What They Say:
Aki is captured and taken back to the village. But on the way back, he escapes. Hibino takes Utao to the city, where she and Kukuri cause another panic. Meanwhile, the escaped Aki meets with Kyohei. And Kyojiro from the Hyuga family has come to capture him.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sometimes you have to break for a little bit of fun. While the episode starts off series with delaing with Aki and his capture and subsequent escape since he is a man on a mision, a good part of the first half of the episode deals with Utao. And with her in her workplace where she’s threatened by the evil that is cake as the manager has lots of samples, wants her to taste test for her, and she has times where she wants cake for lunch. And every time something cake related happens, she just thinks of the scale and it crushes her. It’s pretty cute to see her in this environment and as some of Hibino’s friends are there with her enjoying the silliness of it all. Considering what had happened recently, it’s a nice and needed moment of levity for the group.
It’s also nice to see that Hibino and Utao are getting along well together and doing some things together as well, such as a little trip to the waterfront where she shows off a bit of what Kukuri can do, while accidentally causing quite a scene by doing it. It’s instructive to see how she’s still getting the hang of Kukuri as well as not being entirely knowledgeable about everything that it can do either, since she’s not sure it can function well underwater. This peaceful material is conflicting with what we see elsewhere as Kyohei has managed in some manner to not necessarily befriend Aki, but is helping him out by getting him a bit of food and trying to convince him that he should return back home to the village. There’s some old issues between to be sure and Kyohei has no love for him, but there’s still a human side to him that has to help out to some degree.
Utao’s evolution as one who controls Kukuri continues to be one of the more interesting subplots in the show, which will tie into events with Aki eventually to be sure. Seeing how she’s still a child comes up regularly, but it’s not done in a way that makes her annoying. It doesn’t quite make her cute, but it’s something that fits in with a character that age. With Kukuri, we get to see her being much more confident and straightforward with her problem solving, acting without questioning herself, and doing what needs to be done. In a way, you can see the same with Kyohei and Aki when they have to fight and deal with issues. Aki gets a good run here, even if it is brief, as another one of the doll masters has arrived from the village to hunt him down, and that all provides some very minor insights into his mindset which helps since he’s definitely not been a normal villain so far.
In Summary:
The end of this episode introduces a few more doll maters and they’re going to be different from Utao to be sure, but it’s a small focus for the episode. What a lot of it focuses on is Utao herself and much of that comes with her spending time with Hibino. That’s a definite plus as the two get along well and Hibino is pretty much in older sister mode in a realistic way. She’s making an effort, but not trying too hard. This area was the most interesting for me, along with other Utao and Kukuri moments, but there’s a lot more going on here in small snippets. Aki’s becoming more of a player and the arrival of the others is going to change the balance of things. Kyohei definitely has the curious moments when it involves him sort of helping Aki, and that just makes you want to explore more about their relationship. Not a huge amount of progress here, but more stage dressing that’s important to build up the characters and connections.
Grade: B
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.