Orinoko (episode)

Orinoko (episode)
Episode:	21
Kanji Title:	オリノコ
Romanji Title:	Orinoko
US Airdate:	September 23, 2023
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Orinoko is the third and final episode of season 4, FLCL: Grunge and the twenty first overall. It premiered on Adult Swim on the Toonami block on September 23, 2023 at midnight ET.

Synopsis

A young bespectacled girl named Orinoko spends her days scavenging the local mountains for scrap metal for her bladesmith father. During her one of her searches, she comes across a lady who is trying to reassemble a Vespa with scrap parts. As the destruction of Okura City begins, she soon finds herself fleeing from her home before running into her friends, Shinpachi and Shonari and discovering their connection to Haruko Haruhara.

Summary

Atop of a mountain of junk and debris, a teenage girl named Orinoko begins to explore the area. She then takes a ladder down into a cavern and continues searching for scrap metal, while also admiring the water and glowing mushrooms. Sometime later, upon returning to the surface, she notice a woman in the distance who is ecstatic after finding the handlebar section for a Vespa. After walking along the coastline and through a bamboo forest, Orinoko arrives at home, where she finds a bag filled with chimaki that is addressed to her. Upon entering, she notices her bladesmith father, looking depressed before his assistant robot welcomes her back home. The father and robot begin forging a knife as Orinoko sorts through the scrap metal she collected earlier. But due to her father being fatigued from an illness and the robot having a poor quality whetstone, the knife is poorly shaped. Although the robot apologizes to Orinoko, she decided to deliver the knife despite it looking bent and not properly formed.

Later that night, she arrives in the alleyway behind Miyabi Sushi and hands the knife to her friend and former classmate, Shinpachi. She apologizes for how it came out, but he tells her not to worry and that he'll treasure it, before handing her the payment. On her way home, she is shocked to find out that he had overpaid and actually gave her 5000 Yen. Suddenly, she notices behind her is the woman from earlier, now wearing a red mini dress and struggling uphill on a bike while informing someone on her cell phone that she is on her way over. Just as the woman hangs up and mentions that she has too many things on her plate, a big rig truck nearly runs her over. Meanwhile back at Miyabi Sushi, as the restaurant prepares to open, Shinpachi's father asks the boy if he knows why the till is short by 5000 yen. Shinpachi simply tells his father that there was a tab and that he'll make sure that the "customer" will pay it back soon.

A couple of days later, Orinoko returns to the cavern and begins to explore using a magnet that her other friend and former classmate, Shonari, gave her the night before. Upon returning to the surface and feeling better, she notices the woman from earlier now only a few feet away from her, as she tries to piece together a now partially assembled Vespa. Orinoko decides help the woman out by kicking over a wheel that fits the Vespa. The two engage in conversation, where Orinoko explains that her father is a bladesmith and that he needs high quality metal. She then notes that due to the poor quality of metal around the area, she can only find scrap metal that he uses to make pots and knives, though she knows that deep down, he wants to make a high quality katana. To show her gratitude for the wheel, the mysterious woman offers to help Orinoko with finding any precious steel as well as a whetstone.

The next day, as Orinoko works on some melted steel, she nearly injuries herself. As the robot stops by to check on her, an upset Orinoko tells the robot to leaver her alone, before slamming the hammer down and damaging the robot's monitor screen. Just then, the mysterious woman arrives. While sitting on the porch, after receiving a cup of tea, the mysterious woman points out the robot seems to be nice and thought it was Orinoko's mother. Orinoko points out that the robot is just a robot, as her mother had died when she was 12. She then mentions how the robot was given to her father by the government as a form of financial assistance to artisans who were preserving traditions. But as her father became ill, the robot started doing more household work and even fussing over Orinoko like a mother, despite it being nothing more than a robot that was meant to help with sword making. Despite nearly falling asleep at Orinoko's speech, the mysterious woman reveals that she was able to find a whetstone for her. A moment later, it was revealed that the stone was originally part of a stomach that belonged to Dainari, the older brother of Shonari.

Sometime later, Orinoko is able to find the precious steel known as "Tamahagane" and presents it to her father while suggesting that they make a katana together. Despite Orinoko's father being ill and fatigued, the trio begin working thorough the night before finally making a high quality katana. As he admires the final product and see his dream come true, he suddenly collapses in front of her. With his final few breaths, he tells his daughter to see to the sharpening and that he was finally able to create the greatest katana. Later that evening, Orinoko arrives at Shonari's apartment and gives him the katana, being reluctant to tell him that it was her father's final produt before passing away earlier that day. Although he is hesitant to take it, she tells him to have the sword and use it to protect someone that he loves. Suddenly, the siren from the Medical Mechanica building goes off, while at Miyabi Sushi, the mysterious woman, who is revealed to be Mayor Kuroiwa's date, Haru is watching their dinner companion Director Yamaguchi go berserk. Hearing the siren, Shonari belives that the siren is a sign for him to go and fight, leaving Orinoko behind as he joins his brother to fight in the main district.

