天下制覇

And the only tentacle rape is self-inflicted.

For the curious, yeah, I’m done with Sea Story. I gave it a month, but it’s just not working. I blame the music and formulaic nature.

Impressions:

What an absolutely delightful episode. I’m not even mad at Sento for telling Iono that she was like a sister to him. In fact, I’m more annoyed with Hakone, Plug and Iono for not just coming out and telling him right away that that was why he was an idiot. However, that was resolved all of about five minutes later and Iono made a strong push for Sento’s heart. Plug doesn’t even think of him as a man, and Aresta’s more infatuated on the bat than him, so I’m pulling for you, girl. I’m sure there probably won’t be any ending anyway, but four weeks in, and the childhood friend has already yelled at him for forgetting that she’s a girl and kissed him (albeit on the cheek)? Most romances don’t get this far in entire seasons.

I continue to be very happy with how this show is developing its characters, and this time, Iono got to shine. She had a really really really bad day, but even when down and out, she managed to pick herself up. I don’t think I particularly like that she decided to give up on Sento after all when she got her present for him back, but I can understand how she would feel that way. Kudos to Plug for hooking them up too and not being jealous about it at all and even faking the text message to get Iono in the proper state of mind. Plug’s probably a lesbian anyway. The way they got the money/present back was pretty stupid and very much the dumbest part of the episode, but that’s a minor complaint in what was otherwise really really adorable.

Wait, scratch that, Magical Girl Millie using her wand to tentacle rape herself as her transformation scene tacked on at the end because they had an extra 20 seconds to fill was the worst part.

Iono waits at the door to pick up Hakone for school. As she’s thinking about Sento and the present she bought him, he answers the door. She almost gives it to him, but he’s yawning and totally ruins the moment. She punches him in the gut for it, but smiles afterwards and tells him it was nothing. Hakone finally comes out and the two take off together. Hakone immediately starts cheering on Hakone in her quest for Sento.

Iono’s a bit embarassed, but Hakone tells her to leave setting Sento up to her. Plug and Aresta were eavesdropping on their conversation, and wander over to Sento’s place to talk about it. Aresta’s a mite jealous. Plug’s confused. Sento walks in on them and yells at them to get the hell out. Plug starts teasing him and gets clubbed for it. When she revives, she transforms and gets ready to head out for work.

Aresta is aghast that Plug just transformed in front of a guy. Plug tells her that there aren’t any guys here, prompting more punishment. Aresta finally steels herself and transforms. Plug and Sento critique the transformation scene until the two girls get into a fight and are physically thrown out.

That evening, Iono’s finishing up treasurer work for the student council. She ends up stashing the present inside the box with the funds before she leaves.

That night, a man breaks into the school and ends up stealing the box with all the money in it. Iono had left the box sitting out right on the table the night before.

At Sento’s, Hakone tells him what happened and urges him to go talk to her.

While roaming around, Plug’s depression alert goes off. It’s Iono. She follows along for the time being. Sento finds Iono and does his best to comfort her. As she starts to feel better, Sento tells her that he’ll help her however he can, because she’s like a little sister to him.

Iono immediately shuts down and her depression level deepens even further. Sento hears Plug’s alert go off and looks away. Iono yells at him for being a dick and runs off. Plug follows her to her house where she wallows in her depression. Plug finally gets ready to charge her.

However, just before Plug does it, Iono perks up and declares aloud that she won’t give up on Sento. Plug backs off.

At Sento’s, Hakone demands to know what Sento said that made things worse. Sento tells her that he said she was like a sister to him. Hakone calls him a moron and storms out. Plug floats in and calls him a moron too, earning a beating. Sento leaves to clear his head. Plug flips on her magical girl porn to find an answer. She decides to bring back what was stolen to restore Iono’s smile.

Sento thinks about the situation in the bath. He still doesn’t understand what’s going on, but decides to apologize to Plug since Hakone said the same thing. However, she’s already gone.

The next day, Plug’s happily carting around some parallel world tech. Sento sees her and gets suspicious, so abandons his work to chase after her. Plug’s got a new super scouter to find the culprit… but she has no clue who she’s looking for. After wandering around for a little while, Sento lassos her.

He apologizes for the violent approach, and the two agree to work together. Plug sneaks into the police department and snaps a picture of the criminal from the security camera. They scour the town, assaulting one innocent man in the process and earning Plug a beating for the mistaken ID.

Aresta’s not amused by the entire affair and goes on a berserker charging spree to blow off steam. One of the people she charges was the criminal, who immediately turns himself in. The money and Iono’s present are returned. Plug congratulates Aresta on a job well done helping them, getting yet another beating.

At home, Iono looks at the present and keeps thinking to herself that Sento thinks of her as a little sister. Finally, she gives up and goes to throw it away. Her phone buzzes with a message from Hakone, telling Iono that Sento searched really hard for her sake and asking her to forgive him. Iono smiles to herself and perks up, giving Plug the chance to charge her. As Iono runs off, Plug erases the message from her computer and mentally asks for Iono’s forgiveness, but everything she wrote was true.

Iono busts into Sento’s house. She confronts him and demands to know who his sister is. Hakone. Then she demands to know what she is to him. He responds "my childhood friend and a girl." Iono steels herself and jumps up to give him a kiss on the cheek, telling him that she may be his childhood friend, but maybe that’s not all. She happily gives him the present, a baseball bat charm.

The next morning, she cheerfully greets them both. Sento’s still a little flustered.

Plug watches them go. Sento gives her the thumbs up and Plug responds in kind. Aresta’s still experimenting in her room with a baseball bat. Sento’s wearing the charm on the zipper of his bag.

Apparently there were 20 extra seconds left at this point, so Millie does her transformation sequence with her hand-wand sprouting many hands that crawl through her clothes and then tear them off.

Preview:

To the beach!