The episode begins with Souta waking up again, while Baru, Akazukin and Shirayukihime still are sound asleep. Ringo then comes to him extra early. Shirayukihime and Akazukin, who meanwhile have woken up wonder why Souta and Ringo have to leave this early. Shirayukihime and Akazukin immediately want to go with them when they find out that the two of them have to go to a school trip to somewhere, though Ringo forbids them. Shirayukihime then tells Souta that if something should come up, he can call for them and they’ll come.
When Souta and Ringo left, it seems that Shirayukihime and Akazukin will be following them after all. I think they used the fact that Souta and Ringo forgot to bring lunches with them as an excuse. ^^ Meanwhile, back in the dimension full of mirrors, Hansel is willing to give Gretel one more chance in order to get Erude’s Key. Meanwhile, in the bus Ringo is talking to a couple of friends, while she sees Souta reading a book as usual. He really closes himself out from others like this.
You can also see this when they have arrived in the park, or whatever it is that they were supposed to go to. Souta is alone again, talking to flowers. Surprisingly enough, they talk back. But then, a couple of classmates see him, and he’s able to explain to them what he’s doing. They’re actually quite impressed, though they don’t really understand each other. Souta can’t see the fact that his classmates just want to hang out with him, while his classmates can’t see what’s so special about flowers. Ringo scolds him for this a bit.
Ringo then suggests to look around in a huge garden full of flowers. Of course, Souta can’t refuse this. Souta then notices the third Musketeer. Meanwhile, Shirayukihime, Akazukin and Baru have arrived at the same park. Baru pretends to be an ordinary dog, which doesn’t really work to well. ^^ Akazukin meanwhile discovered a crepe-stand, though before she gets to eat, she and Shirayukihime are mistaken for a bunch of cosplayers. ^^;
Meanwhile, a surprisingly catchy background tune sounds while Souta and Ringo try to guess what’s up with the third Musketeer, who appears to be sleeping in a flower bed. She then wakes up, and begins to summon a couple of angry-looking vines. Akazukin and Shirayukihime meanwhile have won a local cosplaying contest. It was so funny when it appeared that Akazukin didn’t even know the meaning of cosplaying. ^^
Meanwhile, as the vines from the third Musketeer look quite scary, Souta decides to remember what Shirayukihime said to him at the beginning of the episode, about how he should call her whenever he’s in trouble. He attempts, and it works. But before Shirayukihime and Akazukin can get to him, Gretel arrives. The third Musketeer holds her off for a while, though she still is incredibly sleepy. And cute. ^^
Meanwhile, Gretel attempts to use a Nightmarian in disguise in order to fool Souta and Ringo, though that doesn’t really work. It therefore decides to reveal its true form. This has given Akazukin and Shirayukihime enough time to reach Souta. Then the two of them see see the third musketeer and Gretel fighting, and they reveal her name: Ibawa-hime. I so hope that I spelled that one right. A quite amusing discussion follows between the three Musketeers afterwards. Ibawa-hime was just too cute. ^^
Souta, meanwhile, returns to the flower bed he was with before. The flowers then tell him to run away, only after being crushed by the Nightmarian, appearing from underneath it. Souta manages to save one of these flowers, after it’s been ripped out of the earth. Gretel meanwhile captures him, while Shirayukihime and Akazukin fight off the Nighmarian, and another newly arrived companion of it. Ibawa-hime, only yaws and acts sleepy.
Meanwhile, Souta loses the flower he was protecting, and it blows into Gretel’s face. She was already quite pissed, so she decides to relieve her anger upon the poor flower. Apparently, Ibawa-hime has a lot of affinity with flowers. This not only makes her fit perfectly with Souta and his love for them, but she also finally slips out of her sleepy mood, and gets serious. Her personality totally changes afterwards. ^^
Ibawa-hime seems to fight with whips, made out of vines, and a shield she wears on her arm. With this, she manages to beat Gretel. The latter gets startled when the former calls her pitiful. Gretel then decides to flee, after seeing that Shirayukihime and Akazukin have beaten the Nightmarians. Meanwhile, an exccentric camera appears.
Meanwhile, in the mirror-dimension, Gretel apologizes to her brother again. The latter first acts nice, though he then says he hates something of her. Probably a scratch she recieved from Ibawa-hime. He then leaves her, and Gretel desperately tries to apologize for this. Meanwhile, Gretel hasn’t exactly been neat with her Nightmarians in the park, as she left quite a mess. Ibawa-hime then reveals that she has the power to restore everything to its former state again, including Souta’s flower.
I was fearing a bit for Ibawa-hime’s personality to be a bit bland and boring, judging on her character art. Still, I’m very pleasantly surprised with this episode. Her split personality really works. Gretel also was quite interesting. During her previous scheme, she prepared a fully fledged plan, in order to get Erude’s key, though this time, she decided to try a more direct approach, bringing lots of firepower along with her.
Overall, this episode once more was just awesome. Thumbs up for Otogi Juushi Akazukin.
Memorable Moment: Akazukin and Shirayukihime in their cosplay-contest.
