天下制覇

 Minamoto is clearly not the top dog.

Impressions:

Man, it’s weird watching this show without seeing ads trying to sell me Hayate DS.

An introduction to the newest team at BABEL, Hatsune and Akira, both with animal related powers, though at close range, Akira can take over humans as well. Or at the very least, somewhat dumb humans like Kaoru. I guess they’re an alright team, but with all the telepaths, clairvoyants, and psychomancers around, Akira needs to do a little more with his power than just spy on people through sparrows. Controlling Kaoru was a good first step, but most of the rest of the time, he was pretty useless, especially since Hatsune ignored him the whole time.

Hatsune herself was a little more annoying than I expected her to be since she speaks very childishly and has kind of a squeaky voice. Most character that use the third person to refer to themselves annoy me unless they’re being arrogant royalty. This was just to show that she’s really really dumb. I’m interested in what the limits of her powers are though. They only showed her transforming into a wolf and that weird harpy thing that had wings coming out of its head and foot long eyebrows. I’m also not sure if the dog ears and tail that sprouted randomly were supposed to actually be there, or just a stylstic to show her being doggish.

Overall, not a terrible episode, but not a great one either. I was just expecting Hatsune to not be… well… a dog and an idiot. Hell, she’s supposed to be one year younger than Naomi, and is sporting a brain somewhere below Kaoru’s. That’s just sad. 

FYI, Nabari and Zero may be a little bit late depending on when the raws show up (here’s a spoiler, nothing happens, I make fun of them) since I’m supposed to meet a friend for dinner and the Dark Knight.

Minamoto explains the rules to this challenge. The Children will have to protect their rabbits from the two psychics on his side. He releases their limiters and they teleport away. Minamoto assures the two kids that they’ll definitely win.

After the OP plays, we get a flashback to learn what’s going on. The boy is Yadorigi Akira and the girl is Inugami Hatsune (nyuk nyuk). They’re both relatively low level (estimated around 4) espers currently being evaluated by BABEL.

Hatsune is a fairly accomplished metamorpher, able to become a huge wolf and Akira is a ‘replacer,’ who can swap his mind with an animal’s to control it. Of course, the animal then gets control of his body. Hatsune is extremely powerful in her wolf form, able to take out an entire battalion of puppetman GI Joes, and Akira knows how to provide good support for her in spotting a sniper about to shoot her, but Hatsune is too easily distracted by food thanks to her feral instincts and abandons everything at the drop of a hat for a meal.

The two have been living together for awhile since they’re old childhood friends, but despite Akira’s best efforts, he can’t really get Hatsune to stop obeying her gluttonous instincts, so BABEL wants Minamoto to train them.

The Children start getting a little antsy with how preoccupied Minamoto is as of late (still in flashbackland).

Minamoto meets the pair for the first time. Akira is overwhelmed to be helped by the leader of the elite Esper team… and Hatsune bites the proffered hand.

Minamoto’s plan is to tempt Hatsune with food and raise her tolerance. It’s in the holographic chamber, so none of it is real anyway. After some quick failures, and a montage including Hatsue gnawing on Minamoto’s head, she overcomes at least some of her problem and manages to go a minute surrounded by holographic food, so they can move onto the next step.

Minamoto’s late night work planning and preparing for the training annoys the Children even more.

The big test arrives. Not only do they have roasting meat for the test this time while Hotaru uses her telepathy to bombard Hatsune with images of food. Under the pressure, Hatsune almost immediately loses it and transforms.

Since there’s very little actual meat around, everybody starts to panic. Hotaru and Natsuko try to pawn off the other as being the more ‘delicious’ one (Natsuko is, for the record), but Hatsune grabs Minamoto and runs off. Everybody chases her outside where they find Hatsune proudly sitting next to a half buried Minamoto.

A few more tests later, Hatsune triumphs and is rewarded with a feast at the cafeteria.

The Children are not amused and confront Minamoto about it later at home. He thinks they’re jealous, which Kaoru gets all spazzy over. He tells them that he wants to pit them up against the pair. Minamoto then tells the chief the same thing.

Back in the present… finally… the Children are a bit overconfident since they’re up against ‘just’ level 4s. The chief shows up, disguised as a hermit, which they see through immediately to warn them. Hatsune finds them and they’re forced to teleport away, but Akira’s in a sparrow and finds them immediately. Their plan begins.

Shiho checks the area and figures out that Akira is in the mind of a snake, so Kaoru ties it up.

Akira switches bodies with another snake and forces them to teleport away again. Hatsune is waiting for them at their new spot. Aoi readies the teleport, but Kaoru says "screw this" and telekinetically lifts them all upward. To their shock, Hatsune transforms into a harpy and flies up after them. Minamoto never said that she could do anything like that. Hatsune chases them around as they repeatedly teleport away from her until Kaoru again becomes tired of it and lowers the others while she attacks. Hatstune dodges the wind scytches and then retreats.

Kaoru chases after her, but runs headlong into a trap and tumbles to the ground. Akira is immediately on top of her and swap his mind with hers and then takes off her bunny. Minamoto pats Akira-Kaoru’s head and tries to comfort her as Kaoru-Akira goes off to get the other bunnies. Akira-Kaoru will have none of that though and pounces on Minamoto’s head. Hatsune watches it all, and realizes that the two really do care for eachother and starts to transform.

Kaoru-Akira walks up to the group and easily snatches Aoi’s bunny. Before he can grab Shiho’s the chief blocks him. Akira reminds the chief that he can’t actually do anything and moves around him to get Shiho’s, but senses something wrong with his body and is forced to release Kaoru. Shiho catches her and uses her psychometry to find Minamoto’s location.

Akira regains his body holding onto Hatsune’s tail while she carries Minamoto through the wilderness, saying that he belongs to her. Akira yells at her, but falls off. She finally comes to a stop and drops him, again saying think that he’s her thing. The Children arrive, and she tells them as much, but Kaoru roars back that Minamoto belongs to them and releases a huge amount of psychic energy. Hatsune holds her ground for a moment, but then whimpers and drags Minamoto over to the Children.

She drops him in front of them, saying "You’re the boss, he belongs to you." Go go, alpha dog instincts. Minamoto yells out to Akira to use the chance, so Akira grabs the last rabbit for victory. He tries to run to Minamoto for a victory hug, but Hatsune trips him, yelling at him that Minamoto belongs to the boss. She then nuzzles her new packleader a bit.

Back at Babel, Akira and Hatsune are a new team, codenamed The Hound. They’re all mostly getting along with everybody, but Hatsune runs off when she smells the food cooking for their welcome party. Akira thanks Minamoto for everything and wants to keep working with him. Kaoru’s worried that he might, but Minamoto reminds her of her words… he’s "her thing." She blushes and stammers at him as Hatsune fetches some meat for her boss.

Preview:

Shiho and Aoi get boyfriends, so Kaoru’s out in the cold.