天下制覇

 Sure, she’s good at the floor exercise, but how is she on the pommel horse?

Whew. Busy day. And it ain’t over yet.

Impressions:

I had hoped this episode would have solidified my opinion one way or the other, but unfortunately, it really didn’t. The first half of this episode was pretty boring. Yes yes, priestess of the water, great evil overtaking the land, we should find the priestess of the sky, I get it. Did we really need to spend almost 5 minutes on those three points? Especially since Marin doesn’t seem to mind at all? It picked up a lot in the second half, but while the music works for being relaxing, it’s really terrible for tentacle raping… not that I’m endorsing any scoring for tentacle raping, but tinkly little piano tunes don’t cut it. I did really like the way they animated the octorapist’s movement. I just wish there had been more of that and less wild flipping through the air.

Speaking of that… almost every time they cut away from turtlebrain, Kanon, and Urin discussing the situation, it was just to show Marin doing various flips through the air. Usually they’d remember to include a tentacle attack, but not always. I imagine if you strung all of them together into a single sequence instead of 10 different 2 second clips, it could have been pretty impressive… or indistinguishable from  the opening sequence of the Azumanga OP. Instead, I feel a bit like I was mugged by a gymnast in the middle of her floor routine.

The magical girl elements weren’t really any worse than… say… Slayers though. Transformations took maybe 3 seconds and after the initial spell, Marin just hopped around shooting water beams. And hop around she did. At least they got Urin confessing about unleashing EVIL out of the way early instead of leaving it as some secret to fester and boil through the entire run.

Brief Summary:

Kanon and Marin tearfully reunite with Urin, but are then surprised by a talking turtle, who identifies Marin as the priestess of the sea and gives her a magical light. This nonsense is too much for Kanon, so she buggers off, leaving the turtle to tell them about the GREAT EVIL THAT WILL CONSUME ALL and that they need to find the priestess of the sky so they can fight it. Meanwhile, Kanon runs into her mother and gets into the usual "you so evil" spat. Afterwards, she’s attacked by a woman who came out of the sea, eager to eat Kanon’s deliciously evil soul.

The turtle senses the EVIL and they all run to rescue Kanon. Marin transforms and starts fighting the woman. Kanon’s good side starts to pop up as Marin defends her and tells her to run away, which makes a second magical light react under the turtle’s hat and he realizes that evil-girl is the priestess of the sky. It subsides again when Kanon goes back to her usual ways and says none of this has anything to do with her. Urin breaks down in tears and confesses that she’s the one who caused all of this and begs Kanon to save her sister. Using the transitive property of blame, Kanon decides that since she threw the ring in the first place, it’s her fault, so transforms, spazzes out about her outfit, and then uses some fire the turtle spat out to attack. Marin quenches the flame because it was hurting the woman and hugs her tightly, transforming her back into her non-evil form, an octopus.

Afterwards, they bid the octorapist goodbye. Marin gives the ring to Kanon, who accepts it, but reiterates that she’s not involved and leaves.

Preview:

Bath time and evil little girls.