Uzume has challenged the North to a battle, but will she be able to take down one of Minato’s Sekirei?
Don't commit suicide, Uzume. Chiho will just kill you herself.
The episode goes a bit into how Chiho ended up at the hospital and how her and Uzume met. It’s kind of funny that Chiho thought Uzume was gonna commit suicide, just hanging out and eating food while sitting atop the fencing of the hospital roof. Imagine if Uzume did try to kill herself, though. That’d be some kind of dynamic to her character. Uzume’s feeling a little hopeless, wants to kill herself, gets saved by her Ashikabi. Damn – Sakuroku should dial me up for story advice. It’s a sweet story, but sweet stories are usually surrounded by sad and depressing ones.
It's #10 vs. #88 on Saturday Sekirei Fights!
The fight between Uzume and Musubi was pretty much what I expected. Uzume’s good, but Musubi’s training under Miya has made her a stronger Sekirei. Musubi had a couple of good hits on Uzume, including letting U-chan rip her shirt open so she could jump up and kick her. Sure, Uzume slammed her into the pavement, but I don’t buy that Musubi was as physically spent as she looked after the fight. What happened afterwards was the shocker of this episode, as Higa sent two of his Sekirei to interrupt the battle. Homura & Kazehana kept them at bay, but as the retreated, Toyotama cheaply tried to kill Musubi, only to have Uzume take the hit and protect Musubi. Chiho knew it almost right away; I wonder what sort of indication an Ashikabi has of their Sekirei dying. And on a side note to that fight, Uzume was actually thinking both Musubi and Tsukiumi were going to come at her. Did she truly want to die? She couldn’t even handle Musubi.
Matsu must need to buy a keyboard everyday. She's beating the hell out of that thing.
It’s sad that Uzume isn’t around anymore, but we must move on, and that’s what Minato is choosing to do. He accepts her request of keeping Chiho safe, and he wants to meet Higa to request that he treat her. While the West & South have a good collection of Sekirei (I am jealous of the West’s Sanada for owning Kujika), Minato and Higa are clearly above them. Minato has an all-star group of Sekirei, and Higa’s networking has made him a force in the game; hell, Higa even controls the hospital Chiho is at. Minato wouldn’t be able to hold his own in conversation with Higa, but he usually tends to stumble upon coming off as cool, so he’ll be alright. Matsu forcing the meeting was pretty funny, furiously typing Higa’s stocks down and even putting some ASCII art of her on his screen.
In Memory Of...
The episode had a different ending to make us teary-eyed now that Uzume is out of the game. It was a sweet sendoff for a favorite of the series. Sure, I’ve critiqued her strength as a Sekirei for the past few weeks, but she’s tough not to like. Uzume, her awesome attire and those wonderful breasts will be missed. Episode 9 of the first series, people. Episode 9…
Anime vs. Manga
I’ve got a bit to say, and it goes slightly into what is happening in the manga right now, so do proceed with caution.
The manga is kind of dealing with Uzume right now, but in a different fashion. I think I’ve mentioned the “3rd Stage” before and that it doesn’t look like it’ll be a part of ~Pure Engagement~. What Uzume does is not directly a part of the Sekirei Plan (by that, I mean not sanctioned by Game Master), so the anime can do this arc as they did without a huge ripple effect on the story. What is unique is that, as of Chapter 104, Uzume is still alive. What if mangaka Sakuroku Gokurakuin approved this and has yet to kill Uzume off herself? Is what happened here a precursor to upcoming events in the manga? The series is even handling Chiho differently.
Two more things. This episode finally tells us who’s who of the two Sekirei that Higa sent out. We’ve seen Ichiya and Toyotama, but didn’t know their numbers or which one was which. Nice little bit of clarity, but something Sakuroku should’ve handled before. And, I can’t 100% say this with confidence, but I think we’ve never seen how Chiho and Uzume met until this episode.