天下制覇

Needs more smashing and bisexual groping, less hugging.

Impressions:

I’m a bit disappointed that there was pretty much nothing else to the fight scene aside from what they showed in the preview, and I don’t know that I like this rewrite of Ryofu’s character all that much. Regardless of whether you subscribe to the anime or manga version of her, she exuded power and authority. She was angrily defiant against her destiny to die young and tried to manipulate things so that she’d die on her own terms before her generic illness killed her. This one’s just shy so far. At least she really does cough up blood and show other signs of sickness, aside from the other 99% of generic anemic "I’m dying of some undisclosed illness" anime girls. Hell, they could just call it tuberculosis and it’d work.

Anyway, amnesiatic, demure Ryofu confuses and somewhat disappoints me. Ryofu is not meant to blush or bat her eyes. Ryofu is meant to seize whatever the hell she wants, male or female, and either beat it up or sex it up, depending on her mood. Somewhat similarly, this romance blooming between Koukin and Sonken also confuses me. I suppose Hakufu already has Ryomou, but let’s face it, who hasn’t had their way with Mou-chan in one form or another at this point?

I’m a little concerned that they don’t seem to really be going anywhere so far, especially with next episode apparently being all about Seito and having absolutely nothing to do with the Nanyou crowd. On the other hand, we get to see Chou-un and Kann-u spar. Assuming that fight lasts longer than the Ryomou/Ryofu fight this episode, that should be fun. Maybe Kann-u will have some more fun lesbian daydreams about Ryuubi too. Then again, now that they’ve got Ryofu and Sonken around, it’d be nice if they were used for something… something aside from hitting on Koukin at any rate.

In the city, there’s a street fight going on. A long haired blue haired girl takes on a few punks. It’s freakin’ Ryomou, fighting for Enjutsu. She boots one punk into the wall, but the other grabs her leg and holds her. A second grabs a pipe and tries to attack, but Saji grabs it and then boots the punk into the wall. He gives Ryomou his drink and goes to deal with the punks himself. Ryomou stares at the can and blushes at it while Saji beats them up some more. She carefully takes a drink, still blushing all the while.

As they leave the alley, Saji hits on Ryomou a bit, but Ryofu is waiting for him. He excuses himself and goes over to Ryofu. She happily glomps him before the two leave together. Ryomou stares at the can again before smashing it in frustration.

Back in the present, Ryomou watches over a sleeping Ryofu. The green haired goddess wakes up, surprised and accidently exposes herself. Ryomou angrily grabs her, demanding to know why she’s alive. Ryofu looks around in confusion, not knowing who Ryomou is. She asks what her own name is.

At school, the bell rings and Hakufu charges out with a huge lunchbox. She blitzkriegs the roof, being the first there. Sonken and Koukin join her to eat the lunch. Sonken’s happy as usual to be there. Hakufu’s ecstatic to eat real food instead of her mother’s convenience store food.

Sensing her daughter’s smack talk, Goei worries that Sonken is going to be spoiling and/or making things tough for them by setting the family’s sights too high.

Back on the roof, a crow carries off the lunch. Hakufu gives chase while Koukin explains that this isn’t exactly an unusual event for Hakufu. 

Gakushu joins them for lack of anything better to do. He is a bit concerned about Ryomou since they haven’t seen her since she ran off.

Ryomou is pissed off. She demands to know why Ryofu Hosen has no idea who she is. Good question, Mou-chan. That name’s familiar to Ryofu, but… she doesn’t really remember. Ryomou explains that they’re toushi, but even that’s gone from Ryofu’s memory, forcing Ryomou to show the magatama  and explain that it’s the sign of a toushi.

FLASHBACK AGAIN. Ryomou is distracted during training, waiting for Saji and gets taken down with ease by her trainer. She’s pissed off with herself afterwards and also a bit angry at Saji.

She turns the corner and finds Saji locking lips with Ryofu, who glares at her out of the corner of her eye. Ryofu calls out Ryomou as she tries to hide and then moves in close and kicks her legs out from under her.

