Renai Boukun – 05

As expected, the pink-haired sadist doesn’t get to torture Seiji for long, as Akane arrives to rescue him, We learn she’s Shiramine Shikimi, cousin to Akane and Yuzu, who loves receiving pain as much as she loves doling it out. She also likes stealing things, particularly from Akane, and Seiji is one such thing.

A fight ensues, and Shikimi is able to repel Akane’s attacks and restrain her, then scolding her for becoming weaker and being a sorry excuse for a “weapon princess”. She’s more impressed with Yuzu’s shield. This is all to imply that Akane and Yuzu have never been ordinary high school students, but some higher calling they’ve yet to share with Seiji.

This is where Renai Boukun ditches the comedy altogether and gets a lot more serious, especially with the newly-arrived Guri telling Shikimi she can’t make her a part of the harem because there’s no real love inside of her.

Your mileage may vary on whether this show needs to be this serious or dramatic; I’m not the biggest fan of it. In any case, all the excitement leaves Seiji knocked out, and he then dies. Not even a fifteen-minute kiss from Akane can bring him back, Sleeping Beauty-style.

His death segues into the episode’s second segment, in which he meets Guri’s father Kami and his…er…neighbor Tiara? Coraly is also there. “Heaven” is little more than an ordinary Japanese living room.

There, Kami (‘God’) tells him he’s killed him “for the time being” so he could meet the one his daughter has latched herself onto. He wants her to one day succeed him as Kami-sama, so he wants Seiji to teach her about love, something she’s not made much progress with despite being assigned cupid duty.

Maou (‘the devil’) also stops by, wanting to convert Guri to demonhood, but as these are not humans, they don’t have a specific deadline in place for either thing to happen. Seiji can’t promise anything, because as Kami is well aware, Guri is a free spirit who will do what she wants when she wants to, which is rarely the same thing for long periods.

Seiji returns to the world of the living, where Akane is chasing Guri with her knives and Yuzu was about to kiss him as well, only for her and Seiji to knock heads. Seiji asks why Guri never let on about her father or the succession; Guri simply explains that stuff is boring and she doesn’t want to waste time talking about it. Fair enough!

Last week ever-darker elements of violence and sexual deprivation were introduced; this week there’s a lot more character drama and a general plot course is set, with various parties vying for Guri’s future just as the girls vie for Seiji. That’s all well and good, but it was also IMO the least funny, and least surprising, episode of Love Tyrant yet.

The World God Only Knows 12 and Wrap-up

Well now, that was a surprise! I hadn’t a clue God Only Knows got a second season until it announced one at the end! I’m not complaining; this was one of the more original fall series, and it was almost always hilarious from beginning to end. What also stood out was its awesome array of electronic and orchestral music and impressive production qualities, which were on full display this week.

Keima stays in his room for most of the episode, which is something to behold; a Lain-style cave stuffed with stacks of dating sims and dozens of video game consoles and monitors. It is here where Keima plays multiple games at once and wins at all of them. This is his church. With all the positive reinforcement these games offer, it’s no wonder he considers himself a god of conquest. And his skills are truly otherworldly, both impressing and creeping out Elcie whenever she pops her head in. Elcie worries about him, but she doesn’t understand: this is what he was put on the earth to do: play.

The string of hilarious, intentionally over-dramatic, powerful vignettes in which Keima waxes poetic about his beloved games reminded me of his last real conquest, Shiori’s obsession with books, only cranked all the way up to eleven; hell twelve. This week was Keima’s opportunity to catch up on games he wasn’t able to play because he was out in the real world. It was a very nice resting place, and even teased that there’d be a new demon like Elcie next season, when there’s sure to be more real-life girls’ hearts Keima must conquer. I don’t have a problem with that. Rating: 4

Series Mean Ranking: 3.417 (Ranked 7th out of 15 Fall 2010 Series)