Daijoubu

Summary: Amu is shocked to discover that Nikaidou-sensei, who has stolen her eggs, as well as the purr-plexing Ikuto, work for the mysterious “Easter.” She is powerless (in pink) to prevent the theft! A worried Amu is cheered up by her friends, the School Guardians, who are going to help her because they are nice like that (yay!). While trying to come up with a plan to rescue Amu’s eggs, the other Guardian Eggs sense a presence nearby…

Meanwhile, Utau Hoshina is appearing nearby at a location shoot for the TV program hosted by Nobuko Saeki (whose having a breakdown backstage). The School Guardians go to get her help (she can see the Guardian eggs, yay!); menwhile, Amu waits nearby but ends up face-to-face with Utau. The ensuing tension could be cut with an egg spoon! Seems like Utau’s really into Ikuto! So their showdown ends with some of that “I won’t lose” stuff from both sides (yawn). OK, so next, Nobuko-sensei drives them all to where the fake teacher has the eggs. Before they can make a move, Utau’s manager lady threatens to do something to Ikuto if Utau doesn’t attack Amu & friends, so Utau transforms!!!!

And she’s pretty sexy, in a bat wing kind of way! And then Ikuto appears too — What a big showdown-mashup whatever this is!?!! And Ikuto helps Amu out by kicking the suitcase where Amu’s eggs are so they tumble out–except bad-sensei still has poor Su (and she’s so cute too, darn it!!). Nikaidou tells Amu to come to his place the next day after school if she wants Su back (oh no Amu-chan, he could be a lolicon or paedo! Please be careful!!!) She goes, and is even helped again by Ikuto (don’t be dense Amu, this means he likes you! Why else is he always touching you!!)

So, Nikaidou plans to do some horrible thing or other to Su (who can’t help but make coffee for him and dust his place too) in order to make an embryo (the embryo is what all the Easter baddies are after… maybe they never took sex ed?). And yep, you guessed it, he has a sad story from his past to explain his evil ways (his egg got broken). So, with the help of her friends (who were warned by Ikuto that Amu was going to face Nikaidou alone), she forces her way through his robot army and smashes his evil machine!! Then she transforms with Su and saves all the X eggs he’s collected (Wow!) And Nikaido’s not so bad after all, he can go back to his dream of making robots (too bad its not giant robots!!)

But there’s more!! Nikaido’s teaching again at the school! And a wounded Ikuto uses Amu for a pillow (doki doki) and takes her to an amusement park that’s going to be demolished (he knows how to please the girls!!).

Commentary: This volume had a good balance of material. There was a complete story, with some action and humor, then a little romance time for people who like that kind of stuff! It was cool to have a big showdown with a lot of the major characters so far turning up, even if it didn’t amount to much in the end. And the art is as cute as ever… this series has some of the best artwork around, especially the cuteness factor and the characters’ expressions. Anyway, go Amu-chan!!