天下制覇

I don't think spines work like that.

Impressions:

I still have absolutely no idea what was going on with Kuon, her sister, and Suishou, and they didn't help matters much by having her just shrug off being stabbed, but then maybe it was just an illusion to start with because she kind of shimmered away? So those two episodes of speeches about the master plan? Yeah, really not sure what any of that was about. How it was supposed to succeed. Why it failed. What Suishou did other than just have antagonist invicincibility, the works.

Equally mystifying is the other half of the episode all about how Shingetsu's super secret wish for a bestie created Mangetsu… somehow… and now that the secret's out, she's being erased from existence… again, somehow. We just kind of ignore the questions of why her, and why it would do such a half-assed job of animating a mannequin and brainwashing everyone. Spending the third of the episode trying to sell the story that Magicland itself is doing it all on purpose to create the ultimate… something… doesn't help either. Just out and say that it feeds off of the angst of teenage girls. Lord knows that almost everything else in Japanese fiction does.

Next Episode: