First Impressions / SEKIREI

「出雲荘奇談」 (Izumosou Kidan)
“Strange Story about Izumo Inn”

Episode at a Glance:
Realizing that Kusano was in the forest, Shiina touches a nearby tree and causes all the greenlife in the area to wither away. Outside the Izumo Inn, Homura discusses with Takami about the status of No.108, who they’re not worried about since the “scary” Miya is around. Takami also doesn’t ask about her new Ashikabi, as she already knows him very well (i.e. as her son). The next morning, Minato prepares to leave for work, unaware that they’re being closely monitored by a girl with glasses. On his way out, Minato sees Ku crying and finds out about Shi-chan, a very close brotherly figure of hers, who also has the power to oppose her abilities. Scared that the “same thing” will happen again if he isn’t around though, Ku is reassured by Minato. Elsewhere, Shiina realizes that Ku is crying.

At work, Minato finds out that Kaoru has quit, while Musubi trains with Miya back at home. After work, Minato comes home and is surprised to find Kaoru there, who’s actually a good friend of Miya’s late husband, but trash to her. Kaoru had already realized that Minato was staying here too, after recognizing the taste from Minato’s bento last time. Upon asking if Ku is doing well, everyone sees her standing frightened of Kaoru in the doorway, so Miya “accidentally” throws a boulder at his face. Hibiki and Hikari then come by to fetch their stupid Ashikabi, who has taken up a job as a freelance problem solver. Shortly after an endurance bath competition, Musubi asks Uzume about her Ashikabi, whose identity is a secret according to her. When asked if she’s lonely though, Uzume simply says she’s happy that they’re both living under the same sky.

In the middle of the night, Kusano stops by the washroom and catches sight of what she believes to be a ghost. After fleeing to Minato’s room, the two of them and Musubi check the premises only to find nothing around. The next morning, Uzume realizes who it was, but is quickly silenced by Miya. Miya then leaves for a grave visit, making Uzume wonder what they’ll do about lunch. Misubi and Kusano volunteer to help out though, so she drags them to her room and dresses them up. Meanwhile, Minato senses another presence in the building as well, but quickly gets distracted by Musubi’s maid outfit. After eating a gigantic portion of curry rice, Minato almost passes out, but the glasses girl is inexplicably attracted to his “sexy” appearance.

Elsewhere, Yukari runs into Shiina on her way to Izumo Inn and is instantly taken away by his bishounen appearance; however, they suddenly get attacked by a blonde Sekirei (Mitsuha), who tries to take him back to her master. Not sure what’s going on, Yukari decides to protect Shiina and runs off with him. During which, Shiina is visually moved by her words about how bishounens are national treasures and suspects that Yukari is someone. Back at Izumo, Musubi also suspects that someone else is in the house, but doesn’t seem to think much of it. She then goes to see Minato after finishing all the cleaning, where she ends up explaining that Sekireis are taken way by the MBI when they’re defeated. With Minato saddened at the thought being separated from his Sekirei, Musubi reassures him that her feelings for him aren’t simply a game. Claiming that being with the person they love the most is their reward for being the last standing Sekirei, Musubi also swears that she won’t be defeated until that day comes.

In angst watching the two of them getting along so well, the glasses girl declares No.88 as her enemy, and later attacks her with sattelite lasers when she’s out shopping. Seeing as she’s late returning home, Minato worries about Musubi, but Miya says not to because it’s not like she’s going through special “hell” training. Taking a bath later, Minato is suprised to see a girl he doesn’t recognize come in and start getting “friendly” with him. As for Yukari, she’s dragged Shiina home while getting away from Mitsuha, while Musubi is calmly dodging a barrage of satellite lasers and wondering what’s going on.

