Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「新たな剣姫」 (Arata na tsurugi hime)
“A New Master Samurai”
I know it’s been a long wait for the new Master Samurai to appear, but let me be very honest – I don’t think anybody could have asked for a better introduction than this one, and both Matabei and Hanzou were certainly at the top of their game this week. I’ve mentioned before that this is a show that presents some of the best-looking female leads and such an attribute has never been more conspicuous in the latest episode. It almost goes without saying that both Matabei and Hanzou looked absolutely stunning and their Master Samurai get-up is, without doubt, one of the most highly anticipated features of this show. Hanzou’s brand new image, in particular, was a standout and the traditional Japanese garment that she dons exudes a certain sensual allure that is highly captivating. Such sultry and prurient appeal was never quite as apparent in Hanzou’s usual guise, and the fact that she wore her hair in a side ponytail was a huge plus in my book. Then there’s Matabei, who looks exceptionally dazzling no matter what she puts on and her Master Samurai array was certainly no exception in this respect. All you need to know about Matabei’s new outfit is that her trademarked fundoshi remained very well intact and those luscious hips look as ravishing as ever when she’s fully engaged in battle.
Needless to say, the Master Samurai is not just a pretty face, and both Matabei and Hanzou were at the forefront of the imminent threat facing them this week. The clash with the dark shadow was bound to resurface sooner or later and fortunately for them, the combined effort of their newfound power was able to successfully fend off the monster this time. As it turns out, the true identity of lascivious tentacle monster is none other than Araki Mataemon (Tomatsu Haruka), who seems to have a penchant of going round the bend as a perverted berserker. We have seen that once in the third episode, but the scale and degree of the latest carnage were certainly at a different level – especially as regards her lecherous effort! Speaking of raunchy acts, I was quite amused by the sexual fantasies that both Matabei and Hanzou conjured up this week and their delusional ideas were, no question, the best sidesplitting moments of this episode – who knew their power of imagination could run this wild!
As Hyakka Ryouran draws closer to its finale, it’s increasingly obvious that there’s a story of conspiracies playing out here, and the higher-ups of the Tokugawa shogunate – Yoshihiko (Sakurai Takahiro) and Nia (Koshimizu Ami), might have a hand in the recent happenings. What exactly is the “Guardian Stone” and how is it connected to the Dark Samurai – those are just some of the questions that have not been answered, but what we know as of now, is that there’s a growing sense of distrust that is emerging in the Dark Samurai’s ranks and Inshun probably knows more than she’s letting on. How the latest revelations fit into their upcoming battle is something that has not been made clear, but with so many moving parts set in motion, it does seem like the final showdown is shaping up to be a battle of epic scale and I have no doubt this is a spectacle that nobody would want to miss!
Random tidbits:
- The secret to becoming a Samurai Bride – a yuri kiss that seals the deal!
- “I don’t deserve your love, I’m so tall and my body’s so muscular” – you’re perfect the way you are, Matabei! Never doubt yourself again.
- “But I have you, you’re my true love, Hanzou!” – don’t you dare cheat on Sen Hime, Hanzou! She’s supposed to be your one true love.
- Bondage gag is child’s play compared to what Hanzou has in mind for Sen Hime!
- Matabei and Hanzou should have known better than to take advice from Kanetsugu – it just shows how desperate they really are!
- A trademarked Shaft head tilt – yours truly, Kanetsugu!
- Juubei and Musashi would make such a cute couple – it’s time to ditch Muneakira for the better woman!
- “No pun intended, indeed” – Gisen’s dirty talk during the preview was absolutely superb, can we have an encore?
tl;dr: @SeishunRC – #HyakkaRyouran Samurai Bride 09: The long wait is over – Matabei and Hanzou officially join the ranks of the Master Samurai. It’s time to start kicking some ass! #Anime
Full-length images: 03, 08, 11, 13, 30, 34.
Preview
 |
 |
 |
Remember when we all thought Muneakira was going to be a strong male lead. So long ago. All he is is a kiss machine now.
Well, to be fair, don’t forget that his own fighting abilities were completely disabled in episode one by the Dark Samurai, so there’s really nothing he CAN do besides be a supportive, telepathic kissing machine until the seal is undone and he’s able to wield a sword again.
The women do all the work. He sucks.
What are you talking about? He’s a stud and being a kissing machine is part of the job description 😛
But Issei started as a weak male lead who then grew to be a supporting character in combat to being the main guy that does everything while the girls still have their chances to show off. And Kiba’s still the cool guy no matter what his power level is.
Yup, High School DXD rocks! I really hope they cover as many volumes as possible in season 2.
