天下制覇

About time we got another non-episodic arc.

Impressions:

You know, I really like how Rental Magica is handling Itsuki and Kuroha’s developing powers. Kuroha’s reached the point where she’s using her’s for common household activities, and Itsuki is… well… just continuing his training like a good little boy and getting stronger. I’m tempted to make comparisons between him and Yuji, but Itsuki is a much more well rounded character whose whole being doesn’t revolve around being totally oblivious to anything and everything that happens further than 5 inches from his face. I guess Itsuki was also actually useful more than a few times before he started using his inner snake dragon to seduce the women around him. Words cannot express how happy I am that Honami and the others seem to be taking his new usefulness in battle in stride instead of fawning over him while trying to kill demons.

Anyway, this episode was about Mikan’s past and and a feud between her family (Katsuragi) and the Matsuri. When Nekoyashiki and Mikan have trouble on the job, Itsuki and Honami have to go check things out. Itsuki gets to be manly and protect Honami when a demon attacks, allowing her to finish it off.  Itsuki eventually stumbles on the house where they’ve got Mikan locked up for the time being. I really liked how Mikan looked during that scene. Very appropriately despairing. Itsuki and crew go out to investigate and end up attacked by a ton of the demons in a very very well done, albeit short, fight scene. Itsuki manages to use his eye through the patch again, but Nekoyashiki stops them (through a cat) and a wave of darkness pulls Itsuki into a strange world with Nekoyashiki and Mikan’s older sister, Kaori. Meanwhile, Honami demands answers about the little family feud betweeen the two families. As it turns out, the Matsuris attached a thread to Itsuki and used it to find Kaori through Itsuki. And now Mikan has to finish the job.

We were back to the English OP this week, and I know I’ve said it numerous times, but I really would like this show a lot more if it would sustain a complete arc. The Lapis stuff earlier on was some of the best in the series and since the return to episodic, other than the small changes here and there, things just don’t feel like they’re moving. While this episode was pretty slow, it’s the first cliffhanger in a long while and the high quality of the (again, short) action scene makes me hopeful for next week as Mikan takes on her sister. Tatsumi will probably get caught in the middle and hopefully we’ll get to see him throw down with Itsuki.