Nakuru drops by to visit Kinjiro’s house needing advice. However, what she needs advice on apparently entails asking Kinjiro out on a date, which surprisingly he consents to (even if half-hearted). During the date, she explains a situation where she tells him that a boy confessed to her, and she was wondering why, and wondered if her larger bust might be the reason. She admits she has a complex over her large breasts and won’t be able to concentrate on her BL novels until she knows that boys won’t keep asking her out over them. So she smashes her boobs against Kinjiro to “prove” that he won’t go bonkers over them. However, this also makes Nakuru find Kinjiro “cooler”…

This wasn't really important to the story, but I was still LOLing

I’m trying to figure out why the writers made this, of all things, the final episode to the story, unless they pretty much already have a second season planned and wanted to use this as a sort of bridge to it. Either that or they had some money left but ran out of material after episode 12 and were like “what the hell, let’s make another episode.” It’s not this episode was bad in of itself, I just found it curious that they made this the last one.

Overall, this was a so-so series. There were some good parts to it, but there were an awful lot of parts that just kind of grated. It got tiring watching Kanade torturing Kinjiro in an attempt to “cure” him at times. The best part of the series always involved the interaction between Kinjiro and Subaru and between Kinjiro and Usami. Most everything else was just kind of boring and/or annoying I thought.

If there is a second season, I’d have to think about whether to watch it. It may depend on what else is airing at the time. This wasn’t so bad that I’d say I don’t want to watch any more ever, but it’s not good enough that I would definitely watch a second season either.

Kinjiro, knocked out by Subaru’s kiss at the end of the last episode, is found by Usami, who agrees to take him to the graveyard where Subaru’s mother is buried, and sure enough Kinjiro finds her there. Subaru doesn’t want to go back home yet so the pair stay the night at the inn. The next day of school Kanade tells Kinjiro that Subaru has transferred to another school. However, Subaru’s alter-ego, Punyuru, has decided to join the school. Kinjiro then enlists the help of the two rival Subaru fan clubs at the school to start rallying support to reinstate Subaru as a butler, which apparently works.

Only Kinjiro would have a problem with this

Well, this was a pretty decent episode. As I kind of expected, we wrapped up the “Subaru becoming a butler again” thing in one episode and not two, and Subaru wasn’t even outed, though I have to agree with Usami wondering how people aren’t getting that Subaru and Punyuru are the same person. One can only stretch that so far, I think, unless they’re just feigning it somehow.

I guess this leaves open how this series will end. I think this episode would have been a good conclusion, but apparently the writers have something else in mind. Oh, and Kinjiro is your typical male lead who just doesn’t get it.

It’s the start of a new semester, and Kanade wastes no time starting her antics, putting a little wine into Subaru’s lunch, which apparently is enough to make her strip and do just about anything, and faking hiccups in a ploy to get Kinjiro and herself alone. However, later, while not paying attention Kanade falls down some stairs and injures her ankle. While Kanade doesn’t blame Subaru, Subaru’s father arrives to tell her that she’s being fired as a butler for allowing Kanade to get hurt. This angers Kanade, who vows to persuade her father to change his mind. However, Subaru seems content to quit, guilty over what happened. Kinjiro chases after her, however…

Kanade's hiccup cuteness is even too much for Subaru

The first part of this episode ended up being some of the usual stupid which makes this show grating to watch sometimes, such as Subaru randomly stripping due to just a tad bit of alcohol, as well as Kanade once again trying to jump Kinjiro.

However, the second half started getting better as we started ramping up some drama and starting what appears to be the final story arc for this series. Subaru clearly doesn’t feel like she’s worthy to be a butler anymore, which is just made worse by the fact that she’s been fired, and now it looks like it’s up to Kinjiro and Kanade to try to save Subaru’s job. We still have two episodes left, so I guess we’ll see if it takes the whole two episodes to get through this arc. I’d say there is also a reasonable chance that Subaru gets outed as a girl to most everyone at some point too, probably the end of the next episode if it happens.

