Remember the opening scene of Episode 1? We get a little bit more of a taste as to what that scene was in this episode as Minato is getting serious about this whole Sekirei Plan and asks Matsu for an explanation.
Homura can be what you want Homura to be. The choice is yours.
The opening segment is Minato and Homura getting acquainted with each other as Ashikabi and Sekirei. Homura explains that he can become whatever Minato wants him to be. So I ask my fellow readers to comment on this: You’re in Minato’s shoes. What would you want Homura to be? Would you like to have a male companion to hang out with, or do you want a 6th girl? I personally would have Homura stick to, what I would consider to be, his male roots. Kazehana’s breasts by themselves are more than enough for Minato to handle. Minato considering Homura’s breasts as “poison to a virgin” does show his real taste in boobs. I always figured he liked Musubi’s, but I guess it’s different with her.
Oh great, the line for the iPhone 4S has already started...
After Minato demands (at least demand by his kind standards) Matsu to explain the Sekirei Plan to him, four of Minato’s six gather in Matsu’s hidden room to explain the plan in almost full. Matsu knows that Miya could be listening in, so in the times Matsu does stumble, she backtracks and pretends that nothing happened. I don’t fully understand why Miya doesn’t want to be revealed as the #01 Sekirei. I guess it would create problems for Minato if he were to know, but she seems almost cruel about her secret being kept very close. Homura seems to be the only Sekirei outside of the Top 5 that knows, and possibly Beni and Haihane know as members of the disciplinary squad.
Do not play Battleship with Miya. She'll sink your ships in one fell swoop.
The scene that we see at the start of this season was of the first-generation Disciplinary Squad, and this time we get to see Miya and Matsu’s power on display. Matsu’s shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as her power is being able to access electronic devices like a space telescope, but only on a telepathic level. She can see, but she lacks control, or else she could’ve laid the military to waste. Someone that can lay the military to waste with ease is Miya. She doesn’t make direct contact with the ships, but she destroys them with a powerful swing of her sword. And that, my fellow reader, is why she is the most feared Sekirei of them all. Her demon isn’t just a charade; this woman can mean business when she pleases. While this is all going on, her hubby Takehito is watching and somewhat unsatisfied with the end result. It’s been hinted that the partnership between Minaka & Takehito was strained, so it’s interesting to see a situation where that could’ve popped up. The romance between Takehito and Miya had probably already started around this time.
Maybe the only time all 108 Sekirei have been in the same spot.
While the S-Plan Squad vs. Army fight was only interesting from a visual perspective, the explanation of the Sekirei’s assumedly crash-landing provided better insight on the numbers and such. There was one adult (who Matsu almost spilt the beans on), 8 embryos surrounding her who are referred to as the single numbers (including Matsu, Kazehana, Karasuba, Mutsu, Homura, Yume and Tsukiumi), and the other 99 in fertilized eggs (including Musubi, Kusano and 97 more). It also acknowledges that numbers really don’t define strength too much, which opens the possibility for a lower number to be stronger than a single number. The best example would be Musubi vs. Tsukiumi, but there’s that thing with #08 that throws off that argument. Matsu also mentioned tuners and their role with Sekirei, and while were well aware of what Takehito did with Homura, we don’t know what is exactly being tuned on anyone else. The Sekirei almost really must be robots if tuning means adjusting strength, breast size, etc.
Anime vs. Manga
That ending was pretty surprising to me. What follows Homura’s winging is not the termination of Ashikabis and Sekireis who haven’t gotten a win, but rather the beginning of the 3rd stage. It’s true that you can’t cover much of the the 3rd stage in 6-7 episodes, but this is the biggest divergence from the manga that the anime has had. The preview for next week does show what happens in the manga, but we’ll just see what happens in the next 2-3 episodes.
Why Tsukiumi was acting weird about her tuner is a side chapter, so that could be a separate episode from the series. Also skipped is a chapter’s worth of stuff with Yukari and Shiina. It doesn’t affect the main crew, so I guess it’s acceptable to cut out for right now. And in other news, I still think Izumi looks weird with brown hair. He looks like a blonde in the manga.