Minato and Sekireis fight for survival as the MBI facility self-destructs. Summary: Minato and Musubi continue their way up the stairs while explosions rock the building. Meanwhile, Matsu is busy trying to deactivate the security and self destruct mechanisms from the control room while Kusano try to hold back the security bots. Just as Kusano's defense is about to collapse, Seo, Hikari and Hibiki arrive to help. Seo is tasked by Higa to steal MBI's data, and he gets Matsu to upload the data onto a memory card. Matsu manage to turn off the security bots, but upon deactivation the bots being to release knockout gas. Matsu tells Seo's group to take Kusano to safety, but midway Kusano escapes from Seo and runs back to the control room. Matsu manages to stop the self-destruct sequence, but both she and Kusano and knocked out by the gas. ......WUT? Minato and Musubi finally reach the large open area at the top of the building and they arrive just in time. Minaka appears and points Minato to an altar containing a memory card with all the data to save Chiho. Minaka then adds that even though the explosions have stopped, the building won't hold up. Minaka then goes into the top part of the building which turns out to be an escape capsule that blasts off into space. As the building starts to collapse, Musubi drags Minato through the hallways and stairs and they jump out of an opening just as the building crashes down. It's rather curious how they all ended up being within a couple feet of each other. I'm pretty impressed that Musubi actually caught that strike. Karasuba must have really high standards. Some time after the collapse, Minato and Musubi both wake up from the rubble and they also find Minato's other Sekireis lying around, alive but injured. Suddenly, Karasuba appears and wants to fight Musubi, and Musubi can't refuse as the others are lying around and vulnerable. Karasuba quickly gains the upper hand in the fight, but Minato throws himself in the way to interrupt. The other Sekireis cause a distraction allowing Musubi and Minato to kiss, and Musubi powers up for an explosive attack that breaks off the tip of Karasuba's sword. Musubi is out of energy and collapses, but the other Sekireis drag themselves to their feet to stand against Karasuba. Karasuba decides to leave things until next time and walks away, and Minato and company make their way back to the inn to heal their wounds. Oh yeah, there is that thing we can do to get a power up. What's it called again?... Nor.... Norito! Darn why didn't we think of that last episode? Group photo time, and you are not invited, Karasuba. Screw you guys. I'm going home. Some time later, Chiho has been cured and is walking on her own. Meanwhile, Higa opens the data that Seo gave him only to find fake information. It turns out Seo instructed Matsu to download fake info, and Seo is sitting at home waving around the deposit money. Back at the inn, Matsu is worried about the start of the next stage of the Sekirei Plan. Finally, out in orbit, Minaka steers the capsule back towards Japan in order to proceed into the next stage of his plan. Seo is the real winner this time around. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A rather mediocre finale to end off this season of Sekirei. The whole thing about Minato's gang journeying into MBI to take part in Minaka's crazy games just wasn't well thought-out. Somewhat appropriately, the whole thing ends with Musubi and Karasuba having a random meaningless fight where Minato turned out to be nearly brain dead and Musubi had to initiate norito herself in order to get the power up. I guess the fight wasn't half bad, but it's hard to take it seriously when you know that no one would be hurt seriously. In the aftermath, Minaka loses his skyscraper, but he'll probably rebuild it by the beginning of next season, and nothing truly meaningful came out of the whole thing other than Uzume and Chiho taking an earlier exit out the story when compared to the manga. It's not that I was expecting anything significant to happen, but this finale was still a little disappointing. Overall, ~Pure Engagement~ was a slight downgrade from the first season. The season started off with some promise with the winging of Kazehana (which Seven Arcs actually handled well), and the part about Homura wasn't too bad. Uzume's sudden exit was a surprise and hinted at an interesting finale, but the finale is where ~Pure Engagement~ dropped the ball. I guess it's hard to come up with a good finale when you want to stay consistent with the manga material, and having Musubi resurrected as Yume is hard to top. With this ending though, the Sekirei anime looks on track to continue with the manga storyline next season (sans Chiho and Uzume of course). As the story progress into the later stages, there should be more developments to be excited about. However, given that the manga moves ever so slowly (short chapters, twice a month release), I don't know when we'll get to third season. From the feed of A Product of Wasted Time
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