 

Next Episode:
「水ノ鶺鴒」 (Mizu no Sekirei)
“The Water Sekirei”

Impressions:
It turns out the “strange story” of Izumo Inn is none other than Matsu, whose presence at the guest house is purposely hidden from Minato and the others. While I’m not sure Miya’s reasons for doing so (and preventing Uzume from telling them as well), she’s evidently one scary person/Sekirei, so we’ll probably find out why when we find out more about her. Other than Matsu and Miya, I’m a bit curious about Shiina based on what they’ve shown us, and am trying to refrain from reading up about why he has the power to oppose Ku’s vegetation abilities, yet is trying to protect her like a little sister. Speaking of Ku, it was pretty amusing her try to watch Misubi and Miya practicing when she obviously couldn’t bear the sight of them potentially getting struck. Also, I didn’t expect Minato’s sister to have a bishounen fetish, but it sure motivated her in helping Shiina out when he was getting attacked by Mitsuha, who’s played by Yahagi Sayuri (Sairenji Haruna in To LOVE-Ru). Finally, it seems like Minato and Musubi had what could be considered their first sentimental moment together, after Minato found out that defeated Sekireis are taken away from their Ashikabi.

It looks like we’ll see a lot more of Tsukiumi next time, who’s been absent in the past couple of episodes. Also, more of Matsu taking advantage of Minato while Musubi’s preoccupied dodging her satellite lasers.

Last but not least, I should mention that the OP/ED single, “SEKIREI / Dear sweet heart”, was recently released. I’ve been enjoying the full versions a fair bit since I’m quite fond of Saori, Marina, Kana, and Aya’s voices (and the first two’s previous songs), as I’ve mentioned before. “SEKIREI” is probably my preferred song out of the two, but I’m finding “Dear sweet heart” surprisingly catchy the more I listen to it.

Tidbit: The ending sequence always has a different male version of one of the Sekireis in bed with Minato for some reason, and this week was Matsu.

 

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)
– Asama Miya (浅間 美哉) / Oohara Sayaka (大原 さやか)
– Homura (焔) / Kagari (篝) / Kaida Yuki (甲斐田 ゆき)
– Uzume (鈿女) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– 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)
– Takami (高美) / Itou Miki (伊藤 美紀)
– Mitsuha (蜜羽) / Yahagi Sayuri (矢作 紗友里)
– On-site TV announcer (現場監督TVアナウンサー) / Takahashi Kenji (高橋 研二)

24 Comments

  6. Now that is quite a fair game… Both bro and sis got a hot sekirei for themself (although the bro gets quite a lot more LOL)

    The ED scene with a male version of a sekirei sleeping with Minato crack me up every time.

    Kaitune
    Reply

  7. Yeah i liked this episode too, was funny/cutesy, and stuff… Cant wait till he gets his Forth who is the most possessive oh him lol… and at first is all like … u know

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  13. Matsu is an enigma. The single digit Sekirei are – from what I gather in the manga – supposed to be the strongest in combat ability. But Sekirei #02 Matsu probably couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag.

    nobody important
    Reply

  14. No, the single numbers are Sekirei that are rather hard to deal with. Or atleast very strong in their area of power (eg. Mind, Fire, Water, Wind, etc). You’ll unserstand as you see more single numbers to double numbers.

    Andy
    Reply

  18. I intrepret the single digits being strong in their particular chosen area of power as having strong combat ability, since combat is usually where this superiority manifests itself most visibly. #01,#03,#04,#06,#08,#09 have all shown themselves to be damn tough fighters. That’s not to say they are unbeatable, since this ain’t Dragonball Z, but it’s going to take some effort.

    Matsu’s ‘superior mind powers’ however seems to be used mainly for data gathering, hacking, and making Homura’s drugs 😀 . It beats me how Matsu is supposed to win a last-woman-standing battle royale with that lol. No Lelouch she is.

    nobody important
    Reply

  19. Thanks MidnightT and jeffng9, now all i have to do is learn japanese and watch the raws instead of waiting for the english subs.

    @jeffng9
    FYI i knew that. Also how do you get the smiley faces?

    MeFTW
    Reply

  23. Well admitely I’m a sucker for curves and/or meganekos (more so ones played by “Voice of Miwiki” Miss Endo) Matsu seems to be a sexy verison of many peeping toms in anime. And her ability is said to be data gathering and such. (But true with many other data gathers, she’s often accused of being a voyuer and such.)

    And…
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Duran
    Reply

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