天下制覇

Wait… doesn’t Mayu only suck male energy?

Impressions:

Hosaka really was wasted on this show. He’s a man’s man. He’s a man’s man’s man. He’s a man’s man’s man’s man. Willing to beat the crap out of anybody and anything that gets in his way and he’s got the power to back it up. He obviously threw the fight too. If a punch from him could send Ninomiya flying through a wall, I highly doubt that sickly old Mayu would have just sat there like a useless lump after taking a shot from him. Poor Hosaka. You really were the best thing that this show had going for it. I think that totally forgot that he had a serious voice, though. It’d have made his little Ninomiya beatdown all the more fun.

As for the rest… meh… pretty much exactly as expected. The denouement (fun word… denouement) was of course inconclusive over which girl Ninomiya would kiss and the succubi ended up kissing eachother. I’m not even going to ask what kind of strange succubal energies got transferred there. I imagine the answer probably wouldn’t be PG-13 anyway… especially because I’m pretty sure that Mayu’s only able to suck male energy… which likely means that Reika’s packing… gah… bad brain! Bad brain! Well… maybe Reika put… herself… inside… Mayu…

Hmm… no, that’s not any better either. I think I need to wrap this up before this leads anyway worse, if that’s even possible.

You would also not believe how far back in my head my eyes rolled when the last line of the show was "My condolences, Ninomiya-kun." At least it was Hosaka saying it. That dulled the cheesiness factor by a little bit. Not a great ending, but pretty much exactly as expected, so I can’t really say that it was bad either, just adequate.

Final thoughts on the series at the end.

No OP this week, or pre-episode sequence.

Back to Light/Dark dream Reika struggle. She wakes up and looks around, wondering where she is. She walks towards the light.

The students head to the amusement park with its scary scary mascot. Ninomiya gets out and prepares to head in. Everybody else wants to follow, but Ninomiya apologizes and hops over the gate alone.

Inside the haunted house, Mayu feverishly talks to the statues. She finds a ‘monster like her’ and waves a sword around at it, thinking how fun it is. She remembers her fun times with Ninomiya and Reika and collapses to her knees, questioning why she had to be a succubus.

Ninomiya finds her. She tries to run off, but he grabs her wrist and tells her to wait. The two talk about their past. Mayu reminds him that she was so happy when Ninomiya and Reika promised to be together, but then Reika had to leave.

Mayu and Ninomiya started to play together, but her succubus energies ran out and she collapsed.

Ninomiya started taking care of her while she was sickly. Reika came back to them with three tickets to Neverland. Mayu tells her that it’s fine that she couldn’t go, and the two of them should just go without her and shoved them outside. Inside, she thinks its okay, and then collapsed again.

When Ninomiya and Reika got back, they find Mayu collapsed. Reika ran off to get help. Ninomiya cried over her, thinking that a kiss from a prince should wake her. He leaned down and planted one on her.

In present times, Mayu falls over onto Ninomiya. He looks down at her and thinks about kissing her. He leans in, and she pushes him away, telling him that she doesn’t want him to forget Reika.

Dark Reika stands on the balcony above. She chastises Mayu for taking Ninomiya away from her.

Back in the past, Ninomiya kissed Mayu. She grabbed him and refused to let go. Reika walked in on them. After a few uncomfortable seconds, Ninomiya collapsed, unconscious. Reika ran to him and after Mayu realized what she’d done, she screamed and collapsed as well. The siblings ran in to take care of them. Reika didn’t understand what happened.

Out of the flashback, Reika demands Ninomiya choose… to save Mayu or to obey the promise that he made to Reika. He tells her again that someone so scary is not really Reika.

The real Reika would understand that Mayu needs to be saved. He leans in to kiss Mayu. Reika collapses again with tears in her eyes. She orders Hosaka into action. He asks if she’s serious, and she tells him to do it.

Ninomiya is thrown through the wall. Hosaka apologizes, but says this is a direct order. Hosaka follows up on the attack. Ninomiya tries to counter, but can’t hit him at all.

Reika struggles with her inner self. She finds a crying girl.

Hosaka and Ninomiya continue fighting. Hosaka is easily beating the crap out of Ninomiya. Everything is for Reika, he tells Ninomiya. The two of them are the same, only for their women. While Ninomiya is angrily denying it, Hosaka kicks a doll at him and then while distracted, takes the opportunity to suplex Ninomiya.

