SEKIREI – 10

「脱出前夜」 (Dasshutsu Zenya)
“The Night Before the Escape”

Episode at a Glance:
After hearing about how Haruka and Kuno first met, Kazehana is overjoyed at the idea of them being in love and tells “Munou-chan” that she doesn’t have to feel ashamed about not fighting. Kaoru on the other hand is unhappy about being paid a visit so early in the morning, but understands the situation and agrees to help out of spite for the M.B.I. He jokes about payment though and gets into an argument with Haruka about age, so Minato calls Miya and hands the phone over to Kaoru to set him straight. Watching on from Matsu’s room, Tsukiumi wonders what Minato is thinking and recalls how he decided to help Haruka and Kuno. While Matsu and the others had agreed to help, Tsukiumi did not because she feels that Sekirei should fight to the bitter end rather than running away, and even comments on how Matsu locking herself up in her room is the same as Kuno choosing not to fight. Talking this over with Miya, Tsukiumi hears how they might just want to help someone in need and haven’t thought this through. Tsukiumi says it’s their duty as Sekirei to fight though and admits to aiming to be the strongest now that she has Minato, but tells Miya not to tell him she said that. Having agreed to keep quiet, Miya then offers to give Tsukiumi some practice so that she can see her powers.

Going over a map of Shintou Teito, Kaoru explains how the city is divided into four regions, north-south-east-west, three of which have become home turfs of three Ashikabi. The current southern region they’re in is Mikogami Hayato‘s, who was after Kusano before. The west is Sanada’s, someone Kaoru doesn’t know much about, and the east is some crafty man‘s (i.e. Higa Izumi), who for some reason has a negative attitude towards the Sekirei Project and is cold to his own Sekirei. At the hospital where Uzume is visiting Chiho, Kakizaki drops by and informs her that she only has one more chance to get rid of the target. Meanwhile, Kaoru explains that it would be best to avoid those areas, prompting Minato to question why the north area is left untouched when there are three powerful Askikaba around. Kaoru says it’s because there’s a really scary person living there, which reminds Musubi that Miya lives there at Izumo Inn. Back at the inn, Miya gives Tsukiumi a chance to show her what she’s got and easily repels her water attack. She then attacks the ground in front of Tsukiumi before proceeding to cut off all her clothes, after which she tells the Water Sekirei that she still has a ways to go. Tsukiumi however is left wondering exactly who her landlady is.

Realizing that Miya won’t interfere with them, Kaoru tells everyone that north is their best means of escape. After going over how the M.B.I. will have all stations, airports, and ports under close watch, Kaoru suggests breaking through by foot via the northern bridge that has guards, but no inspectors. This leaves two problems though, one of which is the M.B.I. surveillence satellite that can fry them with lasers at any time. Minato says that they can get Matsu to hack the satellite for them, making Haruka envious, so Kuno starts apologizing. The second problem is the Disciplinary Force, comprised of the Blue, Red, and Black Sekirei, but Musubi says she’ll fight them. They then decide to act tomorrow night so that the M.B.I. has less time to notice anything, which Haruka finds sudden, so Kuno apologizes for being weak. Seeing her in tears, Hibiki and Hikari suggest that she should’ve let them get rid of her last time so that she wouldn’t have to go through these painful times now, but Musubi says it’s because of her perserverance that she was able to meet Haruka. Haruka then cheers her up by saying that she’s his woman and she just has to follow him, which causes Kazehana to go off about it being love again. To settle things down, Kaoru declares that he’ll make this escape succeed since he’s involved and tells everyone to blow the M.B.I. away. Kazehana wishes Minato luck and thinks about how his earnest reply resembles him.

