Category: Currently Watching:

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight – 06 [Their Path of Triumph]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

With this episode, it becomes clear that Revue Starlight is less about Karen and more about the development of the entire cast. This week we get into the insights of Kaoruko and Futaba through the former perspective. Although spoiled, bratty and not-at-all serious about the Revue audition, I very much welcome her as a person who offers a different perspective to Revue Starlight. Previous characters have showed us time and again how much effort they work on to be the chosen ones, especially the girl with glasses Junna who compensates her lack for talent with tremendous amount of practice. That leaves Kaoruko as the one left behind since she’s clearly too laid back to put all her effort into improving herself. And like how a spoiled kid acts she behaves selfishly, making decisions just for the sake of making certain people (Futaba) feel bad, and in the end one could argue that she doesn’t really earn it – her character arc and her Starlight audition. While these claims are not incorrectly, for me it’s more about Kaoruko learns to change and be more serious in the process.

Needless to say, Kaoruko and Futaba’s dynamic isn’t Revue Starlight greatest moments. We have seen these kind of friendship breakdown and reconcile before in Revue Starlight, with better success (Karen & Hikari, Karen & Mahiru), add to the fact that 1) they’re side characters with predictable development and 2) this relationship is unbalanced somehow. As for 1), the moments Kaoruko announces she’s going back to Kyoto, we all know for sure that Futaba will run after her and that she’d never leave. It taps on all the similar beats and makes me think why don’t shake thing up a little? For 2), I can totally see that Futaba can be better off without Kaoruko. Futaba has been following the girl’s step in every decision, and this episode is meant to be a trial for Kaoruko to realize and appreciate how much Futaba has done for her. At the end, while she does acknowledge that, things pretty get back to status quo.

In fact, I’m more interested with the other angle Revue Starlight focus on: the parallel between Karaoku and Tendou Maya. This show has been consistently bring up the point between natural talent vs hard work. Take Tendou and Claudine for example, for all the efforts Claudine make, she’s still one step behind Tendou because Tendou has the talent plus the heavy effort. Karaoku is one of the natural talent. She’s the prized kid where her parent is an expert at Japanese dance. But without the will to be on top she starts to fallen behind to Futaba, who practices day in, day out. Because of that Tendou somehow seen through Karaoku. There’s a line that Tendou said to her (it’s pretty vague by the way) that reminds her that she needs to try harder for those who support her and “the feeling that you have a duty to be the best you can be”. The duel, unfortunately, isn’t that exciting compared to previous duels. For the show that consistently surprises us with its smart visual storytelling, this episode is also unremarkable in that regard. Karen is sidelined into a loud, one-dimensional character and I didn’t appreciate that much. Not really Revue’ Starlight’s high point, but it’s still solid enough to make it a damn good time.

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro – 07 [Convenience Store Chio-chan – Chio-chan and the Duel – Remnants of That Day]

by SuperMario, posted in Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Currently Watching:

This episode of Chio-chan sure brings back my memory. I was one of those stupid boys who played that zapping butt game (among other stupid games, like stick a pen where my friends would sit) and let me tell ya, it hurts like hell. To the point whenever I listen to this song I would remember that dreadful game. That is to say that I understand completely the life-or-death stake these girls find themselves to. In a more serious note, I feel like the last couple weeks Chio-chan loses its steam as keeping things amusing. I don’t mind the mundane nature of Chio’s misadventures (although I watched the PV of Chio-chan back the other day, it did advertise for a more wide ride. #falseadvertising), but if they want to keep the segment long (as in 10 minutes), Chio’s issue needs to escalate to something completely out-there. That juggling butt out from the public bathroom did the job, this first segment doesn’t.

It’s sad because it starts out strong: Chio goes to her usual store looking for her game’s magazine, instead she’s hooked to the BL magazine and decides to buy it out. OMG that BL segment was so hilarious, I like both the ridiculous lines those characters say, and Chio’s reaction to it (#yaoifortherun). Encountering Aidou-san as a store clerk is a solid gag, but Chio-chan doesn’t properly build up from that and unfortunate drags out towards the end. To be fair, I find the gags where she tries to hide the “suggestive image” and accidently makes it even more erotic funny, but the resolve leaves a lot to be desire. First, playing Aidou as a straight man deflates the comedic tone it was building up – because if he acts normal like everyone else then what’s the fun behind catching Chio busted? I imagine it would be much more hilarious if Chio just runs for her life and cause Aidou to leave the store unguarded. The resolve is just… uneventful.

