天下制覇

I’m as shocked as you.

Impressions:

I’ll be honest, I was expecting Hinagata to be a guy. I’m not certain what that says about me precisely, and that’s a line of personal introspectation that I don’t think I want to pursue. She’s just too obviously cute and girly and the trap punchline seemed so… well… obvious.

Surprisingly entertaining episode, but I suspect that a fair amount of that is because I’m still in a good mood from Index shocking me by having a fun episode after Zeus only knows how long. The fight here was atrocious, the date went pretty much 100% as expected, and poor Ayame had minimal screentime. It was still mostly fun and even though Ibuki was still more violent than she should have been to poor Yoichi, she did spend most of the episode fawning over him like a proper girlfriend, and I’m not even sure she noticed when she boobed him a few times. It wasn’t quite back to episode 1 levels of affection, but it was better than the relatively nonsensical violence of the last few.

I am wondering if we’re going to be seeing any more of Hina in the future. I kind of liked the little we got to see. She’s certainly not opposed to using her cuteness to her advantage, which also happens to be Yoichi’s weakness. It’s also not clear how good she really is. She couldn’t land a fair hit on Yoichi, but also took the same attack that knocked out Washizu with no damage except to her appearance. That could just be lazy and/or bad writing though. I wouldn’t be surprised either way. She’s more threatening than Washizu and the league of masked stalkers at any rate.

Yoichi and Ibuki walk home together. A trio of girls come up to them, one of them shyly holding an envelope with a heart on it. She gives him the letter and all three run off squealing. Ibuki looks horrified while the guys around Yoichi try to psyche him up for it. Yoichi is ready for the… sword fight.

Ibuki reads it. There’s no mistaking it. She wants to go out on a date with Yoichi. He’s got no problems with it, though doesn’t quite know what a date is. Ibuki is forced to shyly explain, but instead gives him a dictionary. Once Yoichi figures it out, he gets excited over the opposite sex and gets smacked by Ibuki. Yoichi’s other classmates, male and female, are still flipping out in their own little worlds.

Ibuki rants to a friend about Yoichi and generally screams in rage until she imagines Yoichi being glomped onto by Hinagata. 

She storms back into the classroom, where Yoichi is feeling sorry for himself and yells at him that they’re going on a date. The rest of the class spazzes out all over again. Ibuki angrily corrects them, saying that he can’t cause problems for their dojo, so it’s to keep him from screwing up.

Later, Ibuki tries out clothes for her big date. She catches herself, wondering why she’s so worried. Chihaya and Kagome lurk in the doorway, surprising her. She tells them it’s nothing and retreats, falling down the stairs as she goes.

Yoichi and Ibuki walk through the streets. Ibuki asks him what he wants to do, but he’s already announcing his style and regaling random passerbys. Ibuki beats him and drags him away. 

She takes him to a clothing shop and forces him into various clothes, squeezing her boobs against his back and breaking his brain in the process. She finds some cute stuffed animals and fawns over them, but when she asks Yoichi which is better, Yoichi compliments her. Ibuki gets flustered again and beats a hasty retreat.

Elsewhere in the mall, Ayame is trying on clothes too. Her friends mock her small breasts. They notice Ibuki and Yoichi, and Ayame runs off.

Ibuki takes Yoichi bowling next. Ibuki thinks that she’s explained bowling to him, but he tosses the ball overhand and crushes the wall above the pins. She stands behind him and guides him, sharing a pink cloudy moment. 

When both realize it, they stammer out apologies and then Yoichi drops the ball on his foot. As he falls to the ground in pain, he looks up and sees what lies beneath Ibuki’s dress. She predictibly punishes him. The manager yells at them for causing so many problems.

Ayame lurks nearby, thinking that there’s no mistaking that the two are out together. Chihaya and Kagome appear next to her. They continue spying on the lovebirds for a moment, but Ayame gets up to leave. Chihaya tries to tease her for being jealous, but Ayame says it feels wrong and leaves. Chihaya and Kagome keep watching.

Yoichi senses something and looks around, but can’t see anything. 

Ibuki gives him more tips on dates. From behind Chihaya and Kagome, a shadowy figure lurks.

In a limo in the parking lot, a man tries to figure out what’s going on with Yoichi.

Washizu and his lackey wander around outside. They see Ayame looking dejected and wonder about her. Washizu goes into his delusion and imagines Ayame as his blushing and shy sister-in-law. He snaps out of it although his lackey thinks it’s creepy. They argue a bit more. 

Date montage for Ibuki and Yoichi.

As they head home, Ibuki sees all the other couples and decides to hold Yoichi’s hand. As she’s reaching for it, Yoichi turns to ask her a question. She’s surprised and falls backwards. She trips over a rock and falls into a fountain. Yoichi tries to catch her, but falls in on top of her. Another sparkly eyed moment before Ibuki covers herself. Yoichi apologizes, but she laughes at him and says that they always seem to get into situtations like this.

Yoichi stands up, and holds out one of the stuffed animals she was fawning over earlier as a gift. 

She takes it and gratefully thanks him. Yoichi thanks her for the day, reminding her in the process that it was all pretend. Ibuki nervously laughs and runs away from him to get them drinks.

Hina comes up to him and wants to know what he’s doing. Yoichi thanks her for her feelings and is glad that she expressed them, but apologizes and turns down the date. He just doesn’t know her, and he thinks that a date should be between people who like each other. 

Hina smiles and backs off, saying that it’s too bad, but then pulls out a chained staff and attacks. She’s got a contract on Yoichi’s life too.

Yoichi easily dodges her attacks, but when he goes to punch her back, she cowers like a scared girl and he stops short. That opening lets her give him a solid smack to the chest. She charges at him to attack again.

Ibuki’s accosted by a couple punks. They hit on her and slap the stuffed animal out of her purse. She grabs his arm and speaks softly, telling them that they really REALLY shouldn’t have done that.

Yoichi looks up and grabs Hina’s staff at the last second. He throws her off of it and breaks the chain, giving him a makeshift wooden shortsword. 

He uses his wind technique to attack Hina. At the end of it, she’s pretty much unharmed, but her uniform is all ragged and her hair is ruined. She yells at him for being mean and runs off.

Yoichi turns and calls out to Chihaya and Kagome. He just wanted to make sure that they’re okay. They hear Ibuki yell and run to her. They find her polishing off the two punks. She acts innocent, and Yoichi says it’s as expected of her. He cowers from her perceived wrath, but she just walks past him and says that it’s time for them all to go home, smiling at the stuffed animal as she goes. 

Hina apologizes to the shadowy man in the limo. He hangs up on her, and angrily rants to himself. Behind him, his sister in a similar limo and shadowy mask laughes evily.

Back at home, Chiaya tells Ayame that it was just a practice date. Ayame freaks out over it after the fact.

Yoichi thanks Ibuki for today. She tells him a real one would be more fun. Yoichi has something to say though… He takes her outside and tells her that he canceled his other date and explains to Ibuki that a date should be between people who like each other. Yoichi wonders if he’ll ever have anybody like that, prompting Ibuki to say that it’s because he always does perverted things… but she really does like Yoichi. She storms off, still blushing, but smiles back at him. 

Preview:

This preview was a new level of bizarre.