Sea Slugs! Anime Blog

Kenzaburo is stoked to be fighting Tamaki, and instantly goes on the offensive, pushing Tamaki to the dojo floor. Everyone else is shocked, but Kenzaburo knows that if he didn’t go all out, Tamaki would floor him in an instant with her impressive skills and concentration. Tamaki is able to mitigate the reach disadvantage by using one-hand strikes (which are rare, especially for women). Toraji surprisingly judges the first strike too shallow, but Tamaki pulls off a very slick move by feinting a block, and instead letting Kenzaburo whiff. Kenzaburo finally goes all out, and enters his ascension stance, but Tamaki is unnerved by a memory of her mother in a similar stance.

With Tamaki’s focus broken, Kenzaburo decides to call an early end to the match. After that excitement, several characters experience the depths of disappointment. Toraji learns that he got played, since Kenzaburo’s dad gave up the sushi restaurant to some tensai sushi chef. Tamaki also finds that she got pseudo-cheated, since the Macross disc she received for her duplicity was a laserdisc, and not a DVD. Meanwhile, Akemi gets stood up at the restaurant by her boyfriend, sending her back into despair.

This was an awesome episode on several different levels. Tamaki’s polished skills and excellent footwork were remarkable, even if Kenzaburo’s battlelust was a little odd (and creepy if taken out of context). While the action was great, the comedy was also top-notch all around. I loved when Toraji lifted his flabby arm into a fake bicep, and I was impressed at Kenzaburo’s contractual skills. Even Tamaki got into the act, when she tried to put the laserdisc (still in the case…) into the DVD slot. She should have known that karma would come back to bite her, just as she had to bite into three fried katsu even though she had already eaten an onigiri on the sly.

I liked that we got to see what everyone did after the match. Poor Miyako had to limp over to cook some dinner, while Sayako got to flop onto the couch and take a nap. Even Tamaki falls asleep early, although she had three matches in one day. I wonder what exactly she was watching that shocked her so. Of course, dutiful Kirino stayed up making training menus for everyone (except the two bums that never show up); Kirino and Konatsu make a great pair!