天下制覇

Dude’s already been on more dates than most romantic comedy protagonists get in a lifetime.

Impressions:

I have to say that I’m a little annoyed with Xebec for jerking around the audience here. It’s on that nasty little line where it’s not quite obvious how much is real and how much Mio’s just screwing around with him that makes it slightly frustrating. Xebec is continuing to do a very admirable job with the melodrama here, but Mio faking him out the entire date did undermine that scene juuuuuust a bit. Most of what I guess the episode is in the end is a lot of Mio blushing and looking quite cute. I will say that even if it was all fake, it’s still nice to see character who do not freak out and start screaming bloody murder at simple physical contact. Plus, a kiss. That ended up with Tarou putting his foot down at her antics. Most characters in that situation would have collapsed into gibbering messes instead of growing a pair.

This week had Tarou out on a mock date with Mio to ostensibly train him, but in the end was her just messing around with, and I quote, the power of love. She used every dirty date trick in the book, ending with a play marriage that finally made Tarou snap and tell her to stop treating him like a plaything. I do think that they’re sort of confusing messages here by conflating Tarou’s physical masochism with mental subjugation or whatever you want to call it. Tarou’s actually been quite good about not being a doormat thus far than almost all romantic comedy protagonists, so I don’t feel like it was really an effective way to show his growth if that’s what they were going for. And I cannot believe that I spent most of this post talking about this episode seriously. Xebec, you are ruining the world order here. 

Preview:

Black magic woman.