Mushoku Tensei II – 16 – A New Battle

It’s been three years since Rudy has seen Ruijerd, the Superd is naturally taciturn, and his mere presence reminds him of Eris, so their reunion is a bit awkward at first. Still, Rudy is glad to see his old friend, who he trusts more than anyone. I especially appreciate how Rudy takes’ Ruijerd’s advice vis-a-vis Eris to heart. Ruijerd doesn’t want to intrude, and seems to have some bad blood with Badigadi, but Rudy at least has him eat breakfast with them before departing.

Once Ruijerd is gone, Aisha and Norn are now officially under Rudy and Sylphy’s care. Norn expressed interest in going with Ruijerd since one of her strongest memories of Rudy is hitting their dad, and the fact he’s with “a different woman” now. But while Norn is aloof and distrustful, Aisha couldn’t be happier to be reunited, and is eager to work as Rudy and Aisha’s maid. Rudy asks them both to at least take the academy entrance exam.

The tension below the surface of Aisha and Norn’s sisterhood is exposed like a raw wound when Aisha aces her exam and is thus allowed to skip school and serve as Rudy and Sylphy’s maid. Norn scores slightly below average for her age, but when she asks if she can live in the on-campus dorms and Rudy agrees, Aisha is outraged. She wonders if Rudy is letting Norn have her way because Aisha’s mom is a “concubine”, something Rudy never thought about Lidia.

Balancing his duty to protect his sisters in Paul’s stead while ensuring they’re as happy as they can be is no small task, and represents a new and unexplored challenge to Rudy. But he’s not alone; he has his wife Sylphy by his side to provide a girl’s perspective and as a sounding board for strategy and tactics. As I suspected, they have become his sisters’ adoptive parents.

A month passes, and every time Rudy sees Norn in the halls, she’s alone. He fears she’s made no friends despite living in the dorms, and that’s precisely the case. Rinia and Pursena don’t make things any easier by “gifting” him a bag of underwear from first years with certain figure. Rudy ends up in how water with Ariel, but he is forthright and honest and manages to get out of it unscathed.

The beastgirls’ prank seems a little out of place here, meant strictly to provide some comic relief in an otherwise bittersweet reunion of Rudy with his sisters. Aisha is happy as a clam and the house has never been cleaner, but Norn is clearly having a hard time, hiding under her sheets in her dorm rather than socializing.

Norn is clearly less extroverted and than Aisha, and if she’s just as talented, she struggles to apply herself, perhaps due to the pressures of her more overachieving siblings. Hopefully Rudy, no stranger to antisocial tendencies, can help lift her out of her funk, teach her ways to make friends, and help her find a place she feels she belongs. It may be his toughest battle yet, and his staff and eye can’t help him.

KonoSuba 3 – 02 – Guess Who’s Teleporting for Dinner

After a successful sale of pocket lighters at Wiz’s shop, Kazuma & Co. prepare for a formal dinner with Princess Iris. As the only noble among the party, Darkness takes point in this venture, and impresses upon everyone how their usual repartee isn’t going to fly in front of royalty: one wrong word or look and they could literally lose their heads.

As you can imagine, things don’t go that well. Aqua tries to whip out a card trick and drinks too much, Magumin does her Crimson Demon schtick, and Kazuma’s look and tone insult the princess. It’s only thanks to Iris happening to like the sand portrait Aqua made of her (ahoge and all) and Darkness’s manners manage to smooth things over.

When Kazuma won’t show the princess his adventurer’s card, she accuses him of lying about defeating Mitsurugi, speaking out loud instead of relying on the help to speak for her. Darkness responds by slapping her, and blocks the sword of her attendant with her wrist. Then she gently takes Iris’s cheek in her hand and calmly scolds her for insulting Kazuma.

Moved by both Megumin threatening violence on his behalf and Darkness defending his honor, Kazuma finally decides he’ll show Iris’ attendant how he beat Mitsurugi: with his Steal ability. Unfortunately, whether due to lack of focus or something else, rather than steal the attendant’s sword, he ends up stealing … her unmentionables.

While everyone is scandalized by this, both the attendant and Iris are sufficiently impressed that they admit Kazuma must have what it took to beat Mitsurugi. Iris even apologizes out loud and hopes Kazuma will regale her with more stories of his adventures. When he says that he will, she takes that to mean right now, and before she’s teleported away she grabs his hand and he ends up at the royal palace with her. It’s a Kazumanapping!

This was a comedic tour-de-force in which the KonoSuba gang butted up against royal manners and propriety and more or less came out on top. The tension of the earlier parts of the dinner have melted away by the end, and Iris is precisely the cute and curious princess Kazuma hoped for. If he plays his cards right, she might even start calling him Onii-sama!

Mushoku Tensei II – 05 – It Is Happening Again

While journeying to Ranoa Magic University, Rudy learns that Elinalise has pretty much the opposite curse as him: she must fuck or die; he can’t fuck and must live. But no sooner does he arrive than he’s thrown into a mock trial with one of the school’s other silent-incanting special students: Silent Fitz.

Of course, Fitz is Sylphie, but due to her clothes, shades, and white hair, plus the fact she’s years older than when he last saw her, Rudy doesn’t recognize her, and once again mistakes her for a man. This is…unfortunate, to say the least, and hopefully it’s a misunderstanding that’s cleared up soon.

When Rudy sees Fitz’s attack with his right eye before it happens, he uses Disturb magic to negate it and sends “him” to the floor. When he realizes he may have cause Fitz to lose face, he loudly proclaims he let him win because he’s new. When he promises Fitz he’ll make it up to him later, Sylphie blushes.

