Episode 18 rolls around, and this week we have a new character, we learn about the Legend of Ikuto, and we get a grand dose of Suzu jealousy along with enough nosebleeds to satisfy this month’s quota. Also, I get pwned over Mikoto’s family tree and we get an addition to the ending credits.
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The episode starts with Ikuto and Suzu eating dinner when all of a sudden an arrow shoots by Ikuto, barely missing him and hitting the dresser behind him. After his color returns, he notices that a note is attached. On it he sees that Mikoto has sent the letter saying that her sister Shinobu is coming over for a blind date, which gets Suzu all jealous.
(This is where I give out my “My bad” [well, actually it's the fansubber's bad too, but I'll take the blame too]. Before, way back in episode 3, I was given the wrong impression that Mikoto was Rin’s little sister. This was reinforced in another episode where she was living with Rin and her family. However, it appears that Mikoto is actually Rin’s apprentice, and that she calls Rin “big sister,” probably because of her attraction to her. Mikoto actually is part of a ninja family and has two sisters. Shinobu is one. We haven’t seen the oldest sister, Kunai, yet.)
While walking around the next day, Suzu and Ikuto happen across a woman and a very small cow (named Beef Jerkey. No I’m not kidding) lying on the ground. We learn that the girl is Shinobu, and she got lost on her way to Suzu and Ikuto’s house. Upon learning that Ikuto is who he is, Shinobu…challenges him to a sword fight. Shinobu says she wants to fight him because of his well known fighting ability, knowledge of which has spread all over the island, and she tells him about all the outlandish rumors like Ikuto’s ability to carve 100 wooden bears out of a tree trunk in a single swing and being able to change the course of a waterfall with his blade, and so on.
Initially Ikuto refuses because of his philosophy that a man should always protect a woman, but Shinobu keeps badgering him, much to Suzu’s displeasure. The final straw comes when Shinobu joins Ikuto in the bath, causing Ikuto to suffer his usual massive nosebleeds. Suzu finally demands that Ikuto accept Shinobu’s request so that Shinobu will leave him alone.
After getting some training and advice from Kaarage, the chicken who lives next door, he goes to spar with Shinobu at the western tree. Shinobu suddenly shows up wearing a black dress, having run into Chikage on the way. The two begin to spar, but neither is able to land a hit on each other: Shinobu is wild with her swings, but too fast to hit, while Ikuto is slower, but more able with his wooden sword and a smarter attacker and defender.
Finally, Shinobu uses her special technique: the ability to create illusions of herself to attack Ikuto. Ikuto dispatches of the illusions in relatively short order, but Shinobu almost takes him by surprise, but he’s able to avoid her. Suddenly she attacks again but trips. Ikuto saves her from falling down, but the price is catching her by holding her breasts, something which causes more large nosebleeds. Ikuto apologizes and wants to continue, but Shinobu tells him that she’s lost due to “becoming paralyzed” after Ikuto grabbed her.
Afterwards, Suzu and Ikuto are enjoying a nice dinner together when Shinobu suddenly shows up again and says that she will badger Ikuto until he agrees to train her in sword fighting. This turn of events further triggers Suzu’s jealousy, as she was hoping to dispatch of Shinobu by making Ikuto spar with her.
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It’s kind of late to introduce a new character, having only 8 episodes left after this one, but here we go, with the potential of even another character or two showing up later: Shinobu and Mikoto’s oldest sister, and potentially their mother as well.
Probably the biggest advancement in this episode is the first time we’ve seen Suzu get really, really jealous. Yes, she’s gotten jealous before, but nowhere to this extent before. And of course we get another girl to add to the final battle over Ikuto which is probably yet to come, and of course the final wrap-up of Suzu and Ikuto finally becoming a couple.
As for the rest of the series, it seems like we have a lot of things to wrap up with only 8 episodes left, and hopefully we start doing it soon. As I was mentioning, a final grand battle between the girls over Ikuto (with Suzu prevailing, of course) seems like an obvious event to occur near or at the end of the series.
However, we also have the issue which is the root cause of Ikuto being stranded on the island in the first place: running away from his father in hopes of one day returning and defeating him, presumably in a sword fight. We get reminders of this now and then with Ikuto’s hatred of anyone telling him that something is impossible, but we’ve never really gotten any explanation behind all this. We’ve never had an episode going into Ikuto’s background, and exactly what his beef with his father is, so I think that is probably upcoming. Also, it seems to me that the ultimate conclusion to the series will need to be Ikuto finally beating his father, either by his father somehow getting to the island, or Ikuto being rescued from the island.
That’s at bare minimum 3, and probably at least 4 episodes worth of wrap-up that I would guess is yet to come. Also, I feel like Mei-Mei needs some sort of resolution as well, being that she drifted to the island as well, though that doesn’t need to take up a whole episode. There is also the matter of Tohno looking for fellow Kappa which seems like it needs wrapping up too, but again that doesn’t really need a full episode either.
Finally, there is the matter dealing with the lords of the island. We pretty much know who the western lord is, but he hasn’t officially revealed himself to Ikuto, unless he’s done so off camera (and I can’t imagine that). We also have the lord of the sea and the lord of the entire island that Suzu told Ikuto about in a previous episode, and we have yet to learn who they are. There is also the large dinosaur type thing that we’ve seen several times, but never got an explanation of what it is, and the fact that the western leader is clearly planning something for Ikuto, but we don’t know what.
In short, there is a lot to get resolved in only a few episodes.
New Ending
With the introduction of a new character, the final empty scene of the ending is finally filled:
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One Comment
I’m not really sure but I think I heard Suzu saying something about Sashimi (the killer whale) being the lord of the sea. As for the lord of the Island, it is probably that dinosaur type thing that caused the hot springs to stop working.
As for the ending, my guess is that it’ll take the last 2-3 episodes (the rest will tie up other loose ends) with Ikuto finally discovering a way to get out of the island or being rescued.
He then goes on to debate whether to stay for Suzu (or if this does a Shuffle! plot twist, possibly another girl) or stay at the island.
(I haven’t read the manga completely so I don’t really know how it will end.)