To my commenter "karry": With the Dota2 tournament over (and potentially no more future references), you can come back now! It's always a little lonely to talk randomly.
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| What do you mean, "happily every after"?! |
This episode of Nichijou didn't feel as funny as others; while watching it, I almost felt like time had regressed back to when I
first picked up this series and didn't think too much of it. Was it the formatting? the material? I still don't know, but it just wasn't that great. The long sequences didn't intrigue me and the shorts felt quite humdrum. This episode featured an extended scene with Takasaki-sensei and Sakurai-sensei, and then a return to the fantasy land where Mio's ponytails and hairbands came from (now named as Fay Kingdom).
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| This scene was a tad too long. |
In the first scene of the episode, playing before the OP, Yukko was (lightly?) bashed on the head with a book by Takasaki-sensei, a scene which she relived quite a few times. I was watching this episode while on the train earlier today, and really thought something was wrong with my laptop for a moment (when the video lagged and all I heard was her gasp over and over again). This was one of the few shorts in this episode that I liked, another one being Nano feeling embarrassed to watch a chaste romance scene while Professor was asleep.
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| What theatrics! |
In the next scene, Tachibana's friends got "named" as Fecchan and Weboshi (Doki translated this as Websey, which makes some kind of sense...). At a sleepover, Fecchan's inquiry into how the relationship between Tachibana and Sasahara was going led to Tachibana revealing quite a lot about her daydreams (married with two children), and then just fizzing out at the suggestion that she had "adult" plans. Websey, meanwhile, turned out to have a crush on Nakanojo (or, rather, is "interested" in him, as she put it). I still don't really feel this trio, although they are getting better. Websey seems like the down-to-earth one, while Fecchan will most likely be the one doing stupid things to begin a scene, and Tachibana is a tsundere (there's a lot of love-hate from me there).
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| So that's how you cure an illness... |
After running into Sakurai-sensei at the market on a day-off, Takasaki-sensei delved into his usual antics of saying exactly what was on his mind and then overcompensating. (I have to point out here that I don't like Sakurai-sensei much to begin with, but those ponytails do nothing for her.) He took up Sakurai-sensei's offer to rest somewhere (when she thought he was feeling ill) and hurriedly suggested a park; random manga that I read has led me to understand that "rest somewhere" is code-wording for "love hotel". (That would have been a random and maybe-inappropriate scene...). Running into Yukko accidentally caused his plans of a "date" to be destroyed - in a very flustered state, he feigned total ignorance and ran away maniacally.
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| No food allowed on the floor! |
The Helvetica Standard this week featured a competitor in a martial arts match (taekwondo?) getting a point because his opponent slipped on a banana peel and fell. A win is still a win, right? This seconds-long scene was slightly more interesting than Nakamura-sensei's appearance, but only because I think the "love polygon" is being added to, which is something I'm wary about. She staked out a supermarket (with Mr Short Circuit), her research having suggested that Nano shopped there every Saturday, only to be found by Takasaki-sensei, who commented that she looked cute without her labcoat. She became very embarrassed and ran away blushing. In a later scene, she recalled Sakurai-sensei calling her cute with her messy hair, and what Takasaki-sensei had said, which made me wonder if she's just coming out of shell or actually falling for Takasaki-sensei. Teachers that work together don't always have to like each other like this!
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| Fay Kingdom is doomed without their wooden cubes... |
The last long scene of the episode was a return to the blimp of Yukko's dreams. I had wondered what else she would dream about, since there really wasn't anything left on Mio's head, and the question was answered immediately - in this dream, Mio herself appeared. Faceless and menacing, she demanded the other wooden cube (only having one on her head) and swiftly defeated all workers that attempted to defy her. It was a scene that had its moments - for one thing, why did the captain have to cover the hole with his body to create a passage when there was more space in the corridor
next to the hole? - but overall was a little boring. It ended with Mio herself coming down into the classroom and Yukko waking up with a start. What next~?
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| Sakamoto's only appearance was one of pain. |
This episode felt longer than most recent ones, mainly because I was kind of bored throughout. I'm surprised that such an episode would occur so close to the end of the season; I hope this doesn't keep up, and that the next episode will be a return to norm. I find myself looking forward to each week's Nichijou, and it would really suck for the anime to end with a weak finish.
~Aaro
