I actually did watch this episode a handful of days ago, when Rho woke up one morning and decided that we needed to. But Hong Kong really just takes the willpower to do anything out of me. How evil.
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| I love dogs so much... |
Now at the halfway mark of the series, there's really nothing new going on. I've been noticing more and more detail in the episodes that I didn't catch before; apparently, that has to do with my growing like of this series. This episode, as usual, featured a lot of the trio (Mai, Mio and Yukko) and the Nano-Professor-Sakamoto situation. I'm beginning to see the side characters getting more airtime (like another segment with Annaka), but it's not stable enough to say that the number of main characters has grown.
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| I wonder how he stores bread in there in the heat... |
The episode began with the two boys with strange hairstyles (the guy with the mohawk is Nakanojo, but do we know the Afro Boy's name yet?) discussing the heat. (The pun with "atsui" and "natsu-i" could have been explained a little bit better, but I've come to stop desiring TLs so much. Go with the flow~) After the OP, Yukko showed that she really was unreliable (even to herself) by forgetting the homework that she had so carefully finished the previous night. If nothing else, though, the continuity of the Daifuku Fair flyer was very amusing.
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| Always fun to see Sakamoto come unhinged. |
After the first long segment, a whole bunch of small segments followed. Yukko's meeting with a dog in the hallway (as she was being punished for not having her homework) was as strange as ever; where is this school that there are so many animals roaming around? Tachibana and Sasahara's segment was mediocre to me; I don't find the tsundere act all that great. I think they'll grow on me, though; Sasahara on his own is an amazing character. I absolutely loved Sakamoto's scene with Professor; I sincerely wonder if he can read.
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| Swindler! |
Annaka's scene was very reminiscent of her last one (in good ways), as she went to a neighbourhood fair wanting to play at the shooting stand. Just like with the ramen scene from a few episodes back, the scene progressed quickly and dove off the deep end with the revelation that all the prizes were actually nailed down. (Cheaters!) I wonder if Annaka's name is some kind of pun; I noticed in both of her scenes that she asks a lot of questions when freaking out at the insanity of it all (all questions ending with "ka"). At any rate, Annaka's scenes seem to be exposing the corruptness behind the sparkle exterior of her surroundings...in funny ways.
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| I want me one now... |
Some of the shorts are a little confusing to me; I have yet to understand the Word of the Day segment. The "things you think are cool" set is generally hit-or-miss. There were two in this episode; the first one (about superballs) was amusing but the second one (about slipstreams...?) was quite confusing. It saddens me that, despite knowing what slipstreams are, I still had to look it up to actually understand the absurdity of it all.
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| It takes a lot of effort to keep that expression up. |
The next long scene in this episode was about Mio and Yukko going to the amusement park...and Mio having lost Yukko's wallet. The idea of the money not being in the wallet made me feel almost homesick, since I've been out of Toronto for around 2 months now. I've had situations where money came back to me safe and sound while in Toronto; are Canadians that nice? Anyway, I really wonder how Mio and Yukko made up afterwards; technically, it's not like Mio can be fully blamed, but there was no blow-up at all. Was it all swept under the rug?
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| So small...! |
This episode was full of lots of little shorts (maybe that was why it felt so long...). After a scene with Sakurai-sensei and a coffee shop cashier mutually struggling to express themselves (so annoying...), the trio were found at a family restaurant doing some origami after their meal. On a serious level, making a crane that small is incredibly pro. Is the stereotype that all Japanese are really good at origami serious? (I doubt it. There's always the exceptions.)
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| Poor kitty... |
The last long scene of the episode was Nano-Professor-Sakamoto, wherein Professor decided to wear a fake key on her back to emulate Nano. It was a slightly annoying scene; like salt on a wound. It was interesting how Nano tried to get Professor to take the key off her back. Silly android; doesn't she know that Professor can just ninja it back in? I look forward to the magician and what his role with Nano is. (Will he help her become a real girl?!)
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| I look forward to seeing much more of him. |
The episode ended after a handful of short segments again. This really felt longer than usual (maybe it's because I had to watch it twice; I forgot it mostly after the last watch). I look forward to a new OP/ED next week; I'm only speculating that there will be one, though. Compared to all the anime this season, this one is really climbing steadily (while others had generally fallen rapidly).
~Aaro
