Okay. I absolutely loved this episode. Last week had me fearing a bit that the creators would go through this series a little too fast for the characters and comedy to really work, and this episode indeed consists out of two smaller stories, but the pacing here was just perfect. This time things really fit enough for everything to play out and for the creators to work their magic.
The first half of the episode was chockful of character development: we finally got to see what transformed Tomoe into his current self. That crucial piece of the puzzle was finally shown here, and yet this only takes up 10 minutes. It was delightful to watch Tomoe there and see him change.
The second half: again character development. This time in the romance. At this point it was obvious that Nanami likes Tomoe, and she realizes that very well, but the use of a mixer was really well placed. It really was just something to have fun, Nanami knew that as well, and yet that turned out to be the trigger for Tomoe’s jealousy: feeling competition from a human of all things. On top of that were some really good jokes and facial expressions (I loved how the mixer was just for one of Nanami’s classmates feeling lonely, or how ridiculous the name for that one guy was… did he ever get that coat of his back?)
Also. The ending. That showed that the creators know fully well that the ending of each episode for this series is awesome, and with this episode they only even made it better when Shinjirou started giving a really bad cover of the regular ED. Not only was this hilarious, it also really reaffirmed something for me:
TMS Entertainment has gotten ahold of a couple of really good producers. I already suspected this, but this really shows that they are flexible enough to just record a different ED for once for the sake of a joke that happens in the series, and it fits so well. It shows that the different departments really take each other into account. It’s also shown with the execution of this series: how incredibly consistent it is. Part of it has to do with how Akitaro Daichi is just incredibly awesome, but the rest of the people working on it: everything just seems so well planned out for this series. It’s all crisp and consistently tries to make the best out of its limited budget with consistently god jokes and timing.
Zetman and Lupin III were the same: they were really rough around the edges in comparison (which makes it all the more surprising how consistent this show is), but they always tried their best to make a spectacle out of their episodes, rather than making an episode for the heck of it. It really shows ambition and the drive to cooperate and improve. Next up is really: try to get a budget for a 2-cour series like this. A series that has the same mindset as Zetman, Lupin III and Kamisama Hajimemashita, and that actually has the time to play out for even longer, allowing for much more opportunities to experiment. I would just love to see that.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)
A “really bad cover” of the ED? You don’t have to like the music or the vocal style, but if you’re always talking about “acting” you could at least stop and appreciate the awesome job the seiyuu was doing.
Hmm, I wonder if you read too much into that. I read it as psgels meaning it was an intentionally bad cover, not that the actual performance itself was bad (otherwise I doubt psgels would have said it was also hilarious and “even better (than usual)”. Or maybe I’m just not used to psgels praising something while calling it bad, I don’t know.
I do think it’s a bad song, in the way that the vocalist tries to emphasize his voice way too much, and something tells me that this was done very deliberately. I normally dislike this kind of music, but I can really appreciate it when they poke fun at it like that.
We never really saw Tomoe’s time with Mikage in the manga yet, but it was interesting to see the anime’s take on it! Its exactly like how I imagined it for sure.
See, this kind of review just reaffirms for me why you’re such a good blogger, and why I keep coming back here. Seriously.
“Consistently god jokes” – unintentional , still true!
Actually, they are going through it way too fast, starting with this episode oO But what to do with 13 eposiodes? Up until episode 9, they were spot on with the manga. With this episode, they left that path – and I doubt we’ll see that wonderfully dramatic development the manga is coming to, aside from missing a wealth of character development…*sigh*