First Impressions / SEKIREI

ED2 Sequence:

ED2: “Kimi wo Omou Toki” 「きみを想うとき」 by Musubi (結) / Hayami Saori (早見 沙織)

Watch the 2nd ED! ▼

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

Episode at a Glance:
Sensing that a group of Sekirei and Ashikabi are on the move, Haihane decides to go check it out, even though Karasuba says to leave it up to the Red Sekirei. Natsuo then asks if there was a Disciplinary Force Sekirei prior to him becoming an Ashikabi, so Karasuba explains that there used to be No.08 Yume, the Sekirei of Fate, who rescued No.88 from a group of covert ops that abducted her, but passed away when she entrusted her desire to fly freely and fall in love to the then young Sekirei. Hearing that Yume was strong, Natsuo feels it’s a shame that she died, which Karasuba agrees with, but only because she feels Yume should’ve died at her hands. She then wonders if Musubi will survive the night.

The plan to help Haruka and Kuno escape soon commences, with Kaoru informing everyone that they have a one-hour time limit due to the surveillence satellite that Matsu’s going to hack. As for the plan itself, Kusano is tasked with keeping the inspection guards preoccupied on one of the bridges, while Kaoru and his Ashikabi blow up the transformer station to halt the train on the railroad bridge. During all the commotion, Minato, Musubi, Haruka, and Kuno are to then escape on foot across the railroad bridge. Meanwhile, Homura and Kazehana watch on, with the latter hoping that Minato will show her something special. While the plan seems to off without a hitch, word of this reaches Takami, who’s surprised to find out that Hiroto knew about everything all along.

Because of this, reinforcements arrive earlier than expected, so Matsu tells everyone to run away and abort. During this time, Matsu loses contact with Kaoru after Hibiki accidently fries him and his phone. Minato however is concerned about saving Kusano who’s in the thick of things, but Matsu tells her that the Disciplinary Force will kill Ashikabi without a second thought. Reminded of how he promised to protect Kusano, Minato is determined to save her regardless, so Matsu tells him there’s a chance of plans and to go on ahead to the railroad bridge. Saying she’ll save Kusano herself, Matsu takes off on her motorcycle, telling Tsukiumi that Minato is giving his all out there right now. Having lost contact with everyone, Kaoru tells Hikari and Hibiki that escaping is up to the others, unaware that they’re continuing on with the plan.

Matsu then blows through a M.B.I. deployment with her bazooka and rescues Kusano. Giving her bag full of mini plant capsules, Kusano starts firing them everywhere, causing huge plants to sprout and destroy everything around. Having confirmed Kusano’s rescue, Minato and the others continue on across the railroad bridge, where they run into Benitsubasa and Haihane. During all the explosions, Shiina notices Kusano’s plants and heads out with Yukari in search of her, unbeknownst that Hayato and his Sekirei are waiting for them outside. After some introductions, Musubi says she won’t lose to her juniors and takes on Benitsubasa. After a few exchanges, Benitsubasa says that the Black Sekirei seems to have taken an interest in Musubi, who’s unaware of what she’s talking about, even after Karasuba’s name comes up. Haihane on the other hand is amused, as airheads are Benitsubasa’s natural enemy, prompting Benitsubasa to call Musubi an idiot. In response, Musubi tells Benitsubasa that she shouldn’t call other people idiots, which only annoys her further, so she unleashes an air combo on Musubi and knocks her to the ground.

Back at Izumo Inn, Miya reminds Tsukiumi about how she said she’d become the strongest with Minato. Saying that Matsu and Kusano are doing whatever needed to help Minato, Miya adds how their feelings for him are the same as Tsukiumi’s. Meanwhile, Musubi gets up and continues her fight with Benitsubasa, but is caught off guard trying to save Minato after Benitsubasa destroys part of the bridge with her Gekishin (激震) earthquake attack. During this time, Haihane corners Haruka and Kuno, saying he won’t let them escape this time. Tsukiumi on the other hand decides to head out saying that she won’t become a widow. Having landed her Bunsai (粉砕) pulverization attack, Benitsubasa follows up with another blow while Musubi’s on the ground, knocking her out completely. Crawling over to her, Minato is shocked to see Musubi’s Sekirei Crest fade and screams out for her.

 

Next Episode:
「縁の鶺鴒」 (Enishi no Sekirei)
“Sekirei of Fate”

Impressions:
While they didn’t explicitly explain what the relationship between Yume and Musubi is, they did allude to the fact they they share a very close “bond“. This includes being played by the same seiyuu. From what I’ve heard, their connection is explained in more detail in the manga, but I won’t go into it here in order to avoid spoiling it for anyone. In any case, this would be the so-called “bridge battle” that everyone’s been anticipating and just about everyone got involved, whether directly or simply watching from the sidelines. Uzume surprisingly didn’t act this episode though, but seeing as she was also looking on, I’m sure she will next time—especially since it’s the finale. Yup, you read that right. There’s no longer any confusion as to whether this series is twelve episodes anymore, because the preview clearly says the next episode is the last.