It’s Kureha’s birthday, and she goes to celebrate with Nakuru, Usami, Subaru, and Kanade. She also reminisces about all the birthdays where Kinjiro was kind to her, but he forgot her birthday the previous year, which made her sad. However, she remembers all the other times he’s good to her, so she’s OK. When she gets home, Kinjiro greets her with a big birthday present stuffed polar bear to make up for missing last year.

It's Kinjiro vs. Kureha: The video game fight to the death!

This was actually a pretty sweet episode, with minimal Kanade blackmail or other of the usual stuff. This is pretty much entirely Kureha having fun on her birthday, and her appreciating how much Kinjiro does for her.

I did have to laugh at some of the presents, though, such as the Subaru body pillow that Usami got her or the fighting video game that Kanade got made for her. This episode didn’t really advance the plot much, but it was also a nice change of pace of some of the repeated stuff he had seen in previous episodes as well.

In this episode of Working! Mayo Chiki, Usami brings Kinjiro in to help with her part time job at a Maid cafe (to wash dishes) in exchange for allowing him to copy her summer break homework. Naturally Kanade decides to swing by. To boot, Kureha and Nakuru show up as part timers as well. Kanade then ends up tormenting Kinjiro by telling everyone that he has a maid fetish, then torments Usami by making her “test” her hypothesis.

Kanade brings out her biggest weapon: the garter belt!

I suppose this was an OK episode. This was almost entirely an Usami episode, really ramping up her angst over her feelings for Kinjiro, allowing her to be an easy target of Kanade, who is well aware of how she feels.

Otherwise, this was mainly a fanservice show for those who love maids, which isn’t really my cup of tea, but whatever. Usami is your typical tsundre, so she’s cute in some ways, but really grinding in others as well. Really the only part Subaru had was backtracking her confession from the previous episode and downgrading it to wanting to be “best friends” because she’s too nervous.

This is part 2 of the beach/hot springs episode. Naturally, Kinjiro and Suburu run into each other in the male’s bath, only to be joined by Subaru’s father, who has to be ejected by Subaru (and knocking out his memories of the event with it). Later, the group and Subaru’s “cousin” goes to a festival. We also learn the real reason for the trip was to allow Subaru to visit her mother’s grave. At the end of the night, Subaru confesses to Kinjiro…

Subaru sure loves her creepy sheep...

I had to LOL at the fact that they “clouded” over Subaru’s butt in the onsen but not Kinjiro’s butt. In any case, no one could have possibly predicted that Subaru and Kinjiro would run into each other in the male’s bath. OK, ok, everyone could see it coming from a mile away.

Having said that, this was a much improved episode with some background info about Subaru and some character development for her. Yeah, there was still some silliness but it wasn’t too bad. And Subaru basically confessing to Kinjiro at the end will hopefully make the series a bit more interesting from this point on.

I’m hopefully back to some level of blogging, and I’ll start by finishing off the series I had started waaaaay back in the summer season. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Mayo Chiki!, but I basically remember that butler guy, Subaru, is actually a chick trying to hide his identity, while the main protagonist, Kinjiro, is some poor schmuck who gets tormented by all the girls, which is made worse by his girl-phobia.

Kanade drugs a drink that Subaru hands to Kinjiro and kidnaps him to a hot spring Kanade’s family uses. Kanade claims she’s running away from home because she doesn’t want to take a vacation overseas. Naturally, she also uses the trip as a chance to try to “cure” Kinjiro as well. Kanade also coerces Kureha, Usami, and Narumi to show up, forcing Kinjiro to try to hide Subaru’s identity from them, but needs Kanade to bail him out this time.

Yes, it's that time: time for the beach episode

I can’t remember if I had this opinion before I went on my hiatus, but this show is kind of just plodding along. It seems to be about the same thing just about every week. Kanade has a plan, Kinjiro gets tricked or coerced into getting involved, Subaru has some brush with almost being caught, and then gets jealous, angry, and shy/nervous at various points, and Kanade finds some way to cause Kinjiro to get a nose bleed.

I realize that’s kind of the point of this series, I suppose, but watching episodes is starting to become a little bit of a drag to me at this point. If there was any high point in the episode, it’s perhaps that Usami has pretty much said that she doesn’t trust Kanade, so maybe that will go somewhere eventually.

