First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「螺旋、或いは聖なる欲望。」 (Rasen, Arui wa Seinaru Yokubou.) by 飛蘭 (Faylan)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「銀色の百合姫」 (Kiniro no Yurihime)
“Silver-haired Lily Princess”

Amazingly enough, the excessive censoring that Hoods Entertainment’s sequel has been subjected to is within reason, as we no longer have ludicrous camera zooming and completely off-screen panning that make it hard to discern what’s even going on. Instead, broadcasters have gone with the more typical (and bearable) bright white lights, a bit of cropping, and dramatic music to mask the girls’ moans of pleasure. All of that may sound like a bit much, but the end result is actually very watchable compared to the first season’s televised broadcast. Depending on how future episodes pan out, I may even be fine with watching this entire sequel in its edited form. What will ultimately decide that is knowing how much was edited out to begin with, which the Director’s Cut version that will be streamed on Anime One’s pay site six days later will help show. I can’t imagine there being much in this premiere episodes, so hats off to the editors if they were able to mask a lot more changes in a seamless manner.

In any case, I’m not here to talk about the breastfeeding aspect of Seikon no Qwaser, because if you’re only here for that, you’re probably only going to look at the screen caps and ignore my post anyway. For everyone else who can think with something other than their crotch, the continuation of our story picks up with Alexander “Sasha” Nikolaevich Hell (Sanpei Yuuko), infiltrating the all-girls Roman Curia Suirei Academy in search of one of only five known High Ancient Circuits, the Magdala of Thunder (Ikazuchi no Magudara 「雷の携香女」). Much like how the Sword of Maria was discovered to be residing within Oribe Mafuyu (Fujimura Ayumi) in the first season, Athos believes the Magdala of Thunder is within one of the Suirei’s students, so Noda Yuuri (Chiba Susumu) sends Sasha to search for her by checking their Soma.

The problem is, a young Russian boy at an all-girls school asking a bunch of religious Japanese girls if he can taste their breast milk probably wouldn’t go over very well, so Sasha is forced to pull off one of potentially one of the best traps of 2011 to get them to open up to him. To my bewilderment, it works extremely well too, given that Sanpei Yuuko uses an extremely feminine voice to play “her” with that I didn’t even know she had. Accompanied by his stand-in Maria (i.e. Soma battery) Katsuragi Hana (Hikasa Youko), better known as Ekaterina “Katja” Kurae’s (Hirano Aya) masochistic plaything, Sasha’s reluctant cross-dressing for this infiltration mission started off much more humorously than I would have ever imagined. While Hana is always an outlet for comic relief, and is amusing to watch because she’s a tsundere with an interest in BDSM, she doesn’t tend to attract much viewer sympathy since she brings it upon herself. Together with the no-nonsense Sasha who won’t hesitate to talk negatively about her fetishes, she suddenly becomes a lot funnier to watch. Compared to Mafuyu, I was pretty sold on the drastically different dynamic she provides.

Story-wise, Sasha’s search for the High Ancient Circuit led us to the introduction of the three Japanese students who’ll have prominent roles — sorority leader Seta Miyuki (Sakurai Harumi), the small but loud Satsuki Ayame (Tatsumi Yuiko), and the soft-spoken yet suspicious Amano Tsubasa (Nanjou Yoshino). I had already mentioned them back in the Spring 2011 Preview, so what came as a real surprise was the highly-advanced virtual reality learning system that Suirei employs to bring out its students latent abilities. One would expect that to blow Sasha’s cover, but the dark depths of his mind and his love for Olja’s breasts conveniently bailed him out and completed the perfect trap. A scary thought but well-played by Sasha considering this was a true gender bender version of him. The subsequent comedy didn’t skip a beat either, as I loved the way he slipped in comments about how his big breasts are bogging him down without ruining the tension in his battle against Miyuki, before Sasha showed her what the true power of a Qwaser is like. I must say, Miyuki’s face of defeat was pretty priceless, particularly when Sasha subjected her to his Soma test for losing, simply because she sounded like Yuri from Angel Beats reluctantly submitting to someone. With the tears and the music, that was definitely a bit scandalous.

Overall, this was a nice reintroduction to Seikon no Qwaser and quickly plunged us into a new setting as well. The appearances of Adept members Jita Phrygianos (Ooura Fuyuka) and Wan Chen (Hamada Kenji) provided a precursor for their involvement, and suggested that their group will be Sasha’s main enemy once again. As for the Magdala of Thunder itself, this first episode’s led us to believe that Tsubasa is the bearer, but whether or not that’s just a red herring is hard to tell at the moment. However, all this early foreshadowing is just rosy on top of a great-looking production featuring good OP/ED theme songs again, so I’m really looking forward to whatever direction this continuation takes.