Ranoa is full of familiar faces and names. Rudy doesn’t recognize Sylphie yet, but she’s right there. Princess Ariel’s other bodyguard Sir Luke reminds him of Paul. And when he enters his homeroom he encounters Prince Zanoba, whom he met and befriended while in Shirone and who calls Rudy “shisho”.

Other students include Rinia Dedoldia, the eldest daughter of Chief Ryes, whom Rudy met in Dedoldia village. She’s voiced by Ai Fairouz, ably voicing yet another “wild” girl. There’s also Pursena, another demi who may always be munching on a chicken leg, and Cliff Grimoire, who proclaims himself a magical genius.

Rudy wins Rinia over with humbleness and deference, then checks out the rest of the school. He’s a special student, so he can pretty much do what he wants, when he wants. Since his primary goal is to determine the cause and develop a cure for his ED, he heads to the massive library, where he has a very pleasant interaction with “Fitz.”

While eating lunch with Zanoba, Rudy is approached by Luke and his two girlfriends. Rudy is his usual deferent self, but it doesnt’ work on Luke, who is pissed off by the very fact Rudy doesn’t know his name: Luke Notos Greyrat. He looks like Paul (and is an excellent swordsman) because he’s from Paul’s side of the family; Rudy’s cousin.

Things suddenly take a turn for the worse when Rudy happens to pick up a pair of white undergarments, and is immediately called out as a panty thief and surrounded by angry women, many of them brandishing brooms and led by a gargantuan gorilla demi-human girl. The irony is delicious: he’s 1000% guilty of stealing panties…but not these panties!

The gorilla girl is about to bring him in when Fitz stops her, saying he dropped the princess’ laundry out the window while hanging it out to dry. Even after Fitz vouches for Rudy, the gorilla girl still wants to take him in for walking on a girls-only pathway, even though he doesn’t know all the dorm rules yet.

Fitz finally has to raise his wand and insist she unhand him, lest she and all the other girls want to end up in the infirmary. I gotta admit, in this scene, Fitz/Sylphie is as badass as Eris. The gorilla girl, named Goliade, stands down, and she and the other girls leave Rudy alone.

After sundown, Fitz heals Rudy, who apologizes and thanks him for having his back. From Rudy’s perspective, Fitz is just a really great guy who didn’t hold a grudge for being so easily beaten in the mock duel. Fitz can’t help giving off a Sylphie-esque laugh and flashes a warm smile, amused that Rudy is thanking her.

Obviously, Sylphie knows it’s Rudy. Luke even mentioned earlier that Fitz called Rudy “forgetful”. Yet she’s keeping her cards close. While the delay in his realization of who she is more than a little irritating (we’ve already been through this with her!), I have no choice but to hope, as she probably is, that he’ll eventually figure it out on his own.

Love Flops – 01 (First Impressions) – Five Uneasy Pieces

Kashiwagi Asahi lives in a spacious apartment with an AI assistant Lovelin (Nanachi again), and while listening to the morning news, his birthday of October 8 (just four days ago!) happens to be the luckiest for today. The mysterious fortune teller then lists off a series of “lucky words” that don’t make any sense until he starts his commute to school.

The first word, corner, refers to a rushing girl with purple hair and glasses colliding with  him when they meet at a blind corner. They end up in a risqué position, but he promises he didn’t “see anything” as a result of that position, and they part ways relatively amicably.

Then comes train, when he boards a completely empty car only for a busty green-haired woman in a chinese dress sits right next to him, falls asleep, clings to him, then nearly kicks his head off when he starts her awake.

The next “lucky” word is staircase, when a third beautiful girl stumbles down a flight of steps and she’s launched crotch-first into Asahi’s face. She mistakes the plastic banana holder in his pocket for being happy to see her, and smacks it before running off. So far, Asahi can hardly be blamed for these situations.

Next up is robotic cleaner, when he encounters said robot cleaner in a park trying to dispose of a diminutive redhead’s bra, then the girl herself. This girl accuses Asahi of hacking the robot into stealing her unmentionables. It then chases her away.

Next up is dog, as a silver-haired fellow is being humped by a very big and assertive pooch. To this, Asahi turns about and pretends not to see what is going on, rather than attempt to save the waifish lad and incur the dog’s wrath. It isn’t until he arrives in his newly reorganized class that Asahi learns that everyone he encountered is in his class.

The purple-haired girl with glasses is Izumisawa Aoi (Itou Miku), a transfer student; he short-haired girl is Karin Istel (Kouno Marika), from Germany;  the redhead is Amelia Irving (Taketatsu Ayana) from the USA; the silver-haired boy is Ilya Ilyukhin (Takahashi Rie) from Bulgaria; and the green-haired well-endowed lady from the train is his new teacher, Bai Mongfa, from China (Kanemoto Hisako).

Asahi can’t believe his rotten luck, even as he learns what the last lucky word, letter, referred to a love letter in his locker inviting him to meet after school. His contractually assigned friend Ijuuin Yoshio assures him he’s hit the jackpot; he has the pick of these three beautiful girls, one beautiful woman, and one beautiful guy. I’ll give Yoshio this: he’s refreshingly progressive!

As the rest of the episode unfolds, Asahi has second encounters with each of these potential suitors, in which he attempts to correct the misunderstandings that occurred in their first meetings. He and Aoi almost collide around a corner again, but don’t. Alas, when he fishes through his pockets for what he believed to be her dropped handkerchief, he instead produces Amelia’s bra, scandalizing Aoi and earning him a slap.

This encounter makes him late to order lunch, and there’s nothing left for sale, but he’s not alone; Karin was also too late, and is clearly very hungry. Because Asahi’s a decent guy, he offers her the banana he brought for lunch (this guy really likes bananas, having toasted one for breakfast), while also pointing out that its holder was what she mistook for his manhood. She meekly thanks him for the food.

Asahi then gets another chance to rescue Ilya from becoming unmarriable all over again, albeit not necessarily by choice. Ilya hides behind him, and the randy dog  targets him, even managing to somehow get his pants off. Asahi blacks out, but when he comes to, it’s looking up at a very grateful Ilya.

The dog also managed to bite him, which would normally mean he should probably get tested and treated for rabies, but since this is a goofy anime some alcohol and spray-on bandage will suffice. He receives this treatment from Mongfa-sensei, who doubles as school nurse, and apologizes for their earlier awkward interaction.

No sooner does she leave than Amelia Irving arrives with a very specific ailment: chafing in the chestal area. Fortunately for her, Asahi saved her bra from the trash robot. He returns it to her, and she apologizes for jumping to the earlier conclusion that he hacked the robot, having later realized that was…unlikely.

Having repaired four of the five new relationships he’s built on this most auspicious day, all that’s left is checking out what the final lucky word letter portends. Responding to the love letter, he arrives at a giant blossoming cherry tree he doesn’t remember being there (he has several memory gaps in this episode, though it’s never explained).

There, waiting for him, is none other than the first girl he ran into, Aoi. She’s there to confess her love to him, but because it’s so breezy, her skirt flips up and reveals to him that she’s been going commando ever since their first encounter. The item she dropped was not a handkerchief, but side-tying underwear. For once, Asahi is lucky here, as Aoi doesn’t realize what the wind is doing and the moment isn’t spoiled.

Love Flops thus introduces its lead and his harem of potential girlfriends by resorting to all of the shameless, risqué, fanservice-y clichés but the Bluetooth-enabled kitchen sink. While at times it seems like a very over-the-top satire of harem rom-coms, the fact that it may actually be a genuine and un-ironic contribution to the form almost makes it more amazing. It’s pure tasteless trash … and yet I couldn’t look away.

Lycoris Recoil – 04 – Lycra Regird

After having Takina practice shooting non-lethal rounds in the café’s  basement range (what a concept) Chisato, frustrated by being beaten in a VR battle game by a player called “Fuki” (who is actually Fuki), plops the headgear on Takina and lets her rip.

Takina defeates Fuki, but while doing a flip dodging virtual fire, Chisato discovers that Takina always wears tactical boxer shorts under her skirt, the result of Mika messing with her when it comes to “regulation clothing”. With no mission this week, this calls for a shopping trip.

While underwear shopping sounds like a thin premise for an episode, what this really is is an opportunity for Chisato and Takina’s galmance to continue blossoming as they hang out in less lethal or official circumstances. Takina treats the trip like another mission, even bringing her gun, but Chisato makes her promise not to take it out.

They’re not Lycoris today, just two friends hanging out, buying cute clothes, and eating beautiful delicious fancy junk food. While Chisato is helping out some tourists with the menu with her perfect French, Takina looks up at the blue sky, the wind blows her hair about, and she seems to get what Chisato was on about, and she smiles.

Their next trip on their girldate is to the aquarium, where Chisato naturally has an annual pass and mimics the movements of the various marine life. Takina also gets Chisato to open up a bit more about why she left the DA, where she probably could have gotten away with her non-lethal methods.

That’s when Chisato reveals her owl pendant signifying (whether she knows it or not) that she’s an “Alan Child”, part of the Alan Institute that either finds or produces “geniuses” such as her in all forms. Chisato says she left DA to find “someone” who also bears the pendant, who Mika knows to be Shinji, the older blonde dude always stopping by the café.

Seeing Chisato looking wistful and even a little down compels Takina to embrace her silly side, running over to the tank and mimicking a fish, inviting Chisato (and little kids watching) to join in. This cheers Chisato right up, because she knows Takina smiling and acting silly, like geniuses, are truly gifts from God.

It’s a good thing the girls aren’t Lycoris this week, because I doubt even Chisato could have dodged what happens at the Kita-Oshiage metro station. A green-haired ne’er do-well and his band of terrorists disguised as workmen whip out all manner of heavy weaponry and open fire at the next approaching train.

When they stop firing, they realize the train is empty, but for a large task force of Lycoris, who return fire and kill everyone. Green-hair is only wounded, and detonates a series of bombs he set, blasting the station, train, and Lycoris aboard it to smithereens.

When Chisato and Takina walk past the taped-off station, Takina wants to check things out, but Chisato grabs her hand and tells her if she takes out her gun she’ll be arrested. They’re not Lycoris today, so whatever went on down in that station isn’t their concern. They also have a bunch of shopping bags, so they should just head home. The news reports a train collision and derailment, but makes clear that no one was hurt or injured.

That’s because as far as the public is concerned, the Lycoris are no one. The deeds those young girls performed defending the citizenry from agents of destruction will never be heralded; they may not even receive funerals. They had no family except each other, and now they’re all dead and the incident that killed them swept under yet another rug.

That’s why it’s so important to Chisato that Takina learn to loosen up and live a little, whether it’s wearing cuter clothes or less tactical underwear, spending too much money on too many calories or carbs, or being goofballs beside the fish tanks. Because people out there like the green-haired guy (Majima) and Robota (who makes contact with him and proposes a partnership) want to destroy the Lycoris and what they represent.

Chisato and Takina could be killed in the line of duty any day, at any moment, and their deeds and sacrifice forgotten. So it behooves them to look up at the blue sky, feel the wind in their hair, and laugh when they can.

Higehiro – 03 – Fated Encounters

Sayu has a dream about a past night she spent with a man in exchange for a place to stay. She lies under him passively, her eyes devoid of their usual glimmer, making no noise except to say “yeah” when he asks if it feels good. It’s not a love scene; it’s a transaction scene, depicted in all its awkward frankness. Sayu wakes up in her own bed as Yoshida dozes away in his. The glimmer is back in her eyes, but there’s also worry.