Mayo Chiki is never going to be considered a great anime, moderately entertaining and amusing – yes, but great – no; however, even for an anime like Mayo Chiki, being aware of classical Japanese literary works can come in handy. My own knowledge of classical Japanese literary works is very, very limited but I happened to have the required knowledge to understand the joke in the final scene of episode 10 and to find it hilarious.

For those that haven’t seen Mayo Chiki, the scene in question starts out with a character named Usami (the one letter difference her name and bunny – usagi – has been used for humorous purposes already) who is playing a video game given to her as a “present”. The game features a chibi version of herself trying to catch a carrot. This appears to be a simple joke until Usami catches the carrot and a pyramid of creepy characters latch onto her as she’s being drawn up. This tickles my memory; I’ve seen this before. My suspicions are confirmed when the “angelic” character cuts the string holding the carrot and Usami falls into a pool of blood straight out of Hell.

Like I said, I’ve seen this before. I wish I could say that I’ve taken to reading classic Japanese literature because it probably would be helpful in understanding Japanese culture but I haven’t.  Instead, I remember an anime that aired a couple of years ago by the name of Blue Literature (Aoi Bungaku). Animated by Madhouse and watched by almost no one, it featured several critically acclaimed, well-known works in 20^th century Japanese literature adapted to anime form. It was a really great anime and one that I wished more people had watched. One of the tales used was a story written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa – The Spider’s Thread which was published in 1918.

The Spider’s Thread was written as a children’s story and the anime version features an evil thief  who finally gets what he deserves. Right before his death, he happened to spare the life of a spider and for that one good deed he is given a chance to leave Hell and enter Heaven. This chance comes in the form of a spider’s thread that is hung down allowing the thief  to climb out of the pits of Hell. Of course, there are many other people in Hell that would like to leave Hell and these people try to climb out as well. The thief, fearing the thread would break and not caring about the others, tries to physically stop these people from climbing up too. This compassionless behavior seals the fate of the thief  and he falls  back down to Hell after the spider cuts the thread to Heaven and walks away.

By the way, the thief was fabulously voiced by Mamoru Miyano who’s now well-known for voicing Okabe Rintarou, the mad scientist from Steins;Gate.

Even though I happened to get the reference this time, I was reminded that anime does, in fact, come from a foreign culture and even relatively well-versed individuals in a foreign culture are lacking in so many of the areas that native viewers just know.

So, that was the joke to that scene in Mayo Chiki. I know a joke is not funny if it needs explained but next time it’ll be funny (especially if you go back and watch Blue Literature or read the original work).

So the school festival comes, and almost immediately, Subaru starts disrupting Kinjiro and Usami’s “date” until finally it pretty much breaks down. Kinjiro and Subaru then go to fight S4′s rival group in their war, which ends up being a quiz contest run by Kanade. The question to win who Subaru’s first kiss was with, which she has to confess is Kinjiro (which surprises him since he was unconscious at the time). Later, Kinjiro finds out that Usami quit S4 and she ends up confessing that she was just lonely and wanted to see what Subaru saw in Kinjiro. In the end, Kinjiro accepts Usami in their group of friends.

Somehow I knew it would come to this

Not that I didn’t think it was already obvious, but I was pretty much right about Usami just being lonely and having her fake date with Kinjiro not really being about the S4. She ended up not being all that bad of a character, I think, though there is still a bit we don’t really know about her. We’ve gotten several clues that her homelife isn’t great, but we haven’t gotten any real specifics on that yet. However, Kinjiro is now in double-trouble with his girl phobia now. Not only does Kanade want to try to “cure” him of it, but Usami does too, though I seem to doubt that Usami’s methods will be quite as sadistic as Kanade’s.

Subaru, meanwhile, can be pretty jealous as was obvious in this episode, but I wonder how both she and Kinjiro will feel now that Kanade forced her to admit that her first kiss was with Kinjiro, albeit when he was unconscious. One might think that might create a bit of awkardness between the two in the future (though it didn’t seem to at the end of this episode).

Overall, the whole S4 “fight” was a bit silly, but at least it wasn’t too over the top. The quiz show kind of toned downed what was building up to be a pretty silly situation. I guess the quiz was also Kanade’s sadistic event for this episode, though it was actually pretty tame compared to some of the others (though it was still mean to make Subaru confess her first kiss). Hopefully we’ll see a bit less of her and a bit more of Usami in the future, though.