Aside from that, it was nice to see Matsu come outside of her room for a change, and dressed in a some really revealing leather too. Since her ability seems to be in the area of technological know-how, it’s fitting to see her use a motorcycle and bazooka as her weapons of choice. Speaking of which, it’s amusing watching Kusano take the bazooka and start firing mini plant capsules from it. Thanks to that, it looks like Shiina finally knows where Ku is though, and it’ll be interesting to see how Hayato and his Sekirei get involved too. With everyone coming together at once, I’m not quite sure what to expect in the last episode, but I think there are way too many loose-ends to try and wrap up. For one, Minato and Yukari aren’t even aware that they both have Sekirei, so I’d imagine they’d need at least a couple of minutes to go over that. Secondly, Yukari hasn’t even formed a contract with Shiina, so if they’re going to help, this probably needs to happen at some point. Thirdly, we still have Hayato and his group going after Shiina. Last but not least, there’s the Disciplinary Force to deal with, whose Red Sekirei’s already done a number on Musubi.

In regards to the Disciplinary Force, Benitsubasa made her debut to the series and boy was it a good one. I think out of all the Sekirei they’ve shown us so far, she’s the only one that’s properly proportioned. As such, I actually find that she looks the best out of everyone, especially in this episode where the artwork was on crack and a lot of characters were drawn disgustingly out of proportion. There were some shots of Musubi that looked like she was on steroids and built like a truck, but I refrained from using any of those as screen captures. In addition, Benitsubasa is played by the real-life alcoholic Itou Shizuka, who seems to have a trend going with playing pink-haired characters. (e.g. Katsura Hinagiku in Hayate no Gotoku!, Kakizaki Misa in Negima!, Amanda Werner in BLASSREITER). Shizuka is one of the many seiyuus I really enjoy watching, so naturally I’m already a little biased towards Benitsubasa, even though she’s kind of psychotic. Okay, really psychotic. Anyway, in spite of the badly drawn characters, I did enjoy the fight scene between Musubi and Benitsubasa a lot since they’re both “fist type” Sekirei. Benitsubasa totally stole the show though, unleashing a combo with an air juggle finisher, Bunsai (粉砕), which translates to “Pulverization”.

As for Musubi, the death flags were all over the place last episode as I mentioned, so it didn’t come as a surprise that she was defeated here. They ended the episode on a really good cliffhanger though, with Musubi’s Sekirei Crest disappearing, so I don’t quite understand why they showed us this in the preview right after. I mean, we kind of figured that she wouldn’t die there due to her ties with Yume, the Sekirei of Fate, or even possibly Karasuba, but talk about wasting the suspense they just built up. They even added a new ending theme and sequence that revolves completely around Musubi too. (See above.) In another questionable decision, they decided to censor nothing in episode nine, but this week they decided to completely censor a shot of Musubi’s underwear.

Expectedly, Tsukiumi didn’t make it in time, but seeing as she’s gone off to help Minato and the others now, that’s one more character to throw into the mix for next week’s finale. Given how the series has gone so far, I hope they decide to leave things open-ended for a possible sequel, rather than trying to cram everything into the last 25 minutes, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tidbit: Miya said Alicia Florence’s trademark ARIA line “Ara Ara” in this episode, which was spot on since they’re both played by Oohara Sayaka.

 

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)
– Uzume (鈿女) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Homura (焔) / Kaida Yuki (甲斐田 ゆき)
– 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)
– Shigi Haruka (鷸 ハルカ) / Okamoto Nobuhiko (岡本 信彦)
– Kuno (久能) / Akesaka Satomi (明坂 聡美)
– Minaka Hiroto (御中 広人) / Seki Toshihiko (関 俊彦)
– Takami (高美) / Itou Miki (伊藤 美紀)
– Karasuba (鴉羽) / Paku Romi (朴 璐美)
– Benitsubasa (紅翼) / Itou Shizuka (伊藤 静)
– Haihane (灰翅) / Saiga Mitsuki (斎賀 みつき)
– Natsuo (夏朗) / Toriumi Kousuke (鳥海 浩輔)
– Mikogami Hayato (御子上 隼人) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
– Mutsu (陸奥) / Matsubara Daisuke (松原 大典)
– Akitsu (秋津) / Kobayashi Yuu (小林 ゆう)

51 Comments

  4. yeah there will most likely be a Season 2, a lot of plot points currently going on in the manga have only just begun to unfold in the series. The fact that they sarted events/issues that will be impossible to complete in a single season(some of them haven’t even been completed yet in the manga), makes me think they are planning a Season 2 when the manga progresses far enough.

    Shadow_Strider
    Reply

  6. “For one, Minato and Yukari aren’t even aware that they both have Sekirei”

    They still don’t know in the manga, in fact they haven’t seen each other in forever.

    The changes in the episode are minor, Claymore ending was anime original, atleast so far this is the first climax from the manga.

