Sleeping Takane is awesome. HNNNNGGGHHHH~

And so, after the tragedy that was the end of the last episode, this week Sorakake returns with a few surprise bumps and encounters, notably Takane’s reawakening from her Nerval control. Unfortunately she was not a major part of this week’s episode until the end, but we shall leave that for later.

The Nervalists gather for a conference after the failed attack by the Moon gang. EXISTENCE has saved Nami, Takane is still being looked for, and Nerval has a new brain colony form other than his human side.

This is about as cool as cool gets for a Brain Colony, I suppose. Nerval’s new form as a Brain Colony, which has yet to be shown in all its glory.

Ah Takane. I obviously cannot get by with any possible shot of her. Here though, it is only a short scene of her, where she awakes and just mentions Nami’s name, probably knowing her sister is beyond saving.

And Ul spots Akiha’s box floating in space just after the explosion that ended Imoko’s life, and they save Akiha. First surprise encounter and reunion.

They are soon found however and have to escape into one of Kirkwood’s colonies. Inevitably, Akiha asks exactly where Imoko is.

The Moon gang prepares a fleet of toys to deal with the Kirkwood colony.

Of course, they are not going to get far now that they exposed their intentions to Nerval, who warps in what could only be called an ice tower.

It opens up and promptly begins to freeze both the fleet and the Moon. Nerval says “Accept your punishment!” prior to this as it opens. I got to admit, his seiyuu is good at lines like this.

I jest you not, I thought at first it was going to freeze only the fleet, but WTF, the entire moon got frozen as in this screenshot as it flies away and warps out. Animation was great throughout this part.

A hapless Benkei is still looking for a missing Tsutsuji. I really thought she was lost from the run through the Sun’s atmosphere.

Akiha is of course in denial at first at the truth, and as she realizes that what Itsuki and the rest tell her is the truth, she turns to despair and emos throughout the rest of the episode. Nice hug by Itsuki here, whom one would think, at the start of the show, would be likely unable to show such a gesture.

And Honoka’s escape pod falls to Earth after the previous battle, and is picked up by Fon’s QT-modified plants.

This is awesome. Kazane pwns Leopard the 120th straight time in a row, with nothing but a horse. Of course, the time wasted finally makes Kazane snap and lose her patience against Leopard’s weak character, and she smacks the pieces off the table and scolds Leopard.

Meanwhile the escapees move into the huge underground vault filled with boxes in Kirkwood, but is almost discovered by patrolling robots until someone leads them away.

Surprise surprise. Gatob is still alive. I was hardly expecting this, since I was trying to place his voice when he was still in the shadows. Second surprise encounter

One for the Honoka fanboys.

Honoka states her intention to bring back Fon, and he of course refuses. She looks around the room, and it is quite obvious what she is up to when she picks up this bowling pin and tests its weight.

Pwned.

You got to admit, the way Honoka does things is so straightforward and easy. She drags Fon out into a pod that she calls down for such a purpose.

Gatob leads the students to a certain processing area, where the boxes are thrown away and out of the machine comes just a red box. I am hardly able to discern most of what he said, but it is quite likely that the boxes are discarded by changing the humans into mere consciousness or something, in other words just a mere part of what they are, the basic level needed to keep the brain colonies that use them as tools functioning.

It is enough to make the female student council member retch. I kind of like her even more now, as a side character, for her looks. I hardly thought she would be this upset either on a revelation like that, nice to know she is at least more human than others in the show. Anyway Gatob and the other guy also help to save more humans at this part of the processing, before they are turned into red boxes.

The last member of the Shishidou Elders is seen here in a heartwarming scene holding onto and comforting children saved from the boxes.

Not surprisingly, side characters Julio and Neneko are saved. This can be considered a bump, but all they are able to do, like the others rescued from the boxes, is yearn for the boxes once again.

Screw emo Akiha, <3 the student council member. The rest assist in passing out drinks to the rescued folks. I am going out on a limb here based on the seiyuu list in ANN and calling her Erika, someone tell me if I am wrong and might have missed out her name in the series when Shigure mentioned it.

Xanthippe soon finds them however, on her search for Akiha.

Itsuki once again tries to put her line foolishly on the line to allow the others to get away, but Shigure runs back and manhandles her. Shigure X Itsuki ending perhaps? I wonder what Noirsword will say when he finally sees this. Much raeg maybe, especially since he just made a post specially for her. They even have Shigure and Ul speaking about this in the preview for next episode. Anyway Gatob easily takes care of the robot after liftoff, but flying out into space meant confronting Xanthippe herself.

They are saved by an unlikely source. When Benkei warped out I just knew he was going to smash into Xanthippe. Great laughter was had. This is also the third bump, a true bump considering the way they bounced off each other. Xanthippe then starts questioning Benkei on his motives, almost causing him to close the doors on the escapees’ bus, but someone else has a plan in mind.

I hardly expected her to be alive, but back she is kicking the manual control for Benkei’s huge saw.

And Benkei’s great saw goes out of control…

…cutting into Xanthippe’s precious armor skin.

This is as priceless as an expression can get for a Brain Colony. Tanaka Rie’s voice is awesome for Xanthippe, her scream was just so lol.

And Tsutsuji re-enters her capital, as she calls it, in all her Dominatrix glory. You may consider it a surprise encounter that she returned. Seriously, I expected her to be dead.

And Benkei of course gets pwned immediately by her reprimand. She then commands Benkei to swing his saw again at Xanthippe, which he complies with after initial reluctance.

A pissed Xanthippe can even convey her feelings through a communication screen.

Xanthippe then literally whips out her primary physical weapon – the tail at the end of her colony is a high-speed rotating whip. She flings it towards the escapees’ bus, but is stopped by the final surprise encounter.

Takane flies out of nowhere and uses the sharpest thing possible in the freaking show, her QT-Arm’s blades, to cut through the whip.

<3. Anyway Takane is surprised at the Elders being here as well. Last surprise encounter.

And they warp out on Tsutsuji’s orders to where Leopard is. Itsuki brings the news that they had returned to Akiha, who continues to emo.

Impressions

So finally, we are getting somewhere. Obviously Akiha’s emo-ing was expected, and it was great that Takane was saved. Nerval’s final form was to be expected from the OP animation, just that it needs to be revealed in all its bishounen glory. Then there is the problem of Nami, who was unconscious throughout the entire episode. Finally, Shigure X Itsuki looks to be very possible by the end of the series.

I wonder if the guy on the moon who helped Kazane was also frozen and would be saved by them and end up being with Kazane at the end of the series. Emilio would be left on the sidelines if that happens though. Akiha will probably snap out of her emo-ness by next episode, and probably pwn Leopard over the boxed humans she had heard from Xanthippe about. It makes me wonder though if she will have the will to kill Nami when the time comes, now that Imoko, whom she considered family, is already lost.
 

Picture drama 02 is out but no subs yet. I also have finally listened to the full ED and will probably post on it soon. My next episodic is at 25, and I will also be doing the final episode before a full review of the series.

Related posts:

1. Sorakake 19 – Delicious Possibilities, Bad Singing
2. Sorakake 25 – Black & White
3. Sorakake 16 – Jovian Jostle
4. Sorakake End – Sora wo Kakeru Shoujotachi
5. Sorakake 13 – Swimsuit Dominatrix