[Matrixbeast]

Hibiki Volume 28.
This episode gives more answers about the people in black and white, and I'm so glad...We learn that the cast referring to them as "Puppets" is correct, as it seems that not only are there dozens of them, but that they're led by some man and woman, the people actually behind the experiments recently. Finally good to learn a bit more. With their next experiment done, they decide to use it on one of the puppets, rather than demons. Interesting idea...
Meanwhile, Hibiki and Ibuki are fighting a demon, it's nothing really special, but I bring it up because, this demon was strong enough to break one of Hibiki's Ongekibou while in his Kurenai form. That's surprisingly tough.

We then move to see the enhanced puppet create a family of spider demons, and the enhancement spreads to it's created demons. These spiders were quite a match for our newest Oni, Eiki (Another drum user), and he was beaten quickly.
Ibuki and Todoroki are dispatched to recover Eiki and defeat the demons, but their strength shines through once more, with the Douji and Hime overwhelming the two, just wailing on them as our Oni have a hard time even fighting back. Damn.

On the human side of things, Asumu's luck plummets once more. He appears with a mysterious bruise on his face. We later learn that the shoplifter returned once again, beating the everloving hell out of him.
Goddammit. The shoplifter tripped over Asumu, and he held a grudge this long? Asumu didn't actively try to stop him, he just ran into him on accident...Christ. Well, Asumu got his ass kicked, but doesn't seem to bring it up with anyone. So Hibiki decides to take him on a mountain trip on his day off. Hibiki isn't nosing about, and is just teaching him stuff like setting up a tent and the like. While he's gone, Hitomi is called in to Tachibana's (Which leads to how we learn about where the bruise came from), and Hitomi begins to cry over the events that happened. Poor thing, since she's finally realizing how shit Asumu's life is...

Back with Hibiki and Asumu, things are going...Decently (Asumu trying to say that Hibiki only brought him on their little adventure because of recent events), but Hibiki writes him off. While hiking up a steep hill (Very steep, seeing as they need a rope), Asumu slips, sliding down the rough cliff face as he desperately tries to grab the rope.
Man...

This episode was rather nice as it finally gives a little answer into our mystery villains (Since our protagonists seemed to be aware of them the whole time, but the audience was left scratching their heads in confusion). Midori has shown she has spare Ongekibou, so I don't think Hibiki is particularly impaired by the one demon breaking his, but it is interesting to see that the monsters are strong enough to begin with to break them. Their strength is also highlighted by the ass kicking our new Oni, Eiki, as well as Todoroki and Ibuki got. The fighting in this episode was rather nice, too (Though the shots where the lighting was dead center in the camera was an...Odd call to make).
I'm just glad to get a little clarity. I'm interested to learn more about this mysterious man and woman. It's also just good to have a proper face to associate with our villains.

For Asumu's portion, god...If this kid ever catches a break, I have to always keep in mind that life will shit on him within 2 episodes. The shoplifter from, like, episode 10 returns just to beat him up, he's keeping his feelings bottled up inside him (Well, that's nothing new, but still...), and now his camp trip with Hibiki leads to him sliding down a cliff? Man, this kid...I'm interested to see where it will go, since he tends to open up to Hibiki, but even now, his time with Hibiki is going down south.
Hitomi is also slowly breaking as she realizes that Asumu just isn't getting any better with how his life is turning.

1 episode remains.

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnstenchfartface

Pretty good episode. Still enjoying Wizard a bunch, though I no longer can claim to care much for Shunpei.

That seems about right.
Even some of Wizard's biggest fans aren't too keen on Shunpei