Random Curiosity

ED2 Sequence:

ED2: “Kimi wo Omou Toki” 「きみを想うとき」 by Musubi (結) / Hayami Saori (早見 沙織)

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「鶺鴒紋消失」 (Sekireimon Shoushitsu)
“Sekirei Crest Erasure”

Episode at a Glance:
Sensing that a group of Sekirei and Ashikabi are on the move, Haihane decides to go check it out, even though Karasuba says to leave it up to the Red Sekirei. Natsuo then asks if there was a Disciplinary Force Sekirei prior to him becoming an Ashikabi, so Karasuba explains that there used to be No.08 Yume, the Sekirei of Fate, who rescued No.88 from a group of covert ops that abducted her, but passed away when she entrusted her desire to fly freely and fall in love to the then young Sekirei. Hearing that Yume was strong, Natsuo feels it’s a shame that she died, which Karasuba agrees with, but only because she feels Yume should’ve died at her hands. She then wonders if Musubi will survive the night.

The plan to help Haruka and Kuno escape soon commences, with Kaoru informing everyone that they have a one-hour time limit due to the surveillence satellite that Matsu’s going to hack. As for the plan itself, Kusano is tasked with keeping the inspection guards preoccupied on one of the bridges, while Kaoru and his Ashikabi blow up the transformer station to halt the train on the railroad bridge. During all the commotion, Minato, Musubi, Haruka, and Kuno are to then escape on foot across the railroad bridge. Meanwhile, Homura and Kazehana watch on, with the latter hoping that Minato will show her something special. While the plan seems to off without a hitch, word of this reaches Takami, who’s surprised to find out that Hiroto knew about everything all along.

Because of this, reinforcements arrive earlier than expected, so Matsu tells everyone to run away and abort. During this time, Matsu loses contact with Kaoru after Hibiki accidently fries him and his phone. Minato however is concerned about saving Kusano who’s in the thick of things, but Matsu tells her that the Disciplinary Force will kill Ashikabi without a second thought. Reminded of how he promised to protect Kusano, Minato is determined to save her regardless, so Matsu tells him there’s a chance of plans and to go on ahead to the railroad bridge. Saying she’ll save Kusano herself, Matsu takes off on her motorcycle, telling Tsukiumi that Minato is giving his all out there right now. Having lost contact with everyone, Kaoru tells Hikari and Hibiki that escaping is up to the others, unaware that they’re continuing on with the plan.

Matsu then blows through a M.B.I. deployment with her bazooka and rescues Kusano. Giving her bag full of mini plant capsules, Kusano starts firing them everywhere, causing huge plants to sprout and destroy everything around. Having confirmed Kusano’s rescue, Minato and the others continue on across the railroad bridge, where they run into Benitsubasa and Haihane. During all the explosions, Shiina notices Kusano’s plants and heads out with Yukari in search of her, unbeknownst that Hayato and his Sekirei are waiting for them outside. After some introductions, Musubi says she won’t lose to her juniors and takes on Benitsubasa. After a few exchanges, Benitsubasa says that the Black Sekirei seems to have taken an interest in Musubi, who’s unaware of what she’s talking about, even after Karasuba’s name comes up. Haihane on the other hand is amused, as airheads are Benitsubasa’s natural enemy, prompting Benitsubasa to call Musubi an idiot. In response, Musubi tells Benitsubasa that she shouldn’t call other people idiots, which only annoys her further, so she unleashes an air combo on Musubi and knocks her to the ground.

Back at Izumo Inn, Miya reminds Tsukiumi about how she said she’d become the strongest with Minato. Saying that Matsu and Kusano are doing whatever needed to help Minato, Miya adds how their feelings for him are the same as Tsukiumi’s. Meanwhile, Musubi gets up and continues her fight with Benitsubasa, but is caught off guard trying to save Minato after Benitsubasa destroys part of the bridge with her Gekishin (激震) earthquake attack. During this time, Haihane corners Haruka and Kuno, saying he won’t let them escape this time. Tsukiumi on the other hand decides to head out saying that she won’t become a widow. Having landed her Bunsai (粉砕) pulverization attack, Benitsubasa follows up with another blow while Musubi’s on the ground, knocking her out completely. Crawling over to her, Minato is shocked to see Musubi’s Sekirei Crest fade and screams out for her.

Next Episode:
「縁の鶺鴒」 (Enishi no Sekirei)
“Sekirei of Fate”

Impressions:
While they didn’t explicitly explain what the relationship between Yume and Musubi is, they did allude to the fact they they share a very close “bond“. This includes being played by the same seiyuu. From what I’ve heard, their connection is explained in more detail in the manga, but I won’t go into it here in order to avoid spoiling it for anyone. In any case, this would be the so-called “bridge battle” that everyone’s been anticipating and just about everyone got involved, whether directly or simply watching from the sidelines. Uzume surprisingly didn’t act this episode though, but seeing as she was also looking on, I’m sure she will next time—especially since it’s the finale. Yup, you read that right. There’s no longer any confusion as to whether this series is twelve episodes anymore, because the preview clearly says the next episode is the last.

