OP1.5 Sequence

OP: 「Last vision for last」 by 飛蘭 (Faylan)
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「剣姫(マスターサムライ)の正体」 (Tsurugi Hime (Masutaa Samurai) no Shoutai)
“The Sword Princess’ (Master Samurai) True Identity”

Seeing as all the female characters have yet to be introduced, I haven’t even considered comparing the ones seen thus far. However, if I were to make an early pick, Sen would be my favorite at the moment with that feisty tsundere-like attitude of hers. She makes it no secret that she’s unhappy about the child-like Jubei cuddling up next to Muneakira either, so it’s a lot of fun hearing Kotobuki Minako spout out all the pent-up jealous rage like she never could in her K-ON role. Jubei herself would be right behind Sen in my books, simply because she has that badass master samurai side of her juxtaposing the naive and playful one. The whole split personality that comes with a five million power rating is a cheap way of giving some added dimension to her character, but works well considering it provides a means to shift between the lighthearted humor and the crazy samurai action in this series. It also lets me hear more of Yuuki Aoi experimenting with the lowest, mean-sounding voice she could muster, which I haven’t gotten the least bit tired of yet. In fact, this past year of anime has pretty much put Aoi dead center on my seiyuu radar for future series, much like it has on everyone’s casting sheets as well. She’s definitely one 18 year-old seiyuu worth keeping an eye on in 2011. Though less likely, I’m hoping that fellow 18 year-old Minako starts getting some more roles too.

Story-wise, this episode delved into Jubei’s master samurai designation, and the confusion over how she doesn’t seem to possess any of the insanely powerful swordsmanship demonstrated earlier. After the quirky yet cute humor over the dinner Muneakira was forced to cook, the revelation that Sen’s been looking into the mysterious disappearances of students cast more doubt over her brother Yoshihiko. In particular, the way he just told Sen that Sanada and Matabee are behind the incidents with no basis made it pretty apparent in my eyes that he’s looking for someone else to take the blame. As if to serve as an immediate opposition to that suspicion, Jubei’s nightmare of her other self seemed to suggest that she was or is going to be at odds with Yoshihiko in the future. Either way, it put an interesting spin on Sanada’s feng shui premonition that Jubei will cast a shadow over Great Japan, seeing as the Yukimura technique used to restrain evil had absolutely no effect on her. Clearly, Jubei’s not as bad as the previous episode probably wanted us to believe. What’s more, it turns out that Muneakira is her general (i.e. master/commander), whom she needs to kiss to unleash her full powers. As such, it’s probably safe to say that the badass introduction of her character was to showcase what her master samurai self is capable of, before the story progresses onto the real antagonist, possibly the Bakufu.

While all that’s going on, the humor is as prevalent as before, and I’m really liking the samurai action/comedy mix as a result — more so than I’m probably letting off anyway. I’m also loving how I get absorbed into this whole alternate reality, which the feudal-like backdrops and dark character outlines contribute vastly towards. The fan-service on the other hand is kept nicely in check for the television broadcast, yet still provides its share of nakedness whenever Jubei switches personalities. Mmm, not a bad side effect at all. I’m definitely looking forward to this series more and more as the weeks go on.

* The first ten seconds of the opening sequence were updated for the regular broadcast, so I’ve included a copy of it above for completion sake.

 

Preview

31 Comments

  1. nice episode 🙂
    looking forward for more actions as the true antagonist surfaces eventually… although it is sad to think about this show being only 13 episodes… 🙁
    the ink spots for the win…

    jrj
  2. I don’t think I’ve heard Yuuki Aoi play a character with such a high voice as the klutzy Jubei let alone her super deep one, though it’s probably deliberate to make the transition between the two all the more contrasting. I was pretty blown back to find her playing Jubei as I looked over the cast list a few weeks back as I didn’t recognise her at all.

    She’s definitely one seiyuu to watch out for, I’ve been impressed by her work ever since I first heard her in Kure-nai, where she completely stole the show.

    Duh
  3. uhh, what are they suppose to be fighting now?
    Now that Jubei seems, semi-evil or pure good.

    possibly the Bakufu.
    Oh wow…

    And this “Master Samurai” power makes other girls without “it”, useless.

    FlamingYu
    1. Based on the opening sequence and the airplane battle of the first episode, doesn’t anyone else get the feeling that every one of the girls is going to make a pact with a general and become a master samurai sooner or later?

      Lee
  4. Finally a fan-service/ecchi oriented samurai show that suits my taste really well! The Fall season line-up sure is very good. This is already the 7th show I’ve picked up for this season together with Ore no Imouto, Fortune Arterial, Yosuga no Sora, Star Drive, Ika Musume, the world god only knows.

    And yet their is still more series that really looks promising…what a season! 🙂

    Ghostalker
  5. Proving to be fun so far, although the story was a bit too much to follow for my limited scope of attention (I actually went through the previous posts in RC to catch up on who’s who). Jubei is pretty much the character I’m most interested in right now.

    dietwarrior
  6. Samurai-Jubei isn’t pure evil! This is good! Sen is still a pretty fun character, even if she’s a bit too full of herself. I love how her round-about way of trying to make things better for Muneakira flew back in her face, since Moe-Jubei is way too honest for her to handle. Glad Matabei and Yukimura weren’t gone that long.

    At this point, I’m thinking the great Shadow over Japan is probably Sen’s brother.

    Aex
  7. Sen is my favorite too, she’s the kind of tsundere that I like a lot.The humor actually makes me laugh, the rivalry between Hanzou and Sanada is really funny in episode 2.The story is classic but well executed. I haven’t watched this episode yet but it sounds promising.
    This show is really blowing up my expectations, which I admit were pretty low every week, people who think it’s a “shitty Queens Blade clone” or something like that should really check it out.

    Rockmanshii
  8. Is anyone else confused by the timeline of the story? If I’m not mistaken, the story takes place long after the attempted invasion of Japan at the beginning of episode one, right? So then why were all of the girls in the CURRENT plot also in that PAST battle, and moreover why were they all master samurai before and not anymore? The only possible flaw I can see in my logic is that I am misinterpreting the first battle as a flashback when its supposed to a flashforward, but the exposition so far and the fact that the protagonist was sporting a digital camera seem to indicate that this does indeed take place long after that battle in episode one. Thoughts?

    WorldWiz
    1. Far as I can tell that battle was in the past, but with the way the girls’ faces are “hidden” it’s probably gonna come out that all the girls are descendants/reincarnations of great samurai/warriors of that time, with the exception of Jubei who I’m thinking was stuck in some crazy time-space thingy since then until Muneakira “called” her out.

      So yeah, if I was a betting man I’d go with the standard descendant/reincarnation theory. It’ll probably be explained later anyways.

      Aex
  9. Just adding/confirming: the plane scene with the girls was in 20th of Showa, roughly around 1946(I think), and Muneakira and Jubei first meet on the bridge in 22nd of Heisei, or 2010. The Showa and Heisei distinctions but at least a few decades between the two events by themselves, and the plane battle definitely happened first.

    Aex

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