天下制覇

Hopefully this season of it will be as awesome as the awesome parts… and not as bad as the crappy parts.

Since the OP is the same and it’s a direct continuation, I’m just going to continue the numbering for ease of… well… everything. 

Impressions:

A fairly strong welcome back to the series. The first half of the episode was pretty much just shameless recap, though they didn’t recycle any animation, so it wasn’t all that bad. The second half was where it shined. Constant jumping around from person to person as they fought their opponents, and rather well animated to boot. I’m pretty sure that most of the masked Kenbu people were just puppets controlled by one of the others, so it looks like there’s about four or five new people with similar powers out to fuck over our demon hunters for this season. At least so far.

The Kenbu Attack

Kyouichi Defeated

Summary:

The Kenbu chapter restarts with Aoi moping in the rain and Kisaragi being grumpy behind her. We also hear a voice talking about a girl’s birthday as various people walk away from horrific scenes of death… a car crash… a doctor’s table butchery, etc. Finally, we come to a man in an office, who hears someone coming up behind him. He grabs a runed knife and turns to face him, but the man behind him readies the same glove as Hiyuu uses.

The police are investigating all the grisly death scenes, but there doesn’t really seem to be any connection between them. At Kisaragi’s store, they’re doing the usual arguing over how Kyouichi treats Aoi. Kisaragi tells them that he has something to say to them.

Later, they’re all heading out and Aoi’s being her fairly mopey self about the lives lost day after day. They pass a tiny old man and Kyouichi senses something from him, but he just keeps walking.

The police scientist is looking at some cells recombining in a strange ways and trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Back at Kisaragi’s store, the old man that Kyouichi passed is meeting with Kisaragi. Team Good Guy is also shooting the generic shit and giving random references to the previous season when the generic punk from the 1st episode picks them up with a drag queen.

A couple more drag queens are harassing some poor guy and about to drop shit on him when Kyouichi busts in and breaks things up. The storekeeper is greatful and tries to pick up Kyouichi for his martial arts before switching to Aoi for her beauty.

Eventually, they finally meet with the boss of the place who chastises the drag queens for their poor behavior in front of the guests. Daigo has a sudden image of a man and looks outside. Aoi starts learning a little more about Kyouichi’s relation to the place and how it sort of became a family to him.

Daigo suddenly sees the man from his vision in the distance and immediately runs out after him while more visions of bloodshed and swords flash in front of him. He sees the man briefly, but a train passes in front of him and he disappears. The nurse and dreamer from the first season sense something as well, but they’re far away.

Later, the tubby bartender is confronted by a man in a mask who threatens him. He pulls out a strange weapon, but the man starts emitting energy.

We bounce over to a library where the Ghost Busters are discussing how everybody’s been sliced to pieces and what it might be. Maria comes up and demands to know what’s up with the mess they’ve been making in here. Toono makes some strange excuse about looking up ninja stuff.

The police are still trying to figure out what’s going on, but they’ve managed to connect Team Good Guys to the recent events.

A bunch of assorted people in masks also prepare to move out and then we get a montage of all the heroes from last season doing various things. Kisaragi gets a phone call from the bartender who warns him that he was attacked, but Kisaragi senses someone behind him, who suddenly attacks.

All of the heroes are being attacked men. Aoi, Komaki, Raito, the nurse/dream, the shrine maidens… everybody. Most are wearing masks, and know exactly who they’re attacking, but a couple have their faces uncovered. The good guys eventually start fighting back, but it really bounces around too much to summarize well.

Aoi defeats her’s and the mask cracks and falls apart. She says that it was just a distraction though. All the good guys have won and are trying to figure out what the deal was.

Kyouichi sees three friends who are completely paralyzed with strange symbols painted on their backs. The nurse and dreamer are also still fighting their masked baddie.

Only Daigo and Hiyuu weren’t attacked, but Hiyuu senses something. Daigo, on the other hand, is wandering through his old gang’s hangout when he finds an old friend… Renji. Kisaragi and Aoi meet up, Aoi having found clothes at some point and they decide to gather the rest.

Kyouichi finds punk boy all tied up and turns around to see a swordsman ready to fight him. Renji is also taunting Daigo and trying to get a reaction out of him by saying how Daigo abandoned him and let him get taken away by the police alone. He suddenly releases power and a tattoo starts to cover his face.

Kyouichi is also facing down the mysterious person, who says how romantic their meeting is. Kyouichi readies his sword, and the other guy prepares to draw as well.

Renji keeps releasing power as he walks towards Daigo, but Daigo runs away.

Kyouichi charges the man, but a sudden sword slash appears right in front of him. The man can slash faster and further than Kyouichi can even see. He keeps trying to attack, but the man effortlessly evades him until Kyouichi charges again. An effortless swordslash later and Kyouichi collapses, covered in blood and his sword in half.

Only Hiyuu is unattacked, but a man is standing behind him who introduces himself as Miyu Mibu.