Utao’s evil shota twin, who we now know is called Kirio, continues the fight from last time and seems to have no concern for people seeing Takemikazuchi and Kukuri fighting in the middle of the city. The fight gets a lot more brutal than the others so far and results in some serious damage. The two Seki also seem to take some hits from being brought to question their own capabilities. And by the end of things the characters end up having to return to the village, where its inhabitants and conflicts are set to play a larger role.
The fight from last episode continues right into this one when Utao catches up to Kyouhei and Hibino. She rushes to try and get Kirio and Takemikazuchi away from them, but then in one of those moments that makes me love this show’s approach to things, she also takes a moment for a quick aside to push the two of them apart lest they get too ‘close.’ A jealous Utao moment in the middle of such a high tension moment was a lot of fun and it’s remarkable how the show can shift from serious to comical and back to serious so fluidly. The only series where I’ve seen serious action and comedy switch back and forth so well is Kidou Senkan Nadesico. And the fight itself was handled just as well once the focus returned to that. The fighting again featured the back and forth, punch-counterpunch style from Aki vs Koushiro and I’m definitely a fan. Kirio obviously had the better command of his Takemikazuchi and won out early on. But several things complicated the fight: ordinary people seeing the fight happen, Kyouhei trying to give advice to Utao, and Utao’s lack of confidence in herself after seeing Kukuri damaged. Then there was the attempt to sneak up on Takemikazuchi and fight in melee, then to move to a forested park to get out of sight. It was a much more complete fight than in most shows, featuring the combat itself, tactics, analysis of the enemy, movement, and the psychological element. Kukuri’s attacks ended up not working, but when cornered it, or Utao, opened up its other hand and was able to absorb a massive beam attack from Takemikazuchi and fire it back. Kukuri lost a hand and Takemikazuchi its arm before the exhausted opponents were separated by Koushiro.
Utao to the rescue!
And then the cockblock…
Aww, it shed a tear after being damaged. Poor Kukuri, you moe mecha god.
Despite being (maybe) twins, Utao doesn’t have nearly the level of control as Kirio. She couldn’t even use Kukuri’s beam because she was too slow with it, meanwhile Takemikazuchi could use his pretty well.
Well, Hibino is actually being somewhat useful now. I guess I’ve been a bit harsh on her, she seems to be getting a little better this episode.
Koushiro drops by to remind Kirio of what his mission actually is: getting Aki.
With Koushiro keeping his eye on the prize the rest of the characters get a break to recover and figure out what to do next. Koushiro might be relentless in attacking Aki but he’s shown himself to be disciplined and keeps his mission in mind. Unlike Kirio who seems unprepared and impulsive like he was sent to the field before he’s ready. He even starts to breakdown a bit like Utao did after both kakashi lose a limb. At home Utao, Kyouhei, and Hibino tend to Kukuri as best they can but it’s decided that they will need to return to the village to have the repairs done. Before they leave there is some downtime for Utao teasing (always fun) and Hibino starts looking at the inner workings of Kukuri’s damaged hand, finding that it’s just wood and cables but somehow is much more capable than its materials would suggest. The rest of the episode is slower, but arriving at the village does shed a bit of light on the Hyuga family. Kirio is summoned back to the Hyuga leader where he’s beaten for his mistakes until Koushiro intervenes and takes his partner away like the suave mofo that he is. The Hyuga so far seem to have a reputation as more brutal than the Kuga and they even look the part. Which makes me wonder again if Aki and now Kirio are what the village made them and not bad from the start. Koushiro even insinuates that perhaps the Hyuga let Aki escape for some unknown purpose. And in the final shot the heads of the Hyuga house seem to be hiding some sort of kakashi too powerful for anyone at present to use. But they’re looking for that special Seki that can, presumably to serve them.
I wonder if she’s some sort of medical student. My mom, a nurse, did a similar thing with the tendon in a crab claw once. It was creepy.
DDDAAAWWWW, moe moe mecha god.
Speaking of DDDDAAAAWWWWW.