When Yoshida heads off to work, all Sayu has are household chores and her thoughts. And her thoughts are constantly asking why Yoshida won’t touch her. Shouldn’t he want to, at least a little? All the other men did, and took what they could. We learn Yoshida turned down a business trip, and his male co-worker assumes it’s because he has a girlfriend.

That prospect upsets Mishima, who asks him out to a movie after work. On the way out he and Gotou nearly walk into each other. Seeing him leave with Mishima, Gotou wears a look I’d describe as…left out?

Long before Yoshida returns home, Sayu is simply out of things to do around the house, so she has nothing but those lingering, worrying thoughts. Even though Yoshida hasn’t touched her like all the other men, she still believes he’ll kick her out when he doesn’t want her anymore.

When he texts her that he’s going out for a movie with a colleague, Sayu decides to stalk him…just a little. She happens to be watching just as Mishima finished talking to Yoshida about fated encounters, both the ones in the sad movie and ones in reality. Mishima is certain it’s better to realize that it’s fate the moment it happens, rather than months or years later.

While Yoshida isn’t 100% with her on this line of thinking (one, because he considers her a co-worker and friend first; two, he’s a bit dense), Mishima thinks she’s having such an encounter with him now, and doesn’t want to let it go. He’s taken aback when she hugs him, but the hug is all Sayu sees when she rushes off.

She doesn’t see Yoshida rebuff Mishima; not that she’s going to give up on him anytime soon. When Yoshida comes home to find Sayu’s phone but no Sayu, his first worry is that she was kidnapped, not that she ran away because she saw him with Mishima.

Even though I knew her running away would be a distinct possibility, I was still hugely relieved to see she didn’t go far; just to a nearby park to think. Heavy on her thoughts is how Yoshida looked when Mishima hugged him, how different it was from how he is with her. It made her jealous, but also reinforces her worry that once a guy as kind as him finds a girlfriend, she’ll be abandoned.

But this episode deals with three fated encounters: Yoshida and Sayu, Yoshida and Mishima…and Sayu and Mishima, who happens to find Sayu in the park looking forlorn (and out of place!) before Yoshida does. She sits with her so she can think without being bothered by a cop, and asks what’s troubling her. She’s not in a fight with her “parents”—i.e. Yoshida—as “they’re unbelievably nice”.

Rather, there’s something Sayu can’t tell “them”, or they might abandon her. Mishima tells her that fear can freeze you in place, but it can also spur forward action. In her book, the latter way is the better one. From what she’s heard, Mishima thinks whoever this is believes in Sayu, so she should believe in them and say This is who I am! This is part of me! Will you stay with me anyway?

Of course, Mishima is speaking from her experiences with Yoshida, who just happens to be the same person Sayu is talking about. Mishima learns this when Yoshida arrives at the park. And from the way he treats Sayu—like a worried-sick guardian would treat his lost kid—it’s clear Sayu and Yoshida have some “family stuff” to discuss. So she takes her leave, but insists that Yoshida explain himself later.

I love how low-key and empathetic Mishima’s reaction is to learning Yoshida is looking after a teenage runaway. She knows she doesn’t have the whole story, and while she very much wants to hear it, it’s not the time or place, so she’ll wait until it is. She doesn’t jump to conclusions or express premature outrage.

When Yoshida and Sayu comes home, Sayu takes Mishima’s advice, stops standing in place, and steps forward … in her black underwear … towards Yoshida. She refuses to dress before they talk. She again mentions how her breasts are big for someone in high school. She presses against Yoshida, and asks again if he wants to have sex her, like all the other men wanted to.

When pressed (literally) by Sayu, Yoshida admits that of course he finds her extremely cute and attractive. Sayu is flattered by his praise, and explains that this is the way she decided on to be able to live without going back home. She knows there are disadvantages to an adult having a teenage girl around, and so thought there must be some kind of advantage way to make up for that.

At first, she hated using her body in that way. But while she was doing it with someone she also felt she could be herself; that she was needed. The advantage she provided to the other men made her feel fulfilled. Maybe in her dream, when she said ‘yeah’ when asked if it felt good, she wasn’t lying. It felt good emotionally for there to be what she saw as a balanced give-and-take; something for something.

But ultimately the disadvantages would win out, and she’d get kicked out. However many times this happened to Sayu, she’s now of the mind that her crushing uneasiness won’t be quelled unless Yoshida sleeps with her. So she asks once more, if it won’t upset him, if he’ll do so. Yoshida gathers Sayu into a solid but thoroughly platonic hug, and make it clear that sleeping with someone he’s not in love with would upset her, so the answer is no.

Once she’s dressed again and they’re seated at the table, Yoshida calmly rejects Sayu’s assertion that she “hasn’t done anything” for him in return to justify keeping her around. Again, he tries to reorient her belief that only sex can pay for the roof under her head and make up for the disadvantages of having her there.

He admits he’s changed since she came. He takes better care of himself. They eat and talk about nothing special. His apartment feels like a real home with her there, and a place he wants to hurry back to after work. Just having her there has made his life more fun and more rewarding. She doesn’t have to do or say anything special to maintain that atmosphere; she just has to be there. That’s it.

Saying this moves Sayu to tears. Yoshida realizes that he wasn’t doing himself or Sayu any favors by thinking he could change her back into a “normal teenage girl”, and that there was nothing more to it than that. Denying her transactional mindset and sexuality only heightened her anxiety about properly paying him back for his kindness.

Acknowledging the role of sex in Sayu’s life up to this point was a crucial step in acknowledging Sayu herself, just as making it clear that sex with her is neither wanted nor required establishes firm boundaries. It sets him apart from all the other men, thank goodness.

