episode overall of Cyborg: 009 The Cyborg Soldier. It loosely adapts the one-shot chapter "A Machine's Machinery" from the 1980s run of the manga.
Plot Summary[]
Albert is asked by Professor Gilmore to investigate an old castle in Germany where strange things have been reported happening. Albert goes in to investigate, only to be attacked by a robot duplicate of himself who has all of the same powers he does!
Recap[]
Dr. Gilmore, 003 and 009 are on a flight and eventually land in an airport. Dr. Gilmore tells 003 and 009 that he needs to make a phone call as he is worried about "something". The phone call is to 004 in his apartment in Germany, who answers the phone. 004 heads out to a castle in the German countryside at Dr. Gilmore's request, as strange events have been reported there. Gilmore also informed 004 that he and the others are stuck at the airport but will meet up with him later. 004 parks his car near the entrance to the castle as a dark storm rolls in and thunder cracks in the air. 004 enters the castle and is startled by an owl flying at him, which then flies and lands back in its nest to protect her babies. 004 explores the ruined halls of the castle and then goes up the stairs as security cameras hidden behind mirrors watch his every move. A large chunk of pillar falls from the ceiling, which 004 dodges, and then a large rock hurtles toward him which he destroys with a superhuman flurry of rapid punches. 004 realizes this means he is not alone and goes to find his attacker, unaware the assailant is above him in the shadows with menacing glowing green eyes.
The attacker records 004's movements and reflexes and analyzes them, then opens fire on his target. 004 hides behind a pillar and recognizes the blast as that from a Super Gun. 004 chases his attacker and tries to shoot at him, but his gun is shot out of his hand and the pillars start to come down on him. 004 uses his machine gun hand to break one of them and pass through after jumping. 004 faces the silhouette of his attacker, only to be shocked to discover it is a double of himself! The 004 duplicate uses his electromagnetic knife in an effort to kill 004, but Albert counters with his own and clash steel against steel. Albert delivers a brutal blow which causes the 004 duplicate's head to spin and makes mechanical noises as it resists falling backwards and recovers, spinning its head back into its proper position. Albert realizes this means the 004 duplicate is a robot as the two resume clashing with their electromagnetic blades. The flurry of slashes cause parts of the castle to start coming down and the 004 robot delivers a powerful punch that sends Albert flying. Albert tries to hide for a second to get his second wind and the 004 robot calculates Albert's next move of shooting it from the air and counters with its own gunfire with pinpoint accuracy. Albert's shoulder is injured and he wonders how the robot can predict his moves and who built it. Albert tries using a missile attack at close range, but the 004 robot counters with its own creating a blast that knocks them both back. Albert tries to hide for the time being, worried as the robot has all of the same weapons and abilities he does and is programmed to predict his attacks.
Albert gets the 004 robot's attention by shooting a stone chair sculpture and hiding for a surprise attack, only for the 004 robot to sneak up from behind and grab Albert from behind a wall, hurling him across the hall. Albert lies unconscious, dreaming of his past battles as a cyborg and remembers his remodeling by Dr. Gilmore and how uncomfortable he felt about moving further and further away from being human. Dr. Gilmore has seemingly arrived and tells the now conscious Albert the 004 robot was created with the latest technology to potentially replace him as an experiment. Gilmore berates Albert for relying on outdated components and he could become a more powerful weapon. Albert replies that he is not a weapon, but Gilmore says he isn't human anymore so therefore he is. In order to prove his worth, Gilmore says Albert must prove he is the superior weapon and vanishes. Albert struggles to get up and then staggers to a spiral staircase and climbs up the stairs. The 004 robot cases after him and Albert tries to slow it down by shooting at it to no avail. As the robot gets closer, Albert fires a missile at close range which hits the stairs and causes the robot to plummet back down to the castle's ground floor. Exhausted, Albert heads out of the castle to the courtyard, only to be ambushed by the 004 robot, kicked, punched and shot a point blank range. As Albert is slammed into a wall, the owl's nest and babies are knocked from a castle windowsill and fall, with the mother owl flying down trying to catch her babies. Albert is about to be blasted by the robot 004's missile, but sees the baby owlets in danger. The robot predicts that Albert will go right and fire his machine gun, but instead Albert moves toward the fallen nest and protects the owlets from the falling debris caused by the explosion of the missile. This confuses the 004 robot as it tries to process the error in its calculation and Albert uses this opportunity to damage the 004 robot in a hail of gunfire. Albert strikes the robot with a flurry of blade slashes and then fires a missile after the robot misses with its own, which hits the robot and pins it to a tree. The tree gets struck by lightning and the electricity from the bolt destroys the robot. Dr. Gilmore appears and is upset that his creation is destroyed and thinks that a mere cyborg was just lucky and this proves nothing. Albert moves toward Dr. Gilmore and then the sound of gunshots ring out in the rainy air. "Dr. Gilmore" is revealed to be another robot duplicate impersonating the real thing so Albert would doubt the real Dr. Gilmore. He knew the robot Gilmore was a fake as the real Gilmore valued him as a person and not as a tool or a weapon. Albert then leaves to get out of the rain, commenting to himself that rain is bad for machines.
As the sky clears, Albert checks on the mother owl and her baby owlets as he had put the nest back where it was. He thanks the owl as his desire to save them saved his own life and apologizes for disturbing their home as he leaves the castle. Albert meets up with Dr. Gilmore, 003 and 009 and it is revealed that the robot Gilmore was the one who called Albert as the real Dr. Gilmore called his house in Japan to tell 006 that he left the iron on by accident. 003 and 009 tease him and say that Dr. Gilmore needs a wife after revealing he irons his own clothes, with Albert teasing that 006 would be a great wife for Dr. Gilmore. The group imagines 006 in drag and trying to cook for him and laugh, which Dr. Gilmore gets upset over their supposed disrespect towards their elder and screams he is never getting married.
Notes[]
- In the final scene of the US dub by Sony Pictures, Professor Gilmore is teased about needing a wife and that maybe 006 should be his wife. Gilmore says "I'm not getting married! Especially not to Kramer in drag!" This is a flubbed or ad-libbed line, as the Kramer he is referring to is Steve Kramer, 006's voice actor. Evidence of this line being a blooper kept in can be heard in the foreign adaptations that used the dubs' scripts, where the line is written as "I'm not getting married! Especially not to 006 in drag!".
- The English dubbed version of episode is also notable in having an uncensored line of cursing, for as much trouble and censorship as the dub had gotten early on for utterances of "Hell" (which lead episode 3 to be redubbed and censored by the time of the DVD release). During the fight against the 004 robot, there is an instance of "Damn" from 004.
- The Japanese title of the episode involves the characters 機 (ki) and 械 (kai) repeated twice, for a pun on "machine" and "machinery"; hence one possible translation for it being "Machine's Machinery". An unofficial translation of the manga chapter had gone under the title "The Bizarre Machine".