Work it
This episode reveals the intentions of the production, as we crawl ever closer to the real identity of the series. More characters make their first appearance (outside of the OP and ED) and many more are to come. But first, some groundwork is to be made and plot to be shown.
Kyouka takes Yuuki into the city for some time off. She’s got a particular location in mind, but doesn’t mention it yet. Also, she catches him stealing a look at her, and scolds him for it. This is anime original.
Kyouka takes Yuuki to her hometown, and tells her of a Mato Disaster that she witnessed as a child that lead to the death’s of many people. One among them had a prominent horn, and was the only Shuuki that survived when the Anti-Demon Corps arrived to help. Kyouka swore to avenge the fallen by killing the horned Shuuki, and wants Yuuki to be prepared for the encounter.
Yuuki convinces Kyouka to visit a cafe with him. In an attempt to get her to open up a bit more, Yuuki mentions his older sister here, and later we’re given some flashbacks to their shared childhood. These imagination sequences were not in the manga – another somewhat notable instance of alteration. The two are able to share a happy moment, and upon seeing Kyouka’s smile, Yuuki is both reminded of and given a new perspective on her beauty.
An emergency call from Mato interrupts the date, and in order to hurry back, Kyouka makes use of her slave powers on Yuuki. This leads to a reward scene as seen below.
Yuuki realizes, over the course of the series, that he holds inner desires that he may not have wanted to know he had. This one isn’t so bad, however. His desire to help undress a girl may indicate that the next natural step could be achieved in time.
Kyouka and Yuuki arrive and are informed that the Shuuki are exhibiting unusual activity, amassing in large numbers at a crater.
We’re treated to some action here, which I usually have little to say about, but the one horned Shuuki appearing is worth mentioning. Obviously, Kyouka recognizes it immediately.
Himari dropped from above in this sequence. I was hoping for a panty flash, but no luck.
They went out of their way to make this bounce as noticeable as possible. Usually you see that level of bounce on zoom-in’s / closeups.
Kyouka and Aoba begin their battle, all the while Aoba is speaking of her younger brother. Aoba isolates Yuuki (not yet knowing it was actually him), and given her surprised face, realizes that it’s him. This scene plays out a bit differently in the manga – in it, she charges towards him and recognizes him from a distance, rather than restrain him with her hair and look at him up close.
Aoba flees after the revelation, probably because she doesn’t want to fight her brother. Kyouka, still furious, wants to chase her, but sees Yuuki staying behind to help protect the injured Himari and Shushu, and realizes her rage got the best of her. Strangely, the anime seems to cut out the part where Kyouka punches herself in punishment, instead opting to show only her clenching her fist, and in the next cut, her hat rolling across the ground.
Upgrades are always welcome here. And what will follow this is another reward scene that will not be interrupted with much text. We get some panty shots.
Three captures here, yes. I feel I have to in order to illustrate a very aggravating “creative” decision that likely will plague the remainder of the series. This absurd blur effect they use in some service scenes ruins the potential for proper stitches. Why they chose to do this, I really don’t know.
While cooking, Yuuki spaces out thinking of the battle with who he suspects may be his sister. The pot boils which is quickly pointed out by Nei, who administers some punishment as his superior (In the manga it was a slap). She’s also quick to praise his contributions and show her appreciation for his performance.
We get an early appearance from Naon and Koko, who were not present at the end of Chapter 8. And (one of) Koko’s powers makes an early entrance as well. It appears the production wanted to rush to show new characters.
The blur doesn’t wait long to strike again. It’s an absolute shame, too – Shushu’s got quite the nice body, and her tits are also a fair bit larger here in the anime. Mostly ruined thanks to the blur. You’ll notice I won’t say much for this and Himari’s upcoming scene – that’s because there isn’t much you need to know. I guess the only thing I can mention is that Shushu is starting to come onto Yuuki quite strongly, outright mentioning that she’s naked when she approached him from behind in the bath. Yuuki calls her bluff, thinking she was clothed and teasing him. To his horror, (read: joy) she actually was naked, causing Yuuki to run in fear of Kyouka’s retribution.
While we’d seen her in the ED, her first real appearance is now. Tenka is the most popular female in the series, (I don’t think it will take long to figure out why) winning both popularity polls by a wide margin. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this remain to be the case throughout its run. In fact, the episode ending at this exact part makes me think it was their strategy to get to her as quickly as possible – that’s definitely a play to win mentality.
The girl that traveled with Tenka is named Yachiho, she’s Himari’s sister, and through her, we’ll get to know a lot more about Himari. More importantly, we’re probably going to see her naked next episode.
Tenka, Chief of the 7th Unit, makes her move almost immediately, but her interest in him is not what it seems at the moment. The episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger with Tenka asking to see Kyouka, Himari and Yachiho having a staredown (their relationship will be explored soon enough), and a cut to the ED shortly after.
The events of this episode covered Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and about half of 9, showing that if they want to get to somewhere quickly, they can do it. This calls into question how future episodes are going to be handled, as this pace is probably not going to be held throughout the broadcast. It’s my guess that just like episode 02, some future episodes may slow down a bit to highlight certain characters. With how cut and paste this show has been already, they can do exactly that, and I still maintain that Kyouka’s reward scene from Chapter 02 will be included later, in what may be a Kyouka focused episode.