Thanks to Mishima, Sayu was able to break their stalemate of unspoken tension, and was able to learn from Yoshida not only why he didn’t want to sleep with her, but why just being there was enough for him. Now that they’ve bared their hearts and cleared the air, they can begin truly living together, like a family. It’s an honest, beautiful, and heartwarming catharsis between two lonely souls who claim to be pathetic, but are actually inspiring!

TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – 09 – New Digs, New Threads

As  foreshadowed last week, Nasa doesn’t lose much when they return home to find the apartment building burned down. All his valuable paperwork and data is either at the bank or in the cloud, and he not only has renter’s insurance, but a full grasp on what’s needed to make a claim. Tsukasa marvels at how much Nasa keeps proving why she loves him so much.

It’s not just because he keeps a cool head and doesn’t express anger or regret in the face of what would be a disaster for most people. It’s that the first thing on his mind is that everyone else in the building was okay (they are). The only possession that survived was the tree commemorating their marriage, which can easily be transplanted.

When Nasa and Tsukasa head to the bathhouse to have a nice long soak and consider what’s next, Kaname ends up offering a detatched house on their property where they can stay until they find a suitable new place. Nasa thinks it’s good luck, but Tsukasa knows otherwise: by being someone so kind and well-liked, people are quick to help someone like Nasa.

Kaname does consider one potential problem: now that Nasa and Tsukasa are staying on the Arisugawa’s property, the time will come when Aya finally realizes Tsukasa isn’t just any “relation” of Nasa’s, but his wedded wife. In the end, no amount of hints can crack Aya’s Airhead A.T. Field, but Kaname and Aya’s mom just comes right out and says it.

Aya starts to go into a flashback about Nasa, her first and only love, but her mom cuts her short. As someone whose own husband cheated on her and left her for a younger woman, Aya’s mom wants her to do whatever she needs to do—cut her hair, go to school abroad (on her own dime), whatever—to get over it and move on.

Aya knows that in times of heartbreak one should hold their head high, so she does so and congratulates Nasa and Tsukasa, then considers becoming a YouTube idol…an idea quickly shot down by everyone.

Nasa and Tsukasa may be set with a new place to live for the time being, but Tsukasa did lose quite a bit of her wardrobe in the fire. That means it’s time to go to the laundromat, but the new husband and wife quickly become embarrassed over the prospect of handling one another’s…unmentionables.

They decide to go to the ‘mat together, and watch their clothes mingle in the wash together, something that’s so mundane and yet also so intimate. Tsukasa also lets slip that under her tracksuit she’s not wearing any underwear, since it’s all in the wash. Not wanting to make a big public display of affection, Nasa instead snaps a picture…and draws Tsukasa’s ire.

At the end of the day, what’s called for is a clothes shopping trip, and not to the department store’s discount clothes section, but to Harajuku, a place Nasa has neither ever been to shop. He gets to see Tsukasa try on one cute outfit after another, and even a few outfits he picks out for her, revealing his girly side.

When the time comes to buy underwear, Tsukasa initially holds Nasa’s hand, but changes her mind and deposits him on a bench, instructing him to simply not look like someone who should be arrested. When their shopping is done, Nasa makes, as Kaname calls it, another manly “move”, asking Tsukasa if, at some point, he, her husband, would be able to see her in her underwear.

She turns beet red and turns away, but doesn’t reject the request out of hand; in fact, she says he can see “as much as he wants”. Of course, that won’t be much for the foreseeable future; the two are so embarrassed by the subject being broached that they drop it immediately so they can then shop for clothes for Nasa. Still, it’s a good thing those questions are being posed. They are married, after all!

Dokyuu Hentai HxEros – 03 – The Dream is Over

We rejoin the Super HxEros in the middle of a battle with pixy-like kiseishuu with a penchant for stealing underwear. Momozono Momoka unleashes her powers (and loses her clothes), while Kirara’s would-be decisive blow has no power due to her presently low stores of H-energy. To add insult to injury, the kiseishuu nabs her underwear.

It’s then, and on numerous occasions when upper and lower bodies of characters are prominent—whether wearing underwear or not—that we learn there are two kinds of censorship in DHH: the four-pointed stars that appear when characters are in HxEro Mode, and the classic “soupy fog” of various colors that completely obscures partial or total nudity.

Frankly, around halfway through this episode when we were learning about Momoka’s long-held resentment of her well-endowed model of a big sister in one of the most generic and half-assed backstories in recent memory, my enthusiasm for this show went *poof*—lost into one of those censoring clouds.

After Momoka’s ill-advised long soy milk bath (from which Retto must rescue her), the underwear thieves strike the girl’s locker room, stealing Kirara’s classmate Yuna’s “lucky pair” for her date later that day. Retto ends up tracking the culprit down and retrieving the pair, and Kirara actually does him a solid by vouching for him to Yuna & Co.

Yuna then takes Kirara underwear shopping, with the latter hoping to gain some H-energy with a lucky pair of her own. We then learn that Yuna’s date is with female senpai, which is oddly treated like some kind of punchline, even though her friends are apparently aware Yuna likes girls.

That night Kirara sneaks into Retto’s room to sleep back-to-back with him in her new sexy underwear, hoping it will charge up her H-energy. Both she and Retto remember when they were kids sleeping under a kotatsu and he initially tried to draw on her sleeping face, only to find it too cute and froze up. Their futon session is disrupted by the discovery of Tenkuuji sleeping between them, something I highly doubt they’d have not noticed until that moment!

Kirara finally manages to unleash her HxEros power again, though it happens quite randomly while she’s in bed, and she ends up wasting all of that stored-up H-energy without even accidentally defeating a kiseishuu boss this time. So basically, she has a lot to learn about controlling her clearly considerable powers so they’e actually useful.

I’d usually refrain poking holes in the logic of an ecchi anime involving battling alien libido vampires, but with its branching plots this episode felt so long and ungainly and the censoring so considerable (no doubt since I watched the broadcast version), I found myself gradually checking out. Going by the three-episode rule, I’ve decided to pass on the remainder of Dokyuu Hentai HxEros.

BokuBen 2 – 06 – (Public) Bath & Beyond (High School)

When Kirisu’s plans for an end-of-day bath are ruined when her building has no hot water, she’s forced to go to a public bath, and not only runs into Asumi, but Nariyuki and his two youngest siblings Kazuki and Nazuki.

The little ones are the source of a number of issues, like when they steal Kirisu’s underwear, or try to get her to agree to marry their big brother. They act like little kids, and when Kirisu is too stern with them, they cry.

The baths provide a rare opportunity for Kirisu and Asumi to talk, but end up not really talking about anything other than Kirisu’s exquisite skin, and Nariyuki’s kindness and penchant for going the extra mile to help others.

Naturally, since this segment involves people not wearing clothes, Nariyuki inevitably sees Kirisu naked, as Hazuki rips off her towel when she berates her big bro for being shameless when all he did was answer a call for help, a rare case of being allowed to cross the gender lines of the bath.

The next segment is all about mock college interviews, which Rizu in particular is very apprehensive about. Those concerns only intensify when the kind teacher who was going to interview her and Fumino calls out sick, and Kirisu is her substitute.

Needless to say, she’s about as hard on the two as an interviewer can be, leaving them steaming and deformed. Kurisu forces Nariyuki to have a surprise interview, and he’s so tired he hallucinates her wearing a school swimsuit and maid outfit, among other costumes.

The turning point is when Nariyuki respectfully gets up and leaves, because he isn’t confident he can give Kirisu the answers she wants, but he’ll strive to find out how to provide them in the future. That, Kirisu tells him, is the stength she asked him to describe: the one that faces his own limitations (and those of others) and works out the best way to overcome them.

That doggedness has rubbed off on his tutees, as Fumino and Rizu are found in the library, determined to be better prepared in their next mock interviews. In this way, Kirisu gave them a tough-love kick in the pants they needed to put their best selves forward when the real ones come around.

Val x Love – 04 – He’s “It” (Unfortunately)

Val x Love loses the nice rhythm it had developed in which a different sister’s power was awakened to eliminate a demonic threat. Instead, it felt like nothing of consequence happened. The second daughter Futaba indeed reveals her “Castle” power, but it doesn’t quite fit in a game of tag where she’s the one who is it and thus on the offensive.

While the game of tag is meant to “refresh” Takuma after some stressful exams, thinking he’d be okay with them running around the house destroying stuff as she steals her sisters’ underwear makes Futaba look pretty dumb. The game is a transparent vehicle for incidents of accidental groping.

VxL digs deep into the cliche toy box for the second half, which has no connection to the first, combining a school festival, maid outfits, and jealousy of Takuma’s male classmates for his proximity to Natsuki. Garm ends up using this as an opportunity to transform the classmates into akuma to test a Valkyrie’s strength in human form.

He determines that Natsuki isn’t much of a match even for low-level demons, but that Takuma will spring to the rescue. And there’s the main issue with this episode. Aside from rescuing Natsuki and later telling her he thinks she’s cute, his general denseness, near-constant terrified state and dopey stammering is really starting to get old.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season – 11 – No Time to Take Things Slow

Rika truly was transformed by her love of Amagi. Far from being disappointed or feeling betrayed by Juujo for going and getting herself knocked up, Rika is firmly in her corner. When Hitoha argues the other side too far, Rika almost calls out Hitoha’s own relationship before storming off, leading Hitoha to declare it’s “wrong to stop in the middle of things”—a glorious line considering its subtext.

Kazusa and Momoko are out of the loop, and so ponder and worry together right up until Momoko asks her who’d she’d rather sleep with to keep the world blowing up: her, or Milo-sensei. When Kazusa says she’d pick Milo because she’d “have to go with a guy,” then goes in for a “best friends!” hug, Momoko dodges, warning Kazusa to watch out for Niina before storming off herself.

Hitoha has noticed her interactions with Milo have become “softer and warmer” since their semi-cathartic encounter. She believes it’s because he interpreted her childish tears as being “overwhelmed by his kindness” when in reality, she felt so pathetic it actually felt good. With that in mind, she’s not quite ready to give up on him.

Meanwhile, Niina has never felt hatred about her present self, or more determined to eliminate that self as soon as possible. With Izumi unwilling to play ball, she arranges a meeting at a hotel with Saegusa, who is, unlike Milo, perfectly willing to follow through, the pervert.

But as he starts to touch her, Niina discovers something about that self she hates so much: it won’t be killed so easily. When Saegusa’s gross face and gross mouth and gross white nose hairs get too close, she instinctively slugs him, and flees.

The next morning, the only two who show up for lit club are Kazusa…and Niina. After a beautiful monologue that begins with her being lost in the haunted forest of those nose hairs, she tells Kazusa straight up that she’s in love with Izumi and plans to confess to him, even if he loves Kazusa.

To Niina’s shock, Izumi doesn’t react in anger, but in understanding, love, and gratitude. She wouldn’t have had the courage to confess to Izumi were it not for Niina’s help, so what kind of friend would she be to deny her the opportunity to do the same?

Niina and Kazusa go into the “best friends” hug Momoko wouldn’t, and everything seems hunky-dory…until we see Kazusa racing home in an absolute panic. She’s not sure what else she could have done in that situation, but she sure as shit isn’t happy about it!

In this episode full of people who believe they’re running out of time, Kazusa believes the only thing to do to stave off the threat of Niina is to put her mark on Izumi immediately. It just so happens his folks aren’t home, and she invites herself up to his room.

Her sexy underwear didn’t arrive in time, but she intends to make do, presenting herself for him to kiss, and when he expresses confusion, she declares her desire to do it with him, straight up. He tells Kazusa he wants to “treat her right” by taking things slow, but he also brings up Niina, souring the mood and leading to Kazusa’s early exit.

To add insult to injury, the underwear arrives, but Kazusa is so flustered by their presence she quickly snips them to tiny shreds with scissors. We segue from that particularly childish display to a very mature and elegant phone conversation between Rika, who is growing increasingly weary of herself (calling herself “a shameful disgrace”, and Amagi, warning her not to badmouth the girl he likes.

Their bliss is rudely interrupted by her mother bursting in the room. The next day there’s an all-school assembly where the principal and vice-principal announce that all “non-platonic interaction between the sexes” is banned with immediate effect. Rumors fly through the student body, including that Sonezaki and Amagi were spotted outside a love hotel and will now be expelled.

The scene of Rika being guided into a cab by her mom, like some kind of criminal, possibly never to return, is witnessed by Kazusa, Niina, Momoko and Hitoha, in an unlikely but very welcome reunion. It’s the start of the girls deciding to put aside their differences for Rika’s sake, their sakes, and the sake of the entire school.

Hitoha, who (rightly) blames herself for putting Rika and Amagi in that place at that time, is ready to confess, but Milo-sensei beats her to it, albeit keeping her name out of it (though he refers to her as “someone he’s considering a future with” in his lie). But the principals won’t budge; after Juujou, they’re prepared to make an example of Rika and Amagi.

Later, in the clubroom, Milo assures Hitoha he’ll keep fighting for Rika, but also admits he doesn’t quite have a plan for doing so at the moment. That’s unfortunately not good enough for these maidens in their savage season, who must make the most of this time and can’t afford to endure the oppression of the school’s new ban.

So, after Kazusa gives Izumi a solemn call telling him she’s about to commit a “grave sin,” she joins her sisters in kidnapping Milo-sensei, beating and tying him up, and using him as a hostage. The school staff is sent their demands, and when they arrive at the school the four girls are there to repeat them: lifting of the ban, reinstating of Rika, and an apology, or else.

No negotiations, no retreat: the maidens have spoken! As amazingly awful as it was to watch them nearly destroy each others’ friendships, this latest emergency of injustice has brought them back together, at least for now. Watching them use their powers to save one of their own another is an inspiring sight to behold, though I can’t see there not being serious consequences. Still, what’s done is done—and they did it together.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season – 10 – Maiden Abyss

God, where do I even start? I knew I’d be navigating an emotional minefield with a show like this, but in the spirit of one of this episode’s themes, the difference between thinking you know something and actually experiencing it in the moment is as vast as, well, the holes that threaten to swallow up every single character. Certainly far larger than the holes in the sexy underwear Kazusa is investigating on her phone.

Rika just happens to be hanging out with Amagi across the park where Hitoha gets picked up by Milo-sensei. Rika finds Hitoha’s underwear in the trash, freaks out for a minute, then calls a cab to follow them and hopefully save Hitoha and/or Milo from themselves/each other. She’s acting as a good friend would: as best she can with what little, highly concerning information she has.

Meanwhile, after all the hard work he did finding porn not set aboard trains, Niina has likely well and truly ruined them for him as anything pure and innocent, what with her placing his hand on her bum and keeping it there. Izumi pulls away and exits the train, but Niina follows him and demands to know why he’s going so far to refuse her.

Since he asked for advice, Niina offers to let him practice doing it on her. With all of her (not always consciously) honed powers of seduction in overdrive, she asks him straight up if he wants to do it with her, and he rejects her again, but not in the most convincing way.

Before leaving on the next train, Niina passes by and takes note of how hard he was—which is, of course, ludicrous: the hardness of one’s dick and one’s desire to sleep with someone are not the same thing at all. If Niina can’t ever get Izumi to love her like he loves Kazusa, she’ll do everything she can to make him desire her. She’s determined to kill that virginity of hers, and at the moment she has eyes only for him.

Momo plays Street Fighter alone in an empty arcade, and as she watches Chun Li get mercilessly wailed on by Ryu, she comes to a realization that had probably been gestating in her head and heart for some time. She texts Niina, asking to meet up and talk. Just then, Satoshi, a name I rather naively didn’t think I’d have to type again, texts her asking to meet up and talk.

Last week the window (or rather “hole”) seemed to be closing fast for Yamagishi-sensei to put a stop to a situation that, while not strictly illegal in Japan, is still a very bad idea for both parties involved. While yes, he picked up Hitoha, there’s still a possibility he’s just trying to scare her straight by only taking things so far.

Little does he know as he’s driving Hitoha is planning exactly what she’s going to do when they hit a red light: grab Milo’s hand and put it in her. It’s a bold plan to be sure, one I’m not sure she would have actually done, but we’ll never know, because they don’t hit another red light. Instead, Milo pulls in to a love hotel…the cheapest, seediest, least sexy love hotel he could find.

Rika arrives at the love hotel district, but there Hitoha’s trail goes cold, and Amagi really doesn’t want to hang around such a place, as it’s making him think and feel weird things when he’s committed to treating Rika right, a sentiment that makes her swoon when he expresses it.

To our unending relief, we finally learn definitively through his inner monologue that Milo has no intention whatsoever of going through with anything in that dingy lovenest, but makes the mistake of letting Hitoha go off to the bathroom (even more awful than the bedroom! They nailed the details on this shithole) to steel herself up, desperately swiping webpages on what to do in this situation.

