Last week’s episode brought an official end to the visitor arc and the start of a new one. With her mission over, Lina reconciles with the Shiba siblings. Meanwhile, a new character is introduced: Minami Sakurai, one of the maids serving under Maya Yotsuba and tasked with a mission.
Contrary to what we all believed from the latest news, episode 12 is not totally an original arc. There are some plot elements inspired by the Double Seven chapter, especially if we are taking into account the events from the previous episode and the introduction of the Kuroba twins. In this case, their mission is almost exactly as it was in the novel, which is to investigate the New Breed Group, even down to Fumiya disguising as a girl.
The twins are interesting characters, perhaps even more than the Shiba siblings. Ayako simply has that presence that you can’t ignore, and an attitude that you can’t help but really love. She is practical, intelligent, but has a fun side too. Meanwhile, Fumiya is your typical trap, though he compliments it with his own intelligence and sense of justice. Moreover, they actually excel in combat much more than Tatsuya and Miyuki. While Tatsuya is a one-man army with Miyuki simply acting as his limiter and backup when an enemy slips past his defenses, the Kuroba twins work on a much deeper level of coordination: Ayako as the intelligence officer/transporter/command support, and Fumiya as the vanguard and spearhead.
Minami barely appeared this time even though she had an amazing introduction last week. Instead, much of the episode focused on the threat of the New Breed Group and Tatsuya interacting among his friends in the party. One interesting thing to note here is the brief introduction of Shizuku’s parents, which is brief but also inspired by a similar scene in the novel. The only difference is that her parents never talked with Tatsuya, and thus there was no misunderstanding about him being Shizuku’s suitor.
This review is much shorter than my previous ones, but that’s probably because this episode didn’t offer anything new aside from the Kuroba twins and is really just a filler arc. Still, it deserves a solid 7.5/10.