Back at home, Orinoko and her father's robot mourn, with his urn currenly placed inside the home. As Orinoko worries about not knowing what to do now as both of her parents are dead, the robot tells her that she is free to go wherever she wants to, such as finding the future. Not understanding about going to find the future, the frustrated Orinoko asks the robot to explain it, but the robot tells her that it is something Orinoko must find on her own. Orinoko then tells the robot to stop acting as if it was her mother, before it suddenly shakes and shutdown. As Orinoko tries to figure out what just happened, the monitor reveals that it is rebooting before showing a file named "Saya's Memories" and upon opening the file, dozens of subfolders are shown, each containing images of a younger Orinoko and her father. Realizing that these images are from her mother's perspective, a file named "Latest Memories" pops up, revealing that as she was dying, Orinoko's tearful father is shown holding his wife's hand and connecting her to the robot in order to preserve her memories. Just then, the house and surround area begin to violently shake as a giant hand begins to move the Medical Mechanica building across town, as the robot begins to lose its files. Fearing that she will lose the remaining part of her mother, Orinoko finds the backup option and selects it. She then gets a disk and quickly flees just before the iron building crushes her home.

Back in the main district, as Haru is fleeing from the swarm of robot flies that Medical Mechanica sent to throw her off course, Shinpachi and Shonari notice her as they ride on Shinpachi's motorbike on the opposite bridge. Haru then jumps off of her Vespa and demands to know where Atomsk is while attempting to strike the Medical Mechanica building. Just before she can hit the building, the swarm of flies from earlier come together to form a massive robot that knocks her back several feet before firing a laser beam at her. Orinoko eventually arrives in the city only to see the massive building continues its path of destruction, just before her friends pull up next to her. Before Shonari and Shinpachi can explain what happened, Haru suddenly lands in Shinpachi's arm. Upon waking up Haru realizes that Shinpachi's timing was perfect and proceeds to kiss him in front of Orinoko, who realizes that Haru was the mysterious woman that helped her and Shonari, who realized that she was "Ane-San" the woman who recently became the head of the Keshibishi-Gumi and mourned with him after Dainari's death. From the kiss, a horn immediately sprouts from Shinpachi's head. Haru begins to aggressively yank on it before finally using the katana that she took from Shonari earlier to create an opening. As Haru reaches into Shipachi's head, the robot from earlier arrives and starts to charge at her. She eventually finds what she was looking for, a Rickenbacker bass guitar and quickly destroys the robot.

After thanking Shinpachi, Shonari reveals that the katana that Haru used was the one Orinoko gave him, while she reveals that it was the final project that her father made. Feeling bad for losing the katana, Haru decides to make amends by giving Orinoko the last shuttle ticket that she had originally planned to use for herself. As she tells Orinoko to hurry up as the last shuttle will be leaving soon, the remaining Samueda-gumi members arrive and charge at Haru. Haru and the trio then turn around and notice the iron building stop over Junk Mountain, as Atomsk suddenly emerges from the rubble. As the giant bird-like creatures tries to take flight, Haru gets on her Vespa and tries to chase after him. The remaining Samueda-gumi members try to block her but Shonari throws dynamite at them, clearing the path for Haru's escape. Just as she catches up with Atomsk, he quickly turns into a ball of energy and launches himself into the atmosphere. As Haru tries to find another path, Commander Amarao emerges from the alleyway with his gun drawn. Addressing her by her full name "Raharu Haruhara", he orders her to stop but she ignore his orders and drives right into him while hitting him with her bass. After doing so, he is spun into the air and grows a small horn, which she mocks and throws aside before he finally lands on the ground.

The Medical Mechanica building suddenly begins to launch itself up into space, as the determined Haru speeds up and tells herself to keep following Atomosk. Meanwhile, the Samueda-gumi members realize who Shonari is and try to fight him. After knocking several members down, Shonari asks Shinpachi to take Orinoko to the shuttle. He then tells Orinoko that he belongs on this planet and to make him a new katana when she gets to the new world. As she and Shinpachi speed off, she looks back at Shonari, who proceeds to lick off some blood and fight the rest of the Samueda-gumi members. At the airport, she proceeds to ask Shinpachi about what he is going to do. He tells her that he believes his future is on this planet. She then promises to make a high quality chef's knife and katana for him when she settles on the new planet as he sees her off. On the shuttle, Orinoko decides to put the disk into a computer built into the chair in front of her. A line of text appears on the monitor asking if it is Orinoko, implying it is aware. Orinoko then nods and says that it is her.

A brief montage reveals Haruko was able to catch up with the Medical Mechanica building and watches Earth from atop of the building in space, Shinpachi continues to sharpen and polish the knife that Orinoko gave him and Shonari took his brother's place in the Keshibishi-gumi, as he continues to fight the Samueda-gumi.

A few hours later, Orinoko wakes up and admires the blue planet in front of her. A female voice asks her if she not just spacesick. After a light chuckle, Orinoko becomes startled as she notices the monitor type out "Good Morning", causing her to smile. As the screen cuts to black, Orinoko replies by saying "Good morning, Mom".

Songs

• "Runner's High"
• "Funny Bunny"
• "Brand New Lovesong"
• "Last Dinosaur"
• "I Think I Can"
• "Sayonara Universe"
• "Vivid Venus"

Gallery

Orinoko(Episode)/Gallery

Trivia

• At the beginning of the episode, Orinoko receives a bag with chimaki, a type of sticky rice dumpling that is usually served in bamboo leaf.
• After Orinoko proposed making a katana, her father says "Tamahagane", which refers to the type of metal used to make Japanese swords and knives.
• There is a spelling error near the end of the episode. When Amarao confront Haruko, the subtitle shows "Ruharu Haruhara" instead of "Raharu Haruhara"