Bahahahaha!
Kyouhei hit her weak point for massive embarrassment.
Her expression reminds me of Yukari-sensei driving. It’s not much of a scene for her, but at least she’s developing some personality other than busty love interest.
An old classmate of Kyouhei’s, apparently not too happy to see him. I guess you get shunned if you quit being a Seki.
My impression of Koushiro definitely went way up this episode. Both for sticking to his mission like a professional and for being the seemingly only good one in the Hyuga clan.
Final Thoughts: - While it’s becoming apparent that the Hyuga are the big bad villains here, I’m hoping that the Kuga aren’t going to be left off the hook for the way the village does things too. Kyouhei and Utao’s parent’s didn’t exactly seem all that warm in the brief flashback we’ve had of them, and if the Kuga are big enough to be counted as the opposing faction to the Hyuga then they’re obviously connected to the practices of the village too.
- While it was brief, I liked seeing Kyouhei feeling stupid about falling for Aki’s taunt and flipping the hell out like he did. It’s good to have some conflict and strong emotions in a main character and better still that he reflects on those feelings.
- Kyouhei trying to coach Utao during the fight showed that he must’ve been at least decently skilled as a Seki before he gave it up. I’m guessing that at some point he’s going to come back into the profession or act as a sort of ‘copilot’ for Utao with Kukuri. Though it would be interesting if he went the entire series without ever linking up to a kakashi.
- I enjoyed this episode a lot, but here’s hoping for some Kuuko next time <3 (her father witnessing the fight between Kukuri and Takemikazuchi probably means we’ll see her next week.)
5 Comments
While it was certainly not as exciting as last weeks ep (owing to the lack of Aki & Kuuko), I totally enjoyed this weeks.
On your final thoughts: Agree with you that Kyouhei was probably a badass Seki back in the day, hoping for a showdown between him & Aki near the end of the show. And obviously Kuuko is just the best!
Kyouhei likely controlled Amaterasu before he gave up being a Seki. That or someone else controlled it and he had to stop and/or kill them. That’s my theory anyway. As to who is going to fight him in the end, I’m actually thinking that it won’t be Aki. The two Hyuga leaders were talking about Utao and Kirio being especially talented, so my guess is that it will be one of (or both?) of them.
I was pleasantly surprised by the turn the fight between Takemikazuchi and Kukuri took when Utao started using Kukuri to stalk Takemikazuchi – it made the fight twice as interesting to watch I think.
“but when cornered it, or Utao, opened up its other hand and was able to absorb a massive beam attack from Takemikazuchi and fire it back”
I suspect it might have been a little of both – near the end of the episode that one old guy mentioned something about both Utao and Kirio both seemed able to communicate with the dolls before they were even born, hinting at something possibly very interesting happening to both of them in the future. Right now Utao may just be trying to hard – trying to make up for her older brother.
“And in the final shot the heads of the Hyuga house seem to be hiding some sort of kakashi too powerful for anyone at present to use. But they’re looking for that special Seki that can, presumably to serve them.”
Standard plot development makes me give a high probability that it will be either Kyouhei or Aki
I was really intrigued by the scene with Hibino investigating Kukuri’s broken arm, and highlights one of the things I really like about the show – even the ‘secondary’ characters show expanded awareness of and interest in things around them. I wonder if Hibino may develop into a doll mechanic or something like that?
The stalking and maneuvering definitely made the fight better. It felt like a real battle instead of just one constant head-on confrontation.
To me, Aki seems too obvious to be the villain in the end. It feels like his time for that has passed and now he’s more of an anti-hero that will end up trying to be something of a better person by the end. Given the talk about Utao and Kirio’s powers, I’m thinking that the big showdown will feature one or both of them controlling the hidden, evil-looking kakashi.
Hibino taking a look at the arm might bode well as you say. I would love for her to keep developing as a character since she was pretty much the only one who was dead weight in the first few episodes.
is it just me or does opening post image look like it could have been animated in the 90′s? Kind of looks like something Masumune Shirou might have approved.