Sket Dance 20

The Sket-dan learned one major thing this week: their unique set of social skills really only work amongst them and the various other zany side characters. When they’re split up and put into situations where they have to talk to ordinary people of the opposite sex, they bomb, and bomb brutally. It all starts when Bossun accidentally cops a feel from Himeko.

This is very effectively illustrated in two parts: one where Switch and Bossun attend a mixer with Bossun’s former bandmate, Seiji, and three girls. Seiji splits almost immediately with the girl he was after, and well, the rest writes itself. Bossun instantly loses his cool, and nothing he says or Switch types have any effect whatsoever on the girls. Fortunately Himeko stalked them and bails them out.

They return the favor, as when Yabasawa invites her (along with the class’s hottest girl) to another mixer (at the same restaurant) and then splits with her guy (a fellow “3” mouth; but it’s ultimately not to be), she bombs even worse than the fellas. The three of them are a matched set; they can’t effectively break through to anyone else, and nobody else quite gets them. The boob touch is apparently forgiven.

Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 6

Saya is good at killing elder bairns, and by extension protecting her friends and her town...from a distance. But as it’s been demonstrated, once an elder bairn has a victim in sight, Saya can’t do much to save them. She can’t fight and protect Nene at the same time. And so Nene becomes the first of Saya’s classmates to die. The scene is portrayed with all the necessary horror. We knew it was pretty much inevitable, but it still hurts to watch (though less bloody thanks to network censors).

Just when you thought, well, she has an identical twin, they wouldn’t kill off both in the same episode…well, they do. Nono doesn’t just die, she’s possessed by her own shadow while pleading for Saya to tell her where her sister is. The shadow consumes her and Saya, and when Saya defeats it, Nono is torn to pieces in a rain of blood. I cannot overstate the gruesomeness – especially when neither Nene nor Nono had anything to do with this elder bairn business until that cliffhanger. The contrast from the lighter moments of the series couldn’t be more stark. Hell, they couldn’t be more lannister.

Fumito is as creepily supportive as ever, Tokizane wants Saya to spill the beans about what’s troubling her, and that little doglike animal that’s been showing up so often finally talks to her, telling her to “wake up”. Saya is coming to grips with the fact she’s little more than a deadly weapon with no free will of her own, not a shield that can protect her friends. And I don’t think it’s helping her sanity. One thing’s certain: the lighthearted school moments are over with.

Rating: 4

Mawaru Penguindrum 6

Whatever screw is loose in Ringo, it’s getting looser by the week. Kanba’s woman troubles are far more serious than he had predicted. Shoma is no closer to ‘obtaining the Penguin Drum’, drawing the ire of the hat. The animated displays on the Metro warned about falling for a trap. Yes, it’s a typical Mawaru Penguindrum; jumping all over the place and yet totally cohesive and monstrously entertaining.

Somebody has it in for Kanba in a way that makes his other exes’ scornedness seem trifling. This woman, with orange hair and blue eyes, is eliminating the memories of Kanba’s exes. Holed up in her ginormous mansion full of marble busts, she vows to methodically destroy Kanba. She claims to control fate. Who is she? One possibility is Momoka, Ringo’s older sister (though that’s just a wild guess).

She supposedly died years ago, and was Tabuki’s first, possibly only true love. Ringo inherited Momoka’s diary, and believes its her destiny to become her sister – which means being with Tabuki. Her obsession is starting to have physical consequences – she has a high fever, and is prone to uncontrollable actions that – ahem – scare Shoma and make her mother get the wrong idea.

This is all deliciously excellent buildup. I’m itching for more answers, but in the meantime the show does a superb job keeping you constantly interested in what’s going on, not just longing for what’s to come. “Plan M” is something both Ringo and the mysterious “ex-girlfriend memory assassin” mention as well – it probably doesn’t mean “marriage”, but could mean “Momoka”, another reason I suspect she’s Ringo’s sister.

Rating: 4

No. 6 7

Ah, now this is more like it! Instead of characters, relationships and motivations all essentially milling around in a holding pattern as they seem to have done the past couple episodes, Shion finally has a reason to do something, Nezumi finally takes up a position, and, with four episodes left, we may be starting to see sunshine at the end of the pseudo-utopian corridor.

As I’ve said, I really like Safu. She’s pretty, she’s very bright, and she’s very forward and to-the-point where sex is concerned. Unfortunately, last week she was captured by DHS right when she was about to go after Shion. While bright, she underestimated the level of surveillance in No.6, as Shion’s mom’s house was bugged. Safu only has one brief scene this week, but that’s all we need to see that she’s in peril and in dire need of rescue. Whenever you wake up naked and suspended in liquid-filled glass tube in a lab, things are not going well (Just ask Bill Clinton).

Nezumi keeps the knowledge that Safu is imprisoned from Shion, at least initially. But despite his outward mocking and loathing of the white-haired mother hen, he starts scheming behind his back to save Safu himself, using the dogkeeper’s prison connections. I love his interaction with the dogkeeper here: we’ve never known why the two hate each other so much they’d wish each other dead, but they seem to have reached a truce here. Meanwhile, Shion finds out anyway, when he find’s Safu’s coat in a thrift store of all places. So he’s off to save her…alone.

After exchanging a “goodnight kiss” (on the lips?) that’s really a goodbye kiss, Shion is off. But Nezumi follows, and the two exchange punches, thankfully no more kisses, and Nezumi finally voices exactly what Shion means to him, going all the way back to when he saw him screaming from his balcony in a rainstorm. Shion is his savior, the reason he draws breath today. These two clearly have feelings for each other, and they have for a long time. But Safu still needs saving. They’ll save her together.

Rating: 3.5