As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Let me get back to Gosick when either Heartcatch Precure ends or Showa Monogatari’s first four preview episodes are over. By that time the characters will hopefully be less annoying.
– I remember noting how Cardfight Vanguard at least didn’t contradict its own rules in its first episode. It did in its second, though. Not to mention the huge amounts of cheese.
– Freezing’s second episode was even worse than the first. Plus, it has one of the worst male leads of the season, only eclipsed by the one from Cardfight Vanguard and Oniichan.
– Oniichan no Koto Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne… just… no.
Meanwhile, there are two reasons why I decided to blog Mitsudomoe:
1. Convenience.
2. It’s rare for a comedy sequel to actually be better than the original.
In regards to the first reason: Mitsudomoe 2 will only have 8 episodes. That will be very handy considering this. In case you haven’t looked at its official website, let me elaborate: the official site lists the following release dates for its DVDs:
Blu-ray＆DVD 『SUPEARNATURAL THE ANIMATION』
ファースト・シーズン/全22話
◆2月23日⇒Vol.1-3（第1-6 話） レンタル開始／Vol.1（第1-2 話）発売
◆3月9日⇒Vol.4-6（第7-12 話） レンタル開始／BOX1（第3-12 話）発売
◆3月23日⇒Vol.7-9（第13-18 話） レンタル開始
◆4月6日⇒Vol.10-11（第19-22 話） レンタル開始／BOX2（第13-22 話）発売
Basically, episodes 1-6 will be available from February 23rd, episodes 7-12 from March 9th, episodes 13 to 18 on March 23rd and the final four episodes on April 6th. That is a whopping twenty-two episodes of Supernatural in only a month and a half. If Mitsudomoe ends a month earlier, then at least I’ll have a bit more space in the hopes of being able to properly cover it….
As for the the second reason: this sequel is just unbelievable. The first season had its problems: about 50% of the jokes were hilarious, the other 50% just fell horribly flat. In the second season, this ratio shifted to 80% of hilarity with 20% of jokes that just aren’t as good. These past two episodes have been absolutely hilarious, and to my surprise this second episode was even better than the first.
In this episode, this show finally shows that it knows the difference between repeating a joke ad nauseam and running jokes. This episode took the material of the first season, and really started toying with it. The start of the episode was the perfect example, in which that creepy occult girl suddenly appeared. Right from the start, you could sense the tension and the huge probability of things going wrong.
It also helps that these episodes were much more varied than the first season. Even the previous episode which was just focused on one big story never felt like it dragged on. This episode was the complete opposite in that it had many different scenes that prevented these jokes from dragging or milking themselves. The entire second half for example was about Christmas, and yet we saw the preparations to the Christmas party, the Christmas party itself, the hopeless way in which the teacher spends it, the part where santa clause arrives, and its aftermath. The story here flows much more naturally than the first season, which just was a bunch of random scenes pasted together.
Now, this show still has its mind in the gutter, but it’s much less deep than the first season: it only makes a tasteless joke when it’s got a really good one (like Hitoha’s hairy leg) and even the resident pervert didn’t keep on rambling about panties like he did in the first season. On top of that, this show can also boast Mitsuba: the first female lead character who actually doesn’t look like a supermodel in a long while (Kuragehime only counts half, because the only thing that prevented Tsukimi from the same thing is that she didn’t bother to spend time on her looks).
Now, there were some bad jokes in this episode. The female teacher… even this sequel didn’t really manage to make anything out of her. She’s such a hopeless character that I don’t think that anything can make her funny. The mother joke also felt a bit flat. Still, this episode had me in stitches during the largest part. This is really one of the series this season that majorly exceeded my expectations.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Ohh My GawD! There was once upon a time you’d be running away screaming like hell at the first sight of such … stuff. Now you’re even blogging it.
Solaris: well, it does help that this is nowhere as disgusting as the first season. If these two episodes came with the pee jokes of the first season, I would never have thought of picking it up.
Sad to see you dropping Gosick .. the 2nd episode actually is quite interesting .. did you watch it before deciding to drop the series ? (i know you didn’t drop it permanently but still .. i think some shows need at least 2 or 3 episodes to show their true nature).
And regarding Mitsudomoe .. i too won’t ever watch the first season with all its pee/toilet jokes .. it was too much for my stomach .. on the other hand the 2nd season seems to have matured and took a different direction with its comedy .. i even loved the power-rangers parody OP of the first ep so much.
Hunter Wolf: I did watch episode two of Gosick. It was indeed better, but it still bothered me that Victorique was pretty much someone with access to the script, rather than being a real genius. That’s why I’m giving it a few more weeks to see what it turns into.
Hm? Contradicting its own rules? I’m sure episode 1 made a run through about the basics but of course you can’t expect the game to be only about that. I don’t think Cardfight Vanguard’s card game itself isn’t that bad.
The very fact they’re back with Gachi rangers proved they’re going to du full recycle and don’t deserve more credit. Just wait and pee jokes will pop up soon.
PS: dropped Gosick before we even know what’s going on? Bad move.
Solaris: um, I didn’t drop it. I’m still watching it, but I’m just not going to blog it for now.
Also, Mitsodomoe did come back with a lot of subject material from the first season, but it used this in a completely different way. The execution of the gachi rangers episode was unlike anything I’ve seen in the first season.