We’ve reached the end of Season 2 of Sekirei. In more ways than one, I’m glad it’s over, but I’ll get to that later. For now, we have one more fight to cover and some teaser stuff for Season 3.

Musubi catches Karasuba's blade, putting all her strength into holding it back.

Seo (and Hikari & Hibiki) popped in and saved Matsu and Kuu from the electric spike balls. Seo pulled a good one on Izumi, having Matsu send him fake data and coming away with at least the “up front” money; you just knew that Seo wasn’t gonna fully live up to his end of the deal. Also in that sequence, Matsu sees a message that Stage 3 has begun to move. Matsu acts surprised, and you think she’d be the one to at least know the process and make the assumption that Stage 3 is nearing.

Minato's kiss reenergizes Musubi.

The scene outside a destroyed Teito Tower dominated the second half, with a fight between Musubi and Karasuba. The fight was well animated and entertaining, as actually seeing Karasuba fight is quite a treat. It was also a nice little bonus to see Musubi being able to cast Norito, breaking a piece of the blade with a interesting song playing underneath it. Matsu had calculated that they would’ve all been able to take Karasuba, but I honestly can’t subscribe to that. Her walking away was the best thing those girls could’ve wished for. Now the fight was good, but can’t these things last a little more than 30 seconds? Sheesh. I wanted to be really wowed, not just come here and say, “it was good”. And on a sidenote, you could really hear the Edward Elric is Romi’s screams this week.

Odds of them beating Karasuba? My numbers don't match with Matsu's...

So Chiho is cured, Game Master’s stuck in space, Shiina is still looking for Kuu, and Minato is the house doctor for all his Sekirei. I was surprised that they didn’t animate Minato blushing while rubbing Kazehana’s nipple, or just have him outright scared of it. The other characters are shown, and I guess the Disciplinary Squad has some vacation time while Game Master’s out there floating.

Minato should prescribe this on a daily, no, hourly basis.

~Pure Engagement~ Not So Engaging?

In review, Season 2 wasn’t a total mess, but it suffered toward the end. Only episodes 4-8 were canon to the series, they killed off a character in a rather unsatisfactory way, Game Master went from guy you didn’t mind too much to guy you wish wasn’t around so much, and many other things. But there’s some good to be seen here. There’s the usual moments of fanservice, I thought some of the humor in season 2 was good, the Kazehana arc was a decent and acceptable retelling of how Kazehana became his 5th, and the Homura arc was the best stretch of episodes. Had the Uzume arc not been a part and something smaller done in its place, I might’ve given Season 2 maybe one point better in a scoring scale. Let’s call it a sophomore slump, as I feel Season 3 can be great given the source content it can work with. If you’ve gotten this far with just the anime, I’ll give the recommendation to stick with it the show and watch Season 3 when it arrives.

Karasuba being all Jrow's favorite and stuff.

I’m not sure if I’ve made this known, but Karasuba is absolutely my favorite character in the entire show, which made the fight scene more enjoyable for me. Badass Sekirei with a great VA in Romi Park. I can see people having other Sekirei as favorites, but who doesn’t like when Karasuba’s on screen?

Season 3 — 3rd Stage

The subject of Season 3.

So as expected, “to be continued” comes up on the screen, with the general assumption that we’ll see Season 3 in 2012. The third stage will begin here, focusing on those crystals (Jinki) you saw in Game Master’s space pod. Why does Matsu have one, also? I just hope for two things: Stage 3 to be done in full by the time this anime comes around, and that the season is solely about stage 3. Expect some filler stuff and expect some minor rewrites, but I think Season 3 will be more comparable to Season 1 than 2.

Anime/Manga Comparison

There’s a problem with the idea of Karasuba killing Minato to “heighten” the powers of Musubi. And one things for sure about Season 3: what’s going on right now in the manga definitely cannot be done in Season 3. So probably a stretch of 10 chapters in the manga will have to be forgone. What say I to combat this? More Yukari and Shiina.

What’s Next for Sekirei on the Anivision blog?

The DVD’s are coming out, and I’ll have some comparisons and NSFW pics for you. I’ll also probably move toward blogging the manga as chapters are released.