The struggle against Durandal forces Kinji to go back into Hysteria Mode. The true powers of Shirayuki are revealed and put against the one who decided to kidnap her. Kinji’s blade catching training was finally put to use and thanks to quick teamwork Durandal was finally arrested. The result being a new member being added to the Kinji and Aria partnership.

Opinions:

Well it wasn’t a surprise that Durandal ended up being a girl in the end. Considering the identity of Riko I’d figure that most of the enemies that Kinji and Aria are going to run into will be women. Though I didn’t guess that the identity would be a descendant of Jeanne d’Arc. An interesting thing to have her ability be ice considering in this world she faked her burning death. That’s quite the historic line coming down to a kidnapper. Wonder why so many of these famous descendants are all flocking to EU. I can get that they have some freedom to act as they want in a criminal organization, but still not sure about Jeanne’s specific motivations. Feel bad for the sword Durandal getting chopped up like that. A pretty nice weapon meeting it’s end like that is too bad. Of course with the butei rules the only real option was to destroy the weapon so she couldn’t fight any longer. It’s pretty tough when you have to live by a restriction of not killing no matter what while your opponent doesn’t have to.

Glad everything got resolved in this episode. Shirayuki came clean about Aria delivering the medicine to Kinji, though of course Aria was too embarrassed to talk long about that subject. The harem/team is expanding though I still guess Aria will have the premier spot in it. At least while Shirayuki was fighting it gave a chance for Aria and Kinji to clear things up. Of course Hysteria Mode Kinji probably would have believed Aria to begin with so there wasn’t much for him to apologize about. Still the guy is good at getting Aria flustered and making some nice promises. Hopefully regular Kinji fully remembers and keeps that promise of always believing in Aria. Of course I’m sure even he will be embarrassed about the lifetime promise that was made. Just too bad at the end Shirayuki had to bare the yandere fangs and send a message that things in that group will remain complicated.

Maybe the only complaint was that the fight could have been extended more between Shirayuki and Jeanne. I mean we’re talking about a duo that use fire and ice along with their swords so it could have been an epic battle to watch. Instead we spent a lot of time watching Kinji and Aria which could have been minimized when they weren’t having a very important conversation. Still was able to enjoy what fight there was and it showed how this group can use their different skills to get the job done. Still waiting on Aria’s power that requires a partner, but hopefully we’ll see that eventually.

Can’t talk about the episode without mentioning the return of Riko. It seems like she’s not going to just let things end like they did on the plane. Really does seem like she wants to keep developing Kinji and Aria so they will be able to have a true showdown. Though with Shirayuki joining things she’ll probably have to remove her from the equation since it won’t match up with the ideal fight she has in mind. I’m curious to see what kind of mess she can force Kinji and Aria into next.

I’m still enjoying the series so far. They are really mixing things up with descendants of historic and fictional characters. It should be interesting to see what other kinds of abilities will be shown off by future characters. With other characters getting added to the group I’m curious to see how things between Kinji and Aria will develop. There are bound as well to be more arguments as they figure things out.
Score: A