Synduality: Noir – 05 – Marital Blitz

In a distressing cold open, a Drifter is surrounded by sinister black coffins who take his Magus captive. So of course I feared Noir would meet a similar fate later in the episode. That’s especially true when Kanata and Noir encounter Claudia and Flamme in the Rock Town market, selling the crystal they took for themselves.

All Claudie can offer them is lunch and some advice: if they want to get better at “becoming one” as a Drifter-Magus pair, she recommends they visit the maze at Fes, which is almost certainly a trap. In the meantime, Noir is determined to “become one” with Kanata, culminating in her declaring that they are “husband and wife”.

The two start eating, drinking, even brushing their teeth in unison in hopes that they’ll become a better tuned duo on the battlefield. Noir wants to take a shower with Kanata, but he forbids it. And when Noir wants to sleep in his hammock with him, he finally relents, only for the weight of the both of them to break said hammock.

Nevertheless, they fall asleep on the floor, and that’s where a very confused and outraged Ellie finds them. She’s even more distressed when Noir says they’re husband and wife, and asks if love is even necessary in a marriage. Clearly, they’ve been sold another bill of goods by Claudia.

As expected, the maze is indeed a trap, and Claudia sold Kanata and Noir out for a payday, earning her some more villainess brownie points. Fortunately Tokio knows something is up, since Mouton reported the Type Zero Magus abductions like the one we saw in the cold open.

No sooner do Kanata and Noir enter the maze of Fes than they are surrounded by the same sinister black coffins, which are launched from flying carriers. Kanata is able to evade them for a few blocks, but eventually they’re surrounded.

Before one of the black coffins can pry open the rear bay where Noir is, Tokio’s coffin arrives and knocks a couple of the coffins away. He’s joined by Ellie and Michael, and even Claudia shows up, albeit just to make sure Kanata isn’t hurt.

She explains that her client was looking for a certain Type Zero—even Flamme was checked out—they have deep pockets, and Flamme ain’t cheap to maintain, so she had no choice but to take the job. But not unreasonably, Kanata wants payback for being played the fool not once but twice now.

Claudia doesn’t make it easy at first, as she uses smoke bombs and shadow clones to confuse her opponent. However, once Kanata and Noir are on the same page, he maintains evasive maneuvers while Noir locks on to the weak spot on Claudia’s coffin that she hasn’t gotten around to fixing. With one shot, her coffin is disabled, and she’s at Kanata’s mercy.

However, having won the fight, all Kanata does is recommend a cheap and eager tinkerer to maintain her Type Zero: Ellie’s sister Maria, specifically. That way, perhaps Claudia won’t have to resort to betraying him again in the future. I won’t hold my breath, but if she were truly heartless she wouldn’t have come to check on him, so who knows.

As for Kanata and Noir, to Ellie’s relief they were unable to complete the maze of Fes, which is akin to a lovers’ trial. That said, even though she’s able to work up the courage to ask Kanata to go through the maze with her, they’re not able to as the maze has been ruined by the battle with the black coffins. Poor Ellie…never any luck…

Masamune-kun’s Revenge R – 06 – Crêpes de Noël

Masamune follows Yoshino’s last piece of advice as his master, asking Aki on a date on her birthday. Even though he knows it’s Christmas Eve, he guesses wrong so she can correct him while wearing the same cute smug face she used to make when they were little.

Without Yoshino’s further guidance, Masamune must figure out what they’ll actually do on this date. When his family and shojo manga isn’t of any help, Kojuurou recommends a café that’s famous for its pancakes. When it comes to Aki, you can’t go wrong with fluffy carbs!

The next day, Aki shows up wearing the outfit she took hours deciding, just as Masamune took a great deal of time to plan a fun date. The time they put in tells you they care about each other. And while Masamune’s first idea is to take her to a movie, she sits right next to him this time!

While it’s not a zombie movie that makes her cry in fear, it’s a story about a dog and an old man that makes her moved to tears anyway. As for the pancake café, it burned down that morning, leaving the couple with nowhere to eat on a fully-booked Christmas Eve.

Masamune suggests they go to his house, where his mom is sure to shower them with food and affection. But when he comes home it’s all dark; he left the room before Chinatsu could tell him she and mom went to the hot springs. That means Aki and Masamune are alone together.

After a few moments of cute awkwardnesss, Aki tells Masamune to serve tea. When he can’t find the tea, she helps him look, and finds something better, at least to her: pancake mix! The two are a picture of domestic bliss as they each laugh at one another for failing to properly flip their first pancakes.

But once they have enough for a meal, Masamune tries to fluster Aki by offering to feed her. Aki is defiant, and grabs his arm to glomp the pancake he offered, then tells him his cakes don’t have enough toppings. Aki touching his arm, and then insisting on toppings he doesn’t want, gives Masamune pause.

Without explaining, he gets up, grabs Aki’s arm, and takes her upstairs to his bedroom, which is really more of a gym. The thing that stands out for her, however, is the photo of her and Masamune when they were little. Seeing the photo moves her to tears, but Masamune says that’s not why he brought her up there.

He tells her he’s not the same pudgy Masamune she knew eight years ago. He made himself into a new person after the trauma of how that all ended, and he doesn’t think he can go back to being the “old Masamune” and asks if that makes him worthless to her now.

Aki, unsure how to respond, trips on a dumbell, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. The tension builds as they linger in this compromising position, until Masamune seemingly feels a pain in his stomach and bolts away, leaving Aki alone and more confused than ever. When she leaves his room, he’s nowhere to be found.

He’s in the bathroom, and his stomach hurts too much to move. He pulls up his sleeve to reveal severe hives. It seems he’s unable to touch Aki for some reason! He texts her his apologies, as well as the location of her Christmas/birthday present, for her to take home with her.

When she takes it out of his jacket, something else falls out: his revenge journal, which just happens to open to the page “I’m going to get revenge on that woman!” When Aki comes home, she’s in a daze.

While she loves the gift she gave him (a necklace with dogs like her old guard dogs), she’s not sure what to make of that journal, or how Masamune suddenly drew away from her. She even asks Yoshino whether she has any “appeal as a woman”.

After such a nice, if imperfect date, and just when things were going so bright and sweetly, there’s suddenly serious trouble in Akimune paradise. I for one hope they can find a way to voice one another’s concerns properly lest they end up victims to more misunderstandings. They’ve had to deal with enough of those!