天下制覇

Call now, ladies. There’s a cow waiting just for you.

Impressions:

I should just switch to calling this ‘Monday Birdy’… or maybe to calling Birdy ‘Friday Mission-E.’ Lord knows that both feature long periods when I sort of tune out and then super powered girls in skintight suits hitting people with things, though not hitting people with other people… yet. The main difference is that while I usually come out of ’15 minutes of exposition’ Birdy daze, I’m filled with a blind rage at Senkawa whining through the entire time. In Mission-E’s case, I feel like I was roused from a nap.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Kotaro could have kissed Maori himself, thus leading to hilarious misunderstandings and antics that would have lasted the entire rest of the season and had blushing and high voltage consequences all around. Instead, he chose to forego all of that and shove Maori into a cow’s face. He gets a tip of my hat for heading off the bad romantic cliche at the pass, but a wag of my finger for forcing Maori to exchange saliva with an ungulate. He can also deal with any copyright violations I may receive for ripping off Colbert’s schtick.

As usual, I’m unsure how many of these people that I’m supposed to actually know. I don’t think that people as crazy as the two Foundation suits would have been in Code-E, but the coma girl at the end is a coin flip. I couldn’t help but think of Utena’s Akio while Kilik Kiriku was driving along in his yellow sports car. Sure, Akio’s was red, but I’m pretty sure I would have applauded the show had Kiriku flipped over the dash and onto the hood for some posing. That said, I’m not sure whether to question Kirik or Deen’s understanding of firearms. He’s got some kind of crazy semi-automatic shotgun that is apparently the barrel glued onto a piece of wood. I wasn’t aware that wood technology of the future would have advanced so far, but there you have it. Firearms in the future will be mostly made out of wood. Let’s not even get started on asking why an inert grain container would explode before gunpowder when exposed to an electrical field either. We can save that physics debate for later.

Have I said a damn thing about the episode yet? I’m not even certain anymore. The villains got a little more defined this episode, and at least the immediate antagonists to Chinami and Maori are more than a little unhinged. We also got to see how Kotaro is doing these days (which would probably mean more to me if I remembered him at all), though since he’s still addressing Chinami formally, their relationship is apparently going nowhere fast. It’s probably for the best anyway, since even blushing makes Chinami boil water with her powers. Second base would probably electrocute him.

Brief Summary:

The board of shadowy figures tells Hiiragi to get with the program, though are a little concerned since he’s kind of crazy. He’s got a new guy coming in to deal with the upstarts… in comes Kiriku.

Maori’s off to visit a facility associated with the Type-Es and the man who designed their suits. I have no idea what they were calling them. DEFRAID suits or something. Defrayed? Deflayed? Deaf Laid? Whatever. Chinami unexpectedly shows up and when they see Kotaro waving, manages to zap the tractor she was driving out of control and slam into the building. After checking into the medbay and Chinami starts flirting with Kotaro, Maori calls the homebase to get the lowdown on the pair, but her call is cut off when her powers wipe her phone card.

Everybody at the high tech facility is then apparently forced to eat outdoors with bugs and such. Bleh. More flirting between the lovebirds ends when Chinami blushes and boils her water, burning herself and spilling it. Maori gives up hers and excuses herself.

Later, Maori and Chinami chat in the bath. Maori tries to ask about… taking baths together… and being… close… with their powers, but Chinami’s as thick as a brick and doesn’t understand what Maori is trying to say until after Maori gets tired of it and leaves. Once they go to bed, Maori has a nightmare of her young life… always accidently erasing everything she touched, railcards, test results, everything. She sees herself disappearing and wakes up yelling that she doesn’t want to. She heads outside for some fresh air and finds Kotaro making a late night trip. He invites her along. Kiriku watches Maori go with him.

On the car ride, Maori grills him a bit about his involvement, thinking that he’s just around to study the Type-Es, but he tells her it’s because he likes Chinami. They’re stopped by Kirku in the road, who blows up the truck with his shotgun. They retreat while Kirku’s croney yells at him for attacking them on his own and drawing attention.

Maori and Kotaro come to a farm where they try to call for help, but Kirku shoots out the phone line and corners them in a barn. Maori tries to keep her power under control, but can’t stay calm and they’re easily found. Kotaro sees a container above Kiriku’s head and forces Maori’s face into a cow’s, causing her to flip out and her power to go nuts. The container explodes, and they run outside, right into Kirku’s partner’s friend. Chinami saves them by coming out with her hands on Kirku’s head, threatening to zap his brains out.

Kotaro finishes his milk run while Chinami tells Maori all about how she knew where to find them. BEST FRIENDS 4 LYFE YO.

Preview:

Maori doesn’t smile like that!