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Summary:
Having obtained the first sword, Shichika and Togame make their way towards the second one, getting Shichika a change of clothes along the way. Their goal is a sword called Zantou Namakura located in a castle in the desert of Inaba, and it’s currently in the possession of a powerful swordsman named Uneri Ginkaku. During the journey, Togame also gets Shichika to choose a trademark phrase to use during battles to make him more interesting for the report she’s writing. When they finally arrive, they find the corpse of Maniwa Shirasagi outside and correctly guess that Uneri defeated him. They eventually locate Uneri inside a relatively small room, and as Togame is attempting to negotiate with him, he asks her to step closer. This turns out to be a trap because Uneri draws his lightning-fast sword, but fortunately Shichika realizes this in time and knocks Togame back.
Shichika then decides to retreat, and when Uneri lets them, Shichika concludes that Uneri prefers to stay in the room because it’s most convenient for him there to attack his enemies. Based on this, Shichika asks Togame to stay behind him under the pretense that people who have something to protect are strong. When they return to the room, Shichika uses a technique where he charges forward, fakes Uneri out, and then lands a kick on Uneri’s shoulder. Shichika knows immediately that this isn’t enough though, and Uneri responds by cutting his own arm and bleeding over the Zantou Namakura. This allows Uneri to draw the sword faster, but Shichika refuses to back down and attacks again. This time, he avoids Uneri’s strike by moving back, and he uses Togame’s face as a jumping board so that he can reach the ceiling. This lets him attack from above where Uneri is most vulnerable, and Shichika finishes Uneri off in one move, thereby winning them the sword. In the aftermath, Togame isn’t happy that Shichika used her like that, but when he reflects on Uneri’s death and final words, she tells him not to think about his own final words.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Refulgence」 by 少女病 (Shoujo Byou)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
A slight change of scenery for this ED, but it’s still fairly static. The Shoujo Byou song that went with it wasn’t bad, but not really memorable either.
Preview
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In general, I thought this second episode was better than the second one. I enjoyed the action and strategizing more, and part of that came from the fact that Uneri Ginkaku was a more interesting antagonist than Koumori last episode – come to think of it, it’s a shame we didn’t get to see more here of the reverse-talking Maniwa Shirasagi. Anyway, Uneri felt more complete as a character, and it led to a nice ending in terms the episode’s themes and closure. Some of the banter between Shichika and Togame was pretty amusing as well, and Togame had some cute moments too in her reactions towards him. Of course, there was a lot of dialogue again, including that ten-minute desert segment, and I’m still not a fan of the long-episode, once-a-month format, so my excitement level towards this series remains relatively low (as demonstrated by the fact that it took me over half a week to finish this post). Maybe the third episode, which airs on March 8th, will change that.
this series looks funny… @@?!
p.s.
“I thought this second episode was better than the second one”
typo
I still haven’t figured out the pattern to togame’s eye changing.
Cheerio!
i think less ninja talking was better. my god, all the freaking ninjas better not be as annoying, talkative and crazy as the first two.
this anime may not be considered as an all time best, but theres not doubt that it is one of the best this season
Togame talks a lot lol
Thank god that guy who talks backwards died quickly.
It would’ve been a dick to read through all his dialogue.
There’s no way in hell I would have wanted more of that reverse-talking guy. It wasn’t as much as reverse-talking as much as it was putting the verb of the sentense ahead of the noun or subject. Its easy to do that in English but its confusing & annoying as hell in Japanese.
Anyway, great episode. I think I’m starting to like this series, but the month thing isn’t anything to sneeze at. It really can kill the fanbase.
What’s up with Togame’s hair wrapping around Shichika? It’s hot and cute at the same time.
Reverse-talking ninja was annoying.
@conyo985
The hair-wrapping is so that Shichika can recognize her scent or something, since he seems to fail at recognizing people.
Cheerio~!!
Not very good and not very funny.
To boring and to much talks of nothing.
Waste of time.
Somehow after this show I ended up eating a box cherrio’s (way better marketing plan than pizza hut’s). I wonder how they could keep up all that dialogue for a year. I will probably drop it for 6 months and then marathon watch a 6 ep “season” and see the whole thing in two sittings. I did felt better wuth the drawing style this time.
In small doses the chatter is bearable and amusing like it was in the other series Bakemonogatari, in a double sized once a month format its just too much yaking and kills the momentium of episodes. I was falling asleep from all the talking.
Call me crazy, but I got a craving for Cheerios as well. Why is it so hard to structure Japanese sentences like English ones?
“In general, I thought this second episode was better than the second one.”
Do you mean the second episode was better than the first one.
Funny STUFF!! one of soo few decently funny shows this fall
lol i meant season*
seems to me all they do is talk
The desert part…..just wow.
@brandonr
whatt bakemonogatari does is talk, and they seemed to pull it off…this anime is no exception
@Alec..True. but then again, they actually spoke about interesting stuff. this….hardly. add to that a double dose of “hardly” per ep and u can see why people are falling asleep.
I love this series… more accurately I love watching these two talk, interact, dialog.
Fighting and shouting fans (action shounen) – will probably be disappointed because that is not the center of the series.
The appeal here lies in characterization. The long dialogues can get rather tedious at times, yet somehow it doesn’t (significantly) detract from enjoyability- due tot he fact that the writer made sure he used every bit of dialogue as an instrument of characterization. Sometime long dialogue is used as a means to explain plot points or facts; this gets boring quickly. But when it’s used as a means to illustrate the characters (And done correctly- my compliments to the writers of this show), there exists an appeal to emotion; it becomes a means for the viewers to forge a connection with the characters. Thus lengthy conversations can be made at least tolerable, and by a skilled writer even somewhat enjoyable.
I really liked this episode! I’m going to continue watching to the end.
Just curious, since Omni retired, Will anyone be picking up on the blogs for katanagatari? I really enjoy reading these blogs and reading your opinions on anime and i would greatly appreciate it if Katanagatari is blogged again. Thanks =D
I just watched the sixth episode. That snow girl was such a nice character. I honestly wanted her to be adopted or something and get along on the ride.