Kinjiro gets run over by a girl, Usami, on his way to school, and ends up getting attacked because he was too stupid to tell her that the thing he wanted between her legs were his lost glasses (and then again after she recognizes him as Subaru’s friend). Subaru asks Kinjiro out to the school festival, but Usami has other ideas.

Another rabbit jumps into the fray

So we have a new character introduced, with Usami. However, despite her claims of wanting to date Kinjiro due to wanting to dishearten S4′s enemies, it seems to me that she’s just lonely. She says she doesn’t have any friends, and doesn’t seem to have a great home life, and so she’s using the current situation as a reason to seek companionship.

Of course, that could cause problems for Kinjiro if she’s still wanting to date him after the school festival is over. If Kinjiro were smart, he’d tell Subaru the situation, but I’m not sure if he’s that smart, or if he’ll get the chance since I’m guessing most of his free time will be taken up either by school festival prep or with hanging out with Usami.  In any case, despite the initial impression, Usami doesn’t appear to be all that bad of a character right now to me.

It’s nice to have an episode with minimal Kanade interference, though there were a few cliches thrown in, such as Kinjiro falling into the dressing room while Usami was changing or his classes ending up in Usami’s lap, and instead of just saying so, he beats around the bush by saying he wants something from “down there” and thus sounding all perverted.

But all in all I think this episode was an improvement over the last two. It advanced the story in a different direction which has the potential to be interesting and entertaining.  I do find it funny that, in many shows like this, the main male lead is the one who gathers the harem, but in this case, it’s Subaru, the reverse-trap, who is unwittingly gathering the harem.  I just kind of find that funny.

Subaru arrives on Kinjiro’s doorstop at the start of golden week wearing cats ears and tail after being kicked out of the mansion. Soon Kanade shows up and challenges Subaru to a Butler vs. Maid battle, but this is stopped short when Kinjiro gets a cold. We soon learn why Kanade is there: Subaru and her father have been kicked out for fighting with each other until they make up.

Nyan Nyan Butler

This is the 2nd sorta mediocre episode in a row, and I’m afraid that this show may be falling into a rut.  We get some additional interesting background information, such as Kureha having a thing where she’s afraid Kinjiro might die when he gets sick (which I guess stems from how their father died) which is somewhat reflected in Subaru due to a similar thing happening to her mother.

However, the Subaru and her father are fighting thing and then getting kicked out just seems kind of contrived to me, and then Kanade just suddenly popping up was the point in the episode where I just kind of felt like this episode drove into a ditch (It wasn’t going so bad up to that point).  The last thing I want is for this series to be 8 more episodes of “Subaru gets into awkward situation with Kinjiro, Kanade suddenly randomly shows up to make it worse. Repeat.”

I like the characters. I think Subaru and Kinjiro are both being developed pretty well. I just think the writing and episode ideas over the past couple of episodes have been lacking.

So a series of events leads to Kanade telling Kinjiro’s sister, Kureha, that she is dating Kinjiro and invites her out on a “double date” to a waterpark along with Subaru with them.  At one point, Kinjiro and Subaru see a child drowning and go rescue it, only to find that while they were doing this, Kanade and Kureha are being held hostage at knifepoint. We learn Subaru is terribly frightened of blades, so Kinjiro knocks Subaru out to go rescue them himself, which fails abysmally until Subaru wakes and and saves the day. They then find out the whole thing was set up by Kanade and Subaru’s father in order to help Subaru get over her knife-phobia.

Little pig, little pig let me in

This was a so-so episode I guess. It was interesting to get a little more back story on Subaru, including her knife-phobia and all, and we get to meet her father, who doesn’t like Kinjiro much for groping Subaru in the first episode.  Otherwise, this was largely a beach/waterpark episode which gave them an excuse to have the voluptuous Kanade and loli Kureha in bikinis (but alas, not Subaru) for most of the episode.

