Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi -11

The Beginning of the End.

I enjoy seeing people in despair.

It’s finally here! I was more excited about this ookami-san episode than any other so far and I think that’s pretty acceptable with the big cliff-hanger they left us at last episode.

It starts right where the last one left off with Ryoushi training with Nekomiya. He gets a call to tell him about the terribad situation that the Otogi Bank is in.

We spend a bit of time on Onigashima High School, school of bad-guys in training where Reiko and Hitsujikai have Ryouko locked up in a room. The bastard heads straight into the usual bad guy speech of saying what he wants, that everything is going according to his devious plans and the next stage is about to start.

Meanwhile the remaining ‘free’ members of Otogi Bank; the President, Majo, Ringo and Ryoushi  along with Nekomiya meet for some battle tactics. The President is obviously bothered by the fact everyone was caught basically unaware of the attack but states that Otogi Bank has a load of favours to call in just for situations like these.

Alice-senpai and Usami are still on the run from the Onigashima lapdogs and they make a lucky escape. They share a nice moment where Usami-san’s unexpected honesty makes Alice-senpai let out a laugh. Which was actually really cute, it’s weird she saved it for such a screwed up situation ^^;

Ryoushi himself is getting ready to storm into Onigashima as he believes Hitsujikai kidnapped Ryouko just to call him out. I’d call this kind of being up himself if I didn’t just hear the bastard say something to that effect moments before. Geez do they really have to do everything over a traumatised girl? 😡 At least Ryoushi knows where to look for Ryouko which isn’t that hard since the bad guys have a base.

Tarou and Otohime are reunited where the delinquents have been told to round them up  which leads to the first ‘what the heck?’ moment of the episode. I was expecting (of course) Tarou to go straight into manly mode and kick the delinquents asses now that he knows Otohime is unharmed. That idea quickly derails as the delinquents instead let a bunch of bikini-clad girls overrun the room and try to ‘distract’ him out of revenge. Well, at least now we’ve finally figured out that Reiko isn’t the only girl that goes to Onigashima!

Otsuu-senpai is surrounded by some more delinquents who are uninterested in the whole maid fetish and want her to wear other costumes instead which probably freaks her out more than violent threats would…

How could you let a maid wear something like that?!

Tarou-senpai gets hooked on the bikini girls which causes Otohime to shed some tears which causes Tarou-senpai to get unhooked and run to her instead. What kind of couple is this?!~ They then set out to destroy the delinquents together.

How Romantic…

Back to Otsuu-san in a pinch, Majo gets her coolest moment as she saves Otsuu-san with a stink bomb only to put her back in pinch mode with new costumes of her own she wants Otsuu to try on. As expected Majo has issues reading the situation.

Alice and Usami, still on the run get a quick joke from the narrator who says Alice is the indoor type explaining away her outdoor, running troubles. Alice injures her ankle just as the Onigashima guys come up on them just before they’re saved by the President in disguise. He explains that the Bank has been sent off on various tasks and that he’s a bit worried about what’s going on with Ryoushi’s team.

The team which also has Ringo and Nekomiya is on their way poste-haste into the bastard’s den. Hitsujikai has more fun stressing out Ryouko as the Ryoushi-team reaches Onigashima. The delinquents that aren’t on patrol outside to cause general disturbance and mayhem are gathered just in front of the gates ready to greet outsiders with annoying smirks and cowardly weapons. Their zerg team is pretty vastly numbered though so the Ryoushi team appreciate the back up from Momo-chan-senpai, her minions and the three pig brothers.

The battle begins with Ryoushi and the gang heading into an impressive battle. Hitsujikai begins putting the school’s shutters down (why would they have these, just in case the good guys came knocking? ;O) but the Tonda brothers hero it up and let Ryoushi and team through.

Just when the delinquents thought they could be in trouble… Tarou and the rest of Otogi Bank show up to pose awesomely and let them know that they’re right. Ah I love these cavalry scenes to pieces!

They set about kicking delinquent asses.

Even Usami sets out to help her long term rival Otohime. Meanwhile Ryoushi and Nekomiya are running to Hitsujikai and Ryouko when Nekomiya finally takes the chance to explain why he helped Ryoushi train to begin with. Odd to explain when they’re about to head into battle but hey, the guy also wears a funny hat.

He says the reason is that he abandoned a girl who was trying to save him from delinquents and ran away and tells a story that even stops Ryoushi in his hero tracks. Nekomiya carries on telling him that afterward he thought of himself as filth but felt that instead of laying down and dying he needed to strengthen himself if only to be able to help just one person. Who better to mentor than one guy trying to save one girl.

