Hundred – Episode 3 [Variant Awakening]

Episode three begins with Claire, Hayato and the others going to the tactical headquarters together. They meet up with Char and review the footage and stats of the three Savages which are attacking the Zwei Islands. Claire changes her mind about letting Emile and Hayato join the fight once she sees that one of the Savages is a Trenta-class, but Hayato gets her to change her mind by reminding her about her motto of noblesse oblige, and it works. Hayato also mentions for the first time that he has been attacked by a Savage before, and that he has lost some of his memories; Emile notices and looks mildly surprised, but doesn’t say anything.

Their group of five flies over the Savages, and Claire, Liddy and Erica are the first to sortie (transform) with their Hundreds as they jump out of the air carrier. We see Erica’s Hundred for the first time, a spider-like Arsène type which can use chains to restrict enemies’ movements. Once they land successfully and begin engaging the first Savage, Emile decides he and Hayato should copy them. So he pushes Hayato out of the plane by hugging him. ^^;  They sortie on the way down and immediately begin fighting one of the smaller Savages.

In short, Claire and Hayato’s groups are each able to take down one of the standard Savages each respectively, but Erica and Liddy are hurt when they try to kill the Trenta-class Savage. With both Erica and Liddy down, Claire is left on her own against the giant Savage. She gets in one attack, but is left with insufficient energy to pull off another, and it looks like it’s the end for her as the Savage sends another energy attack her way. Except Hayato dashes in and saves her rude ass at the very last moment, accidently groping her in the process.

The Savage prepares to attack them both again, and they have to take the attack because if they evade it, the blast will hit the airport where the people of the Zwei Islands are trying to evacuate. So together Hayato and Claire put up an energy barrier and deflect the attack into both the ocean and the mountains. Claire has virtually no energy left afterwards though, so it’s up to Hayato and Emile to defeat the monstrous Savage.

Everything changes when Emile protects Liddy from some debris, but takes some damage from the Savage’s strike in the process. Seeing Emile’s uniform ripped and the faded scar underneath causes Hayato to flashback and remember who Emile really is – Emilia Hermit. How they know each other is not revealed, but Hayato is now able to remember the Savage attack from his dream in more detail. Hayato encourages Emilia to flee, but there is not enough time and Hayato transforms into his full armament mode. He goes nuts, losing all awareness of himself and his surroundings as he rains attacks down on the Savage, and it’s up to Emilia to bring him back. Guess how she does it. No really, take a second and guess. Well it’s an ecchi, so she kisses him. Messy saliva and all, blech. Emilia tells Hayato to channel all his energy into his Flying Swallow, and the result is enough to split the Savage clean in half.

Afterwards Hayato and Emilia share a tender moment. Well until Claire storms over to them, and ruins the mood by pointing out that Emilia’s breasts are exposed and that Emilia kissed Hayato mid-battle. Scandalous right?  /end sarcasm

Everyone boards the air carrier again, where Liddy receives some medical attention and Claire, Emilia and Hayato relax with what looks like tea. Back on what I’m assuming is Little Garden, Hayato goes to see his sister, who is relieved he’s alright.

Afterwards Hayato and Emilia are back in their dorm room. Emilia has been allowed to continue her pretense of being a guy (because it would ruffle too many feathers otherwise), but she’s not allowed to share a room with Hayato anymore. However the best part of this scene is when Emilia explains to Hayato what’s really going on: the two of them are both something called a Variant. Back during the Savage attack in their past, Emilia was badly injured, and Hayato tried to save her by sucking her blood out (to get rid of the virus I’m assuming). This resulted in them both being tainted with the Savage virus. It is usually lethal, but people who survive it end up with elevated Hundred scores, like Hayato and Emilia. When the Variant virus inside them awakens, something that happens when the host is in danger of dying, it causes them to black out and not remember anything, which is why Hayato is missing memories from his last two battles.

Then Emilia thanks Hayato for saving her, and he gets all flustered and moves to make them some tea. However he gets dizzy and falls on Emilia, landing with his head in her chest and his hand on her boob. Emilia realizes that the dizzy feeling is leftover from the earlier battle due to the virus having activated, and she kisses Hayato again. Why? Because the only way to suppress the virus is to administer an inactive virus to the active one. *snort*  So basically anytime Hayato feels dizzy, he’s going to get kisses from Emilia. The icing on the cake is that Claire storms in to give Emilia shit for not switching rooms yet, and Hayato ends up falling on her too and groping her again. Emilia gets jealous and tries to get Hayato to kiss her some more, and the ensuing cacophony is enough to have the other guys in the dorm stick their heads out into the hallway to see what’s going on.

My thoughts: I’m really enjoying this show! I mean yeah the ecchi got dialed way up in this episode, but it’s nothing horrible, just the usual tropes.

No, what impressed me was the explanation for why Emilia and Hayato are the way that they are. It’s simple without being ridiculous. Also, I didn’t expect that Emilia’s real gender would be revealed quite so early, but in retrospect it makes sense since she’s going to be part of the harem.

On that note, the whole little sister thing going on with Karen continues to creep me out a little. If that’s your kink, all the power to you, but it’s definitely not mine and it bugs me every time I see it in a show.

That being said, it looks like next week we’re going to get to know the singer Sakura a little better. Time for this harem to get another upgrade~!