天下制覇

Back to normal half-assed Kenichi… this time with a giant naked men. Wonderful.

Impressions:

Even for Kenichi, this was a pretty awful episode. We get another poorly animated sportsman fighter who is magically impervious to damage until Kenichi takes his shoes off. It’s like some bizarre fucked-up Achilles I guess. I remember back when Kekkaishi did this, only all it changed was Yoshimori’s speed, not his ability to grab and hurl giant half-naked men. Next week though… the preview looks hot. There was probably as much of an animation budget in the next ep preview as there was in the entire rest of this episode. I honestly enjoyed the 15 seconds of preview more than I did the entire rest of the episode.

Summary:

Ragnarok’s HQ is holding a meeting where Loki is whining about Kenichi and Hermit getting away free. He’s also bitching about how Kensei is running the place. The others start getting all huffy at each other, but Kisara puts a stop to things before they come to blows.

At Kenichi’s school, he’s thinking about Renka’s words of encouragement when he hears chanting coming from the classroom. Niijima has organized the Shinpaku Alliance into chanting and saluting, and even managed to get Ukita and Takeda doing it as well.

On the way home, Kenichi is discussing techniques with his buddies. Niijima reveals how many different techniques and styles that he’s observed Kenichi using, but also warns him that Ragnarok’s 7th fist, the sumo wrestler Thor, and how that’s a totally different style and a lot of what he’s learned won’t work. Also, he says that he’s planning to meet Thor at a Ragnarok street fight that evening with the Shinpaku alliance. Kenichi is at first opposed, but relents when he thinks about Honoka being kidnapped.

Back at the dojo, Kenichi is explaining his situation to the masters and how he’s worried about Honoka getting dragged in again. The masters aren’t particularly worried about things and have faith in Kenichi, and later, sexy-nightshirt-and-hair-down Miu are up on the roof having an illict tryst where she also tells him that they’ll be fine.

They head over to the street fight and try to sneak in to meet Thor, but someone recognizes Kenichi and then the idiot Shinpaku lackeys start waving the Shinpaku flag and chanting. Thor walks out and is a bit pissed. A fight breaks out briefly until Niijima starts running his mouth and taunting Ragnarok and Thor.

Having pissed off Thor, Niijima sends Kenichi forward. He challenges Thor to a fight, declaring that if he wins, Thor must quit Ragnarok, but if Thor wins, Kenichi will do whatever he wants. Thor accepts, but only if it’s it’s a sumo fight. Kenichi accepts.

Niijima tries to talk Kenichi out of it, and Thor yells for Kenichi to come, by name. Kenichi asks how he knows him, and Thor says that it’s because Siegfried speaks highly of him. Thor and Kenichi hop down into the pit and Kenichi asks what the rules for winning are. Thor tells him that the winner is the one who ejects the other.

Thor charges forward and takes a punch to the forehead which does nothing. Kenichi dodges his punches, but Thor’s body is too strong and he doesn’t take any damage from Kenichi’s counterattacks. Thor catches him, slams him down and then stomps on him. Invulnerable Kenichi gets up and continues fighting.

Thor is meanwhile rambling about how Sumo isn’t a sport, but is a technique for dismemberment, and so people train to have bodies made of nothing but muscle, etc etc. Kenichi’s punches continue to have no effect, but Kenichi dodges against a wall and Thor ends up punching the wall, doing the first real damage to himself.

Kenichi takes his shoes off and mimics Thor’s stance and takes him head on. Instead of hitting him with a sumo move though, he tags him with a series of his techniques, but can’t quite finish the job and throw him. Thor tries to bear his weight down, but Kenichi finally manages to lift him and carry him to the edge of the pit. He then throws him up and out.

Thor is stunned, and a fight almost breaks out among the lackeys. Thor stops it, and says that the fight is over and that he lost. Kenichi drags himself out of the pit and tells Thor that he doesn’t want their territory or whatnot, just for him to leave them alone. The Shinpaku Alliance carries Kenichi off in victory as Thor now understands Shinpaku’s companionship.

Next week, we get to see Kisara and Miu take on the Valkyries.