天下制覇

And maid Kuroha? This is so confusing.

Impressions:

Sekiren is a wonderful character. When he spewed all the weapons out like Mousse from Ranma 1/2, I was an immediate fan. Then his overblown attempt at seppuku to atone for his dishonor just made things better. Then the episode became a bit weirder with Kuroha dressed up as a maid and flying around. She didn’t even seem ashamed to fly straight up over Itsuki, exposing herself… or maybe that was the plan. Itsuki didn’t seem to notice that he was getting a free show though, so maybe she was wearing jeans under her dress.

Anyway, the episode is an introduction to Sekiren, a master of melee combat, armed and unarmed. After saving Itsuki’s tail while the doofus is chasing an evil spirit butterfly, he trains Itsuki for a little bit, but when Itsuki’s attacked again, he prevents Kuroha and Honami from coming to his aid. This time, Itsuki was able to use his eye passively (but more obviously than his fight against Johan earlier in the series) and see through the illusion to attack and defeat the critter. On the other hand, it was pretty obvious to even Itsuki that the whole thing was an illusion. 

Even though the illusion spear thing wasn’t really doing any damage, I found it rather painful that by the way they showed the shot, it looked like Itsuki took a giant spear right in the junk. Sure, they revealed it to be the leg a little later, but I still winced in sympathy. I’m a little curious as to how Itsuki managed an energy blast. With or without the eye, that’s a new trick. I’m also wondering if Kuroha is going to be in the maid uniform from now on. That’s kind of a strange thought all on its own. Aside from all the maid fetishests out there, I prefer Kuroha’s casualwear.