Back at home, they fill in Matsu on the situation and she informs them that she can hack the satellite, but only for an hour since it’s quite different from what she normally does. Kazehana then bursts in to start a farewell party, where Haruka asks Minato if he’ll escape with him and live peacefully with his Sekirei. Minato notices Tsukiumi standing outside though and excuses himself to invite her in, but she refuses to join in. He then asks if she’s changed her mind, but she makes it clear that she hasn’t, so Minato expresses his concern for Musubi if the Disciplinary Force shows up. Hearing this, Tsukiumi questions whether he’s worried about the contract or Musubi. Meanwhile, Uzume returns home and Kazehana invites her to join in, but after hearing that it’s a farewell party for Haruka and Kuno, she refuses. As Uzume walks off, Kazehana suspects that she’s being forced to do things and wonders what this person’s objective is. Back with Tsukiumi, Minato apologizes for saying something so insensitive, prompting her to place his hand over her breast and question if he ever wants her. Matsu comes by and interrupts the mood though, so Tsukiumi says she was just confused now, tells Minato to forget what just happened, and runs off to the bath trying to cleanse herself.

The next morning, Minato gets a phone call from Yukari telling him she’s busy and can’t drop by. She then continues searching for Kusano with Shiina, unaware that Akitsu and Mutsu are tailing them with plans to act tonight. Back at Izumo, Miya runs into Kagari in the hallway and upon confirming that he’s been away from work for a while now, suspects that his transformation has started. Kagari tries to dodge the subject, but Miya says she can tell by his figure, so he says it’s not definite yet. Training in the backyard, Musubi is impressed by the hole in the ground Miya left and swears to protect everyone. On the roof, Kusano talks to Tsukiumi and tells her that she’s not Minato’s wife anymore because she won’t help hiim when she’s more capable than herself. That night, everyone assembles to leave, during which Haruka asks Minato about his question last night, but he avoids it.

Next Episode:
「鶺鴒紋消失」 (Sekireimon Shoushitsu)
“Sekirei Crest Erasure”

Impressions:
Seeing as they spent the entire episode explaining Kuno’s past, planning the escape, and depicting Tsukiumi’s opposition to helping, the pacing really does make it seem like we’re headed towards a series finale which revolves around the conclusion of the upcoming battle. Now what Minato needs to do is not enlist the help of Tsukiumi, but Miya somehow seeing how ridiculously powerful she is. Joking aside, there’s a lot of foreshadowing that something will happen to Musubi given how determined she was to fight, how Minato expressed his concerns about her without Tsukiumi, how the preview has her talking like she’s on her death bed, and how the next episode title spelt it out for us. Seeing how this episode went, I would say they’ve pretty much set things up for Tsukiumi to make an appearance later on, but it’s still questionable whether or not she’ll make it on time. It seems like everyone will be involved though, including Uzume and even Matsu in person. We’ll also finally see Itou Shizuka‘s addition to the series as Benitsubasa, which I would say is quite late, but better than never.

If the series does end at twelve episodes like expected, this would be a good example of an anime adaptation that follows its manga closely, but has no real conclusion. While manga purists may love this approach, others may feel like nothing was resolved with all the built up story for Yukari/Shiina, Shiina/Kusano, Chiho/Uzume, Hayato, Izumi, and of course the Sekirei Project still open-ended, so that’s something to keep in mind. I imagine that they’re hoping to have another season later on though, after the manga has progressed further and provided that viewer ratings for this series are good, but we’ll have to wait and see. Finally, they listed who plays Chiho this time and she was double-casted as I originally thought, being played by Shiina’s seiyuu, Ishidzuka Sayori. Oh, and no nudity this week, so sorry to burst your bubble if you were hoping for more.

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)
– Tsukiumi (月海) / Inoue Marina (井上 麻里奈)
– Asama Miya (浅間 美哉) / Oohara Sayaka (大原 さやか)
– Kagari (篝) / Kaida Yuki (甲斐田 ゆき)
– Uzume (鈿女) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Kazehana (風花) / Yukana (ゆかな)
– 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)
– Chiho (千穂) / Ishidzuka Sayori (石塚 さより)
– Shigi Haruka (鷸 ハルカ) / Okamoto Nobuhiko (岡本 信彦)
– Kuno (久能) / Akesaka Satomi (明坂 聡美)
– Mutsu (陸奥) / Matsubara Daisuke (松原 大典)
– Kakizaki (柿崎) / Takahashi Kenji (高橋 研二)