    Man0warr
    Reply

  7. If they pull a Claymore… it’ll be horrible. Especially since Claymore was still 26 episodes. There’s no way they’ll be able to finish it in the next episode. Too much stuff to do still.

    tacdo
    Reply

  10. ah man everything was going well too, but only 13 episode, i just hope they bring it back a season later like they do with ZnT… still was a good episode and ya like everyone i also hope for them to leave it open at the end… which would be good for a future season if it happens, or the manga, so people wont be pissed at a awkward end, rather just see it as them wanting u to continue Sekirei tru the manga…

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  11. i wonder why they changed the ending on the 2nd last episode? i liked how each of the previous endings had 3 scenes with Minato and a macho version of the other characters. I wanted to see which character they would put next but theres no more

    KNG
    Reply

  15. Matsu’s hair is wild-looking blowing in the wind ;D

    Very much hoping we’ll get a 2nd season sometime next year, doubt that they’d try to finish all the loose ends left in one more ep.

    Quen
    Reply

  16. I hope it will be like Vampire Knight, break off the series and continue later because there are not materials to finish the whole series. The full events of the escape plan are from chapter 40 to 50 in the manga, and they will only adapt them into the last 3 episode to end one season. To think that they cover 50 chapters in only 12 or 13 episodes then it might take years before they can continue adapting this series onto the screen. I hate to have an original ending to this series because it will not conclude anything, the ending will has an unfinished feeling like the manga Mx0 and it will certainly disappoint the fan. Therefore, I will continue to hope for next season in several years from now until I know for sure whether what happen in the last episode and the studio’s official announcement.

    Zero
    Reply

  20. This is more closer to Vampire Knight than Claymore in that they are rearranging a few things and taking some liberties to try and give a better ending than writing something completely original that ruins any chance of a sequel series based on the manga.

    Westlo
    Reply

  22. Seeing that the manga is still going on,maybe they will end at 12 and set a second season to allow more time to widen the gap between the manga and the anime,since the anime is unraveling the plot at a alarming rate.

    Destinyz
    Reply

  23. That’s probably the idea here. Seeing at how fast the anime went per episode and shoving loads of chapters in there is probably plans for a season 2 at a later time.

    VK did it, R+V did it as well. I think we could be in for something along the lines of ZnT maybe. a 12 or 13ep season and then a few months later we get another one.

    Speaking of which the manga is up to c71 at the moment. And it’s filling in lots of backstory plus bringing up some new questions. Very interesting.

    GP
    Reply

  25. This was probably my favorite of the summer animes we had this year. Birdy or Xam would be my 2nd and 3rd choices for decent anime. I like Zero No Tsukaima but this season has been a disapointment (just a rehash of the previous seasons for the most part). I loved Claymore and hated the ending (is there a anime/manga fan that did like how it ended) so I hope that they don’t pull a Claymore next week on us.

    Splash
    Reply

  27. it cant be the end, are you kidding me????? that’s it??????? i mean it just started, i don’t think it will be the end, well i hope not anyway, we will see, since i love this series.

    memyselfandi
    Reply

  28. It will take quite a while for there to be enough manga chapters to do another season, it’s bi weekly and after this season the manga will only be 22 chapters ahead. They will probably do the beach or medical exam omake as an OVA. In a year the manga will have ~25 more chapters and enough for them to do another season – if they kept the pace they have been.

    I think so far it’s one of the best manga to anime adaptions I’ve seen, they took out all the filler from the manga and strictly did the story while changing around only a few minor things.

    Man0warr
    Reply

  29. “While they didn’t explicitly explain what the relationship between Yume and Musubi is, they did allude to the fact they they share a very close “bond“.”

    They will on the next episode, just like the manga explained it.

    Drakron
    Reply

  30. maybe just like R+V did…. this series “might” have it’s 2nd season on spring… (R+V’s 1st season debut in spring and after 2 season passed they gonna release the 2nd one this fall.

    well i hope the producer won’t stop in this season (not like the school rumble which really disappointed me)

    menma
    Reply

  33. R+V didn’t really follow the manga, so you can’t really compare. Plus…the 2nd season is introducing Moka’s sister who doesn’t appear until the R+V II manga, they are basically skipping 20 or 30 chapters from the first manga.

    Man0warr
    Reply

  37. someone seriously needs to beat the crap out of that red sekirei :<. Musubi would have kick her ass if she doesnt use underhand tactic. That aside, I dont even know how the last episode will turn out. The black sekirei comes out screaming while swaying the blade @_@. Just hope they make another season, even zero tsukaima have three seasons, Sekirei deserves more than this.

    mysterious
    Reply

  39. I dont think R&V is that bad an anime. I like it. It is what it is…. fan service anime with lots of references to tits. Is entertainment and not trying ro win any awards for the best anime ever made.

    Splash
    Reply

  43. Assuming they don’t pull a Claymore next episode, it should end with Kazehana getting winged. Episode 13 will be one of the fanservice omake chapters, the beach or medical exam one 😀

    Man0warr
    Reply

  47. I hope that there will be a second season of this anime. With only 12 episodes they’ve barely touched the surface. There should at least be 24-26 episodes for fans to be satisfied with the show.

    smystal
    Reply

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