So we begin with the Academy explanation again. It's alright, this is the second last episode that utilizes it.
~~~
So we open up to someone perched on one of the DWMA's spikes. What are they doing up there? Attempting to commit suicide?
Well, if so, this girl that comes along is such a bitch. She sees the guy up there, and she decides to clap. Which persuades the kid to jump.
Except it's not actually a suicide attempt. The kid lands on his feet, without a hitch. Well, this episode is off to a boring start.
The camera pans out and gives us a look at the characters. The girl is tall, with a ponytail and some... I don't know how to describe her clothes. Her armless shirt and pants are 2 different shades of brown, with bandages wrapped around her ankles and most of her arm excluding the hand. This girl is Tsubaki, and she is NOT a bitch in any way. In fact, she may be one of the sweetest characters on the show. She's a Weapon with a multitude of uses, such as Smoke-Bomb, Ninja-Star, and Chain-Scythe.
The kid has spiky blue hair, a black sleeveless shirt, black and white shorts (they're white, with 2 large areas of black covering the knee, basically). His shoes are black at the heel, but at the toe and halfway across the foot, they're grey with white stars on them. He has gauntlets with stars etched on the outside. This young man is Black Star/BlackStar/Black*Star, and... honestly, he's a bit of an asshole sometimes (Great for laughs, though). He's an extremely strong-willed Meister, more than capable of taking down the demons... Except he's SO GODDAMN CHILDISH.
Of course, none of this is relayed to you. You learn this after watching the episode.
ANYWHO, that was a narratation of maybe 35, 40 seconds of footage with the added character notes. If we're going anywhere tonight, i'm gonna have to speed things up.
~~~
EPISODE TITLE: I Am The Star!
~~~
So then it cuts t— HOLY CRAP, did Black Star just apparate out of the shadows? Holy CRAP! This whole scene has Crowning Music Of Awesome, as well as a killer buildup to... well, a bit of a dud ending.
They're spying on a bunch of mobsters, who all wear these masks which look vaguely unhappy. These guys are eating human souls, but not in the brutal way Spring-Heeled Jack The Ripper did. Oh no, these folk are CLASSY. They're eating human souls, on fine china, with silverware. Bastards.
There's this mob guy, talking about his enemies, or something... Tsubaki identifies him as Al Capone (yeah, THAT Al Capone), and she states that BlackStar needs to wipe him out along with all of his "associates", who were those sad masked men back there. Conveniently for them, there are about 100 souls in all to collect from this mission, so they have to be CAREFUL.
Tsubaki and Black*Star go over the Assassin's Rules, the first of which adorns this page as a title. Number 2 is "Transpositional Thinking: analyse the target in order to predict his thoughts and movements", and Number 3 is "Speed: take out the target before the target notices your presence".
And then Black Star proceeds to break every single one of them.
Seriously, WHAT AN IDIOT!!! He lands SMACK-DAB in the middle of the table, and proceeds to spaz out, before telling them all his plan of assassinating them all!! And then Tsubaki untransforms and begins yelling and HOLY CRAP GUNS.
So they run around in circles as the mobsters shoot at them before Tsubaki transforms into a smoke-bomb, giving them enough cover to escape. As the mobsters are left wondering what the hell just happened, a henchman tells Al that they have finally located "the witch".
DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNNNNN
~~~
Next scene shows Black*Star and Tsubaki talking after their failed attempt, at some pier or something. Bad jokes happen. By now, you have a very clear view of BlackStar: he's annoying, childish and SO GODDAMN ANNOYING. YES, it has to be emphasised twice. Of course, he gets better along the way. You haven't seen much of Tsubaki so far, so you don't know her that well. One thing you will notice: she's the long-suffering, but patient type.
~~~
And now we're back at the DWMA, where Tsubaki and Black Star are comptemplating getting an easier mission. Before, suddenly, a familiar voice...
SOUL!! Oh god, PLEASE tell me you 2 are enemies! Please, for the sake of my sanity! Deck BlackStar!
-The pair hi-five-
O_O FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Oh, and Maka's there too. Tsubaki and Maka seem to get along well, which I like. Tsubaki asks them how their soul-hunting is going, and they both reply with "Don't ask."
Suddenly, both Black*Star and Tsubaki are called to the Death Room. Aww craaaaaap. They're in for a whooping now!
~~~
Well crap, Black Star actually got Reaper Chopped!
The problem with them both isn't necessarily skill; they have that in spades. The main problem is that they (read: BLACKSTAR) don't seem to be taking the missions seriously.