Otherwise, I guess we get a bit more bonding between Subaru and Kinjiro, more jealous rage from Kureha, and more devious scheming from Kanada but that’s about it.  Not a bad episode, but not a fabulous one either.

One of my favorite characters this season

I originally wanted to post this as a single post because it is only 16 anime series, not like the nearly 30 anime series I initially checked out in the spring season, but for many of these anime I had more to say then I originally thought I would. If I had more confidence in my writing, I might assume people reading wouldn’t mind trying get through a 3500+ word post .

Before getting to the rest of the countdown I wanted to mention that this double post is just for the new anime series of the season; you’ll have to wait for the season review to see how these anime stack up  to spring carryovers.

(8) – Kamisama no Memo-chou

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 7/12  B

The first of two shows this season with “God” in the title features a female NEET detective (which is an oxymoron, I know) who solves crime using the powah of the Internets.

What a difference two years can make. Two years ago, summer 2009, J.C. Staff was in the midst of a string of hits and fielded not one but two great series – Aoi Hana and Taishou Yakyuu Musume – for the season. Since then, J.C. Staff has struggled and has only been able to produce a grand total of two good series, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes. After producing so many great and memorable series, it pains me to see the slow deterioration of what a J.C. Staff series means. I keep hoping for a turn around but Kamisama no Memo-chou, at best, appears only to slow the decline.

The animation style is their standard style for action series that has pretty much crystallized since at least as far back as Shana season 1 from nearly 6 years ago. It was awesome the first few of times but I’ve gotten to the point that I want to see them try something new. The animation quality is the same level of better-then-average-but-not-great that J.C. Staff seems to be comfortable at with little regard about the ground their losing to the top line animation studios. (Thankfully there’s animation studios like Studio Deen which will always be around to make J.C. Staff look decent in comparison.)

I can ‘t help but compare it to the recently finished Gosick which seems to inhabit the same genre of anime. The mysteries that need solved in Kamisama no Memo-chou look like they’re more thought out then the ones in Gosick which is a definite plus but Gosick had a better female lead in Victorique (thanks in part by a superior vocal performance by Yuuki Aoi). The rest of the cast is pretty much equal in quality between the two. Gosick has the edge in the animation department but Kamisama no Memo-chou has the edge in the story department assuming the source material holds up. So it’s pretty much a wash for right now but I do see the potential in Kamisama no Memo-chou and hope it reaches that full potential.

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(7) – Blood-C

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 8/12  B+

I have not seen the previous incarnations of this franchise nor am I that familiar with Clamp (I did watch Kobato and enjoyed it) so I did not quite know what to expect from this anime. Certain bloggers that I respect, like psgels at Star-Crossed Anime Blog, seemed really excited about Blood-C which was enough for me to give it a try.

So far, I’m still not completely sold on the series but it’s doing better than I thought it would and when the introductions are done and we move onto the larger story this could get very good, very fast. The biggest gripe I have with the show is the one-dimensional, poorly developed side characters that are the main character’s classmates and friends. They aren’t a deal breaker so long as they continue to be used in small doses like they have been and I bet they’ll be in the anime in even smaller doses as the plot develops. At first I was also bothered by the main character’s apparent bi-polar personality between cold-blooded killer of monsters and naive Pollyanna but I decided that there’s probably a good reason for the personality split. I’m guessing that sword is involved.

The biggest thing going for it right now is that Production I.G. is animating Blood-C and it looks great with only an occasion scene where the characters look like they were born on the moon. The action scenes have been well done and satisfying, probably the best of the new anime shows this season. If Blood-C can beat out Nichijou for having the best overall actions scenes still remains to be seen, though.

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(6) – Kamisama Dolls

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 8/12  B+

The second show with “God” in the title and the first of three new anime series from Brains Base is about what happens when a young man (college age this time) decides he wants to leave his rural village with all it’s secrets behind and live a normal life in the big city. Of course, it’s not that easy – it never is. A psychotic killer from his village escapes and decides he wants to see his old friend, the main character, and have some fun.

Kamisama Dolls has shown moments of greatness that almost convince me that this will end up a great anime but it hasn’t quite closed the deal yet. The biggest question that still needs to be answered definitively is how well it can balance it’s serious drama side with it’s slower-paced comedic side. So far it’s done an adequate job handling both sides but there’s still room for improvement.  The one area that I thought might a be problem but didn’t turn out to be for this anime is it’s animation quality, not because Brains Base is a poor animation studio but because I think this is the first time they’re working on more than one anime series at a time and I expected something to give. They even had the time to come up with one of my favorite OP this season.

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(5) – Mayo Chiki

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 9/12  A-

This season’s most over-achieving anime is definitely Mayo Chiki; it really has no business being as good as it is. A story about a typical high school boy one day discovering the butler of the rich girl who attends his school is actually a girl and has to hide her gender so that she can continue being a butler is not the type of show that one expects high quality from but, somehow, here we are. Actually, that’s not quite true – I understand why Mayo Chiki has been so successful. One, the comedy works. Two, the characters play well off each other and excel in the roles they are being asked to play. And three, Mayo Chiki utilizes the characters and situations behind the premise of the show fully and sometimes even to an absurd level.

The vocal work has also been great. Satoshi Hino, as the main character, hits it perfectly in portraying the typical high school boy with just enough backbone to be likable but not so much that he’s immune to the uncomfortable situations he’s placed in. Kana Hanazawa, as the younger sister, shows that she does have more range than she’s normally given credit for. Eri Kitamura is completely believable as she plays the bored, slightly sadistic rich girl and Yuka Iguchi does a superb job shifting between being masculine and feminine as the butler. The animation quality remains above average and the few action scenes have been animated surprisingly well.

Time will tell if Mayo Chiki can continue performing as well as it has been but I hope it does.

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(4) – Dantalian no Shoka

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 9/12  A-

Earlier I mentioned how J.C. Staff’s animation style has pretty much crystallized years ago and how it puts their anime at a disadvantage. On the other end of the spectrum is the animation company Gainax and Dantalian no Shoka is the latest example of how they’re willing to experiment with new styles and techniques while still mixing in enough trademark Gainax animation to keep fans happy. I like what they did here and it already feels like the perfect look for this anime.

The real standout in Dantalian no Shoka is actually Daisuke Ono’s vocal work for the main character and how well he plays off Dalian – a real spitfire of a woman, voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, who happens to inhabit the mansion that Daisuke Ono’s character inherits when his grandfather dies. The pair pretty much guarantees that this’ll be an entertaining anime to follow, even if the mysteries and dangers behind the forbidden books of their world turn out to be not the most interesting. (Though they’ve been pretty interesting so far, creating a real mysterious atmosphere seems difficult in anime.)

I’m really looking forward to see where Dantalian no Shoka goes this season and I’m wondering if having a new director helm this anime means their more seasoned directors are fast at work on new projects for Gainax.

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(3) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 10/12  A

I expected that I’d find Ikoku Meiro no Croisee at least mildly entertaining to watch since I love anime (live action, books, etc.) set in the past; it doesn’t matter the time period or place. What I didn’t expect was how much I’d fall in love with it. It gets the slice-of-life vibe that shows like this and Natsume Yuujinchou need to cultivate absolutely correct. The characters are instantly likeable – Yune is death-by-cuteness personified – and the setting – late 19th century Paris with it’s rapid transitioning of technology – is engaging and different. The focus on the culture shock caused by the clash of East vs. West gives this anime additional depth and helps keep the story moving along.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee is an example of how not all anime have to try something new and bigger to succeed; all that’s really needed is the perfect execution of a simple idea. I know I’m going to be very sad when Ikoku Meiro no Croisee finishes up.

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(2) – Mawaru Penguin Drum

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 11/12  A+

And Mawaru Penguin Drum showcases how trying something bigger, bolder, and different can pay off. This anime continues a streak of original production anime that have been either the best or nearly the best in each of the anime seasons dating back to Fall 2010. (Panty and Stocking – Fall 2010, Madoka – Winter 2011, Ano Hana – Spring 2011) This is a trend that I hope continues and expands because I think it’s in these original works that the truly great anime are made and their existence means that anime’s future is still bright.