Hyakka Ryouran x High School DxD spin off. Now that’s something I would pay a lot to see!!
I agre with the other comment, poor guy he wouldnt be bad just even before, in the first seasson Jubei sealed his power from the very very beginning making him unable to move at every big fight. And now in the second seasson, the dark samurai did. I guess he just grabbed the short end of the stick.
Best episode so far for a multitude of reasons.I never expected them to go this far, now I’m kinda scarred from watching this happen, even though that tentacle belong to a girl, technically.HanzoxMatabei, I’m all aboard this ship.
I love Hanzo’s new hairstyle.
Matabei’s new Master Samurai power is awesome, but felt a little too convenient.Hanzo’s new power was more of an upgrade to what she usually does, but it still looked awesome.
I didn’t expect both of them to get their powers in the same episode, but I was techincally right with my prediction that Matabei would get kissed first ;p.I like how Muneakira is like “Sure, whatevs” when they asked him to kiss them.
I think Mataemon is being possessed by Amakusa, Gisen’s preview talk kinda supports that theory.
#Hanzo’sMasterSamuraiFormMakesHerCuter
I shall ensure that I see this scene before I die!
Clearly, Muneakira had the safety of Sen Hime in mind when he kissed both Matabei and Hanzou 😛
Those two would make such a very cute couple. I’ll get by with their yuri pairing for now – Keiji is bound to return sooner or later and she’ll makes Gisen into her waifu :3
The series has definitely broken thru ecchi-hentai border, and I’m fine with it as long as anybody watching is relatively adult. Tentacles have some obvious uses, after all…
The episode’s highlight, though, were two new Master Samurai. After long wait and much frustration on their part, BOTH Hanzo and Matabei get their kiss. (leaving all those who were betting on which one will get it this episode pretty dumbfounded…) And their Master personae are quite sight to behold! Brush-spear and HUD-analytical device showing flow of Ki were spectacular, too.
I a now awaiting Gisen to join the harem officially. And then there is question of the Samurai Bride, for which I – somewhat conservatively – put Jubei candidature as she is the one with probably deepest devotion to Muneakira.
Also, it seems that Mataemon was simply being posessed by some evil spirit, possibly the one behind mysterious resurrection of the Dark Samurai. What was shown, however, was that the Dark Samurai themselves might end up opposing the dark spirit of tentacles…
<3<3<3<3<3 Hanzou <3<3<3<3<3 Matabei <3<3<3<3<3
…'nuff said…
If only I could make a blog post with just two words – your comment pretty much sums up my impression of this episode XD
I couldn’t stop laughing during the preview, Gisen is a master of wordplay.
I hope she becomes Muneakira’s next master samurai.
+50 Seishun Points!
Gisen is a genius when it comes to dirty talking. She turns me on like no one else 😡
Seishun no ecchi!
Yes! This! This comment! I-I’m not the ecchi blogger, Seishun is now, I swear!
Good try Stilts but you ain’t getting rid of the ecchi blogger tag that easily! You are still the master and Sheisun is your precious apprentice!
General Faggot is back. Just don’t let him try to speak french again…
Well hey now,if it means more Nia goodness he can play with his french wordplay all he wants 🙂
She was a terrible character too.
Dunno,I liked her & Yoshihiko’s little story.The only issue I had was with Yoshihiko going over the top with his douchebag attitude,mostly towards Nia,which made his pretty sudden change in attitude hard to believe.But I’m already going to deep into this so to each their own I guess 😛
@Annas well here’s someone that didn’t feel at all moved with Nia’s backstory -_- heartless…and woah woah woah, we aren’t in middleschool, don’t be dropping Faggot when they aren’t even acting remotely homosexual (Ugh, before anyone can make a thing of this, I’m gay…its dumb when people use Faggot for their own prounouns) Anyways~! I can’t wait until the OST comes out, the music that was playing during the fight/transformation scenes in this ep was badass, like always.
Yoshihiko did his best to deserve it, ruining the last third of the show in the process. You have terrible villains, you have hateable villains and you have unworthy of being redeemed villains. The guy managed to be all this. If felt more like he was here to bathe us in cheap drama rater than moving the plot. But the good guys are truly good guys so they can deal with it.
I can’t agree more, Hyakka Ryouran’s OST is superb! Kato Tatsuya is a genius and his work for Hyakka Ryouran is definitely right up there with Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon’s – which is, of course, Moomba’s pick for RandomC’s best OST in 2012 😉
Yes, he’s a douchebag, in fact he still is, he’s just only nice to Nia now. But you still can’t just be dropping the title fag on characters all because you think they’re assholes, because its kindergarden mentality to use faggot as a synonym for words like douchebag, asshole, etc. But I don’t really want to go into this whole shpeal on here about the “proper” use of that word.