I could say the same for the second segment as I also feel the gag drags out for too long. That blonde girl (I don’t believe we know her name) who despite coming from a rich school still use that butt-zapping game as A DUEL? Poor Manana who gets zapped twice instead of Chio. This whole duel plays like a juvenile segments out of shows like Squid Girl or Mitsubishi Colors than it does in a Chio-chan episode, but the appearance of Madoka again ruins the show. If I have to point out a single character that could ruin the whole show it would be her, since she leaves bad taste to the mouth all the time. Whatever the reason why the blonde girl has such a grudge for Chio and Manana, we will eventually learn afterward. The last segment for me stands out for what these previous two lack, it’s short, sweet and to the point. It lets the big gag unfolds and finishes before things get pale. It’s one of the few moments where Chio and Manana share some empathy to other character (with a romantic, touching subplot to boost), and the old woman turns out to be an old cranky woman who is both addicted to game, foul-mouth and tech-savvy enough to pour cold shower on our naive Chio and Manana. Life is not what you expect indeed.

Planet With – 05/06[Paladin Break 1/Paladin Break 2]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

Well that’s the end of Planet With and what a satisfying ending it was. I mean that final fight was something that would do Gurren Lagann proud and while there are some loose ends the majority of things were tied up quite nice…what do you mean this is only episode six? Hold on, there are six episodes left?! Um…alright, that are a rather conclusive way to hit the midpoint of the series and I truly have no idea of just where it will go from here. But I must say that if this was the ending of the series I would actually be alright with that. Yes Planet With hasn’t quite reached the heights of Satoshi’s other work but it has proved to be a fun series and that last episode was truly marvelous. After watching Fate/Extra’s lackluster conclusion this episode managed to pull off what it couldn’t with a incredibly satisfying final fight against the big bad. It is no joke that this was the absolute best episode of the series so far and has me very interested to see where this could go.

There is a some casualty to this midway conclusion as two of the paladins just straight up give up their powers without a fight. One rejected the leaders ideals and tossed aside her power at the end of episode four and the other just handed over his after the old man fell, stating that he was only staying to help take care of him. It is a little on the disappointing side but when thinking about it this series was making it a bit of a formula with the defeat of the paladins. It could have gotten a bit tiresome to run through the same motions with two other paladins. The old man’s fight against Souya was build up quite a bit in episode five but ended in a single strike in the first minutes of episode six but the fight against Takashi more than made up for that. Takashi’s father, Takezo, had me worried that like Nezuya that he would be a joke character as his alien flashback was just him hanging out with women and eating great food. But he brushed off that pretty easy and showed that there was more to him than he let on. Another nice surprise was that when Nozomi figured out Souya’s connection to the aliens and Souya even telling her who he was. Something like that is normally left for the final episodes which again makes this midpoint ending feel all the more final despite it not even being the real ending. But again it’s refreshing to she Satoshi set up what could be a tired cliche and end up turning it into a true moment of character growth.

But man that final fight. I am serious when I say that I haven’t felt this satisfied after a good punch up since Gurren Lagann. You can argue that it followed predictable beats but I felt it subverted enough to keep things interesting and the fight remained pretty high octane. The best part being the final strike where Souya from nowhere brings back the joke about the clogs and uses one as a makeshift brass knuckle to land the final punch. That was simultaneously hilarious and pretty badass that I was caught between hype, laughter and surprise. Having Souya completely mess up the message Takezo gave him to pass on to his son was also great but even the humor managed to lead to a good moment where Souya at least conveys the intent causing Takshi to admit that his father might have been right. After that he dies, yes, our protagonist accidently killed the guy. Well it’s likely his death was more the result of him overusing the dragons power but it does seem like this is going to weight pretty heavy on Souya. If there was a flaw in this episode it would be that rather hasty exposition dump about the nature of the dragon and how the sealing faction “absolutely destroyed” it. Sure they did, certainly that dragon ain’t coming back in any shape or form right? Well even the General even seems to doubt that point and convincing himself of it. To me this episode shows the true potential of a Satoshi’s writing could have for anime and how good he is at planning out concise and focused stories. The director is stating that things are going to get real crazy after this and you know what? I can’t wait.

Hanebado! – 07 [I’ll Mop the Floor With Her]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

I was wrong. I don’t enjoy this dead-eye expression of Ayano at all. It feels as though we’re watching a completely different Ayano characters compared to the first few episodes. That just means in no way I’m identified with this anti-hero version of Ayano. Again, I understand the intention. Ayano has that unhealthy obsession of winning since she believes beating the opponents is the way to get her Mom attention back. But isn’t showing her expressioness face a tad bit too obvious the presentation? I could’ve understood if she meets the Mom and that causes her brutal emotional state, but Hanebado frames that all this was just heartless Ayano being heartless Ayano.

One of the issues this episode have is to flesh out the perspective of Kaoruko by introducing her teammates who we don’t know or care an inch for. Heck, I don’t pretty care for Kaoruku to begin with, but it’s nice we know more about her vulnerable side. As for her teammates, we have all the usual archetypes: the jealous teammates, the losing senpai and the supportive underclassman. It’s a good touch of Hanebado that we get into her perspective during the match, but again this match is never meant to be thrilling. I say that because I can’t see other reason to explain why Hanebado skipped the entire second set and showed the match point instead. For a player who was hyped up as Ayano’s rival, we don’t see any sense of rivalry at all. Just the resentments from each other.

As for the big picture, I’m slightly disappointed that Hanebado focuses too much on Ayano and not enough on the other members. At least show me some of other members’ matches. Nagisa is again delegated into background characters (oh she’ll play against Frederica Girls’ captain next week? Would be a good match), as does the coach Tachibana as he leaves next to no impact to his students so far. As it stands, Hanebado has many potentially compelling drama and some good characters, but it struggles to put any of its assets to full potential, resulting in a show that can be brilliant at one point but jumping around with no purpose at the next.

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight – 05 [Is Sparkle Even Possible]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

Revue Starlight is back to business this week with its bizarrely entertaining duel. In a way, this duel is a long way coming as this is one of the development I expected to happen sooner or later. What I didn’t expect, however, is the overall light-hearted tone with cartoonish paper cut-out design and Mahiru -Karen fight literally stage-crashing other duels at the same time. I guess it’s because Mahiru is a kind-hearted person so we see her point of view in a rose-tinted glass with almost too naive outlook. Overall, while I have some nitpicks over the episode, it’s a delightful one from start to finish. My only beef with this week is that, for an episode that is about jealousy, we get little to no exposition of that theme. We see Mahiru feeling left out by the appearance of Hikari, but it plays out mostly for laugh (good one at that though). Moreover, Revue Starlight frames her conflict more as her own insecure with the rest of the cast, with all the country pumpkin imply and “sparkle” stuffs. Which again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that “jealousy” isn’t really much there to begin with.

But what this episode of Revue Starlight does extremely well, it’s how they manage the comedic beat. There are recurring gags about whenever Mahiru doing something “perverted”, Hikari appears with that deadpan expression and walks away. The visual cues sum up very well Mahiru’s situation than many words can tell (it’s show, don’t tell). We have Mahiru’s affection to Karen and we also sense how she feels Hikari invading Karen and her own space. Another notch for great visual gags come later in the duel, where other various auditioning girls get distracted by the duo’s crashing their stage. As for Mahiru, working with all the greatest faces also make she feels unconfident about herself, that she can’t shine like others. It’s her frustration triggers the audition so that she’d have to fight Karen (why not Hikari?) at the revue stage.

The revue duel this week is a total delight with catchy song, humorous, original (even to this show’s standard) and again brimming with many symbolisms that might or might not have a meaning. I mean, I can’t still get my head around the significance of baseball and she hits Karen off. Or even the fact that Revue Starlight animal-codes her as a white kitty cat. As for the duel, well… it’s purposely different from the rest of the duel we’ve encountered so far and I enjoyed every minute of it. With this duel done, however, I hope Mahiru still stay relevant. She’s the odd one out of the 9 members cast and it would be a let down if she remains the least developed character out of this mix. As the final note, two things I can takeaway from this duel: 1) there are simultaneously other auditions happening around at the same time in some extra-dimensional space and 2) I have the most single bizzare image of the week, not from the weird duel, but from our giraffe gets his head down to drink water in the lake with silver coins, while talking no less. Thumbs up for originality!

