Things are heating up as a maid cafe competition is held. Will True Shadow come out on top? Or will some late minute converts to the world of maids steal the prize?
What They Say:
Episode 5: “Supremacy of the Underworld”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
For some reason (do we really need to have a valid one?), Yoshihiko Tokugawa, Sen’s older brother and the student council president of the academy (remember, the dojo is technically located within a giant city-sized school, not that anyone really remembers or cares) has decided to hold a maid cafe competition, the M-1 Grand Prix, to determine who is the best maid cafe in the academy. Of course, it turns out that True Shadow (Muneakira’s group) and Kengo Retsuden (the Dark Samurai, whose cafe is in a hidden location that no one even knows about) wind up as the two finalists, culled out of a fierce competition of 32 teams that included academic and physical contests. We only get a quick montage of the preliminary rounds.
So, for the final battle we need to have something that truly says “maid.” For the writers, that obviously means…swimsuits. Swimsuits? Eh, whatever. The four pairs (Yukimura, Sen, Jubei, and Gisen are the True Shadow team to face the Dark Samurai) are then pitted against each other in utterly silly beach contests (grab the flag, hula hooping, watermelon smashing while blindfolded) which turn out for the worse for our heroines. It all comes down to the final battle, a fair and square sword match between Musashi and Jubei. Except that nothing has been fair and square this entire contest, as Sen and Yukimura had rigged everything in order to get the Dark Samurai into the finals in order to test their abilities. This final sword battle is no exception as the beach is littered with traps, though Musashi evades all of them (at least, all of the ones not set off comically by Kanetsugu). Something strange, though, occurs when Jubei squares off against Musashi. As Muneakira tries to stop Musashi and gets physically knocked aside, Jubei suddenly glows with energy, something we have not seen for a long time. Could it be that the powerful Jubei who presumably sleeps inside of the silly cute one is going to reemerge? The preview hints at this.
It’s strange, really. This episode was nothing but one long sequence of fanservice shots arising from silly situations. Yet by the end, it has advanced the story in a major way, as Musashi only wished to enter the maid competition in order to test something about the “fake” Jubei. By the end of the episode, she has gotten her answer and we have as well, that sweet, childlike Jubei is not the only Jubei who was brought back when she resurrected after her death in the first series. The ass-kicking Jubei is also here, but has not yet fully emerged. Musashi also seems to know why the strong Jubei has begun to reawaken, something which we should get more knowledge about next episode.
In Summary:
Swimsuit fun on the beach with plenty of silliness. And yet, by the end of the episode we do get some important movement as we know that Muneakira’s Harem is going to need help defeating the Dark Samurai, and it appears that that help may be available.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard