天下制覇

Toona! No! Bad kappa! Do not punch the protagonist in the jewels! He needs those!

Impressions:

The OP changed this week in a couple places to include poor Meimei. Really, there were two great jokes this episode that overshadowed almost everything else. The Toona low blow, and the Yukino… uh… oi… the rest of the episode was still pretty fun, but those two jokes were so out of nowhere for this show that I’m still laughing about them. I do want that xylophone music to die a horrible horrible death though.

 

The New Opening (pretty much the same as the old)
 

Summary:

Ikuto is repairing part of the house when Rin comes up with some furniture for Meimei’s house. Meimei and Toona are off doing their own things. Toona is eating cucumbers in a field while Meimei, disguised as a tree is trying to ask for help to the surprise of all involved. The girls Meimei surprised eventually calm down and try to ask Meimei what she needs, but she’s too nervous to respond and goes running off.

Meimei’s house is fully furnished, and she’s speechless. It’s far better than where she used to live, so she’s grateful. It even has a doorway for Toona to enter, though Ikuto steadfastly disbelieves that Toona is a kappa, so Kappa gives him a straight shot to the balls. No, really… a punch straight to the junk. Ouch Toona… just… ouch.

We get a brief flashback of Meimei’s ‘tragic’ past and how she met Toona. Apparently there was some shrine under a bridge that she was drawn to where Toona was sealed and for whatever reason, she decided to bust it up and free him and the two quickly became friends. Suzu is in tears from the story, but Ikuto is annoyed at such an outlandish tale involving a kappa.

Later, Suzu, Ikuto and Toona are fishing, and Toona is exhibiting her prowess. Back in the hut, Meimei decides that she needs to start working on her own, so puts on her costume head and tries to head out… only to clothesline herself on the door. She gets about six steps out of the house before collapsing and asking Ikuto and Suzu to go with her.

The first place they visit is Rin’s house, but Rin gets a bit too close for her comfort and she retreats inside a barrel holding out a picture of ants. They figure out that it’s a thanks for the cabinet Rin delivered, despite its strange way of opening, and in her excitement, Rin bequeaths a number of other failed creations of her’s.

Continuing onward, we find Yukino riding on a penguin. Meimei freaks out and dresses as a fierce bear in response. She growls and starts drooling… LET’S BE CLEAR HERE… IT’S DROOL AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE… on Yukino’s face until she runs off.

The next visit is Chikage, who is thrilled with Meimei’s chinese clothes to the point of tearing them off and the usual Ikuto blood fountain.

Over at the shrine, Ayane and Machi are bored and hanging out, so Ayane decides to go find Ikuto to relieve the boredom. She finds them cooling off next to a river and is immediately angered by Meimei’s abundant curves, so out comes the blowgun.

Meimei’s pretty depressed about how she can’t make friends with people though, so Ayane puts it away and goes over to say hello. Meimei is traumatized as usual, so she retreats inside her tree. Ayane announces her generous nature and offers to be her friend and tries to play up her loving nature to ingratiate herself to Ikuto… who is thinking about eating.

The crew try to convince Meimei that she already has friends and that with time, she’ll make more and slowly not be embarrassed around them. Toona comes up during the conversation, and Ayane checks him out. Once informed that he’s a kappa, she freaks out and goes running off into the distance. Suzu remembers that Ayane is deathly afraid of kappa, so of course, Toona goes chasing after her to try to make up.

At this point, my patience with the xylophone music has about run out.

Meimei eventually manages to overtake Ayane, and instead of tackling her or something, knees her in the jaw to stop her from running. Ouch.

Back at the Meimei’s house, Machi fills them in about Ayane’s fear of Kappa. She dressed as one for fun to scare the living hell out of Ayane, and it has left her with a deep seated fear of them. Rin, Yukino and Chikage are also here to help out with the last bits of preparing her house for livability. Chikage even has a chinese dress on. Meimei temporarily overcomes her fear and thanks everybody for all that they’ve done.