天下制覇

Okay, I can buy the nun, but a traffic cop? They’re the model of sadism? Remind me to never get a parking ticket in Japan.

Impressions:

A fairly cute episode, even if it’s plainly evident that the characters and development are stuck in the spin cycle for this episode to make way for the last two. Yuuno gets it into her head that Tarou prefers a sadistic girl like Mio, so tries to become one by yelling at him and feeding him bricks, but is still small potatoes compared to Mio so off to train. Yada yada, sadism contest, yada yada, "I like the normal Yuuno the most," yada yada, status quo restored. Everybody’s ready to move onto sad faces and some sudden massive drama for the penultimate episode next week. Hopefully they’ll at least do half as good a job with the obligatory dramatic finish as they did with Yuuno’s earlier scenes. At the very least, I hope Noa stays far far away from it.

I expected a little more from the sadism contest though, especially the middle "silent sadism" part. That was just weak. The "prop sadism" at the end is also not going to go down as one of the more inspired sequences of this show. I do wish Tarou was a little more responsive and/or receptive to Yuuno instead of being a big dumb thickheaded brick. At least he rattled off that he likes her without freaking out about it, but regardless, all these scenes where Yuuno tries to touch him and breaks down could be made so much better if she got a little bit further each time or if he noticed her trying for him instead of the cookie cutter approach that they’ve been using. Show progression, damn it. Don’t just copy/paste these scenes over and over again.

*ahem* Anyway. It was back to Yuuno at least and looks like it’s going to be focused on her for the last few episodes. Her side of the story and relationship with Tarou is at least consistently and cohesively presented, even if the dynamic is stuck in the hamster wheel at the moment. Even though it’s Xebec, I’m really hoping they actually pull out an ending from the obligatory incoming drama instead of the usual big ol’ anime reset. Well, what I’m really hoping for is that no part of the ending involves Dragon Ball, but a real ending is a close second.

Preview:

Yuuno vs Mio for super reals this time.