天下制覇

Sometimes, they’re one and the same.

Impressions:

To the surprise of nobody, Adilisia is still alive and pulls Itsuki’s fat out of the frying pan in the first 30 seconds of the show. It still takes another couple minutes before it sinks in and he tackles her in a hug. Unfortunately, the other girls aren’t willing to let nature take its course. What do they care? One’s noncorporeal and the other is underage. That just leaves Nekoyashiki and who knows where his interests lie. He probably likes watching.

Episode was rather enjoyable, though I’m a little disappointed that Judas wasn’t cut out to be more of a lasting villain. That’s what the show really lacks at the moment; a defining direction to move towards. Itsuki is growing and becoming less and less of a spineless halfwit, and the arcs that actually have antagonists are pretty good so far. There just needs to be something to build towards and a big villain to confront somewhere. Judas also went down with little more than a whimper this episode after making short work of Honami last week, which seemed a bit strange. Hopefully they’ll keep up these mini-arcs they’ve been doing ever since the introduction stuff ended and start to weave something a bit grander on top of it. I’d be more or less content if it stayed the same as it’s been doing, but it just feels like things could be on a much bigger scale than this relatively short, enclosed arcs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it, but it could easily be so much better too.

Alright, starting to get distracted here. I liked the ep, so I guess I’ll do a quick summary:

Judas takes the briefcase (and Honami) and opens the locks to take the Itsuki grimoire inside. She eventually tries using her own blood to cast a spell, and breaks her barrier. Luckily, Adilisia shows up at the last second to prevent her from being killed by her own machinations. Meanwhile, Itsuki confronts Judas and instead of using his eye, Itsuki has developed his instinct for battle enough and is able to effectively give orders without it. Judas changes tactics and tears Lapis’ Basilisk Eye out to counter Itsuki. He calls her worthless as you’d expect. Honami and Addie show up to save their asses. Judas uses the Eye to transform Lapis into a new basilisk. In fact, that’s what the basilisk they fought before was… Lapis’ precursor.

Itsuki stands up and uses his eye. He walks up to Basilapis and places his hand on its chest. His voice continues to deepen and become another altogether until he punches into Basilapis and declares that he is the one inheriting his father’s work, heart and will. Basilapis dissolves and Lapis returns. Both she and Itsuki collapse, hand in hand. Later, Lapis helps Judas rebuild himself, because she’ll always be with her brother. Astral starts getting letters from Lapis about things going on.