On to Episode 16, and was hinted at the end of the last episode appears to be the case: the Lord of the East appears to be on a rampage! Partly because…he’s no longer the Lord of the East as he has been defeated, and wants revenge on the one who did so. However, the past-defeated Lord of the North is also in town for similar reasons as well.
 |
|
 |
 |
The episode begins with a short prelude about how the system of the four Lords of the islands work, and the declaration that the Lord of the East - the giant panda we first saw in Episode 2 has lost and is heading towards the Western Village for revenge.
We then go to Suzu’s house, where she’s taking a bath with Tonkatsu. Suddenly the door opens and she wonders if it’s Ikuto, but then quickly discounts that. Suddenly, a second Tonkatsu shows up, freaking both the real Tonkatsu and Suzu out. Soon it is revealed that it is Suzu’s master, and the Lord of the South, who was disguised as Tonkatsu (ala Episode 7). He then informs Ikuto and Suzu that the East Leader, the giant panda, has been defeated and is coming to take revenge on the person who defeated him.
We then move to Mei-Mei and Tohno’s place, where someone suddenly knocks on the door. Mei-Mei is about to answer it, but Tohno stops her and answers it himself. Standing there is Pandero - the defeated Lord of the East, and he wants revenge on the one who defeated him: Tohno. Pandero suddenly sees Mei-Mei, however, and decides that he’ll be satisfied if he can just take her, as she suits his taste. Suddenly Suzu’s master shows up and breaks up the fight and challenges Pandero himself. However, Pandero flees, taking Mei-Mei with him.
While Pandero running back towards the east, Tiger, the former Lord of the North, shows up and stops him. Once Suzu, Ikuto, the Lord of the South, and Tohno catch up, Tiger says that he has shown up to bring back the one who has defeated him back to the North. Both Suzu and Ikuto suspect Tohno again, who denies it. Tiger then fingers the culprit: Mei-Mei! Apparently, in her clumsiness to run away from meeting Tiger when he was still the Lord of the North, she accidentally made a boulder tumble down on him, technically “defeating” him for the title of Lord.
However, while Tiger was telling the story of how he lost to Mei-Mei, Pandero takes off with Mei-Mei again, however is once again stopped by Tiger. This time, Tiger takes Mei-Mei and dispatches Pandero. Ikuto and Suzu catch up and try to explain things to Tiger again, but Tiger is still unpersuaded. Iktuo starts getting rude and demanding that Tiger leave her. This time, Tiger asks Ikuto if he “desires” Mei-Mei that much. Ikuto stumbles for a moment, but then says he does to try to get Tiger to leave her. However, Tiger then challenges him to a one-on-one match over Mei-Mei.
Over the course of the battle, Tiger beats up Ikuto pretty good. However, during the battle, one of Tiger’s swings misses and slashes Suzu’s and Mei-Mei’s clothes. This causes Ikuto to have an explosive nosebleed right into Tiger’s eyes, blinding him. Suddenly the shadowy Lord of the West flies by and tells Ikuto where Tiger’s weak spot is. Ikuto takes advantage of this information and finally defeats Tiger.
Afterwards, on his way back to the North, Tiger runs into the shadowy Lord of the West. The Lord of the West remarks how Tiger let Ikuto hit him to give him confidence. Tiger blow this off and asks if the Lord of the West helped Ikuto in the middle of the battle, and that it was unnecessary, but the Lord of the West just says he helped with what Tiger wanted to do anyway.
Finally, on their way back home, Mei-Mei apologizes for making Ikuto fight over her, and then remarks that he looked cool. However, Suzu looks sad at Ikuto and Mei-Mei acting close.
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Well, I thought this was a very well done episode - one of the best of the series so far. We have Suzu development. We have Ikuto/Mei-Mei development. We all but officially find out who the Lord of the West is. And we get a lot of action, though much of it is put on to try to get Ikuto to become stronger. Originally, I thought the primary conflict over Ikuto would be between Suzu and Ayane, but Ayane’s longing for Ikuto has basically turned into a running joke. Then I thought it might be with Machi, but that hasn’t really developed. Now it looks like it will be with Mei-Mei, and with only 10 episodes left, we should be heading towards a resolution soon.
As far as the Lord’s business, there are still some things we don’t know: there is a Lord of the sea and an overall Lord of the island. I can get good guesses at who these are, but we haven’t found out for sure. Also, while one should all but know who the Lord of the West is, he hasn’t revealed himself to Ikuto yet, so that is still yet to come.
We also find out that Mei-Mei and Tohno have been on the island since at least the 7th episode, when we found out that Tiger had lost his title as Lord of the North. Also, one more thing I’m wondering about: during the hide and seak type battle in the 2nd episode, they warn Ikuto not to go into the eastern forest. However, after this episode, I think it’s clear that Pandero, the then-Lord of the East appears to easily be the weakest of the four directional Lords. So why were they worried about him going into the eastern forest, or is it just that Pandero was the only lord that they weren’t on good terms with?
Opening Credits changes
I hadn’t noticed, but starting with the last episode, Mei-Mei and Tohno were added to the opening credits, so here are some screenshots of where they show up.
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
