As the Harekaze approaches a stormy area of the sea as they continue their search for the Musashi, they found a ship that is in distress.
From the looks of it, it seems that the Harekaze is low on fresh water. In short, the girls are now forced to wash with sea water for the time being. Yep, that sounds very nasty, but thankfully they got into the fog with a chance to collect fresh water. The girls obviously took advantage the fact it will rain and some decided to wash their hair and collect fresh water. Sadly, the storm got worse, thus the plan to replenish the water supply got ruined rather quickly.
Aside from the impending storm, there is some back story, which sets the dramatic tone of this episode. It seems that Akeno have lost her parents when they tried to have her jump on a rescue raft as the ship sank. It’s easy to feel sympathetic towards her since she lost her parents at such a young age and things could have been different had she jumped on the raft earlier. When she found out that there is a ship sending a distress call, she sprang into action in getting her crew ready to rescue the passengers to prevent history from repeating itself from her childhood.
The girls did a good job evacuating all the passengers and crew while others inspected the damage of the ship and look for possible survivors that might be trapped. In short, everyone made it out alive, except for Wilhelmina and Mashiro, who were looking for a child, which turns out to be just a kitten. Although Wilhelmina made it out, Mashiro kind of got trapped as she hesitated while attempting to get over her cat phobia to rescue it.
I admit that while Mashiro is a bit too harsh with luck never on her side, seeing her in distressing situation might be a sign that her personality is starting to defrost. Although she was scared, she pushed on with the kitten as she goes through the air duct while being soaking wet. While her flashlight died and she lost her skirt, she made it out alive thanks to banging on the duct with the dead flashlight, causing the Blue Mermaids to take notice of the location so that they can cut the metal and rescue her.
In other words, it seems that Mashiro finally gotten over her fear of cats and managed to adopt the kitten she saved. When she asked Akeno if she can have another cat on the ship too, it’s obvious that their relationship have improved and she has loosened up a bit. It’s not so surprising given how worried Akeno was while Mashiro was trapped on the ship. Hopefully from here, their relationship will improve compared to the rocky start when they first met. Who knows, Akeno might be the girl who will neutralize Mashiro’s terrible luck.
In short, with Minami’s antibody for the virus she made last time being a big success as she hands her findings to one of the Blue Mermaids to have it delivered to the school, the girls are one step closer to rescuing other ships, including the Musashi. Either way, we now know why Akeno wants become a Blue Mermaid. Not only she wants to save other people’s lives, she also to have a large family on a ship. Yes, this is what she meant by “comrades at sea are like family,” which can explain her desire to save people, even if it’s risky. Either way, with another and possibly rogue ship approaching, will they be able to save them and others now that there is now a cure. We’ll find out soon enough.
Other than the girl who wears the yellow bikini gracing us with her sexiness the rain scene was both gratuitous and welcome.
Captain Mike’s struggles with being a badass and a proper textbook ship captain continue.
Good to see Mashiro overcome her phobia.
Shady-senpai continues being shady.
It’s good that Akeno has improved tremendously since the first episode. With that in mind, maybe she now stands a greater chance to saving her friend. Still, it will be interesting to see how Mashiro’s relationship with Akeno change from here.