Hundred – Episode 6 [The Diva’s Love Song]

This episode should’ve just been titled “Emile’s Jealousy”, ha. Lots of cute moments when the rivalry between Hayato’s harem ramped up. Fun stuff!  ;D

So Hayato’s fighting this Savage which attacked his and Sakura’s bus, but he’s having a hard time because he’s not wearing his variant suit. Sakura has her Hundred crystal, so she transforms in front of the other passengers and defends Hayato. He defeats the first Savage, but just when they think they’re safe, a second one comes around the corner. And this one is much tougher – it’s a regenerator type, meaning no matter how fast they cut its arms off, they will grow back super quick.

Emile, Fritz and Latia show up, and together the five of them work to beat the Savage. However when Hayato is about to strike a killing blow, one of the trio dressed in black (from the end of episode 4) lunges in front of Hayato in mid-air and slams him through the air into a wall. These three newcomers have eyes which glow yellow when they use their abilities, and they appear to be after the Savage’s core.

In a nutshell, this trio (who appear to be related to each other) crack the Savage’s defenses and steal its core. Hayato and the others try to interfere, but they are all outmaneuvered, even Emile. Hayato has a flashback to Claire mentioning the variant stone which was stolen during Sakura’s previous concert, and he wonders if these three are responsible for that crime. As they leave, one of them mentions the name “Vitaly”, aka the man responsible for tampering with Sakura’s genetics at Warslarn. He’s the director of the lab. Oh boy.

Back on Little Garden, Claire warns Emile about the dangers of dragging his friends into combat without asking for her permission first. Yet she also praises their group for their skills shown in an emergency situation. As a result she promises to consider whether to admit Fritz and Latia into Selections, something which has great importance to Latia because she has long assumed her shortness was what held her back from being chosen.

It’s during this debriefing that Char, sitting quietly at the back of the room, says that the Savages’ cores were probably harvested because they are molecularly similar to variant stones. In terms of both use and monetary value, they are both very similar. But this also means that if they are collected and stored, they could tip the power balance between countries. So who is behind the harvesting of these cores, and why?

Hayato goes to visit his sister Karen in the hospital, who has some heart-shaped glowsticks and is trying to lead Hayato through the correct “routine” in preparation for Sakura’s upcoming concert. He’s trying to follow, but kinda failing. ^^;

Hayato gets a message from Sakura, and he meets her by the water. Sakura’s feeling down – she feels that her songs only have an impact on people because they’re Variants, and because she’s a Variant too, her music resonates in their hearts. Hayato calls bullshit and quickly points out that he heard, and liked, her music before she was ever changed into a Variant. She realizes he is right and thanks him, telling him she thinks she will fall even more in love with him.

Finally we get to see Sakura’s concert, and this whole scene was the highlight of the episode for me. I just want her Hundred so much~  *0*   Her music is very pretty, but it’s the animation and her illusions which stand out in my mind. Everything’s just so pink, and and shiny, and- oh yes, fanservice too. But I can overlook it because of the sparkles. It’s also during the concert that Karen makes the connection between Sakura and the pink-haired girl from the shelter in her past.

After the concert, Sakura signs her autograph for Karen, who is so overwhelmed yet shy that she’s just so adorable. Sakura says that the next time they meet, they should sing together. Sakura goes to say goodbye to Hayato as well but pulls him in close at the last moment to kiss his cheek, and all the other girls in his harem freak out. Poor guy’s embarrassed to no end of course, but that doesn’t matter in ecchi series. ;D

When Hayato wakes up in bed later, Sakura’s there with him. He’s freaks out and tries to figure out what’s going on, but Claire walks into Hayato’s room before he can get his bearings and sees them together; of course Sakura hams it up, knowing Claire is her rival. Then Emile walks in, and all hell breaks loose. Hayato gets stuck in the middle as the three girls literally use him as a tug-of-war.

My thoughts: Awesome episode! Hundred continues to have fantastic pacing, and what ecchi there is has become less of an eyesore and more subtly ingrained. So big thumbs up from me.

What’s worth noting during the battle scene with the Savages is that when the second Savage is about to attack Hayato, and just prior to his being attacked by the baddie in black, is that Sakura’s voice connected with the Savage. It reacted to her voice. Is this because she was injected with so many vaccines by Vitaly that she’s now some kind of Super Variant, or is is genetically similar to a Savage? And the evil trio also noticed that Emile’s Hundred had abilities similar to one of their members, namely that it can change its form. Is this also symbolic of something? We don’t know much about Emile’s origins yet, aside from a couple of vague references, so I hope this is something that will be revealed later in the season.