This episode is just freakin’ weird. In it, Techno creates a slug monster from bean soup, creates a cheap monster suit for Yamakawa X that fuses with his DNA and turns him into a monster, and finds another missile (which he promptly names Bear) to be buddies with Mimi.
Any more of a synopsis is pretty much futile: the episode stands, like all the others in the show, to further the relationship between Hitomi and Techno. By now, Hitomi seems to have accepted Techno’s affections or at least she doesn’t just scream and runaway at the sight of him, which would be a perfectly reasonable reaction to his presence. She even gives him the benefit of the doubt when Yamakawa X comes to the school and Techno zaps him into a giant Yamakawa X to defeat the soup monster.
We get to see more of Yamakawa X’s home life here, which is one of the most appealing aspects of the entire series. His futile efforts to be different have earned the antipathy of both his mother and brother, who attempt to kill him throughout the episode for being such a miserable disgrace. Yamakawa doesn’t even get a break in Techno’s little fantasy sequence, where he imagines his unwitting rival becoming popular: X is still griping and unhappy when the girls are hugging and praising him.
“A Heart of Science Is a Heart of Love” doesn’t develop much, in theme or character or anything, but it is entertaining, especially in Yamakawa X’s scenes. The only thing you can really glean from it is that Hitomi is either really passive or she’s just as intrigued by Techno as she’s scared by him. This is a point on which a number of people seem to really depart from the series: Techno is just a sick bastard, a stalker, and Hitomi oughta shoot him in the face and call it a day. I don’t think that Techno is that antagonistic. He’s just oblivious to the reactions of those around him; he’s a narcissist, trying to make the world conform to his bizarre fantasy life, and discounting information that doesn’t fit.
Rating :B
