天下制覇

Now you’re thinking with portals.

Impressions:

An absolutely awesome episode from start to finish. We had it all, yaoi jokes, Kyosuke giving insane speeches, portal-(psuedo)loli, Sakaki kneeing a giant guy in the balls, and Kugimiya Rie this close to carrying on a conversation with herself for the first time in… well… sadly… only about a year. Looks like we’ll get that conversation next episode though, so I’m not complaining. She could probably pretty passably voice an entire show by herself. Now that’d be an amusing watch… in sort of a trainwreck fashion. Certainly more interesting than hearing Mamiko Noto do a one woman show.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway… Getting back on target here, we finally get our villains in PANDRA, an organization led by Kyosuke making preparations for the coming war between espers and the Normals. While I don’t really care for Jaws (not his actual name) that much, Mio is downright awesome. Clearly nowhere near as strong a teleporter as Aoi, but like many of the weaker espers, she shows a hell of a lot more creativity with her power than Aoi ever has. She basically creates portals constantly and reaches through them to fight. Yes, it’s pretty much the same super power as that Spiderman villain, but that makes her no less awesome. Her fashion sense in street clothes certainly helps too.

The humor wasn’t lacking through the episode either, though there were an abnormally high number of yaoi gags. They milked the Sakaki x Minamoto moment, just to show that Sakaki was trying to palm Minamoto’s bishop (ah… the entendres there), and wherever Muscle Okama goes, there are testicle radishes left behind… or just some Kyosuke humping. Sakaki also proved to be the worst babysitter ever, encouraging the girls to dress up in bathing suits and aprons. At least he had more man points than Minamoto though. One of them wanted to hook up with Hotaru and Natsuko… the other wanted to vacuum the apartment. You get one guess as to which. Sakaki also would have taken down Jaws too if not for Mio’s portal-loli interference.

Oh, and I absolutely loved when Jaws grabbed Minamoto by the head as he opened the door. I miss that kind of wacky pro wrestling violence in action shows these days.

So yeah, I’m rambling, but it was a really really awesome episode. The "Minamoto doesn’t appreciate our salad!" whining from the girls (more entendres!) was probably the only particularly weak part of this one.

Various espers gather late at night. They’re all there for Kyosuke’s recruitment/information speech about PANDRA, his organization for basically the betterment of espers over the normal people. A war is coming, and they will need to band together to triumph. What’s more… their queen will be… Kaoru. Many of the espers there are a bit stunned.

At the esper prison, Minamoto is trying to grill Kugutsu, but he’s completely clammed up. As they leave, he runs into Muscle Okama, who shows off his double radishes that make him think of that wonderful man, Minamoto.

Minamoto gets home to be welcomed by the girls in aprons and bathingsuits. He yells at them,but they tell him that Sakaki suggested it.

The girls retire to watch anime and cheer along while Minamoto and Sakaki have their pizza and beers. They start talking about the girls, but the three overhear (they’re like, 4 feet away), and get pissed off at him. Kaoru slams him into a wall and then they yell at him for always being overbearing and not actually paying attention to them. They worked hard to make the salad for him, but he hasn’t even touched it.

Minamoto knows when he’s beat, so he clams up and eats the salad, then appeases them by saying it’s delicious.

Mio eats her dinner in a shack. She’s pissed off about this whole Queen thing, and teleports out to explore the city sky.

On the way back from the bathroom, Kaoru hears Minamoto and Sakaki talking while they play chess. She eavesdrops as they talk about the potential of a coming fight between espers and humans. Neither of them want that and will do their best to prevent it. Sakaki says that he’ll be Minamoto’s friend whatever happens.

Minamoto takes Sakaki’s hand and the two share a long look. Then Minamoto opens Sakaki’s palm and tells him that he won’t get away with cheating and stealing his bishop so easily. The girls tumble through the door and then declare to Minamoto that they’re a team and would never abandon him either.

The next day, the girls have been brought to the prison to check out Kugutsu. When they get to his cell, he’s gone and a puppet is in his place.

They hurry to Muscle’s cell, but he’s missing too. They can’t have gone far, so Minamoto unlocks the limiters and the girls teleport outside to search. A bunch of robots armed with cannons erupt from the ground and attack them. Aoi teleports them to safety and starts teleporting the robots miles away where they fall into the ocean.

Another robot flies up to them on a motorbike and charges a huge blast. It fires it into the ocean and a massive tidal wave floods over the prison’s walls. The robot buzzes Minamoto as he runs for cover and then charges another huge blast. Kaoru blocks it with her psychic shield and then sends a blast upwards, destroying it. They all know that there’s only one way that Muscle and Kugutsu could have escaped undetected… and that’s Kyosuke.

…and so it is. Muscle and Kugutsu are very very thankful. Kyosuke gets a message from some of the people who were at his PANDRA rally. They accept his message and are ready to join him. He’s got something for them to do, and sends Momotaro off with the promise of seeds.

The next day, Minamoto sends the girls off to their families for the weekend. They’re worried about him, but he reassures them that it’ll be fine. Sakaki will be hanging around him… and that’s somehow supposed to keep him safe. Once they’re gone, Sakaki wants to call Hotaru and Natsuko, but Minamoto has a better idea… housework!

Sakaki loafs while Minamoto cleans and thinks about the girls. There’s a knock on the door and when Minamoto answers, he’s immediately picked up by the head. He tries to yell a warning to Sakaki, but Jaws (no clue on the name) throws Minamoto on top of him. Mio teleports into the room with Momo on her shoulder and demands to know where Kaoru is. Momo runs off to the kitchen to look for Kaoru and/or food. Mio teleport kicks Minamoto in the face and demands again to know where Kaoru is.

Sakaki dodges one of Jaws punches before kneeing him in the jewels. He tries to keep attacking, but Mio uses her portals to grab his legs and trip him. She goes back to Minamoto, picking him up by the neck and again demanding that he deliver Kaoru… no… the Queen. Sakaki just has his head stepped on by Jaws still.

Kaoru rushes back to the apartment. Screw staying with her mom and sister, she wants to have Minamoto all to herself. She opens the door and finds the place trashed with Sakaki partially teleported into the fridge. She lets him out and the two find a note saying that they’ve got Minamoto and if she doesn’t come to them, they’ll kill him.

Preview:

Minamoto and the portal-loli get closer.