天下制覇

It worries me that somebody might want to create more Naoes.

Impressions:

Uh… okay. This lurched the plot forward just a bit. The last third of the episode was Yoshihiko and Nia sitting down most of the rest of the cast and explaining the big ol’ master plan to yada yada grow master samurai yada yada greater good yada yada glory of Japan! We’re going with the generic super soldier plotline apparently. He has a warehouse of naked master samurai, just waiting to be used. …And he keeps them in his office. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d find what are essentially naked corpses floating to be somewhat gauche interior design. Even bigger bad Amakusa is also apparently involved in this somehow, but since Yoshi’s the one cackling like a madman over how wonderful Muneakira and Jubei are, I’m not sure the evil scale is properly calibrated at the moment. Also, I always wonder how those conversations end. Does Sen just politely excuse herself after her brother finishes laughing crazily for 30 seconds or what?

The fight against Gisen could have been handled a lot better too. She took control of Muneakira, but then all he did was backhand Jubei and lurch around like a druken zombie. Nia and Yoshi then showed up and he barked orders at her like she was a pokemon. Nia! Mode change! Use Tackle! But then Gisen ran off before he could throw his pokeball. Since the OP already showed Chuck with the good guys some four months ago, I also feel just a little bit like Yoshihiko’s general disregard for her is a bit silly. Also, Muneakira should have just accepted Gisen’s offer to practice by using her body. It would have saved him the trouble of being mindraped by a girl. Isn’t he supposed to be some kind of weapons master and trainer anyway? What ever happened to that? He can’t even do a menacing lurch right.