Reika walks out and next to Mayu. Mayu pleads with her to stop them from fighting.

Reika’s inner struggle goes on. She tells the girl to stop crying already, or at least tell her why. The girl’s too distressed to communicate much of anything.

Reika flashes through her struggles as maid to Ninomiya, telling the girl she has it far rougher. The girl laughs and tells her that she understands… that Reika has had fun. Reika finally recognizes that the girl is her younger self. She hugs the girl, apologizing to her. The girl fades to sparklies.

Hosaka uppercuts Ninomiya and then kicks him through another door. A chandelier teeters and then falls. Reika grabs him in a tackle and dives out of the way.

She leans down and kisses him. Then she gets flustered and tells him that it’s over. She orders Hosaka to stand down, but he says that won’t do. He needs to do what needs to be done for Reika’s happiness.

Reika can’t believe that he’d disobey. Ninomiya holds her hand to support her and calls over to Mayu. He apologizes to her and tells her to hold on just a little longer. Ninomiya walks out to confront Hosaka again. The two charge at each other.

In a flash of pink hair, Hosaka declares his loss. Mayu took Hosaka’s punch while Ninomiya’s went unblocked.

Mayu apologizes to Ninomiya and says it’s okay. Her eyes go dark and she collapses in Ninomiya’s arms. He thinks that it’s not too late. He apologizes to Reika and tries to kiss Mayu. She stops him, saying that his life would be in danger. She slips on a teddy bear and falls onto Mayu, kissing her.

Mayu opens her eyes, surprised, and screams out in surprise. The two start arguing over the kiss while Ninomiya just looks smiles.

In one of the ferris wheel things, Mikihiko and Ryoko watch on, thinking that things went fine.

Also, they appear to be naked, aside from an oversized chipmunk head. Not judging… just saying.

The other students manage to finish working on the power to the amusement park and switch it on for Mayu and the rest.

The succubi and their boytoy see the lights come on. Mayu wants to go play, like they promised. Super Sentai Okushiro watch them go fondly.

Hosaka walks dejectedly. Shinobu holds out her hand to him. He falls onto her and starts flirting.

Ninomiya gets a… backrub… shall we say… from Mayu. He’s distressed about her chest being all over her back. Reika busts in to yell at them and then Shinobu has her sword at his throat. Basically, it’s business as usual in the Ninomiya household.

After he runs off, Reika and Mayu declare to the other that they won’t lose.

At school, everybody’s happy to see Mayu around again. She thinks to herself that  she’ll do her best. She moves in to kiss Ninomiya’s kiss, but Ayasaka calls out to them, and he turns. Their lips meet, and Ninomiya collapses. The end credits run while Reika screams at Mayu, Mayu blames Ayasaka, and everybody tries to save him.

While the melee is going on, Ninomiya gets up. Hosaka expresses his condolences to Ninomiya and the two succubi run over to glomp him.

Final Thoughts:

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that Ninomiya is gay. The giant kiss montage reminded me how every single time he kisses a girl, he looks completely distressed and about to bolt. Just saying… that could put a damper on this whole romance deal.

Back to actual thoughts and not strange ramblings… Ninomiya remained a guilty pleasure at best. It had a plot, which was wonderful, considering some of the other shows this season that have spent 12 episodes without a single thing actually happening… not that I’m naming names, Shana. Regardless, it was still nothing I’d ever call good. A year from now, this will simply be remembered as "that hard to spell show with succubi." It had a plot, and that’s wonderful, but that’s pretty much all that it really had going for it. The art remained dodgy throughout, the animation ran the course from awful to decent, the vocal work was forgettable, etc.

All that said, even aside from the fact that there was nothing else besides (*shudder*) Dragonaut on Wednesdays, it really wasn’t that bad of a show. Writing does count for a lot, and it was mostly of a decent enough quality to excuse the other faults. Not enough to actually make a good series out of it, but Ninomiya really did become more than the sum of its parts… which is a good thing because each individual part had some cringe worthy moments. I can’t say that I’d really recommend this to many, but it’s a harmless little romp. It won’t give you cancer, but I can’t imagine a world where this would leave any sort of lasting mark either. Still, when "better than Dragonaut" is the most praise that you can heap on it… well… it’s not winning any awards either.