I was pleasantly surprised to see that Shikkaku released ep10 already, considering it's only Thursday morning (night in Beijing) and I don't usually expect OreTsuba until sometime on Friday. Given last week's revelations, I was waiting with bated breath for this week, and it didn't disappoint at all.
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| It's turning into yuri! |
This week featured Narita in the cockpit for nearly the entire day, seeing as how Chitose did most of the work last time. With no sign of Haneda, this episode already began with high marks. Seeing Narita at school, dealing with things in his own way, was awesome in several ways: for one, he's my favourite character and for another, it solidified how much I dislike Haneda and his methods (or lack there of). Like with the previous episode, a Scramble occurred about 60% through and Chitose was available for the remainder. Overall, this was really an excellent episode for this anime.
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| It's Nari-shi! |
The episode began with the body waking up and Narita, slightly groggy, remembering that he was to take over the Morning Shift for that day. Like with the most recent episodes, I'm becoming extremely enamoured with Kobato. With just one word - the morning greeting - from the guy, she knew right away that it was Narita and not Chitose (like she had expected). Once again, she had several breakfasts prepared, and brought out the correct one. I hope that, before the anime ends, there's some more focus on Kobato. I'm really growing more and more curious to see her.
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| Damn straight. |
With Narita going to school, I knew that it would be a treat. Chitose tried very hard to impersonate Haneda and despite not succeeding 100%, he didn't do much damage. Narita, on the other hand, is very abrasive with a short temper; I knew that fun things would occur. I wasn't disappointed. It was interesting to see how the class treated the quiet Haneda; in this case, being the class president was pretty much a "joke" rather than an "honour". Seeing Narita snap and do things his way was very, very satisfying; he became a true leader and dished out tasks to the class full of "brats". In response, he was met with awe and the love of a previously hostile girl.
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| It's Narita's harem now! |
This scene made me like Narita a lot more, but it really made me equally question Haneda. I hear that his inner thoughts were a lot more accessible in the game, which means that there may be a lot of QQ that isn't audible in the anime. This probably hurts Haneda's character, but I question how much. I can't think of a way that I would sympathize with this kind of person. It's pretty hard to be bullied, but apparently being vocal about it stopped the treatment (unless there will be violent retribution in the next episode). Moreover, I presume that his actions in Gretagard are a way to visualize his inner thoughts, which makes me dislike him even more; his fantasies have him violently killing the winged ones and having every girl he meets like him. That's pretty much the type of character I hate; the only way he can redeem himself is to actually grow a spine, at this point.
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| So open about it all... |
After the school scene, Narita was free to go about his own business (I guess Chitose isn't due to work everyday?). Just like fate, he "accidentally" met up with Naru and they headed to a super-fanservice scene at a pool. This was the most ecchi content an episode has had in recent times (considering the sex scene two episodes ago was almost entirely blocked...), with lots of fanservice. The interaction between the members of Narita's harem was very enjoyable; although Chitose's harem also gets along pretty well, I think I'm super bisaed because this harem contains Naru. She's definitely my favourite girl still.
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| ...right. |
Just like any anime that has forced coincidences, Naru decided to take Narita to Alexander after the swimming pool - this, by the way, is of course where Chitose works. After some meagre attempts to keep himself hidden, Narita gave up (potentially due to exhaustion from having been in the cockpit for so long already) and forced Chitose to come out. This raised the question of what the Chitose-Narita body in this scene actually looked like. Of course, to the viewer, Narita looked like Narita and Chitose like Chitose. However, which one is the one that both Narita's acquaintances and Chitose's acquaintances saw? When Itami came out, he wore a wig and an eyepatch, but it didn't seem like a wig could be plausible in this scene (considering none the girls mentioned anything). Questions, questions~
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| His rotating eyebrow was actually pretty funny. |
For once, Master's jokes were amusing to me, as Chitose struggled to come up with an explanation that would fly. Just like with Narita having a lot of development in the previous episode with Naru, Chitose's story with Hiyoko went into overdrive. With help from Naru and her friend (Kouda Ai), Hiyoko came to understand that there were legitimate fans for her new book and that she was still growing and expanding as a writer. The entire saga ended with her finding her voice and standing up to Eriko, her fiercest critic so far, and becoming a part of the idols of Alexander.
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| She's so crazy. |
With Chitose and Hiyoko making a lot of progress after the credits rolled (temporary new ED, by the way), Asuka showed up on the scene by stalking them from under the bridge. Sigh~ She's really my least favourite character. I just don't like her personality, and the way that she treats Narita and Chitose. I mean, I understand that she's Haneda's girlfriend, but her selfish know-it-all attitude really turns me off. Unfortunately, with only a few episodes to go, I'm sure she'll show up more (along with Haneda...).
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| What does this mean?! |
At this point, I'm seriously hoping that either Narita or Chitose (hopefully, both) are reconsidering their plans of disappearing and leaving control to Haneda. I would even prefer that Youji come back, with his childish and misfit ways, over Haneda taking over. I would also like it if the anime ended without resolution; this is one of the rare occasions where I'll take the lack of an ending over the possibility of it screwing up. With Chitose rewording his "reason to be born" in this episode, it gives me a brief glimpse of hope. I hope I'm not disappointed.
~Aaro
