Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Rating: 6/10

Crows: 2 (omg crows???? one doesn’t really count but whatever)

Not horrible, but not all that great either. I figured that Ikki would end up meeting at least one of the major bosses in Kyoto so I was kind of bored. Although, I must say there were a few surprises in this episodes(not huge ones) that kept me relatively entertained.

First surprise: Benkei.

At first she appears as a fan of Ikki’s and looks like she’s kissing him, but really she was just whispering sweet words of love in his ear. Nobody seems to question what Ikki is doing way up on top some rock, nor do they really question how he got down.

Don’t ask how many times I had to rewind this to catch her in the proper pose. But she looks damn good in this shot. Not only does she have a rusty tomboyish voice, she’s got a nasty-ass regalia which looks like it hurts…a lot. Unfortunately they don’t show much of her beyond her short yet satisfying appearance. She’s got some good potential to be quite badass.

Second surprise: Tomita Mari(Ton-chan).

Um…Nosebleed anyone? If they remove that crow in the DVD version, it might just become my desktop. I was kind enough to make a panorama for anyone interested. I think her boobs got smaller though since her last sexy photo, but I’m still drooling. She also seems to be getting closer to Orihara Masaya which is kind of nice, considering their scandalous past. No rape paranoia though, so sad.

Third and final surprise: Ringo.

I absolute LOVE Ringo’s school outfit. The black bow-ties in hair with the matching black tie on her school outfit is pretty sexy. I think she might look better with darker glasses, maybe black? Except maybe she’d just look emo. Props on the outfit though. I thought the whole “couple challenge” thing was pretty funny.

This scene was magnificent and I was too fucking dull to even see it coming. I had more the same reaction as her: “No! Wait! Stop! What are you doing?! Omg! *closes eyes and waits for kiss*……”…except no. He just wanted to ask her about some AT stuff. How dense can I be, really? This same damn thing happened earlier on with Benkei, yet I didn’t put 2 and 2 together. I’m losing my game.

Awesome pic right after Ringo realizes that Ikki has no room in his brain to love her. He only loves ATs or anything remotely related to them in any way. Some anime guys just don’t know what they’re missing…

Here’s a pic of the very last frame in which Ringo and Ikki are chasing after the dudes who stole some Kogarasumaru members. Lets look at this purely in an artistic light. It has a good use of lines, shapes, and movement. You can see emotion and a sense of urgancy portrayed through body posture and whatnot. There’s a nice use of contrast between the buildings, sky, ground, car, and Ringo/Ikki. There’s a definite focal point (the car) which is pointed at by the lines, the direction the bodies are facing, and it’s relatively in the center of the picture. But, where did my eyes focus on first before anything else? Yeah, that’s right. Ringo’s ass in hopes I could snatch a glimmer of fanservice.

Overall, I wouldn’t say I disliked this episode, but I wouldn’t watch it twice. There were some funny parts and some fanservice which were somewhat reminiscent of the early Air Gear craziness, but it still can’t compare with the first few episodes. I see no shame in tossing in a beach episode. Oh yeah, that’d be the shit! Hell, they could even play on the whole yaoi Ikki + Agito thing, and still be able to show a crapload of air gear girls in beachwear. I think we have our answer folks! Too bad Anime News Network says there’s only 25 episodes (this season? or forever?).

-Retsgip