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro – 06 [Everyone’s Own Path – Chio-chan Eludes]

by SuperMario, posted in Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Currently Watching:

Chio-chan… well… doesn’t go well this week. Not necessary because of the reappearance of crash fanservice gags – which for now I pretty much roll with, but because it’s a replication of Chio-chan’s previous (and better) segments. It adds up with the fact that both segments this week feel longer than they needed be. Take the first half, the Kabaddi captain reappears, training herself in a nearby park to “revenge”. There are some amusing bits here and there: Madoka realizes her ultimate technique is just basically embrace her own desire to the next level, the story of her homeless sensei is so off-putting and dark it’s actually clever the way Chio-chan sold this, the constant betrayals of both Chio and Manana are certainly a joy to watch. But then again this part A is pretty much about the joy of grabbing butts, so yeah it’s pretty much for an “acquired” taste.

Although I said that I’m okay to put the issues aside, I still don’t like Madoka much as a character. Unlike Andou who we see him in various out-there situations, with Madoka we pretty much associate her with kabaddi and her yuri urge. The way Chio-chan portrays the latter, however, leaves much to be desired. Drooling; the long, intimating tongue, the white eyes with no iris – this “oni” approach threatens to overwhelm her as a character. As for the story, it drags out for way too long. We don’t need all the flashbacks because we don’t need a reminder of a character who just appeared once before. Condensing the exchanges between Madoka, Manana and her sensei, for example, would benefit this segment better. Finally, I love to see Hosokawa back in action but her scene is just so minimal and she’s vastly underused by now.

The latter half plays like a variation of the premiere episode, where our Chio stuck in game-mode, thus bring all the troubles upon herself. The bit where we get into the first person shoot-them-up POV is particularly well-done. I find that scene most amusing where she’d scan the “hallway”, but completely misses the Mother and Son right behind her (they boy seems to be impressed). As for the latter part, again it drags out a bit too long. Chio and Manana come to the point where their chemistry become too solid that they can carry the segment themselves, but the show has been relied too much on these two. Their meanie to each other hints for the fact that they understand one another all too well, and the way the ended up working together (together with Mananacchio dance) means that they can really watch other’s back when the situation calls for it. This is not a bad Chio-chan episode, it just feels all familiar, and for a comedy show, “familiar” ain’t good enough. Shake things up a bit by adding new characters would benefit Chio-chan much, much better.

Fate/Extra Last Encore – 11-13[Resurrected Sword of Victory – Excalibur Galatine -/Turner of the Wheel – Chakravartin -]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Extra Last Encore

It’s been a while but the final episodes of Fate/Extra are out and I thought that I couldn’t really add anything to what I previously said about this series. The last three episodes did nothing to change my opinion on the series as a whole, if anything it solidified my previous opinion and pretty much confirmed that the series as a whole was a rather pointless addition to the Nasuverse. But I happened upon this quote from a blog post that Nasu wrote before the first episode aired. And I quote:

“And this is how I got my engine running, but since I have no experience with writing anime scenarios, I wrote the source novel-ish book for “Last Encore”, and had Sakurai-san help me adapt and adjust that into anime scenario format.”

Thus like a thunderbolt it hit me and suddenly everything wrong with Fate/Extra Last Encore makes sense. Even in my previous posts about this series I remarked that it was far too much tell and no show but of course it is, for the source is a book. Also Sakurai was involved and I swear this woman is involved with some of the worst the Nasuverse has to offer, she has proven time and time again to be a terrible writer. Of course I am not pinning the blame entirely on her, her fault is in poorly adjusting Nasu’s novel to an anime format. Nasu is at fault for writing a novel when he’s supposed to write a screenplay, clearly he wrote too much to be conveyed and didn’t make use of the visual medium of anime to tell the story through other methods besides excessive exposition. The director is at fault for not making the fights stand out animation wise and ending anticlimactically. But these flaws all originated from this supposed to be anime original adaption turning out to be a adaption of a novel. Thus i must ask…if you had time to write a novel for Fate/Extra then why the hell is the Tsukihime remake a decade late at this point?!

The final episodes focus on Hakuno and Nero taking on the final floor master and the mastermind behind everything. The fights themselves lack any real gravitas as while the two lost to Gaiwen at first, they effectively beat him the second time by…trying harder? Oh and Gaiwens master decided that he wasn’t going to fight Hakuno and just stand there unlike the first time where he took an active place in the battle. Not much f worth happens, it plays out much like any other floor master with two episodes, heavy amount of exposition to explain everything and a anticlimactic fight. The final battle against twice Pieceman, or to be exact Twice Piecemans deadface, was made fair less exciting when he revealed that his Servant who was shown at the beginning of the series pretty much left offscreen and just handed over his Noble Phantasm to Twice. The final boss of the anime essentially abandoned the story and I don’t understand how that could be see as anything but disappointing. So the climax hits and I still don’t give a damn about Nero or Hakuno so their noble sacrifices mean nothing to me.

The final twist was pretty much expected with the earth being beyond help and practically ended but Hakuno decided to use the Moon Cell to create a virtual paradise which the remaining people on earth struggling to survive can escape to. I am reminded of the end of Apocrypha which also had the main character sacrifice himself in order to save the world and much like that series I find that the the character being sacrificed doesn’t have enough character to make me care. The end result of this series is that despite Nasu saying it would be a good entry point into the Extra spinoff of Fate, he was blatantly lying as without playing the Fate/Extra game this anime is missing valuable context. The semi sequel/Alternative path nature of the series makes it not an adaption of Fate/Extra nor providing anything of worth to the lore as a whole besides some Deadface ability which seemed to be invented for the sole purpose of trying to make Hakuno interesting. A straight adaption of Fate/Extra, which is briefly shown with flashbacks to Hakunon, actually looked to make for a far more interesting story than the one we got here. Not to mention a complete missed opportunity to have a Fate anime with a female protagonist. It’s sad really and this anime marks a pretty low note for the year of Fate Adaptations to end on. Well…at least Heaven’s Feel is pretty damn great.

Hanebado! – 06 [It’s Our Last Summer, You Know]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

It’s a side-character focus episode this week, and Hanebado goes back to its “more subtle” drama (note: more subtle by the show’s standard), which I gladly enjoy. It’s the glasses Riko who takes the spotlight this week, as Hanebado challenges her own badminton’s ambition by putting her against the tough opponent right at the first round. The way the show sets up her emotional trigger is apparent right in the first few shots. When the club advisor Miyako talks to Nagisa and her about the new uniforms, she seems almost out of place. It’s the manner of her looking down, afraid to charge on that signals what about to come for her development. Speaking of that, while I appreciate how Hanebado utilizes the visual language into its storytelling, I have some reservation regarding its presentation. It doesn’t feel natural, thus it sticks out not in a good way. The shot of Sora turning her back against Ayano I mentioned last week for example is way too obvious it takes you right out of the scene, and the same can be said with many shots Hanebado employ this week regarding Riko.

It’s the last year of tournament for Riko and naturally she wants to make the best out of it, but as fate (and God magaka) decide, her chance of advance is threatened by facing the her old teammate, who finished in top 4 last year. It’s when she has a little crisis. All her hard-work and practice would come to nothing if she loses, and when it comes to tournament and competition, the result is all everyone care for. As Nagisa points out correctly it seems she gives up without even putting a fight. Although earlier I “dismissed” the visual storytelling as obvious, there are two scenes that stand out for me. First, Riko and Nagisa are on these steps, and Riko just stops midway as Nagisa walks by. It speaks right there the situation Riko currently faces and Nagisa as a distanced supporter. Second, the shot where Nagisa finds her sitting quietly on the stairs (again!), with the towel covers her head. It’s the saddest moment Hanebado captures in this episode.

While Riko has some space to shine this week, the top billed characters unfortunately have little to do in this episode. I particularly have mixed feeling about Nagisa’s involvement in Riko’s story. They have well-rounded chemistry, that’s for sure, but since her slump gone she acts way too straight, way too simple-minded that I don’t see the complex in her character anymore. Hanebado is still at its best when they can pull off some internal conflicts from our cast. As for the tournament… well, the appearances of Evil Mama and the encounter between crazy-looking face Ayano and equally crazy Kaoruko mean that the tournament will go in a predictable, contrived fashion. Let me just guess even without knowing anything about the draw. I reckon the semi (top 4) is going to be Ayano – annoying twin tailed pink hair girl and Nagisa – annoying twin tailed blonde girl before the final match of the “sisters” who fight for Mama’s attention. Prove me wrong Hanebado!

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight – 04 [Promise Tower]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

I bet most of us coming out of this episode feeling a little underwhelming. Where’s all these revue duel? Where is the talking giraffe? To its defense though, this week builds the central dynamic of our main Karen and Hikari, and giving the rest of the cast the whole “we are together” vibe. While one could argue these members looking out for each other plot thread goes against the competitive duels to pick out a “Top Star” Revue Starlight has accomplished for the last few episodes, I think it’s rather appropriate development. These 9 girls, as competitive as they are, still need to work together as a team for the Starlight production. So in fact they’re not unlike idol girls who work together for the group’s benefit. That doesn’t mean I’m selling short these girls’ dynamic towards looking out for Karen and Hikari as they’re well over their curfew, these are charming moments, especially the way Claudine speaks nonsense French and Futaba and Kaoruko have to tiptoe around the hallway to cover these girls. I like what we see so far and I guess I would become more dramatic when these girls who obviously enjoy their time together have to fight on a surreal audition later on.