Once again I’m reminded that talking about well-made anime is much more difficult than dissecting why an imperfect anime is imperfect and it doesn’t help that just about everyone is already watching Mawaru Penguin Drum. Instead I close by saying that this anime has a real chance to beat out Natsume Yuujinchou by the end of the season which is really something since Natsume is one of my all-time favorite anime.

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(1) – Natsume Yuujinchou 3

Rating for episodes 1 to 5– 11/12  A+

For all my complaining about this season, finally having the third season of Natsume Yuujinchou is all I really need to be happy. The only thing I feel the need to say about Natsume Yuujinchou 3 is that it’s as good as the first two seasons and continues one of the best anime franchises ever.

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Subaru is following Kinjiro around to make sure he doesn’t slip her secret, but it starts to become counter productive when rumors start swirling that they’ve become a gay couple. To make matters more interesting, Kanade is using Subaru to help cure Kinjiro’s girl-phobia, but not without interference from Kinjiro’s violent sister. Oh, and it’s also time for physical exams, which could be problematic for Subaru. And for Kinjiro since the nurses are, well, female.

Kanade seems to be nice..but still sadistic

We finally get to see Subaru’s girlish side in this episode, and it is pretty cute, though I think she’s as frustrated over Kanade’s sadistic side as Kinjiro is, though being her butler she doesn’t have much of a choice but to submit.

Meanwhile, Kinjiro’s way of saving Subaru at the physical (and vice versa) just intensified the rumors of them being a gay-item, which has unleashed the minions of the Yuki Fan Club S4, a Subaru fan club.  Though, if Subaru is supposedly shy in groups, why was Kinjiro still measuring “him” in front of people and not behind some sort of curtain or in the bathroom or something?

The thing about Subaru finally being able to find a friend in Kinjiro because he knows her secret is a nice touch to the series, though. And I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that Kinjiro’s sister has fallen for Subaru for being so strong, so now Kinjiro has that to worry about too.  Kanade also seemed to show some regret that her being Subaru’s master has caused a rift to form between them, so I wonder if part of the series will be Kinjiro trying to close that rift as well.

I figure eventually Subaru’s secret will come out and Kinjiro will make an impassioned plea for her to keep her job as a butler despite the revelation, but that’ll probably be at the end of the series.

I wasn’t planning on blogging this series because I had Morita-san, but once I saw it was only 5 minutes long, I went to my backup show, which was this one. This is kind of the best of the rather dismal collection selection of light-hearted shows this season. It has some gender-bending in it (this time, a girl posing as a guy) which may give it some promise.  However, I’m rather afraid this will break down into a boring harem fan service show, but I’m still hopeful that it will be a show worth watching in the end.

Rule #1 if you're a trap: LOCK THE DOOR!

OK, this one thought basically sums up the first episode of this series: REALLY?

At first it was the door on the bathroom. Who doesn’t lock it? And if it doesn’t lock, wouldn’t you normally go to another stall, especially if you’re a girl pretending to be a guy? I mean, unless NONE of the locks work.  But that paled in comparison to the storage room incident where in one fantastic moment of grabbing Subaru out of the way of a falling frog-in-formaldehyde, Kinjiro single handedly: unbuckled Subaru’s belt, unbuttoned, unzipped, and partially pulled down her pants, unbuttoned her vest, unbuttoned her shirt, spreading both wide open, and, if she was wearing a bra, either undoing it or pushing it away and landing his hand square on her boob.  I’ve seem a lot of gimmicks in shows to try to get girls naked, but this one was probably first time I audibly let out a “really? REALLY?” as a result. They couldn’t have done something at least remotely plausible like some random hook getting caught on her clothes and ripping them or something?

So, Kanade offers to heal Kinjiro of his girl-phobia in exchange for not revealing Subaru’s secret, though I”m not sure how happy I’d be about that since she looks like someone who could go all Kotonoha over his ass at any time. She is definitely more kowai than kawaii.  For that matter, at this point, so is Subaru. Kinjiro is basically surrounded by uber-violent females. No wonder he’s scared of them.

We’ve already seen some “hur dur Kinjiro is gay” jokes from his reaction to Subaru before he even knew her secret, and now that he can get all blushy over her knowing she’s a girl, I have a feeling those will continue, which will be rather annoying, but I guess some audiences aren’t as enlightened as others.