Wow, it’s like Hannah has some kind of sixth (or 35th!) sense, because she handed this episode off to me, predicting it would be more up my alley. Oh wait, the episode is called “Crazy Summer Time”…so that’s why…
Anyway, I’m glad to fill in for Han, who is still recovering from Titan overdose. And you know what? As “crazy summer time” episodes go, this wasn’t awful. Sure, boob sizes are compared and protagonists are licked by more than one girl, but the episode manages to keep things light, breezy, and humorous.
It also manages to differentiate between the characters, as Usagi and Mari are totally capable of posing as dates at a gentleman’s club, but Ootori…isn’t, and exhibits an itchy trigger finger when someone tries to scratch a nonexistent itch on her ass. Yes, it’s “specialty” jobs like this where Ootori doesn’t do so well.
Despite her prematurely blowing everyone’s cover, they do retrieve the magic artifact they were looking for, and decide to investigate it for bonus points (and to mitigate Ootori’s penalty). When the ring accidentally falls right onto Takeru’s finger (like Frodo and the Ring!) he figures out pretty fast what the ring does: make all the girls around him drunk.
Besides being a pretty harsh endictment on the slimeball guy who wielded this ring before, it also gives us the unsolicited opportunity to observe what kind of drunks the girls are: Usagi is a giddy drunk; Mari is a sad drunk, Ootori is a wild drunk, and Suginami is a sick drunk (sick as in vomit). Even Lapis gets a little hiccup in.
Let’s move on—because the episode sure does! This is really two half episodes, which is just as well…neither of these stories could occupy a full one. The second half involves an “endless Summer” possibly being perpetrated by a magic monster of some kind. While it’s a rather obvious excuse to get the girls in swimsuits, said swimsuits are actually quite reasonable in design. It is troubling that Lapis and her school number steals the show for Takeru. The clear winner of the “competition” is Ootori.
Yet even here, the personalities of the platoon shine through. Just as they handle being at a club or being drunk in different ways, they treat summer differently. Mari and Usagi are all about having the fun with the water and the splashing, but Suginami hates the Summer and the sun (makes sense given her clinical upbringing), while poor Ootori can’t swim (like Kirin in Asterisk).
As for Takeru, he doesn’t act like a buffoon, but he does eat some off shaved ice, which I didn’t even know was a thing. As such, Usagi, Mari, and Lapis form a “Mini 35th” to take care of the pervy sea monster. Sure, Takeru comes in to help out, but in his heavy armor he’s pretty useless; it’s Lapis transforming into an industrial-grade fishing rod that allow them to hook the sucker and claim victory.
Ootori, knowing that both at the club and on the beach she wasn’t able to contribute that much, rewards the Mini 35th with the last three ice creams. Nothing death-defying or groundbreaking going on here; just good harmless platoon bonding and some ever-so-slightly above average comedy.
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