She tells Ryomou to not worry about her and Saji. It’s not really anything. Maybe it would be better if they were childhood friends or something. Ryomou gets mad at the teasing, but Ryofu is suddenly starts coughing and spits up blood. Ryomou is concerned for a moment, but Ryofu basically just tells her to not tell others.

And then, Ryomou continues in the present, came the events leading to Ryofu’s death. Ryofu gave all her power in the last fight and died. Ryofu herself can’t believe that she died. Ryomou gets a call from Gakushu and leaves the room to take it. Gakushu tries to tell her that they’re worried about her, but Ryomou blows him off. The distraction is enough to let Ryofu slip out of the room and away. Ryomou hangs up on Gakushu when she can’t find Ryofu. She wonders to herself where Saji could be during all this.

Ryofu runs out of the house and turns the corner, passing in front of Saji, who impassively watches her run past.

Ryofu mopes in the park, thinking about Ryomou telling her that she died. Why or who is she? She hears screaming, it’s Hakufu fighting the crow. Hakufu lets loose a chi blast at it to try to make it drop the lunch. Ryofu sees Hakufu’s magatama and realizes that she’s a toushi too. The crow charges straight at Ryofu, who instinctually lets loose a huge chi blast and spooks it into dropping it. 

Hakufu catches the lunch and thanks Ryofu. Greenie’s stomach growls and Hakufu invites her to eat it alongside herself. As they eat, Hakufu prattles on about how she has Koukin to help her, even though she’s a bit stupid and confused about recognizing people or faces herself. Ryofu smiles at it, which Hakufu cheerfully notes and the two keep happily eating together.

They finish the meal as Koukin and Sonken run up. Sonken’s amazed that they managed to clean the whole plate. Sonken’s amazed at a lot of things.

 Hakufu happily says that this girl, her new friend, helped. Hakufu realizes that she never got the girl’s name, but Koukin cuts her off. Her recognizes the clothing… she’s Ryofu Housen… but then sort of ashamedly says that that can’t be right. Toutaku’s group was all wiped out.

Ryofu does admit that she’s a toushi. Hakufu thinks that she doesn’t know who she is, but Ryofu says that she thinks that she might really be Ryofu Housen. Sonken busts out the Sun Tzu for the occasion telling Ryofu to use her own two hands to build towards the future without worrying about the past. Hakufu happily grabs her hands and rushes off to go meet people and have more fun.

Hakufu manages to run into a placard advertising a karaoke special and decides to pull the rest into it. Koukin’s reluctant and tries to get Sonken to say something, but Sonken has no idea what karaoke even is.

Ryomou runs around, searching for Ryofu. A fortune teller calls her over. Ryomou says that she doesn’t believe in that crap, but the fortune teller stops her with a pretty accurate description of what Ryomou is looking for and the state of things. Ryomou turns around, but the fortune teller has vanished.

At the karaoke room, Hakufu is the master of shock and awe. Koukin take tries to get her to sing instead of Hakufu, but she would be too embarassed… unless Koukin would do it with her.

They happily sing together while Hakufu plots to find a song for Ryofu to sing. She hums the tune, which Ryofu recognizes as the same song that a guy (Saji) used to hum for her as he came to pick her up. She starts humming the song in reality too, surprising Hakufu.

Ryofu jolts out of her daydream and wonders who that man was. Hakufu decides to try to bring back the memory by playing the song.

Ryomou stops outside the room as the song starts. Ryomou sees the two of them singing together and is shocked. The two happily smile at eachother while they sing. Ryomou thinks of the past again.

She reached to help Ryofu as she was coughing up blood, but Ryofu attacked her and easily beat the snot out of Ryomou, ending with slamming her through a wall.

She again tells Ryomou to not worry about Saji, her own time is running out. Ryomou manages that they finish the fight, but Ryofu just says that she hates the cursed destiny of the toushi. She’s living for herself, for her own desires. She turns and walks away from Ryomou.

Back at the karaoke bar, Ryomou opens the door and walks up to Ryomou. Greenie flinches, but Ryomou hugs Ryofu. Hakufu’s charged up, but Ryomou seriously tells Ryofu to live for her time, for her own sake. Ryofu returns the hug.

Preview:

The usual hijinks over at Seito.