Aside from that, it was nice to see Matsu come outside of her room for a change, and dressed in a some really revealing leather too. Since her ability seems to be in the area of technological know-how, it’s fitting to see her use a motorcycle and bazooka as her weapons of choice. Speaking of which, it’s amusing watching Kusano take the bazooka and start firing mini plant capsules from it. Thanks to that, it looks like Shiina finally knows where Ku is though, and it’ll be interesting to see how Hayato and his Sekirei get involved too. With everyone coming together at once, I’m not quite sure what to expect in the last episode, but I think there are way too many loose-ends to try and wrap up. For one, Minato and Yukari aren’t even aware that they both have Sekirei, so I’d imagine they’d need at least a couple of minutes to go over that. Secondly, Yukari hasn’t even formed a contract with Shiina, so if they’re going to help, this probably needs to happen at some point. Thirdly, we still have Hayato and his group going after Shiina. Last but not least, there’s the Disciplinary Force to deal with, whose Red Sekirei’s already done a number on Musubi.

In regards to the Disciplinary Force, Benitsubasa made her debut to the series and boy was it a good one. I think out of all the Sekirei they’ve shown us so far, she’s the only one that’s properly proportioned. As such, I actually find that she looks the best out of everyone, especially in this episode where the artwork was on crack and a lot of characters were drawn disgustingly out of proportion. There were some shots of Musubi that looked like she was on steroids and built like a truck, but I refrained from using any of those as screen captures. In addition, Benitsubasa is played by the real-life alcoholic Itou Shizuka, who seems to have a trend going with playing pink-haired characters. (e.g. Katsura Hinagiku in Hayate no Gotoku!, Kakizaki Misa in Negima!, Amanda Werner in BLASSREITER). Shizuka is one of the many seiyuus I really enjoy watching, so naturally I’m already a little biased towards Benitsubasa, even though she’s kind of psychotic. Okay, really psychotic. Anyway, in spite of the badly drawn characters, I did enjoy the fight scene between Musubi and Benitsubasa a lot since they’re both “fist type” Sekirei. Benitsubasa totally stole the show though, unleashing a combo with an air juggle finisher, Bunsai (粉砕), which translates to “Pulverization”.

As for Musubi, the death flags were all over the place last episode as I mentioned, so it didn’t come as a surprise that she was defeated here. They ended the episode on a really good cliffhanger though, with Musubi’s Sekirei Crest disappearing, so I don’t quite understand why they showed us this in the preview right after. I mean, we kind of figured that she wouldn’t die there due to her ties with Yume, the Sekirei of Fate, or even possibly Karasuba, but talk about wasting the suspense they just built up. They even added a new ending theme and sequence that revolves completely around Musubi too. (See above.) In another questionable decision, they decided to censor nothing in episode nine, but this week they decided to completely censor a shot of Musubi’s underwear.

Expectedly, Tsukiumi didn’t make it in time, but seeing as she’s gone off to help Minato and the others now, that’s one more character to throw into the mix for next week’s finale. Given how the series has gone so far, I hope they decide to leave things open-ended for a possible sequel, rather than trying to cram everything into the last 25 minutes, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tidbit: Miya said Alicia Florence’s trademark ARIA line “Ara Ara” in this episode, which was spot on since they’re both played by Oohara Sayaka.

Cast:
- Sahashi Minato (佐橋 皆人) / Tachibana Shinnosuke (立花 慎之介)
- Musubi (結) / Hayami Saori (早見 沙織)
- Kusano (草野) / Hanazawa Kana (花澤 香菜)
- Matsu (松) / Endou Aya (遠藤 綾)
- Tsukiumi (月海) / Inoue Marina (井上 麻里奈)
- Asama Miya (浅間 美哉) / Oohara Sayaka (大原 さやか)
- Uzume (鈿女) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
- Homura (焔) / Kaida Yuki (甲斐田 ゆき)
- Kazehana (風花) / Yukana (ゆかな)
- Seo Kaoru (瀬尾 香) / Konishi Katsuyuki (小西 克幸)
- Hikari (光) / Kaida Yuuko (甲斐田 裕子)
- Hibiki (響) / Neya Michiko (根谷 美智子)
- Sahashi Yukari (佐橋 ユカリ) / Asumi Kana (阿澄 佳奈)
- Shiina (椎菜) / Ishidzuka Sayori (石塚 さより)
- Shigi Haruka (鷸 ハルカ) / Okamoto Nobuhiko (岡本 信彦)
- Kuno (久能) / Akesaka Satomi (明坂 聡美)
- Minaka Hiroto (御中 広人) / Seki Toshihiko (関 俊彦)
- Takami (高美) / Itou Miki (伊藤 美紀)
- Karasuba (鴉羽) / Paku Romi (朴 璐美)
- Benitsubasa (紅翼) / Itou Shizuka (伊藤 静)
- Haihane (灰翅) / Saiga Mitsuki (斎賀 みつき)
- Natsuo (夏朗) / Toriumi Kousuke (鳥海 浩輔)
- Mikogami Hayato (御子上 隼人) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
- Mutsu (陸奥) / Matsubara Daisuke (松原 大典)
- Akitsu (秋津) / Kobayashi Yuu (小林 ゆう)