Well, Tsubaki apologises a bunch of times throughout ther visit to the Death Room. Death then tells the pair the bad news: AL CAPONE HAS LOCATED A WITCH. HOLY SHIT, THINGS JUST GOT REAL. Her name's Angela, she has a hella powerful bodyguard and if Capone gets his hands on her... well, things could get ugly.
And then Black*Star does math, realises the 99/100 Kishin Souls + 1 Witch Soul = HOLY CRAP DEATHSCYTHE. So he speeds out, with Tsubaki on his tail, just before Death tells them something they should know about Angela.
~~~
Meanwhile, Maka wonders aloud why Tsubaki chose Black Star. In her own words, "She could partner up with anyone she wanted to". You're damn right she can, Maka. +2 BRO points.
And Soul answers her: She knows that BlackStar isn't really a jerk deep down. He might be a bit of an idiot, but he has guts. Tsubaki realises this. They get each other, kinda. Maka muses if that's why they work so well together. HOLY CRAP, IS MAKA A SHIPPER ON DECK?! Not necessarily, but maybe.
~~~
So now we're at the witch's hideout, where Al Capone and his cronies have shown up. That's a lot of manpower, sure... but if your men aren't very durable, you may as well be backed by tissue paper. As Al finds out in a very short, offscreen battle with a hella good samurai named Mifune.
And hey, Black*Star's trying to peep on Tsubaki by using the 3 Assasin's Rules. This time, he actually manages to get pretty far... but the sight of a naked Tsubaki proves to be too much, and he loses his cool. Majorly.
(btw commercial break)
This results in a ninja star to the forehead for Black Star. OUCH, MAN.
Also, TREE JUMPING. This kid's reminding me more and more of Naruto. It's alright though, he gets better. He actually has a half-meaningful word to Tsubaki, saying he's definitely going to turn her into a Deathscythe. This side of BlackStar rarely comes up, where he sincerely says stuff (even if he's still using words like "totally"). You can expect more of it, but better, in an upcoming 2-parter.
So they get to Angela's place, expecting some big fight with the mob. But when they get there, there's only a mob of Kishin Eggs.
And then Mifune steps into the picture.
Basically, Mifune has a crapload of swords. He keeps them in one very large sheathe, and he uses them by scattering them around the fighting area.
Now, i'm no good at describing battles. Well, not technical battles. Simple ones, like the Blair battle in Ep 1, I can do. But this fight is different. This fight has more detail. As such, I must recommend you look up "Black*Star Mifune fight" on Youtube.
[/FIGHT]
Let me tell you, that was one hell of a fight. Mifune really had Black Star on the rocks there. Hell, he could have killed him if he really wanted to. And let me tell you, it;s absolutely shattering seeing Tsubaki's expression whe she thinks BlackStar is dead.
And after trying twice this episode, Black*Star finally uses the Assassin's Rules properly! Granted, it's after Mifune's Hannibal Lecture hits his Berserk Button, but he actually got it right. Whether it was in the heat of the moment or not, it doesn't matter. IT WAS AWESOME.
ANYWHO, we finally see Angela for the first time. But hold on: It's a child! Yep, Angela's a cute, little witchy child. Mifune is protecting her until she matures. You find out later on how Mifune came across Angela, and you learn that he has a (NON SEXUAL) love of kids. Knowing that makes the battle just a tad better, imo.
And OH MY GOD ANGELA IS CUTE NO MATTER WHAT SHE DOES. She flies in, lands on Mifune to try and protect him, causes Black Star some major head trauma with one of Mifune's swords... She is just an adorable little cutiepie, all round.
And of course, BlackStar decides against killing her. You see, underneath all that Jerkass of Black*Star, he really does have a heart of gold.
~~~
Tsubaki and Black Star gather up all the Kishin Eggs, but they don't use them. No, they take them all to Death. This is refreshing; they hand them all over voluntarily. No begging for one puny soul or anything! Death does tell them they should get them while the going's good, but they decline. After all, it wouldn't be big of Black Star to take souls he hadn't earned.
And then we have one more peeking scene before the episode ends. Yay! :D
~~~!
And that's the episode. It's surprising how one episode can show you an unlikeable (imo) character, and have you mourning his "death" by the end of it. That's great writing, folks... or maybe it's not. To be honest, i'm so tired I don't even realise what i'm saying anymore.
So... Next episode is DEATH THE KID. He's roughly my 3rd favorite character of the 7 people that make up the main Meister/Weapon protagonists (not counting Spirit and Stein). You can expect the next update sometime around HALLOWEEN!
...Except not. Just hang tight; i'll be back soon enough.