He’s not even really dark hero material, he’s just…the side party that holds all the answers but refuses to let either side know about it (I mean it was pretty much his sister who fought his battles in the previous season, she deserves to know what the dang stone is for peet sake, she’s putting her life on the line)
You sound like one of those gay PSAs bro. Stop being so butthurt.
Haha,we mentioned that last week but I didn’t expect the parts where they imagined themselves being Muneakira’s chosen.That makes me think about the samurai bride issue and if any of our main heroines will take up the role.It’ll probably be Juubei or neither of them – my money’s on the 2nd option.Imagine if it ended up being Kanetsugu – I can already hear the wedding bells ringing in a “trolololololol” fashion.
Well, if it were up to the simplest decisions for Samurai Bride,
(or the alternative option of eventual love interest)
he would have a hard time choosing between Sen or Yukimura, without hurting or angering the other (You know, the usual body vs intelligence debate between them).
Hanzo or Matabei would definitely prefer being loyal to Sen & Yukimura respectively.
Satchin would definitely be out for obvious reasons due to her transformation time limit =p
I wonder if Juubei would see Muneakira as more than onee-chan someday?
Which pretty much narrows down to Kanetsugu or Gisen.
Unless the Ki Master comes back just for Muneakira. =)
Or, if there were to be another accidental kiss somehow?
Heh, why can’t everyone be a Samurai Bride? Harem end FTW :3
deep plot, backstory & twist insertions
yes AOTY
+50 Seishun points!
LOL at “twist insertions”, I approve XD
I enjoy having Muneakira in the show, but it frustrates me to no end that he does nothing about the beautiful women surrounding him. He has a pair, so why doesn’t he use it to get the girl he likes? Well, I guess being indecisive and fickle when it comes to women is a frequent occurrence in harems. Though, I could not be happier. One of my favorite female characters in this show finally got to be a Master Samurai! Matabei is truly a fine specimen. She has both the looks and personality to push aside all competition, but of course, Muneakira is not going to fall for her no matter how much I want him to. Still, I am disappointed with the little screen time Gisen has been given recently. She hasn’t been doing any pranks or much of anything to the actual plot. Gisen, please somehow abandon the Amakusa Shiro train and board Muneakira’s! I’ve been yearning for an actual Muneakira and Gisen moment where she develops feelings of true love for him.
She already had…at least in the novel.
I agree, Matabei is indeed a fine specimen, but Hanzou’s Master Samurai get-up is what caught my attention in this episode – she looks quite different without the glasses :3
The lack of Gisen in the recent episodes is pretty disappointing for me too. More trolling and dirty talking please!
Here are the other things I forgot to mention as I was too busy fap….. looking at the transformations of Matabei and Hanzou. Compared to the other Master Samurai under Muneakira, I think that we weren’t able to see how Matabei and Hanzou developed feelings for him. It almost felt instantaneous. It’s like they just fell in love with him to serve the plot, but I don’t mind all that much since we got to see a whole bunch of sexy from our new Master Samurai. If I remember correctly, Matabei mentioned in the first season that she thinks that they (matabei and hanzou) couldn’t become Masterr Samurai because their feelings for Muneakira weren’t like their respective masters. Since we can all say that Muneakira’s Samurais all have feelings for him, I would like to know how Hanzou and Matabei truly found their romantic feelings toward our protagonist. We got to see little bit of Yukimura and Kanetsugu’s moments where they really developed feelings for Muneakira. I wonder why they didn’t show Hanzou’s and Matabei’s. Well, some would argue that Juubei and Sen didn’t really have scenes where they had that defining moment, but they both liked him from the start of the show. Yeah, you probably guessed that I’m a big fan of the supporting cast members. I probably like Matabei and Hanzu more than Sen and Yukimura.
Well if anything they had the previous episode when they introduced the possibility of having feelings for him, but it was really contrived for the story sake, not saying I didn’t appreciate it because we get to see both of them kick ass….i think both of them mainly wanted to become master samurai not out of love for him but they just wanted to protect their masters (not saying they don’t have any feelings for him though).
From the beginning they wanted to protect their masters, but were unable to become Master Samurai. If they truly wanted to become Master Samurai purely for the reason of sense of duty, I think they would have already tried. I personally am convinced that its their feelings for him combined with their sense of duty that led them to finally make the move. Well, also the fact that Sen was getting attacked.
I concur who you tagged in the image that says ‘best looking’ /wink. What do you think about that scene when she looks up to Muneakira when he’s talking? 🙂
The Dark Samurai story is shaping up, it follows the pattern of the first season when it gets more ‘serious’.