* Note: I’m still not feeling all that well, but I’ll try to find time to work on the March Retrospective Look post.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「metaphor」 by 少女病 (Shoujo Byou)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

61 Comments

  2. Hopefully AT-X this time around is the actual showing and not a repeat airing of the other channels but I honestly doubt that. They’ll save that for the webcasts (LQ) and Blu-Ray/DVD releases. The cropping and censoring just seems so overdone to the point of asking yourself ‘Why bother?’ Just show it as is cause the cropping of scenes and the censors covering up 1/2 – 3/4 of the screen is annoying and I’m guessing there is a ‘transformation’ scene cut out from before Sasha and Miyuki fight (?).

    SlashZaku
    Reply

    1. True example of someone talking out their ass. I had to reply to make an example of it. Last time I checked, Snapshots are for first episodes only and Steins;Gate is being covered by Kiiragi.

      Now you just look like an idiot who doesn’t even have the balls to comment with a real e-mail address. If you’re just going to run your mouth about the site with no basis, then I’ll take that as an invitation to return the favor.

      Divine
      Reply

    2. Sorry to but in but, if you would notice RC covers the first ep of most shows airing that season, so it wouldnt be that big off a shock to see this here. In addition it will be kinda pointless covering this series since RC didnt really cover the 1st season.

      Rasone0104
      Reply

      3. I was talking about Jaalin. He could squeeze every drop of epic moments (apart from soma) this series offer. I don’t despise Divine, don’t get me wrong, but he is too serious for snq.

        LoL
        Reply

    6. What is wrong with mindless boobs? If you were hoping for mindless dick you are in the wrong place nerd.

      RC is a baller anime blog regardless of what fucking shows it decides to blog so go back to googling Justin Bieber and gtfo.

      Jin
      Reply

    7. He had food poisoning and still kicked your ass.

      And don’t think your some kind of intellectual for watching Stein’s; Gate; the series isn’t nearly as thought provoking as it thinks it is ._.

      Click
      Reply

    8. Don’t write anything insulting and especially when you have no idea what your talking about. You can give criticism, but just like Divine said, “your talking out of your ass”.

      MrBrownSound
      Reply

  4. Well I really stopped watching this a few episodes into the first season but I still read the manga. So does anyone know if this show is still loyal to the manga’s plot?

    Rasone0104
    Reply

      2. Thanks. Azazel is interesting, but I wouldn’t say it’s best offering this season in my books. Several key shows haven’t even premiered yet, plus its diminutive 12-minute format makes it feel like more of a comedy series to enjoy on the side.

        Divine
        Reply

  6. So this is what was going on in these episodes. I ended up with a copy of the manga raws ahead of what was translated, and was wondering why a bunch of characters suddenly ended up in other uniforms, and Hana was a much more recurring character.

    the_one092001
    Reply

  7. It looks really promising and the story can give twists like in the first season. I was looking for some development in Sasha and Mifuyu´s relationship, but this is a good start. By the way, I hope you recover soon Divine, don´t force yourself to much and make sure to have lot of rest. Best wishes.

    haseo0408
    Reply

    1. They didn’t specifically say, but it did seem like Sasha taking on this mission was the reason he left St. Mihailov Academy, so it could very well be a direct continuation with no noticeable time skip.

      Divine
      Reply

  27. In any case, I’m not here to talk about the breastfeeding aspect of Seikon no Qwaser, because if you’re only here for that, you’re probably only going to look at the screen caps and ignore my post anyway.

    While I admit that is the main draw for me watching this series, that alone, however, is not enough to draw me in. The biggest reason that attracted me watching this was the prospect of hearing many of the top A-list seiyuus moaning in ecstasy while their boobs, sorry, their characters’ boobs, were getting sucked relentlessly. Otherwise I would have simply dismissed this as another silly pseudo-hentai anime. lol

    Some of the A-list seiyuus include:
    Chihara Minori
    Hikasa Youko (watching K-ON never felt the same after seeing her performance here lol)
    Fujimura Ayumi
    Toyosaki Aki (this show really showcased her talent, as she practically voiced 4 characters in different tones, and I’m not even talking about her moaning)
    Hanazawa Kana (yes, hearing her moan was music to my ears XD )
    Satou Rina (in a cameo appearance)
    Nakahara Mai (cameo)

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *