Summary:
Honoka helps Akiha escape with Leopard’s balls, and Akiha is able to install the Golden Orb. Akiha is given the Golden Gun, and the clock tower becomes a scope. Suddenly powerful, Leopard erects his Leopard Cannon and destroys Nerval and the entire plant with one blast. It’s a major failure for the ICP and so Itsuki is placed under house arrest and tailed by Bougainvillea (yellow) and Mintao (purple). When the duo arrives at Itsuki’s house, however, they find Itsuki’s body lying in a pool of blood and accidentally trigger a booby trap that sends everything in the room flying out into space.
Obviously this is just Nina’s plan to get Itsuki away from the bureaucrats. Itsuki is able to infiltrate Akiha’s school as transfer student Shimoyama Mutsumi. However, Itsuki doesn’t really know how to act in a high school and her attempts to win Akiha’s trust often backfire. Although Akiha doesn’t seem to realize who Itsuki is, both Honoka and the student council on Level Free are aware that “Mutsumi” is actually an ICP officer. It’s a tough first day for Itsuki, but she reveals that Honoka is an X-QT and learns that the King and Queen are still incomplete.
Reaction:
The start of this episode was incredibly phallic, as others have noted. I can already see the doujinshi now with Leopard docking and then shouting “I have control!” Even the mech battles were little more than an excuse to show off the cockpit design. At the same time, the blatant and ridiculous fanservice somehow made this episode more entertaining. I still get the biggest kick out of Leopard, although most of it is because I associate his voice with Lelouch.
Once Itsuki “died” the episode started giving off welcome FMP: Fumoffu vibes. Itsuki’s shared diary, sudden confession, and attempt to show that she wasn’t wearing a wire (or an underwire for that matter) were fantastic. I also liked how Itsuki and UL were patting each other on the back about their outfits when everyone not named Akiha saw right through their disguises. Hopefully we will get more of this comedy and also more hat-less Honoka saying, “The ICP is in tha way.”
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2 Comments
LEOPARD DOCKED – “I HAVE CONTROL!”
This seriously made me lol. Stop making me think such things!
Interesting point about Full Metal Panic – I hadn’t thought of it that way, but Itsuki’s attempt to infiltrate the school really is rather like Sagara’s (albeit even less successful). Your current Leopard-related blog strapline also has me chuckling . . .