Subculture Anime Blog

Holy crap!

Summary:

Deciding to face Kiryu, Ikuto gets the map to his location from Obaba. She warns him of the trials that await him, but he is determined to see his sister. While on their way, Ikuto and Suzu notice that they both did not get any sleep the previous night. Ikuto was worried about his sister, and Suzu was worried about Ikuto leaving the island. Unknown to the two, the rest of the girls have been following them. Suzu runs towards daifuku that has been layed out, until she and Ikuto find themselves in a large maze. This is all according to Chikage’s plan, but Rin has put up maps to the exit in pity for the two. Ayane confronts Ikuto and Suzu after opening the final door for them, but they walk right past her. Chikage unleashes a large boulder towards the maze, but Ikuto and Suzu are saved by the Tiger. This results in the girls getting smashed instead.

Tiger reveals that he cannot let Ikuto get to Kiryu, as this is the true duty of the island’s four protectors. He begins to attack Ikuto, but he is soon stopped by tripping over Mei Mei. She and Toono have arrived to help Ikuto, in payback for what he has done for them. While the two face Tiger, Ikuto and Suzu hurry on to find the Panda in their way next. Panda has been bribed with food by Machi, so he also begins to attack Ikuto. Shinobu suddenly appears to block his blow, and she also begins fighting for her master Ikuto. Next, Ikuto finds that even Suzu’s master cannot let them through. Suzu insists that it is her turn to help Ikuto, even if it is against her own master. Suzu seemingly catches him, but finds that it is an impostor. Many copies surround Ikuto and Suzu, but Ikuto eventually catches the real one by realizing that his second tail would move a certain way.

Walking up a snowy area, the two open a door to find a key. However, this is soon taken by Kararage. Ikuto finally learns that he is none other than the fourth lord, which puts him in shock. Kararage throws Ikuto a sword, before engaging combat with him. Things start to look bad for Ikuto, but Suzu blocks one of Karage’s attacks with her own body. Ikuto prepares to fight once again after hearing Suzu’s words, and this time he pulls off a technique to successfully defeat Kararage. While taking the boat to Kiryu’s island, Ikuto tells Suzu that Kararage probably did not want him to lose, which is why he threw him a sword in the beginning of the fight. Underneat them is Ayane, who is still not ready to give up.

Impression:

This week’s episode was sweet! This isn’t even coming from my want to defend this show. It was actually that good. The one thing I will say is that it seems like they took this entire series’ production value and put it in these last episodes. The animation quality was excellent for this episode, and I mean excellent. I’m just not sure if that will make up for the rest of the series at this point. The girls’ intervention was not as annoying as usual, and the real bulk of this episode was spent on the fights. I never thought I’d get so excited about Ikuto fighting a chicken. Tonkatsu also got a bit of screen time which always makes me happy. Wasn’t his snow suit awesome? This really reminds me of the last few episodes of Sumomo mo Momo mo, where the last episodes were spent on some major fight. I’m actually really looking forward to the last encounter next week, and Airantou will finally end soon afterwards.