Back on the beat as an Electronic Investigator, Echika finds herself up against a challenging new case: a string of assaults committed against people related to the RF Model Amicus. To make matters worse, victim testimonials suggest that the perpetrator is none other than Echika’s aide, Harold. As the stakes grow higher and the pair continue their investigation despite the rift forming between them, the true distinction between humans and machines becomes all too apparent. When the shocking truth about Harold comes to light, Echika struggles to make an agonizing decision…
While still great, it felt like the author was trying to find her footing with this one, but I’m glad I kept going with this series! The third volume brought me right back in!!
The best, most interesting part of this novel comes towards the end, when Harold's creator invokes the spirit of Victor Frankenstein. She says that Frankenstein meant to create a man, not a monster, but ended up with the latter, and that's such an off interpretation of the novel that I have to think it's on purpose. (Kikuishi has clearly done a lot of research, as the bibliography attests.) My working theory is that she sees Harold and the other two RF models as monsters because of their ability to think, and that's why she acts the way she does, whereas Echika is coming to see Harold as more and more human. What if Dr. Frankenstein had seen his creation as a man and not a monster?
Shelley's book encourages us to look at the fact that Frankenstein's creation is more of a human than Frankenstein himself, and that by tampering in God's domain, Victor made himself less human. That's who Harold's creator is, and that makes Echika her opposite: the person who looks at a monster and sees a man, and perhaps makes him into one because of it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Once again Echika is ineffective at doing anything except being played by a machine and getting kidnapped/damseled.
Author thinks that phrenology is a valid science.
Also Farman should have gotten with Carter. Men always badger women in anime into getting with them so he should have just hooked up with her. But of course women get the short end of the stick in everything because misogyny is the oldest bigotry and we have no laws for hate crimes against women.
Still good, but it felt a little bit lack compared to vol 1. Still enjoy character development, and drama but conclusion to the crime involved seems forced. But overall still good.