Why do I keep forgetting to post about this anime? It's not like I don't watch the episode as soon as I get my hands on it...
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| Simple image that conveys a clear message. Classic? |
This episode was a gentle departure from the usual style of the show, utilizing less short segments and also not even happening an OP. While the second thing is probably just for this episode, the story seems to have "picked up" enough for more and more long segments to be used. However, the random jokes are still there, making this feel very different from School Rumble underneath the surface. (Of course, the story hasn't picked up
that much...)
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| How does that thing dispense seeds? |
The piece that would usually go before the OP was about Mai and Yukko, wherein Yukko called Mai the "boke" in their
comedy duo and so Mai went on a mission to continue being "dumb". For some reason, this episode didn't have an OP (and was still the usual length, so that was slightly curious), and it jumped immediately to Professor and Nano (as Sakamoto slept). Professor had grabbed a crow (
how?!) and they decided to give it a "talking scarf" - and, because Professor was lazy, she just took Sakamoto's. This scene was extremely long, but I kind of just zoned out. (I guess I never like it when Professor makes puns, even without an "ethical" component.) Essentially, it was a series of puns from Professor as Sakamoto desperately tried to get his scarf back. In the end, the crow himself offered the return of the scarf before he flew off, since he was only "lucky" to have spoken the human language for a short time. The clincher was that he flew away with the scarf. (But Sakamoto had it in a later scene, so all was well.)
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| Japanese massages are weird... |
In one of the only shorts shown this episode, an office scene was displayed where it turned out that the employee had some kind of back problems that his manager was attempting to fix. It's surprising to see such "random" characters suddenly, although it's been happening for the last few episodes (i.e. the baseball club). It's obvious that anyone shown in the ED is fair game (we even saw a flash of the "magician" with a top hat in the last episode, in Mio's manga scene), but it's still surprising. It is definitely nice to have a collection of "background" characters that are defined in various ways; it really adds more depth to the story. Having too many foreground characters usually muddles things up more than acceptable.
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| Life is like a truck. It'll hit you. |
The second long scene was Yukko and Mio building a house of cards, with Nano's help and the presence of Mai. Nano turned out to be very unhelpful, chickening out and being unable to place cards on the upper decks. Plus, her key threatened to knock down the cards. She eventually fell asleep (and almost knocked down the structure with her breathing, anyway), and so she was moved to the side. Mai was reading a book in the heat of the kotetsu, although she provided the most torment for the duo, with her mysterious white cat fidgeting about. Despite all their care, the unlikely and amazing event of the ceiling light falling down knocked down the structure anyway. (Funny story: I've never been able to make even the first layer of a house of cards, for some reason. Butterfingers?)
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| ...now he's really bald. |
Nakamura-sensei is still out to get Nano, in her typically silly ways - this time, it was digging a hole and lining it with super glue. Unfortunately, she trapped Nakanojo instead...and, in order to make sure a piece of him wasn't visible, she shaved off his mohawk. I wonder if this will carry over to remaining scenes? Meanwhile, Takasaki-sensei (I have yet to be able to remember his name on my own...) encountered Makoto and, despite wanting to start up a conversation about go-soccer, ended up asking point-blank about Sakurai-sensei's availability. This led to inevitable understanding on Makoto's part that his sister had an admirer and he, after learning that Takasaki-sensei was a go-soccer veteran, attempted to use blackmail to get him to be the club's advisor.
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| Sadly, her traps did work. |
Just like last time this happened, this scene was pretty long and incorporated different stories. During the moment of decision, where Makoto was heading off to unknown people to reveal Takasaki-sensei's feelings, Annaka showed up with news of Nakanojo's predicament (it made me remember that Nakanojo was the victim of Nakamura-sensei's ill-advised Mr. Short Circuit), which led to a very, very familiar exchange between the two. Of course, Makoto assured the teacher that he wouldn't tell anybody, although he still wanted him to be the club's advisor, thus allowing Takasaki-sensei to run off to Nakanojo's aide. While the resolution wasn't shown last time, it was with this predicament: both Takasaki-sensei and Annaka fell into additional holes of super glue.
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| Art-style change?! |
The final long scene of the episode continued the first story of Yukko and Mai, with Yukko vowing to no longer react to Mai's attempts. (I guess she didn't want a hilarious school life anymore?) Mai, as if knowing, showed up to school with two pairs of glasses...and then proceeded to search the floor for her glasses in the very familiar "megane...megane..." bit. Yukko did her best to avoid reacting, but she couldn't take it anymore when Mai began reading the textbook out loud to the class - except her book was blocked by manga, meaning she had memorized the chapter (she better be getting perfect on her tests...). The scene ended with Yukko shouting in reaction and then excusing herself to the hallway, and Mai revealed that she had been, on top of it all, wearing contacts the entire time. Apparently, the Yukko-Mai combo is here to stay.
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| Sakamoto looks even cuter without the scarf. |
With a slightly different episode this week, I can't help but feel that the transition was pretty fluid. I've been noticing differences in the last few episodes, and this week just capitalized on it further. With the end of this long series fast approaching, I really wonder if this new formatting is permanent or not.
~Aaro