Nekomiya holds off the rest of the delinquents as Ryoushi finally gets to where Ryouko and Hitsujai are waiting. He attacks with no holds barred but Hitsujikai is stronger, faster and more annoying than him so at first it seems his attacks are getting nowhere as Ryouko sits tied up and unable to do a thing.

Hitsujikai counter attacks and destroys Ryoushi’s slingshot bear handed like a demon would be expected to do  and sends him flying against a wall. Hitsujikai says he wants to see how hard Ryoushi is willing to fight for Ryouko.

I’ll fight as hard as it takes.

Hitsujikai seems to get a power up from knowing that his opponent actually is a really good guy. He beats Ryoushi just to ask him how pathetic he must feel to be destroyed in front of the girl he loves. I don’t think there’s any shame in fighting as hard as you can for the person you care about even if you don’t win! Dammit you’re a dick Hitsujikai! ;_; I thought Ryoushi was going to pass out at one point but luckily Nekomiya’s final speech gives him the breath he needs to go on. A flashback to the end of the speech tells us that the girl Nekomiya failed to protect because he didn’t try was actually Ookami-san herself.

Ryoushi also gets some useful flashbacks of his own training session … which helps him land an incredibly strong and unexpected punch right to Hitsujikai’s face. Unfortunately Hitsujikai’s bleeding face only serves to turn him on for more destructive deeds ;x sigh.

The President and Ringo come rushing in just before Hitsujikai unleashes whatever it was he was going to unleash. It seems that the President also has something up his sleeve as he delivers a cool and collected threat wrapped in a speech before calling it a day and telling Ryoushi to pull out of the attack.

The Otogi Bank leaves Onigashima with Ryouko safe and Hitsujikai bleeding so it’s a clear win for the good guys but the bad guys don’t consider themselves down and out just yet. Reiko shows up on Hitsujikai’s desk right after the Otogi characters leave so I wondered where the heck she came from then stopped caring because she started to annoy me.

Hitsujikai  carries on making a bad guy speech, these used to be really unnerving, especially because his face gets all morphed and armed with ugly fangs but now they’re getting kind of annoying and the face morphing just makes me think that he’s had plastic surgery gone wrong.

The end of the episode shows the various cast members having sweet moments between them. Usually I’d have wanted Ryoushi and Ryouko to get some alone time at the end but they’d probably just cower and glare respectively so I was glad to have Ringo there at the end with her usual (not-so) teasing antics to push them along just that little bit at a time.

After the credits it seems that Ryouko and Ryoushi did get a bit of extra time, along with Ryoushi’s cute dogs but it was just the usual Ryouko trying her hardest to say something honest to him and Ryoushi failing hard lol. Ah well he is who he is.

End Thoughts:

Action-wise this episode delivered everything it promised and more. It was so awesome to see Ryoushi properly kick-ass after so many episodes of hanging around on the sidelines that I let go of the fact he got an emergency training session from a newly introduced character on the day all his friends get abducted by the bad guy. Anime life is a funny thing ;P Of course, really he only managed to get one excellent punch in but you get the feeling that if the President hadn’t intervened it would have been one hell of a fight to come.

Like Seitokai, I’m sure I’ll miss Ookami-san when it’s gone which is way sooner than I thought it was going to be! This one’s gone and we only have one more left to come!

Out of all the characters that touched me the most Ryoushi would definitely be the go-to guy. I can’t remember if I’ve said this before but I almost didn’t watch the series because I read somewhere the lead guy was going to be wimpier than all wimpy anime guys and they stress me out but that review was just so wrong >.< Ryoushi probably has the biggest nerve issues than any anime guy but anyone who sucks it up and works through those issues just to selflessly put himself on the line for the person he claims to love is a hero to me.

I loved the fact that the Bank was able to call in favours  from Momo-chan senpai and her minion characters.  I like recognising people I’ve seen before pop up not-so-randomly in dire situations! The couple of Usami moments with Alice-senpai and Otohime were also nice as I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t really like her character the first time she showed up but she was pretty awesome this episode.Also awesome was seeing the President’s eye open a bit lol. It’s a really awesome colour like a tiger’s coat or something.

They left this episode pretty sorted without a big finish for Hitsujikai so I’m wondering if they’ll have enough time to properly finish him off.

Preview:

… Wh-what was that about a one-ep character type being introduced? B-but… big fight… not done. Oh no. Not quite sure what to expect but I’m sure the last episode is coming up. I’ll just hope for some closure and satisfaction. Gah please don’t end this series on a low ^^: