I wanted this to be a single post but when I finished, a quick word count showed roughly 3000 words which is just too much to ask people to read in one sitting and also, who wants to scroll through such a long post? So a hasty cut was in order and here we are.

Let’s pick up where the last post left off with number 11 …

(11) – Aquarion Evol

Rating for episodes 1 to 7 – 9/12  A-

Even more fun then Symphogear has been this anime, Aquarion Evol – a sequel set 12,000 years after the original series. Normally, I don’t try to jump into a series but I figured 12,000 years was long enough to reset the series. The story is moderately interesting at this point; I’m most curious about the reason why two different dimensions are linked together and what these two dimensions mean to each other. What pushes Aquarion Evol this high is an interesting cast of characters, the high production values, and occasionally its dialogue. The noteworthy dialogue might be more of a function of the translation but I loved two lines in particular. The first was, ‘You stink deliciously,” which was what one of the antagonists said to the main female character; this has to be one of the oddest pick-up lines ever. The other is, ‘He’ll fly for anyone,’ said by a couple of female characters about the male main character’s habit of floating when being excited by a female character.

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(10) – Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam

Rating for episodes 1 to 16 – 9/12  A-

Gonzo has done a much better job with this sequel then I thought possible but, by being that good, this sequel of Last Exile is frustrating when it fumbles along when it clearly should be soaring. The world building is stellar; the politics is intriguing; the story is grand enough to showcase the world building and politics; and, the characters are a great mix of people who fit with the story and allow the story to accomplish what it wants to do. Yet, when examined closely, problems crop up with Last Exile 2. Probably the most disappointing is the vocal performance of two of the main characters – Aki Toyosaki and Aoi Yuuki. Both are personal favorites and have many great roles under their belts but here they are so lackluster. I don’t know if it’s that the characters are poor or if it’s the fault of the person in charge of the vocal recording for these lackluster performances but the result really saps the energy out of the show when either are on-screen. Many of the other problems with Last Exile 2 could be fixed if the person(s) behind the series composition and the individual episode scripts had been fired and more competent writers brought in.

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(9) – Hunter x Hunter

Rating for episodes 1 to 19 – 9/12  A-

I fall into the category of people who have not seen the original Hunter x Hunter anime series nor read the source manga it’s based on which leaves me in a different state of mind over Hunter x Hunter then the majority of the people I have read talking about the strengths and weaknesses of this anime. For example, at the beginning when I thought the pacing in the episodes was dragging the series out I was constantly reading people who complained about how quickly they were flying through the source material. To me, Hunter x Hunter has really started to hit it’s stride during the current winter season and, as a result, is slowly bubbling towards the top of it’s anime brethren. A good shounen series is a nice change of pace sometimes.

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(8) – Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 9/12  A-

The first season of Milky Holmes was a hilarious, subversive gem that flew under too many people’s radars. For a successful sequel, Milky Holmes needed to use everything good about the first season and infuse that with fresh, new awesomeness. I didn’t know if the creators had it in them but the first four episodes have shown that somewhere in the dark, twisted depths of their psyches they were able to summon new reserves of insanity to make Milky Holmes 2 even better.

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(7) – Another

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 10/12  A

I’m going to resist the urge to make a joke using this anime’s name – Another. It pains me to pass this over because I like jokes like that but we don’t need yet another blogger making the same joke. With Hanasaku Iroha, P.A. Works finally succeeded at producing a great anime series after a string of disappointing attempts. At the onset I was anxious to see if Another would continue in the footsteps of Hanasaku Iroha or would it fall back to being another frustratingly almost good series like their early works. Six episodes in and I’m relieved that, after a bit of stumble in the first couple episodes from trying to force the creepy/scary vibe, it’s found a pace that should end with Another being one of the best anime of the season.

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(6) – Mouretsu Pirates

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 10.5/12  Strong A

It is indeed time for some piracy. Bodacious Pirates is about a high school girl who finds out her absent father was a space privateer (legal pirate) and with his death she’s inherited his ship and his title, if she desires them. She does, of course, because it wouldn’t be a show if she declined but it does take a couple of episodes for her to reach that decision. This made the show feel like it started off slowly but by episode 5 it started showing it’s potential and, egads, does this anime have potential. What it does with this potential remains to be seen but this anime has become the anime that I most look forward too each week.

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(5) – Ano Natsu de Matteru

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 11/12  A+

Over the last several years, J.C. Staff almost always has done its best work when Tatsuyuki Nagai is the director (Honey and Clover 2, Railgun, Toradora). Last year when he directed AnoHana for A-1 Pictures I wondered if he had left J.C. Staff for good and what that would mean for J.C. Staff’s future but with AnoNatsu I can stop worrying about J.C. Staff. at least partly. On paper, even though AnoNatsu is an original anime production, it doesn’t appear to be that ambitious of a project – as opposed to other recent anime originals like Penguindrum or Madoka – however, what it lacks in ambition has been more than made up with impeccable execution. J.C. Staff is in the odd position this season of fielding two of the top series of this season.

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(4) – Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 11/12  A+

Extremely hilarious somehow still low-balls the comedic genius of Daily Lives of High School Boys. There are so many parts to this anime that are worthy of praise. There’s the comedy – it’s actually funny and there’s the characters – they capture high school boys and girls so realistically and the voice acting – they make the characters pop and then there’s the parts were NichiBros lightly lambastes common anime tropes to name but a few areas.

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(3) – Nisemonogatari

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 11.5/12  Near Perfect

Watching Nisemonogatari provides a yard stick to measure how much Shaft/Shinbou has improved in the last 2.5 years since Bakemonogatari and it’s almost scary to see the level of improvement that they’ve accomplished. Everything from the scripting to the visuals have been fine-tuned to be tighter, sharper, and better able to deliver the goods with less effort exerted. The only question left at this point is will Nisemonogatari outsell Bakemonogatari or not?

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(2) – Chihayafuru

Rating for episodes 1 to 19 – 12/12  Perfect

Residual respect for the animators, Madhouse, and my new-found respect for the voice actor Mamoru Miyano lead me to try Chihayafuru which is about a group of teens that play Karuta – a game where players compete over collecting cards featuring verses from 100 different poems. I’m glad I did because Chihayafuru started off excellently and has steadily gotten even better. Normally, I’m not a fan of “sports” anime but I love the characters and how they’ve grown over the course of the series and the creators have somehow even made a game like Karuta interesting to watch. The only potential fly-in-the-ointment is that the source material is a continuing manga and the animators have to give the anime some sense of conclusion while leaving the door open for a second season (fingers crossed for that).

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(1) – Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 12/12  Perfect

How does this series continue to find the room to get better? The creators should have already hit the asymptote of possible quality by the fourth season but they continue to push ever upwards. At this point, future seasons are probably a given and, though, I’m tempted to want countless more, I’ve started wanting to see an ending. I’ve even been thinking about how I’d love to see it end – an adult Natsume, happily married, sitting on the edge of one those short open porches that Japanese houses have and explaining to his young son/daughter not be afraid of the strange creatures he/she has started noticing and he then pulls out the now empty Book of Friends and starts into the story of his grandmother, Reiko, and the camera would pan up over a lovely bucolic scene, we’d hear Nyanko-sensei call out for some food item and the screen would fade out.

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And just like that, we’ve already reached the halfway point of the winter anime season. Normally, I’m with the other early adopters that have already cast their glance forward to the spring season at this point because I’m sick of everything remotely related to winter; however, this year the weather has apparently forgotten what “winter” means, sticking to a more early spring feel, and as a result I find myself feeling oddly worried that winter is slipping by too quickly. Heresy, I know.

The halfway point is a good place to rest for a moment and examine the season’s anime series. It’s been long enough that the slow-starting series have had time to find their own rhythm and long enough to see if those anime series that promised the moon in episode 1 have the stuff to deliver.

Since it’s me, I’ve going to rank the various series in worse-to-best order to provide another method of evaluation to augment the grades I’ll award each anime. Also, to provide a complete picture of this season, I’ll also cover those anime series that are carry-overs from the Fall season.

(22) – Guilty Crown

Rating for episodes 1 to 18 – 1/12  Epic Fail

Under normal circumstances I’d’ve dropped Guilty Crown a very long time ago but it’s not everyday that an anime comes along that fails as hard as Guilty Crown does. I saw an opportunity to finally find an anime that could compete with Kampfer for the title of worse anime ever (that I’ve seen/completed) and decided to see if I could finish watching it. The danger, though, in wasting my time with Guilty Crown is that it might, at some point, accidentally do something right and push it up to the merely failing level. Thankfully, Guilty Crown continues to confound me with how stupid it can be and remains on track to challenge Kampfer for worst anime ever.

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(21) – Baby, Please Kill Me (Dropped)

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 1/12  Epic Fail

Three episodes and I didn’t laugh once, not even a chuckle, guffaw, chortle or smirk; this is a death sentence for an anime like Baby, Please Kill Me because it’s supposed to be a comedy. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched a show this unfunny before.

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(20) – Inu x Boku SS

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 2/12  F

This anime makes me want to find a cute puppy and kick it. The puppy dog-like personality of the main character’s bodyguard towards the main character in Inu x Boku SS has to be one of the most painful things I’ve ever endured while watching anime. Almost equally repellent is the female main character who has fallen in love with this bodyguard because of his puppy dog-like obedience and devotion towards her. I should just drop this and end the pain but I still hope that david production (the animators who last did Ben-to and Level-E) can salvage the show somehow.

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(19) – Zero no Tsukaima Final

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 3/12  D

As if animating another season of the original Shana wasn’t enough for J.C. Staff they decided to double down and make another season of a series that most people flatteringly call a “Shana-clone”. And much like Shana at this point I’m just going to finish the series so I can see how it ends; not because I’m particularly that wrapped up in Zero’s Familiar but after trudging through three seasons what’s one more?

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(18) – Shakugan no Shana S.3

Rating for episodes 1 to 18 – 5/12  C+

Truthfully, I’m surprised Shana has been able to maintain this level of mediocrity; by rights, it should have either completely fallen apart or zoomed up to awesomeness by now. It’ll be interesting to see if J.C. Staff can maintain this equilibrium point as the series moves to the final showdown or will Shana finally get pushed to one of the two extreme states.

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(17) – Black Rock Shooter

Rating for episodes 1 to 2 – 6/12  B-

Rock bottom expectations and competition from the likes of Guilty Crown made the first two episodes of BRS a pleasant experience even though so far it’s an average effort all-around. With only 8 total episodes to work with, BRS can’t be lazy about advancing the plot or telling it’s story if it wants to avert a repeat of the disappointing performance of the OVA that came out earlier. If it will or not is a question whose answer is only a few weeks away.

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(16) – Persona 4

Rating for episodes 1 to 18 – 6/12  B-

The only time Persona 4 has been actually interesting to watch is those few episodes that would be considered “filler” because they have nothing to do with the mystery surrounding the disappearing people and the homicides. What does it say about an anime that prominently features an alternative world of fighting creatures and a string of mysterious deaths in the real world that the two-part episode where the viewer discovers how the main character spent his summer break is the high point of the first three-quarters of the show? I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, Persona 4 is a video game adaptation after all.

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(15) – Rinne no Lagrange

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 7/12  B

Rinne no Lagrange is one of six anime series this season I’m watching that features either mecha or power suits or some type of metal ship and it’s been tough for this series to find its own unique appeal. So far this series is one of those shows that haven’t really done anything wrong but also really hasn’t done anything that great with itself and, as a result, finds itself just kinda hanging out in the middle. How Rinne no Lagrange turns out is something only time can tell at this point.

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(14) – Senhime Zesshou Symphogear

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 7/12  B

There are definite spots in which Senhime Zesshou Symphogear excels as an anime but there is almost an exactly opposite number of ways that it comes up short as an anime. I hate to say it but the easiest way to improve this anime would have been giving it a more substantial budget because it sounds shallow to say that it’s not pretty enough and yet, for a series based around fighting and singing, when those areas fizzle the whole series is hurt. The second biggest improvement would have come from an improved script to work from; it (like the whole show) has its great moments and its not-so-great moments. The end result, however, has been a fun series to watch and I remain hopeful for a strong finish.

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(13) – Phi Brain

Rating for episodes 1 to 19 – 8/12  B+

I was sure that Phi Brain was going to be an easy series to drop because the premise – an organization bent on solving the Divine Puzzle by raising and shaping a genius puzzle solver – is, frankly, rather silly and couldn’t possibly be any good. That moment where I threw my hands up in disgust over Phi Brain never happened though; instead, I continued watching and slowly I started seeing the charm of Phi Brain. Ultimately, it was the characters and how they fit together, develop and play off each other that made this series worth the watch. That and the plot has continued to cover new ground with each story arc and hasn’t yet started repeating itself. I’m still not ready to say Phi Brain is a “good” anime but it continues to beat my expectations.

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(12) – Amagami SS+ Plus

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 8/12  B+

I thought, like most people, that Amagami SS was a completed series and, like most people, I was surprised by the appearance of this second season. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the first Amagami SS series more than I probably should have but each story already had its ending. I wondered what the creators planned to do with another 12 episodes and was pleasantly surprised to see that they wanted to create a slice-of-life coda giving the viewers a glimpse of the characters after their happily ever after endings of the first series. As a slice-of-series it can’t match the likes of Natume but really, what can? Still, it’s an enjoyable fluff series that provides a nice counter-balance to the other more serious series currently airing.

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The second half should be out tomorrow.

From Milky Holmes

Both of these anime come from the capable hands of J.C. Staff but one was hyped, Bakuman, whereas the other, Milky Holmes, was ignored and/or derided (include me in the ignored category). One is a shounen anime and the other is a shoujo anime. One sets itself in a fantasy alternative-history Japan and the other sets itself in a realistic modern Japan. The two really don’t seem to have anything in common outside of the animation studio but watching one reminded me of the other and vice versa so I’m going to roll with it and review them together.

Bakuman

Rating for episode 1 – 5/12 C+
Rating for episode 2 – 4/12 C
Rating for episode 3 – 4/12 C
Anticipation Level: 0.5/5 Very Low

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Rating for episode 1 – 7/12 B
Rating for episode 2 – 7/12 B
Anticipation Level: 2.5/5 Average

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The Story

In Bakuman, we follow the efforts of two middle school boys as they aim to become published manga artists and have their manga turned into an anime by the age of 18. On the surface this seems very, very unlikely except one is already winning national writing competitions and the other is a gifted artist that had an uncle that was a manga author (mangaka). To add urgency to their quest, one of the boys proposes marriage to the girl he likes and she accepts under the condition of they make a manga that gets turned into an anime and that she gets to voice a character in that anime (she wants to be a voice actress when she grows up).

The world of Milky Holmes is an alternative 20th century world where people are born with magical abilities and these ability users become either gentlemen thieves or great detectives (making the cops look like the Keystone Cops as a result). The Holmes Detective Academy (HDA) is where the future great detectives learn their craft and the most promising group at HDA is a 4 female group known as Milky Holmes. As the curtain raises on episode 1 we find out that our heroes, Milky Holmes, have mysteriously lost their powers and are now on the cusp of getting expelled from HDA.

The Fine Print

Marvel of marvels, Bakuman is the tiresome one to watch and Milky Holmes is the entertaining one.

And what's up with all the scenes of characters talking with only one eye open?

The biggest problem with Bakuman is a combination of it’s main characters and how the story is unfolding. There’s been zero character development in three episodes that makes either of the main characters into anything other then snot-nose brats. At their best I find the duo of would-be mangaka very unsympathetic as main characters and at their worst I actively loathe them and hope they’re unsuccessful in their dreams of becoming published manga artists. At this stage of the story, I can stand the main characters if it looked like the trials and tribulations of becoming mangaka would drive the main characters into becoming more mature and better all-around people, like in Spirited Away, but that doesn’t appear likely. Instead, everything is lining up perfectly and just being handed to them – is there any doubt how this series is going to end??? They might as well queue a montage sequence of the boys writing a manga, having it become huge and the girl doing vocal work on the anime adaptation and ending with a white wedding in a cute Western-style chapel that seems to abound in manga/anime.

Milky Holmes, on-the-other-hand, has four main characters used to having everything perfect for them until they lose their power and become the school screw-ups. This turn of events has already made for a more interesting show and will continue to make a more interesting show. Will the four members of Milky Holmes regain their powers and their place as top detectives or if they learn to become detectives without relying on their special powers or will they get kicked out of HDA and never become detectives? The show could go in any of these three directions or some other direction but however it turns out, it’s a more interesting show and the characters are going to end up being more interesting, more watchable and more likeable.

The crew of Milky Holmes now only rate a really old desk to use.

I have enjoyed both episodes of Milky Holmes and see myself remaining interested in it for the season. I’m not really a fan of shoujo but I have finished Kobato and will finish Kaichou wa Maid-sama when a certain sub group that I love gets it done (no pressure ) so I know I can enjoy shoujo series when they don’t rely on clichés of the subgenre. For me, the biggest impedance to Milky Holmes from receiving real high marks is it’s genre. I dislike myself for that being the case but in my defense, at least I’m trying to make allowances for my personal bias in this review.

At least one thing I won’t have to worry about with Milky Holmes is getting offended by sexist writing like in Bakuman. I read this article before watching episode 2 (but after episode 1)  of Bakuman and knew the scene where the Mom relays the Dad’s words “Men have dreams that a woman wouldn’t understand,” to the son as the Dad’s way of telling his son that it’s perfectly okay for a middle school student to become a manga artist was coming up. I reserved judgment till I saw the actual episode and now that I saw it, I have to concur – that’s an incredibly sexist and demeaning thing to say and it really gets my blood boiling when I think about it.

Which turns out to be the final nail needed for me to decide to drop Bakuman and as soon as I get a couple of screenshots for this post – I’ll delete the episodes off my hard drive and feel good about doing it.

The one area – animation style – that might have gotten me to watch a few more episodes of Bakuman turned out to be another disappointment. It’s J.C. Staff’s watercolor look but it’s the most generic, stripped down, dull version of this style that I’ve seen in a very long time from them. Compare Bakuman to Otome Youkai Zakuro, another show done in the same style, and the differences are so glaringly obvious. Heck, even Milky Holmes which obviously received a smaller budget and can’t compete in terms of animation quality has been more visually interesting.

So, in conclusion, Bakuman is getting dropped and Milky Holmes is surprisingly entertaining and has earned a spot on my watch list. I like Milky Holmes enough that I recommend everyone giving it a one episode chance (though if you only watch one episode you’ll miss the adorable cat named Fish Paste that appears in the second episode).

Mom from Bakuman and that's it for Bakuman screenshots.

Fish Paste from Milky Holmes

I seem to remember reading somewhere how in shoujo the female villians always have a large chest. That holds up here as well.

Of the three anime featured in my seasonal preview from J.C. Staff, Otome Youkai Zakuro was the one I was least looking forward too. The setting sounded interesting but I had little information to guess at the quality. No anime blog that I read seemed familiar with the underlying source material for this beyond a mention that the author of Otome Youkai Zakuro normally does BL (boys love) titles. Not the greatest endorsement but I’ve seen anime hits come from stranger places.

This leads us to the 64 thousand dollar question, is Otome Youkai Zakuro a keeper or a stinker?

Rating for episode 1 – 10/12 A
Rating for episode 2 – 9/12 A-
Anticipation Level: 3/5 Average to Medium

The Story

Set in an alternative Japan where Youkai (spirits/monsters) exist and live among humans, our heroine leads a group of female half human/half Youkai tasked with protecting the very delicate balance of peace between humans and Youkai by subduing trouble-making Youkai. A recent rise in Youkai trouble (possibly tied to Japan’s switch to the modern Gregorian calendar) has further strained relations so a joint task force is created by partnering human army officers with the half Youkai/humans. It’s apparent that there’s something deeper behind these attacks but at this point we don’t what.

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The Fine Print

Slightly over a year ago J.C. Staff did a series called Taishou Yakyuu Musume where the first episode started with a musical number. About halfway through the song I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was going to be a hit. These feeling of mine are rarely wrong and was right-on that time.

This came to mind after I got a similar feeling 37 seconds into watching the first episode of Otome Youkai Zakuro after a cool musical number featuring blood, monster slaying, traditional Japanese style chanting, high quality animation, attractively drawn character designs and quality vocal work. I’m convinced this will be a hit and I’d go so far to predict that Otome Youkai Zakuro will be the best of J.C. Staff’s 4 new fall anime series.

I’ve watched enough series by J.C. Staff to not be surprised that this turned out as well as it did. The surprise came from watching the 4 different anime from J.C. Staff (Bakuman, Toaru Majutsu no Index 2, Otome Youkai Zakuro, and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes) and realizing that Otome Youkai Zakuro was getting the same or close to the same treatment as Index 2 with the other two receiving the third- and fourth-stringers. I’m not complaining, just surprised.

The animation style of Otome Youkai Zakuro falls within the well-known J.C. Staff watercolor style but this time there’s a bit of bite to it. This is welcome addition since, while I like their watercolor style, most of their series use it and they have lots of series to get the viewer tired of the basic style. I’m guessing having the director behind Higurashi directing this helped put an interesting spin to the standard style. As was the obvious influence of Arakawa Under the Bridge on the animation staff.

The first two episodes have emphasized character development for the 7 main characters and has done a pretty good job. This hasn’t allowed the bigger plot of the series to be introduced yet but I’m okay with that. If a show can create interesting characters then I’m much more likely to care about what happens in that show and thusly, like the show more. The three pairs of male army officer and female half human/half youkai are meant both in a meta sense and a story sense to function as couples and all three couples seem well-matched. It’s not a shocker, then, that the vocal work shown by the main characters has all been top-notch and compliments the characters perfectly.

It seems redundant to say this but, in conclusion, Otome Youkai Zakuro is one of the season’s must watch series and one that I recommend highly.

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Screen shots to follow.

I love the variety of spirits we’ve seen so far.

The use of red helps make the animation style look interesting.

Maybe I watch to much Shaft shows but this definitely reminded me of Arakawa Under the Bridge

Cherry blossoms are always a plus.

Subtitle lighting effects and other animation tricks also help the show look good.

Shoujo-vision 4TW

Well, I’ve been thinking about what show I wanted to blog for the past week, and I finally settled on Bakuman.  I’m actually liking a lot of shows this season, however, I don’t really feel suited to blogging them.  Panty & Stocking is crazy, but it’s a bit too adult for me to write about.  Squid Girl is fun, but the comedy is a bit too light for me to make a substantial post every week.  I don’t think I could manage to stick with The World Only God Knows for the entire season.  So my hopes rest on this series, from the creators of Death Note, which will run through Winter 2011.  I think it’s already off to a good start.

You might say... it hit the ground running. (YEAAAAAH!)

Over the course of this episode, we’re seeing a change in Mashiro.  He’s had his world turned upside down by his new partner in crime, Takagi.  He keeps resisting the change, but slowly comes around to the idea.  His dream of becoming a manga artist might just become reality.  Where we had a boy who had little direction just an episode ago, we have a boy who’s creativity and imagination has been sparked by the possibilities.  He has his skills, he has a writer, he has the girl of his dreams, and amazingly, he lands his parents permission too.

Only one thing could possibly send him over the top, and his grandfather knows just what do.  He hands over the key’s to his deceased son’s manga studio.  Seriously, what else could he possibly want?  He has everything he’s ever dreamed of thrown right in his lap.  Okay, so the pacing might be a bit unrealistic, but it sure gave this anime the kick-start it needed.  I don’t know if I could survive several episodes of Mashiro agonizing over his decision.  Though I imagine Takagi’s poking and prodding would become more amusing over time.

Big gestures. BIIIIIIIG gestures!

Of course, all the ambition in the world can’t guarantee your dreams will become a reality.  In a competitive industry, you can never assure yourself of success, nor will past performance guarantee future results.  I really like it when Takagi points this out.  You should try to follow your dreams, but always have a back up plan.  Who knows when failure will come knocking at your door.  He intends to continue studying while pursuing his dream of working on manga.

I’d like to think it’s what inspired Mashiro to come to the same conclusion when talking to his mother.  We know from the beginning he kept attending school out of normalcy.  He simply went through the motions and coasted through the experience.  When it comes to school, what you get out of it really depends on how much you put into the experience.  I hope that he’ll apply himself to his studies.  We know he’s the protagonist so it’s likely he’ll succeed in the end, but it would be more realistic to see this change in him made manifest.

This is your big chance, son. Don't disappoint.

After the “ending” of the main plot provided in the previous episode, I was expecting one final side story to take advantage of this show’s premise. Turns out, I was hoping for too much, as another main plot thread returned before taking several steps back. It was a somehow fitting way to end this series, which kept raising expectations, only to spend the rest of the time crushing them.

As a stand alone episode, this one had its moments. I took a liking to Machiko Himura, the poor girl with a paper delivery route, right away. Instead of being frail like the character from the original story, she was energetic and someone who took initiative for changing her fortune. By marrying into money, obviously. She was great fun when she was attempting to seduce Ryoushi, being the only one oblivious to how crazy she was acting and how much attention she was was drawing. It’s easy to like a character who is so delightfully delusional.

Unfortunately, things turned too quickly from, “I’ll engineer a situation to make you fall in love” to “Marry me, because you’re rich.” And with that came back to focus the Ryouko/Ryoushi romance story, which was handled shockingly poorly. It was, in a word, typical. That is to say, it was so much like every other tsudere/spineless loser relationship out there that I was surprised, if that makes any sense.

"I don't dislike him." Really, Ryouko? After all this time, is that all you have to say?

There was plenty of blame to go around. There was Ryoushi, who just let Machiko drag him along, instead of declaring the truth, which is that he already had someone else. There was Ryouko, who just let that happen and, in the end, simply had, “I don’t dislike him” to say about Ryoushi. I thought we had pushed past this phase in the last episode, that Ryouko had come to terms with being the person for Ryoushi. But no, I guess J.C. Staff couldn’t resist spending a full episode showing Ryouko as tsuntsun – that’s what the fans seem to like, after all, character development be damned.

His girlish moaning was insufferable in this scene. I thought Mr. Cat had given you Courage last episode?

All I wanted was a simple atomic episode to provide some laughs before the door finally shut on this series. But if episode 11 failed to provide closure, this one took a door that was nearly closed and forced it back wide open. My guess? The producers want this franchise to go places and to keep the fans coming back, and you don’t do that by providing an ending when the show, you know, ends. Oh, what the heck, the cynic in me knows that’s exactly why this show ended the way it did.

Series End

So another show comes to a close. I think I’ve written enough this week and last to show my distaste for the way things ended. The ending is, of course, the most important part of a story, though its failings can be excused if the quality of the ride leading up to it was good enough. Ookami-san and Seven Companions is not an example of such a piece of work.

To be sure, the ride had some fun moments. That first episode that had originally filled me with such hope was excellent, primarily thanks to its unique adaptation of the Cinderella story. Along the way, the show shone brightest during such adaptations, and episodes 3, 8, and 9 – ones whose primary content were straight up adaptations of fairy tales were my favorites. Other highlights include the Hansel and Gretel appearances, Ringo’s Three Little Pigs movie, and the Puss in Boots character and his speech impediment.

Big fan of this repeating gag. The 128-size font sells it.

But in between these flashes of brilliance was content that I would best describe as lacking. Episode 5 introduced a couple of intriguing plot threads: the social engineering experiment formed by the Otogi and Onigashima high schools and Ryoushi’s dark past involving Onigashima’s own president, Shirou Hitsujikai. The former was dropped and not touched upon again, while the latter just fizzled out after a couple of episodes were devoted to building it up while still showing almost nothing of it. As for the romance story between the two main characters, I would have said that they made a cute couple had everything ended in episode 11, but episode 12 brought them back to being just another one of those tsudere-girl-can-never-be-honest couples.

In short, the storytelling was just messy. Which wouldn’t have been a problem had the main plot not supplanted the more entertaining fairy tale adaptation portions of the show.

That said, I did like the final scene of the show. Something about the fire in Ryoushi's eyes.

I would be remiss not to mention the narrator to some extent. In short, she became annoying after about episode 3. Not because her act got old or tired, but because her act changed. Instead of providing the incisive, sarcastic, and occasionally witty nudge-and-a-wink type of commentary from the first episodes, she got relegated to the namesake of her role: she simply narrated what was literally happening, often speaking over the characters in the process. She had no personality anymore, or what she had was forced into hiding.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions was a show with a unique premise, one that carried the promise of something more than the typical high school romantic comedy. And when it embraced this difference and ran with it, it was a great show that did deliver on that promise. Unfortunately, it too often seemed afraid to do so, falling back to using typical genre staples and letting the more interesting, ambitious bits fall by the wayside. I looked forward to a new episode each week, hoping, “This will be the episode which finally brings everything together. This will be when the show finally starts.” I’m still waiting.

Was anyone else reminded of Black Rock Shooter's Mato Kuroi in the opening scene?

The word of the week is anticlimactic. After last week, I was expecting the story to continue all the through to the end of the series, but it all came to an end in this episode. It even omitted the OP, as is common with final episodes. That’s not to say that this one provided closure. No, it seems that J.C. Staff is gunning for a 2nd season, and doing a poor job of it. Hopefully the final episode can provide some lulz before this mediocre series closes out.

By the end of the first half, it became clear that this story was likely to end by this episode. Everyone except Ryouko had been saved, through means that were not made clear. Liszt and Majo somehow magically found their targets, Alice and Otsu respectively, without any explanation. Tarou’s story was more interesting, with him resisting an army of bikini clad lasses to beat down the punks who brought him to Otohime. That and the cosplay obsessed captors of Otsu provided someone laughs.

Product placement? In my anime? Wait, that actually happens a lot. Even Saten had an iPhone in J.C. Staff's A Certain Scientific Railgun. An iPhone that took over her mind. Hey, subtle social commentary?

The second half was essentially episode 5 redux, following the same structure of Ryoushi and company storming the Onigashima High School, aiming for Shirou’s office. Even Momoko was there, along with her posse plus the three pigs from episode 8, speech impediments and all.

To be fair, the fighting animation was the best in the show yet, and it remained consistent throughout the episode, from Tarou’s fight with the punks to the battle in front of the school, all the way to the final boss. I was especially impressed by scenes featuring Neko-san, whose fights involved some classic, fast martial arts choreography.

But Ryoushi’s showdown against Shirou was the anticlimax of the episode. It was just Shirou beating on Ryoushi – beautifully animated, mind you, somewhat reminiscent of agent Smith’s beatdown of Neo in the subway in The Matrix – until Liszt and Ringo showed up and told him to stop. Okay, Ryoushi managed to get a punch in, a la episode 2 against the mid-boss. And the flashbacks – to moments ranging from a day ago to a minute ago – were just tacky. Maybe if Ryoushi had received training from Neko-san throughout the show, it would have worked. In the end, they just left, exactly like in episode 5.

This makes it something like Ryoushi 1, Shirou 143. But at least he made him bleed!

Where was the ending? Where was the conclusion? It was as if every story got its closure except for the main one. You know, the most important one, the one everyone is supposed to care about? Otohime and Usami made up. Tarou showed his monogamous love for Otohime. Even Neko-san redeemed himself for his inaction 3 years ago, a plot thread that was literally introduced halfway into this episode. Shirou? He’s still at large, in charge of Onigashima High School, able to strike at will. And Ryoushi is still as fearful as ever at being seen, which ruined a perfectly good moment between him and Ryouko at the end.

The one positive from this is that it leaves room for an episode about Majo, still my favorite of the cast (at least, looks-wise. Otohime is probably my favorite for her back story, something with which I empathize). But with the preview shot for and the title of the next episode – The Girl Who Didn’t Sell Matches But Was Still Poor – doesn’t make it seem like she’ll be the star. Then again, who knows; if nothing else, Ookami-san and Seven Companions has done a good job mixing various fairy tales together.

I really like the composition in this shot. Even these two got back together in the end.

I wrote last week that I felt more positive about this show than at any other point in the series. I had a feeling, given J.C. Staff’s track record, I might end up eating those words. But I had no idea it would be this bad. This was literally a swing from the zenith to the bottom in the course of one episode. I don’t know what the show could do at this point to salvage what’s left of itself – maybe have the narrator be the only voice for the entire episode? – so we might as well close the books on this one. Ookami-san and Seven Companions was a pedestrian show that showed flashes of brilliance when it emphasized its unique setting, but was far too comfortable with being plain old conventional.

This was the most serious episode yet, presenting us with what is clearly the beginning of the final arc. We got to see some of our heroes being put in real danger by being manipulated by Shirou, and we also got to see Ryoushi finally take some steps to strengthen himself, in order to prepare for the inevitable showdown for Ryouko that he still doesn’t realize will be coming. The episode even managed to stick in a couple fairy tale analogies, adding a fun new character, even as several of the old ones came back to play important roles. This was a strong episode, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this show will close out.

As foreshadowed by the image of Shirou’s girl from last week’s preview, we’re back to super serious mode now. Someone’s been spreading nasty rumors about the Otogi Bank, and to counter that, Alice and Liszt decide to run a 30% off promotion (the show itself acknowledges that the 30% is meaningless because the payment is through favors), which predictably increases demand, meaning that Ookami-san and her Seven Companions have to work overtime to fulfill the favors. It seems that this was all part of our main baddie Shirou’s master plan, as he seizes this opportunity to kidnap some of our heroes, including Otsu, Ryouko and Tarou (with Otohime a possibility), with a little help from his girl Reiko who successfully infiltrated the Ryouko household.

I loved Nekomiya Saburo, the stand in for Puss in Boots, with his styling hat, vertical eye slits, cat-ear hair, and metal studded chaps. He fit his role quite well, helping to give Ryoushi that much needed backbone in order to catch Ryouko. I took a liking to him right away, and not just because he’s a narrator-proclaimed bishonen with cat ears. The way he kept ending his sentences with “nya,” only to correct himself was charming, and the way he reversed the stalker role on Ryoushi was priceless. I haven’t been able to find his voice actor, though he sounded a lot like Mamoru Miyano, the voice of Masaomi Kida from Durarara!!.

Mr. Neko shows off his cat-like agility.

Then there was Reiko, who I suppose was the wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’ll be honest here: I was naive enough to think that she might actually have been telling the truth. Of course, given what we saw of her back in episode 5, I knew that it was highly likely that she was working for Shirou. But given the type of person as which Shirou has been presented, I thought it made sense that he would be that abusive to her. Plus, those injuries on her looked real enough. Instead, it was all a part of a long con. Silly me.

She looks so innocent and helpless here!

With Shirou’s plan coming together and our heroes finding themselves in duress, the entire last half of the episode proved to be excellent. I loved the hectic storytelling as the show switched from member to member, letting us see how each fell into Shirou’s master plan. It felt very 24ish, especially with all the hostage situations and the distraction phone call to Ringo. I mean that in the best way possible, because 24 was an amazing show, at least for the the first two seasons (don’t remind me of the god awful series conclusion earlier this year). The build up in tension was palpable, and there was a distinct sense of urgency as the episode ended with a “to be continued.”

One thing I am suspicious of is Otohime’s whereabouts, though. She was never shown to be kidnapped, and Tarou went along with the thugs based solely on seeing her purse. I could easily see this being a switch, with Otohime, never having been captured, coming to help save the day along with Ryoushi, Liszt, and Majo. Speaking of whom, I doubt we’ll ever get an intro episode for our witch at this point. I don’t know what her deal is, but I feel like I could have easily traded Otsu’s back story for hers.

I maintain that she's the hottest out of all the main characters. But is she supposed to be just a generic witch, or one from a specific story? I guess this show won't reveal that.

As they say, shit’s getting real, and we’ve clearly entered the final story arc of the series. Things will play out predictably, with Ryoushi using the training from Neko-san to save the day and get the girl, who will then punch him in the face for making her feel embarrassed/feminine. Of course, the devil is in the details, and Shirou’s motivations and master plan are still shrouded in mystery. I’m looking forward to finding out.

I’m feeling very positive about Ookami-san now, more than at any other point in the series. Going in, I never thought that there would be a central plot or that one would get as much attention, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well the serious parts have been handled. Furthermore, instead of the fairy tale analogies being atomic as I had expected, they are tied to the main plot and characters, returning to play crucial roles, such as Usami and Shirayuki in this one. I wrote before that Ookami-san and Seven Companions failed to meet my expectations, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing. We’ll find out in just 2 weeks.

All this scene needed was a clock counting up to the next hour, with a "paching!" going off with each second.

I like the return to the episodic structure, where each episode has a clear and pretty much atomic story based on some fairy tale. This week’s episode was a very obvious Snow White parody, and though the story was too overdramatic, the twist of how Ringo entered the story and the good visuals and aurals more than made up for it.

By the aurals, I mean Yukari Fukui. I can’t get enough of her voice. She was Himeno Shirayuki, the stand in for Snow White. If the 7 little siblings didn’t tip you off – male quadruplets and female triplets apparently – that her name is shortened to “Hime” – Japanese for princess – by her siblings should have. Anyway, Shirayuki was portrayed as being little miss perfect, which works out, because Yukari Fukui has played perfect characters before.

Maybe I’m guilty of fetishizing actors’ voices too much. But with Fukui, I do it with no shame or reservation. The soft lisp that defines her voice is always a pleasure to hear, regardless of her actual acting skills (which I, not knowing Japanese, would be unqualified to write about, anyway). She alone made memorable for me the very minor side character Junko Miyaji from FLCL. I’ll admit that it was odd hearing her as a very young Shirayuki, because her voice, while innocent, still feels too feminine to belong to a young child.

The actual story – and the drama it tried to instill with Ringo’s back story – was ho hum. Everything went exactly as expected, down to the near downing sequence which showed the Mermaid Pool to be criminally understaffed when it comes to life guards. What I did like was how seamlessly Ringo was integrated into this story.

Snow White indeed. Even her clothes and hair are pretty much white.

For those who don’t know, Ringo’s full name – Akai Ringo – means “red apple” in Japanese, the same type that poisoned Snow White in her story. The red apple is not a conscious being, of course, and it’s Snow White’s evil stepmother who uses the apple. In this case, that was Ringo’s mother, using her to steal away Shirayuki’s life for Ringo. Sure, it was out of left field that she had a half sister (or rather, at least 4 half sisters and 4 half brothers), but I like the dynamic created by having Ringo unwittingly being the poisoned apple that stole Shirayuki’s life and the overwhelming guilt that that burdens her with. Again, the way things actually played out was very plain – Shirayuki, perfect to the end, forgave Ringo and told her she was happy with her life – but it was nevertheless a creative way of inserting Little Red Riding Hood into the Snow White story.

On the visuals side, I mean the fanservice, of course. This was a swimsuit episode, after all, and Shirayuki was the winner to that pageant in episode 3. There was plenty to oggle at here, including our crazy witch Majolica, who remains as much a mystery as ever. I was also a fan of Ryouko’s sports type swimsuit, which reflected her minimalist, efficient attitude as an athlete. The continued use of the “You fell on me, so I’ll punch you!” trope was uninspiring, though.

I think Majo was by far the hottest out of everyone in this episode. I hope she doesn't get gypped out of an intro episode, though it's starting to look likely.

But the real fanservice was in the seven “dwarves.” They were adorable. Not in the loli or trap kind of way, but just as little kids. No wonder Shirayuki was happy to be with them. I haven’t written much about the art and character design in this show, but that’s one aspect that I feel has been consistently solid throughout this show’s ups and downs. There is a sense of palpable softness in the characters thanks to the roundness with which all their angles are drawn (with the notable exception of Alice). It translates to some very cute children when they’re around.

Don't you just want to take them home and spoil them? Of course, a set of triplets and one of quadruplets would be hell in real life.

You might notice I haven’t mentioned the narrator at all. That’s because there was nothing notable about her yet again, except being almost absent for the last half. At least, that’s how it felt. With 3 episodes to go, she better do something epic lest she end up as the single greatest disappointment from the early episodes.

This was a solid, fun episode, and I tried my best to ignore the melodrama. This and the previous one were exactly the sorts of things I was hoping for when this show began (except, again, the disappointing narrator). But with time running out, I’m guessing it’s time for the real melodrama to come in. Though we’ve had more than a glimpse at Ryouko’s somber past, a lot remains to be revealed. The preview image for the next episode featured that girl we last saw hanging out with our main bad guy Shirou in episode 5, so hopefully the show is ready to dive in to the serious business and get it done.

Hey, it's what's-her-face from a third of the season back when it looked like things were starting to get serious.

Now this was the type of episode I was expecting from this show when it started. The Otogi bank helping out another poor soul with humorous consequences, bookended by a hilariously twisted version of the Three Little Pigs. That gag and the rest of the episode was chock full of self referential humor. The only disappointment was the narrator who, again, did little more than speak the obvious over everyone else’s lines.

The movie within the show of the Three Little Pigs was excellent. It was amusing to see the roles in the story being reversed because our heroine is the wolf, after all. The setting of the dirty and smelly high school was a bit disturbing at times, and that twister challenge had me creeped out instead of laughing. That the had me hoping that the entire episode would consist of that movie within the show, a la the 12 Dark Despair Girls episode from Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Alas, that was not to be.

However, it did produce this wonderful service shot.

The main portion of the episode was just a straight up telling of the Otogi bank helping someone out. Some rich kid named Chuutarou and his butler Hammel approach the bank, asking them to find him a fiance before his 12th birthday. They grow up so fast, don’t they? The episode was then a series of the girls from previous episodes appearing, then each being insulted by Hammel.

My favorite gags by far were the references to other anime. Otsuu’s opinion on perverted things (they’re bad) almost brought a tear in my eye. How could I have missed that the resident maid’s voice actor was Ayako Kawasumi, the voice of the best maid ever, Saber Mahoro? Then there was the quick cut to characters from Toradora and A Certain Scientific Railgun, both also J.C. Staff productions.

One of these is not like the other. One of these is actually from this show.

I loved how the characters were properly shown and named, and it was a shame that A. more shows weren’t referenced, and B. the references were so short. It would have been a lot of fun to have these characters criticized by Hammel and/or the narrator. Especially Kuroko, for obvious reasons.

Speaking of which, the narrator has been getting worse and worse lately. She was pretty much a non-factor in this episode, basically agreeing with Hammel and talking over others as she has been doing so much of recently. Gone are the energy and dry wit that had characterized her in the first few episodes. She just seems tired and bored, which makes me feel the same way. She needs to get snarky again.

The narrator needs to be more like Hammel was in this episode. His comment about sagging boobs was classic. And reminded me of High School of the Dead for some odd reason.

Like with the last few episodes, I couldn’t tell what story adaptation was being shown here. The title called Chuutarou a mouse, and he was visually designed to strongly resemble one, with the circles of his hair and the noticeably huge front teeth. But I just don’t know of a story involving a mouse searching for a mate. I could easily imagine that such a fairy tale might exist, though. Previously, I had used other blogs such as Tenka Seiha or Random Curiosity to fill in such gaps in my knowledge, but no luck this time.

Almost stepping on the toes of the American stereotype of Chinese with those teeth. What story does this mouse come from?

The kid’s story was just an excuse to show the female cast of the show – and to mess with them a bit. Which was just fine by me, even if I would have preferred a more straight up parody like the Cinderella story in the first episode. This proved to be a very entertaining and light hearted episode, and I hope the show continues in that direction. There are still 4 episodes left, more than enough time to cover the rest of Ryouko’s dark back story. Let’s have some fun while we’re at it.

Even though it lacked an obvious fairy tale analogy yet again, I somewhat enjoyed this episode. Yes, amnesia is the laziest trick in the book. But that’s the kind of thing I’ve come to expect from this show. At least they brought Ryouko to a hospital instead of hitting her on the head again to fix her like in 30 Rock.

This was sort of a continuation of the previous episode, with Ryouko reverting back to her middle school mode for a while. At first, I had assumed that it had brought her back to before her encounter with Shirou, but that thought was wiped out by their encounter in the rain at the end of the episode. That scene served as further confirmation of their past together; Shirou sexually abused her, and no one believed Ryouko regarding that.

Now, Shirou’s comment that it was Ryouko’s fault is likely one of those, “She tempted me into it!” bullshit rationalizations, but what if it wasn’t? That would be a twist I would enjoy tremendously. What if Ryouko isn’t as innocent as she lets on, and her reason for running away was not just to get away from being bullied, but to leave her dark self behind and to start anew? How would that change Ryoushi’s view of her?

Did they even need to be there? Is there some metaphor I'm missing here?

Once again, I’m left asking questions that I didn’t expect to ask when the series began. That said, I’d still be shocked if any of my musings pan out. So far, the show has done a wonderful job of doing things by the book. To its detriment, because, again, its unique gimmick is its strength.

The whole crush on the baseball team captain was a total red herring. I was hoping that it would turn into another fairy tale story like the Cinderella story from episode 1, but no, it ended up being nothing, just an excuse to make Ryoushi and Ryouko go on a date. It’s nice to want things.

Seriously, good job, Ringo.

Well, at least the whole date was pretty enjoyable. There was the usual gamut of movie, then arcade, then aquarium, then walk in the park, then picnic. Seriously, it ran through every cliche in the book within a few minutes. But it was a lot of fun to watch. Ringo completely made up for that horrible armor outfit from a couple episodes ago with Ryouko’s date outfit in this one. And Ryouko acting deredere provided entertaining fanservice. Even if it further locked down her character into being a typical tsundere. Kinda like that girl that everyone said sorta looks like her before the show bagan.

I feel that I’m still waiting for the fulfillment of the promise seen in the first episode. This episode was all too generic, even if it did the generic thing well. With the show now over half over, I’m afraid I’ll still be left waiting when the final ED curtain falls.

She was pretty cute, even if somewhat/extremely creepy. Similar design as Otohime. But she appeared so little that I don't even remember her name!

Like episode 3, this one featured flashbacks to the characters’ middle school days, though in this one, they were the meat of the episode. The closest thing to a fairy tale analogy I could find was in Ringo, the Little Red Riding Hood, visiting the home of Ookami, the Wolf, to give her her schoolwork and finding her in bed, just like in that tale. The similarities stopped there, though. The result was a pretty bland episode that didn’t really take advantage of the time it had to flesh out the characters’ back stories.

The flashbacks were shown from the perspectives of Ringo, Ryouko, then Ryoushi, though they did maintain chronology as we got to see Ringo and Ryouko become friends in middle school, get to live together, and then Ryoushi stalk Ryouko in high school.

To be honest, there was not a whole lot to speak of. The story of Ringo and Ryouko’s friendship is all too typical in this medium. In predictable fashion, Ryouko had no problem with Ringo barging in on her home and eventually living there, and Ringo pretty much immediately took a liking to Ryouko and wanted to help her out. I’m liking the trainer, at least. It was fun to watch him and his buddies laugh as they watched Ryoushi confess to Ryouko once again. Like the narrator, they were very aware of this ultimately petty story of youth. I’m much more interested in that flashback at which the episode had provided an extended look.

This is not how you normally visit a sick classmate. Except in anime.

I mentioned last week that I felt that the show was going a much darker and more serious direction than I had originally expected. This episode continues down that path, showing more of that flashbacks that had been shown at the end of the previous episode. There weren’t any new shots, just sound over the old ones that revealed a little more about what was going on in those scenes.

The combination of the extended flashback and the rest of the flashbacks solidify the idea that Ryouko had been either raped or sexually abused by Shirou in the past, after having been romantically involved with him. The female classmates’ doubt at the veracity of Ryouko’s story resulted in Ryouko learning to trust only herself. I’m betting boxing – and the desire to become stronger as soon as possible, at any cost – also came from that. The coach was pretty cool here, too, with a nice little speech about the futility of building strength quickly. As an athlete myself, I understand all too well. I also sympathize with Ryouko’s thoughts of wanting that strength quickly no matter what the cost – it is a foolish youthful thought that you can somehow overcome these boundaries that everyone before you have been unable to cross. It’s often one of those things you have to learn for yourself.

This guy's pretty cool. I don't know if it's the eye patch or the practice sword that's always on his shoulder.

Overall, this was a pretty ho-hum episode. I’ve said it before, but this show is pretty bland when it’s not using its main gimmick of fairy tales. Or if the narrator isn’t doing her thing, as was the case in this episode. I did immensely enjoy that one sequence that showed Ryoushi stalking Ryouko all around the school, leading all the way up to the beginning of the 1st episode. That kind of joke of repetition – seen recently also in the latest episode of Seikimatsu Occult Academy, with Kozue following the black cat – just gets to me.

Here’s to hoping this show gets back on track next episode. I don’t mind that it’s taking a more serious, story-focused approach, it’s just that it’s not doing it very well. But it has proven that it can do the fairy tale comedy well, and that’s more of what I want to see.

This shot is pretty creepy when taken out of context. Oh what the hell, it's creepy IN context as well.

This episode sees the main plot, introduced in episode 2 but ignored since, return in a big way. Like the previous episode, the humor fell flat most of the time, and the fairy tale adaptation wasn’t anything to write home about either. At the same time, it introduces a couple interesting plot points that make me pause and rethink what I was expecting out of this show.

So I had to read the post on Tenka Seiha to learn it, but this was loosely based on the Japanese story of Momotaro. Not being familiar with the story, I wasn’t able to appreciate it that much. But based on the Wikipedia article on the story, the show laid the analogy pretty thick this time as well, what with the 3 sidekicks named after the 3 animals, “Momoko” being the obvious feminine version of “Momotaro,” and the invasion of “Onigashima” High School, literally the name of the island Momotaro had invaded in the tale.

But Momoko was just a side character in this one, unlike the other fairy tale protagonists who actually were the protagonists of their respective episodes. She definitely got her moment in the sun, mind you, getting to try to seduce both Ryouko and Ryoushi, and having the bouncing of her bosoms accentuated with cartoony sound effects (a lot of people might roll their eyes at this gag, but I like its ironic humor). And her costume design is my favorite in this show so far. Certainly beats the hideous outfit Ringo designed for Ryouko in this episode.

I'm also a big fan of the asymmetrical thigh high sock design. Reminds me of Rita from Tales of Vesperia.

But moreso than Momoko, this episode was focused with the story of the main characters, specifically the past of Ryouko as well as the role of Otogi High School in the city. Ryouko’s story is still very vague and looks to be darker than what I would have expected from this show. Just based on the brief flashback clips, I’m guessing that it involves some sort of sexual abuse from Shirou. Of course, it would have to tie into why she became so dedicated to boxing and acquired that stoic, manly personality that Ryoushi admires so much. It’s a huge contrast in tone from the whimsical and carefree nature of the rest of the show as well as both the OP and ED sequences.

Just what happened between these 2? Something far darker than what I expected out of this show, I hope.

I’m also interested in the bigger picture regarding the roles played by Otogi High School, Onigashima High School, and Otogibana City. This is also darker than what I was expecting out of this show. Like Ryouko’s back story, nothing’s really clear yet, but according to what Liszt said to convince everyone to fight, it seems that the two schools are designed as some sort of grand social engineering experiment. Otogi school is designed to succeed, and Onigashima school is designed to fail in order to help achieve that.

It’s very reminiscent of the Misaka sisters story from A Certain Magical Index, another production by J.C. Staff that was adapted from a light novel series. And just like in that story, it all feels very cruel. The Onigashima students have to play the bad guys so that the good guys can beat them. It’s a self aware look at the roles good and bad guys are forced into in order to produce fairy tales. In A Certain Magical Index, the Misaka sisters were infants, innocent victims of a mad science experiment gone too far. The Onigashima students are gangsters and delinquents, not worthy of our sympathy, but I end up wondering, was this due to any fault of their own, or were they forced into this just so that they can play that role?

Unfortunately, her Christmas tree hair made me think of Amagami SS...

Again, these are thoughts I never expected would be prompted by this show. In fact, thus far, Ookami-san and Seven Companions has not at all met the expectations I had for it after watching the first episode. In that one, the Cinderella story was largely separated from that of the protagonists and stood on its own as a ridiculous adaptation. Since then, all the fairy tale adaptations have managed to weave in the main characters and have the relationship between Ryouko and Ryoushi develop in some way, whether it be as light as the sole vote that Ryouko got during the contest in episode 3 or as heavy as the Ryouko’s past coming back to haunt her in this one. In that sense, the storytelling has leapfrogged my expectation of this being a light, episodic title.

On the other hand, those light and amusing aspects have not been up to snuff. That Cinderella story was a hilarious, twisted take on the old fairy tale. The adaptations since then have varied from amusing, like the tortoise and the hare story of episode 3, to banal, like the hentai-inspired maid set up in episode 4, to being just straight up with no interesting twist, like Momo-chan and her 3 companions in this one. Even the narrator hasn’t been as good since the first episode, as she spends less time making catty remarks and more just explaining the obvious, speaking over someone else in the scene.

I still enjoy the running flat-chest joke. It's banal, but Satomi Arai's delivery is always on the mark.

That said, there’s something nice about having the unexpected. The show had successfully fooled me into thinking that I had a handle on it after a couple of episodes, but now I feel lost, unable to predict what will come. Who knows, maybe the show will return to being a wacky slapstick parody-oriented comedy next episode. Or maybe it will dig deeper into the plot points mentioned above, exploring the ability to tell a coherent central story while using fairy tale metaphors as vehicles. I don’t know which it’ll be, and I don’t know which I would prefer. Feels good man.

Note:

• In a post in Girl Cartoons, JarenL also notes the more serious themes introduced in this episode and explores the way gender roles are played around with in the show.

Like last week’s episode, this one was about one of the seven companions, the maid Otsu Tsuruyaga in this case. That’s about all it had it common with that episode, though, or with the rest of the series, for that matter. Without a clear fairytale analogy to latch onto, it was an episode that could’ve been a part of any other show. Unfortunately, when this show isn’t standing out thanks to its gimmick, it’s downright plain and… boring.

OK, it was nice seeing Ryouko in this.

The premise was pretty ridiculous. So much so that it was funny, I’ll admit. If only it didn’t remind me of a bazillion other anime out there. It was just the classic “girl falls into main character’s lap” story rolled up into an episode instead of an entire series. Actually, it was lifted wholesale from some eroge if anything.

Then things continued to get more ridiculous, but not in a good way. It started with Otsu’s back story, which felt like it belonged in another type of show altogether. That it was out of place didn’t bother me as much as just how played out a story it was. The “pushed out of the way of an oncoming truck” plot element has been used to death, especially in anime, and it leaves me feeling nothing, if it ever did at one point. It’s uninteresting.

Sorry kid, your role was only to die so that our heroine can have a sad back story.

The last third of the episode was without humor. Even the narrator, who had saved some scenes earlier in the series didn’t feel all-there. She could’ve had a field day with the craziness of the set up, but she was restrained, doing only enough to remind us that she was still around. The way the story turned out was sappy and difficult to tolerate, especially during the big all-maids scene.

I did like getting to see Ryoushi’s home life. It’s an unusual set up, and Yukime was a fun character. I suppose her conversation with Ryouko and Ringo was part of developing the main romance story. And the gag involving Hansel and Gretel was amusing, if predictable. Though showing us that brother sister love reminded us again of how eroge based this episode’s plot was.

Will they return, or were around just to be the punchline of one joke? I'm hoping for the former, thinking the latter.

That’s all I have to say about this one. The show needs to get back in track with what made it so appealing in the first place, what made it stand out from other shows of the same vein. Because it depends on its unique elements to stand out from a sea of shows that is identical to this one. Instead of this moe fanservice, let’s see more fairy tale adaptations. Which one is Otsu based off of, anyway?

This was a fun little episode that went deeper into the past of a couple of the main characters, namely Otohime and Tarou. It’s told as a tortoise and the hare story, as Otohime and rival Mimi Usami – played fittingly by Rie Kugimiya – fought it out for Tarou’s heart. And though not emphasized as heavily, there was a touch of The Ugly Duckling in there as well.

I really liked this shot. They looked pretty cute, too.

Otohime’s story was pretty sweet, even if completely superficial. Plus, she wasn’t all that fat to begin with! Well, maybe by Japanese standards… But seeing Tarou be so nice to her in the past showed us why she’s so madly in love with him. And also that he isn’t such a bad guy, or at least not too superficial – as long as it’s a girl, it’s fine with him, no matter what the shape or size.

Of course, the heart of the episode was in watching Otohime and Mimi duke it out to win the contest. They laid the tortoise vs. hare metaphor pretty thick, especially with calling Mimi “Usa-chan,” an obvious pun on the Japanese word for rabbit, “usagi.” I was a bit surprised that the story ended up being so long term, starting all the way back from when they were all in elementary school. It was actually a much more direct metaphor than the Cinderella one in the first episode, with the beauty contest taking the place for the race, though it ended with a bit of a twist. As for the similarities to The Ugly Duckling, they didn’t play that up at all, but the metaphor is pretty obvious.

Yeah, not all that subtle about it...

The comedy was strong for the most part. I especially enjoyed the cynicism of the main group deciding that sabotaging Mimi was the best way to win… and then finding out that Mimi had the exact same thought! And the reference to Zero’s Familiar – another J.C. Staff production – took me a few seconds to get, but it was a nice in-joke.

The narrator got her chance to shine in that scene as she bleeped out parts of the argument. I’ve heard animal noises used for that, but I’m not sure I’ve seen the narrator being used that way before. I also loved the constant references to how Ringo and Usami overlapped in their loli-ness, which got on Ringo’s nerves. Anyway, I’m repeating myself, but Satomi Arai continues to be a pleasure to listen to as the narrator.

He kinda reminds me of Teddy from Persona 4. That one starred Rie Kugimiya and Yui Horie as well!

I also liked how Liszt’s cross-dressing was handled. It was just there, and only Ryoushi seemed to make a big deal about it, just from the initial surprise.

It was a little surprising that they collectively got 1 vote, from Tarou, though I expected them not to rank. I liked seeing them be the losers like that. Really, after all that fighting, it was downright pathetic! How arrogant of them to assume that one of them would take the top prize!

One thing I didn’t like so much was Mimi’s character being so flat. No, not like that. She was just a mean narcissist, plain and simple. I guess those people aren’t actually uncommon, especially in high school, but they’re not very interesting to watch. I really felt no sympathy for her at the end.

Again, a nice shot.

So despite the narrator not taking control like in the last episode, this was a pretty fun one. I had written in the previous post that the show didn’t seem as entertaining when focusing on the main characters, but this one was a damned fun episode. Otohime and Tarou were pretty cute together. I’m looking forward to seeing the adaptations they’ll be doing in coming episodes, and how they’ll involve some of the 7 companions.