She bursts out of the bathroom pounces on Milo, positions herself over his crotch, and starts unbuckling his belt and unzipping. Suddenly, a very stunned Milo has lost control of the situation. Hitoha is just as stunned, but feels if she’s gone this far there’s nowhere to go but forward.

But, once the zipper is down, and there’s no erection, Hitoha gives up and starts to cry, assuming it’s because she’s so “disgusting” to him. Always so condescending and rude in so many of their interactions, Milo drops that act, gently places his hand atop her head and tells her she’s wrong; this isn’t happening not because she’s ugly, but because he’s a coward.

As she cries in his arms, I breathe another sigh of relief. In the end, Yamagishi was the adult here, recognizing he had to to preserve her pride, and the best way to do that was to abandon his own for her sake. That may not satisfy or comfort her in the long run, but it stopped something very bad from happening for the wrong reasons.

Then comes an exchange I wish we didn’t have to witness, because it’s just so hard to watch and so gosh-darn realistic. Satoshi, “The Nice Guy,” didn’t take too kindly to being embarrassed in front of his friends at the cultural festival. He accuses Momo of leading him on, calls her a slut, and demands an apology lest he make it impossible for her to come back to cram school.

Momo isn’t apologizing, and she’s not going back to cram school either, and that’s that. But as she walks away, Satoshi grabs her arm, because he’s not done with her yet. She’s not showing him proper respect, you see? For that, Momo cries out so all the passersby can hear, and naturally Satoshi calls her weird and crazy and scurries off. What an apocalyptic boob. Maybe don’t grab girls who couldn’t be less interested in you and are trying to walk away, brah!

As Niina walks around the same district where we’ve already seen Rika, Amagi, Hitoha and Milo, she thinks about how she always, always gets comments and cat calls whenever she walks down this street…until now. It’s as if Izumi’s rejection of her has marked her as some kind of hideous creature from which all ment will keep their distance.

After years being looked at the wrong way, suddenly she no longer feels the attention…and she’s not feeling so great…like withdrawal from a drug you were forced to take. Then Momo calls her, again asking to meet up. After being touched by a guy, Momo wants Niina to touch her, to “purify” her, because she’s in love with her.

No longer feeling waves of desire from men in her radius, suddenly Niina is confronted by a woman, stating in no uncertain terms she wants to be touched by her. Niina isn’t sure how to respond, so she apologizes and ends the call.

And that, inexorably, brings is to Miss Smartphone Sexy Underwear Shopper. Kazusa is in a wonderful little bubble of bliss, as she has been ever since she and Izumi became a couple. That bubble only grows larger when Izumi gives her a quick “just calling to say I love you” call from the station where he’s still processing what happened with Niina.

It’s clear with this call Izumi is trying both to assuage the measure of guilt he feels and ease the swirling of confusing thoughts in his head by reiterating his feelings to Kazusa, clearly, out loud. He’s a mess, and the call does little to fix that.

After the call, Kazusa beams like we’ve never seen her before, then continues her underwear shopping. In voice-over, she states that at that time she had no idea what vast and widening holes her friends were staring down, nor that she’d soon be staring down her own once her blissful bubble inevitably bursts.

The next morning, Izumi can’t even hold hands on their walk to school for some vague fear of “the neighbors.” That last exchange with Niina really did a number on him, huh? Sure looks like it could be the beginning of the end for these two…before so much as a peck on the cheek.

That just leaves us with Rika and Amagi, the one couple that seems to actually, ya know, be okay! Just as Rika is starting to contemplate getting a little closer to him, the teacher (who is, let it be said, shitty for doing this) announces that her friend Sonoe got pregnant and is dropping out of school. As if the previous twenty minutes of carnage weren’t enough, one last savage dagger before the curtain.

I need a drink!

(Of Misery)

HenSuki – 06 – The Scent of Destiny

After Keiki rescues her on the stairs, StuCo vice-chair Fujimoto Ayano presents him with a token of her gratitude: some delicious homemade cookies. She also gets very close to Keiki and inhales deeply, which Keiki thinks is a little strange but also pretty cute. He has master stalker Koharu investigate Ayano, and comes up with nothing abnormal aside from a tendency to “gap moe”and of ending up in close-quarters situations with Keiki.

After Yuika accuses Keiki of doing terrible things—in her dream last night—Ayano invites Keiki to a clean-up session in town. Sayuki tags along as his self-appointed dog, and is soon up to mischief when she pounces on him under the bridge. Keiki, remembering what his grandfather said whenever their dog jumped on top of him, rubbing his butt is the way to show the dog who’s boss. It works on Sayuki, who has to withdraw due to overexcitement.

As for Ayano, she seems perfectly nice, neither interested in being Keiki’s slave nor making him her slave, nor writing about him and his best mate getting it on. She’s mostly just…normal. Unfortunately, the other shoe inevitably drops when she invites him to an otherwise empty StuCo office, where she’s adjusted the lighting, music, and accomodations to make Keiki very, very sleepy.

He wakes up to Ayano unzipping his pants, wanting to remove his sweaty underwear. Turns out her fetish is smell; specifically the body odor of boys. All the clues were there with her constant smelling of him and his clothes, but for her to take it to this extreme was still…deflating. Keiki himself imagined he’d finally found someone normal enough to complement his normalcy, after all.

Still, of all of the kinks the girls he’s encountered have had, Ayano’s seems the least egregious. After all, why is it so awful for Keiki if she likes his stink? People who like each other tend to be attracted to each other’s scents anyway. It’s not like she’s asking if she can punish him/if he can punish her. I daresay the ultra-normal girl Keiki says he’s after doesn’t actually exist, at least not at his school. The next best thing, then, is the most tolerable of the “weirdos”.