Synopsis:

People just don’t understand that you can use the gates instead of sneaking in, then again, it’d eliminate 90% of the comic relief provided in Utaware. This episode starts off with an unknown intruder sneaking into the Hakuoro estate, it’s a female so of course there’s no immediate danger. Dodging multitudes of spears, and losing a nice chunk of hair, she arrives at Hakuoro’s room where it’s revealed she’s a messenger of Kuuya (Hakuoro’s late night emperor affair, if you’ve forgotten…like I did) Seems like the old general is on vacation or something, so instead they send her daughter, Sakuya.

This meeting is a little different, however, since our resident party crasher is tagging along, unknown to Hakuoro. After some useless banter, Kuuya asks Hakuoro is he’d like to take Sakuya as a concubine, Eruruu faints in the background and the comedic relief blooms. With Eruruu’s cover blown, she introduces herself to the bishoujo emperor. Back to the subject at hand, Kuuya insists that Sakuya is hard working and very skilled in bed matters ;) …meaning of course that she’s adept at making the bed. Eruruu and Sakuya take her words in a different matter, as did most of the Utaware viewers over 13 -.-” But after the misunderstanding and Hakuoro brand logic, Kuuya rethinks her decision to hand over Sakuya, nice call.

Benawi time! This guy doesn’t get nearly enough screen time for the amount of ass he kicked earlier in the series. Benawi reports that a small tribal country is thinking of attacking Kunnekamun, Kuuya’s nation. This alone would not be cause for worry, but their ally is Noseshechika, one of the three most powerful nations. But not to worry! There are rumors that Kunnekamun has the lambda driver a yet revealed power at their dispense.

Moving right along to the battle scene. In the blue corner! A fair sized army, spears drawn and raptor/horse things ready to charge. In the red corner! Three armed and ready M9 Gernsback and one ARX-7 Arbalest…wait…WHAT!? Just when I thought Utaware had all the bases covered, they throw in some mecha for good measure. So of course the mechs completely destroy the enemy platoon and go on to conquer Noseshechika in a mere three days.

After all is said and done, Kuuya calls Hakuoro out to regale him with a detailed description of how she tore one of the three most powerful nations apart. Hakuoro seems distraught at the sight of the once innocent emperor becoming a war hungry savage. Kuuya excuses herself, reminding him that it was her first battle and the feeling is new to her.

And so, with Noseshechika out of the way, all that remains is the small tribal country that threatened Kunnekamun in the first place. However, this country sends a message to Hakuoro informing him that they were forced to oppose Kunnekamun by their allies and wish to resolve the issue in peace. Hakuoro understands and sends Urotorii to negotiate.

Cue the entrance of yet another creepy emperor archetype…*sigh* As a spokesman for Kuuya, he says that they will crush the small nation to set an example (as if pwning one of the three most powerful nations doesn’t get it across) He also personally attacks Urotorii by saying that their leader is nothing but a false god.

In the middle of all this there’s a really odd sideplot where Kamyu went all vampirical on Aruruu and sucked her blood…right, I’m as confused as you are. So she runs away, only to be found at her usual midnight spot at the lake where everything is reconciled and forgiven. I don’t know what to say about that part, it was just weird =\

All in all, some typical Utaware warfare and some not so typical mecha and vampiricism, an alright episode.

Thoughts:

An odd but fairly good episode, I never would have thought that Utaware would be able to incorporate mecha into an already vast array of genres…but hey, whatever works. It wasn’t the most subtly incorporated of elements, but it wasn’t all that bad, so I’ll go along with it for now. If it turns out that the technology was brought from the future by a time traveling battle waitress though, I’m dropping this series XD

At the very least, the mechas forced some new battle animation, which is always much needed. We also saw some screen time for some relegated characters like Benawi and Aruruu, so that was a plus. I’m also beginning to warm up to Eruruu again, now that I’ve gotten used to her being a spoilsport, it’s actually kinda funny once you get past it ruining so many opportunities for some comedy.

The whole Kamyu thing came out of nowhere though, and personally, I wouldn’t remain friends with someone that tried to suck my blood…that’s just me though. I hope they fullly explain what the deal with Kamyu is, because they have set it up for her own backstory, but with only 6 episodes remaining, I’m not sure how well that’ll work out.

The most unforgiveable sin of this episode? NO TOUKA OR KARURA…that’s just wrong. That’s like having an episode of Haruhi without Mikuru, although it did happen once, it’s just so very wrong T_T

I’m sure anyone would be happy to bring you up to speed Eruruu ;)

Sousuke, you charge head on, Kurz and Mao will flank the sides! (When did this turn into FMP?)

Emperor, creepy, etc etc, you know the drill

Victories

- Benawi!
- Mecha? Kind of on the fence here
- Sakuya, get! Stat increase: +1 Hakuoro Harem
- Eruruu is cute again!
- Aruruu remains cute! Even with a bite mark >.>

Phailures

- Mecha? I’m really not sure how this’ll play out
- Kamyu sidestory…just plain weird and out of place
- Another creepy emperor archetype
- NO TOUKA! URUSENAI!

~ Shirukii ~