天下制覇

BUSHIN NO JUTSU.

Impressions:

It’s kind of sad when a mediocre episode of Nagasarete manages to put together a better fight scene than a decent episode of Kenichi. It’s not like this episode was terrible, but the dojikko ninja Shinobu just seems… well… like filler this late in the series run, and really wasn’t particularly funny at all. Are they really finished with everybody else to the point where they’re going to be introducing new characters right up until the end of the series? Meh. Well, I’ve come this far. There’s still potential for a few more great episodes, but 18 episodes later and they’re still resorting to “Ikuto takes bath, girl wanders into bath, Ikuto has a nosebleed” jokes. *sigh*

Summary:

Suzu and Ikuto are sitting down to dinner when a message arrow suddenly flies into the room. It’s from Mikoto, issuing a challenge.

The next day, Suzu is telling Ikuto about how Mikoto is actually a ninja along with another ninja named Shinobu. You have no idea how annoying it is to have a shinobi named Shinobu. As all things must come together, they then stumble upon Shinobu in the middle of the path, starving from hunger along with her tiny cow friend.

The two feed her, and while they’re talking, Shinobu figures out that Ikuto is the one ‘picking on’ Mikoto all the time and challenges him as well. She had heard about how Ikuto was a great fighter from the cat lord… as well as from the other two animal lords from their encounters with him and came to her own conclusions about how great of a swordsman he must be.

She tries to fight him again, but Ikuto refuses and goes to eat lunch. She tries to chase them, but trips over her sword and Ikuto asks if she really is a ninja.

Later that night, Shinobu is bothering him constantly to duel him, even getting in the way of Suzu’s sewing. She refuses to leave until he has a match with her, so ends up sleeping there as well. Suzu and Ikuto have a little pillow talk about how to deal with her, but she interrupts them by continuing to try to get him to fight her.

The next morning, Suzu pulls the blanket off of Ikuto, and sees Shinobu clinging to him while he mumbles about the duel. She gets jealous and storms off. A little later, they’re fishing, and Suzu catches a fish and tries to tell Ikuto about it, but he’s still only paying attention to Shinobu, so she just glares and then throws the fish back when he finally notices her.

That night, during naked Ikuto bath time, Shinobu wanders into the bath as expected. Ikuto tries to leave, but she grabs him and refuses to let him go while he leaks blood. She finally lets him go, and he tries to run off, but trips on some soap and lands on top of him, just in time for Suzu to walk in.

She gets extremely pissed, to the point of turning red and yells at Shinobu to get the hell out of the house, and Ikuto to finally duel her already so that she’ll leave.

The next morning, she’s making lunch while thinking about all the Ikuto and Shinobu moments from the previous day. Ikuto is training for his duel with the chicken and still trying to figure out what pissed off Suzu and why he has to duel. She comes out, coldly gives him his lunch and then heads back inside.

Ikuto is waiting for Shinobu with Suzu… and she shows up in a goth loli suit care of Chikage. The two finally get ready to fight and somehow it seems to have attracted every other female on the island to watch it.

They finally start, Shinobu is quick, but Ikuto is able to black all her attacks and starts his own counterattack. The fight continues with the chicken showing up to tell the other girls about the advice he gave to Ikuto and general commentary on the match.

Both fighters are exhausted, and they seperate to compliment eachother. Shinobu suddenly says that she knows that he’s holding back a special “Killing Technique.” Everybody thinks about what kind of techniques they can use, ninja or whathaveyou while Ikuto says that he doesn’t have any.

Shinobu uses a clone technique to seperate and attack Ikuto all at once. He’s able to keep destroying all the clones, and then Shinobu attacks from above. Instead of block or countering, he figures out her technique and steps back. She rushes at him again, but trips… and Ikuto, being even worse of a harem male than usual, drops his sword and grabs her breasts to keep her from falling.

He starts apologizing, but she says that it’s her complete loss. Of course, because he grabbed her breasts, that means that… yeah… you guessed it… his ‘special’ technique, she lost her will to fight… etc etc etc. At least she didn’t declare that she had to marry him.

She thanks Ikuto for the duel, and walks off, managing to fall off a cliff after about 5 seconds.

Post-ED, Suzu and Ikuto are talking about Shinobu and what happened, when suddenly she shows up asking for more food. She wants Ikuto to take her on as an apprentice and starts referring to him as shishou (master).