So this week Revue Starlight focuses on our main duo Karen and Hikari. I enjoy the way the show highlights the girls’ lack of emotional bond by the showing the physical distance. Karen leaves out of campus and Karen goes out her way to look for her. I also enjoy the way their communication getting better as the day progresses. At first we have blurry pictures that prompt Karen to pick a totally wrong location (the miscommunication?), to Keren figuring out of aquarium but ends up in the wrong aquarium, then they have phone conversation together which is actually their first heart-to-heart conversation since Hikari moves back to Japan and finally, they meet up face to face at their destined place, the Tokyo Underground. For whatever the aquariums might represent in terms of their relationship or Hikari’s psyche I have no idea, but them meeting at the Tokyo Tower feels like a long-awaited fated encounter. From this point on I’m certain that they’d work together as the duel.

What they exchange over the phone is also important. They recall on the past they shared together, about the initial inspiration and their promises that basically shape their lives the way they are now. Hikari might be angry with Karen for losing, but it turns out she doesn’t know more about Revue audition compared to Karen. As a result, while this episode is indeed the Revue Starlight’s breather episode, it’s still an important one to establish all the bright sparks that these relationships bring (notice that the cast goes for usual pairs this week, I don’t suppose it remains like that as the story kicks into gear), also develop our main Karen – Hilari so we have reasons to care for their goals, so that when it’s time for these girls to “destroy” each other, it adds up in context. I still feel the confidence from the production breathing through in every detail of this episode.

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro – 05 [Thank You, George/ Mananacchio]

by SuperMario, posted in Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Currently Watching:

You know, watching Chio-chan I have feeling just like watching a brilliant kid playing around. It’s consistently funny from start to finish; it’s very, very relatable, but sometimes you can’t help but feel a bit nervous when the show resorts to fan-service tendency. To be fair, there’s nothing inherently wrong with having some fan-services in a show. Many shows depend entirely on the low-brow humors, but we all know Chio-chan can be just as hilarious without relying on those fanservices. Chio-chan this week has plenty of panty-shots, and toilet humor – or put it better, all the humors happening in the toilet, but I could argue that the show has some context behind it so somehow it gets away with it. We starts off with our Chio having the need to find a nearby toilet (oh so relatable), and things escalate from here as she goes to the men’s toilet and is unable to get out. It’s the basic formula to ensue hilarity.

First off, everything involving Chio’s decisions work well for me. The way she would do anything but walking out of the front door is just so consistent with her never-embarrass-herself policy. The overly complicated but somehow-it-works plan that runs like a domino effect is so absurdist in concept it’s actually funny to see if it works out. Her tactic involves distracting the cat with the toilet ball she uses, that in turns distracting the two school girl then as a consequences distracting the businessmen for looking at girls’ panties. There’s an awful lot of coincidences requirements here but I don’t mind one bit of that. Yep, I was talking about fanservice earlier and here we have juggling ass out from the toilet window, and goddamnit why the animation is so smooth and addictive? Heck, this might be one of the rare time that I can’t help but keep staring at that butt. I also love the exaggerated sound effect of the person who used the toilet next to her, and cute little George. Well, this segment is a winner for me.

The second segment, however, not that much. Mostly because of the new addition, Momo, who doesn’t really stand out except for playing straight against Chio and Manana’s antics. As she witnesses the duo keeps being awful to each other without remorse, she can’t turn her eyes away anymore and declares those two are bad influences to each other. While the setup is dime a dozen and in truth I think Chio and Manana’s dynamic doesn’t need this kind of reassurance, it produces what might be two of my favorite moments this week. The first of them is a total crash and embarrassing Mananacchio dance which basically how 5 year old kids would do when they imitate cats (cats appear to be the MVP here) and second, one of this sharpest line: “when people find out the relationship between teacher and student, all the blames will go to the teacher, so just try your best”.Goddamn Manana, listen to her advice and heads certainly will roll. Chio-chan and her way to school still have plenty fun to offer.