Tag: video games

The Dangers in My Heart – 16 – Not Enough Hours in the Day

Valentine’s Day is here, and the boys who don’t have girlfriends want to ban obligatory chocolates so they don’t get the wrong idea or their hopes up. Meanwhile, Yamada chooses the sweetest (no pun intended) way to give Ichikawa chocolates: by playing “chocolate shogi” with him and resigning, thus pushing them all towards him. While this takes a lot of effort and courage on her part, Ichikawa seems not much more than bemused.

The more he thinks about it, the more he wonders why Yamada would give away her precious snacks, and chocolate no less. After school she grabs him and they both watch Hara giving Kanzaki chocolates, leading Ichikawa to wonder why they did it at school, a “place of learning”, when there are plenty of off-school hours in the day to do it.

Yamada isn’t satisfied she’s spent enough time with Ichikawa today, so she hops on his bike and asks for a ride. That leads to a trip to the konbini so she can buy a heart-shaped chocolate-filled bun. She asks Ichikawa what kind of chocolate would make clear it wasn’t obligatory. Ichikawa says he honestly might not know unless he was told so.

Back in class, Adachi thought if the chocolate was heart-shaped. Going off of that, Yamada presses her bun into Ichikawa. When she pulls it away it leaves a glob of chocolate, and she leans in for what Ichikawa thinks might be a kiss. Instead, she presses her finger on the chocolate and draws a heart, liking the excess and then jogging off.

Remembering what Yamada said about “being a boy for the day”, Ichikawa runs back into the konbini and buys her some “Meltykiss” brand chocolates. He just happens to bump into her because she was pondering whether to give him a chocolate cupcake she made especially for him. He leaves before she can do it.

No matter; Yamada makes use of every hour of the day she can. Just as Ichikawa is cursing himself for giving her something so embarrassing, she texts that she’s outside and wants him to come with her as she walks the dog.

After “gambling” at the vending machine and “winning” black coffee, they sit at a park bench. Yamada starts bringing up all sorts of conversation topics in quick succession, which Ichikawa immediately picks up as weird. When Yamada says she is weird, talk finally turns to chocolates.

Yamada asks if he got any chocolate, and he said no, discounting the chocolate she gave him. He asks if she gave any, and she makes clear she didn’t give out any obligatory chocolates. Ichikawa then has another sip of his bitter black coffee and owns up to lying about not liking sweet stuff.

This finally gives Yamada an opening to give him the cupcake, and even Ichikawa can’t fail to notice there’s something different and important about this chocolate, especially when she says, summoning all her courage, “It’s okay to get the wrong idea.”

She splits the cupcake in two, eats her half, and starts to sob because she “couldn’t get it right.” But after having a taste, Ichikawa admits it’s legit good. Yamada asks for another hug, and Ichikawa gives her one as she sits, making him the taller one.

Back home, he takes another look at the cupcake with the powdered sugar stenciled design at the proper angle so he sees what he couldn’t see on his face earlier: a heart. Yamada gave you chocolate. She said she wasn’t going to  give anyone obligatory chocolate. She knows a heart means the chocolate means something. This chocolate has a heart.

The episode title, “Yamada Likes…” can’t quite finish that phrase, but it’s pretty doggone clear who she likes!

Remember the self-important dick who used other girls like tools to try to get closer to Yamada? I’d honestly forgotten him, and so did Ichikawa, bless him. Adachi seeks advice on a White Day gift for Sekine, who hasn’t broken it to him that the chocolate she gave him was only obligatory, but isn’t about to turn down a gift!

Adachi goes to this guy, whom he knows to be “popular with the ladies”. Everything this guy says is curtly contradicted by Ichikawa, who inadvertently lets on that he got chocolate too. As Adachi heads off to practice, Ichikawa is left with this guy.

When Yamada beckons and waves to Ichikawa, this guy is about to wave back, but Ichikawa blocks his wave with his own very emphatic wave. Yamada blushes and slams the window shut, and before you know it is rushing in to rescue Ichikawa from this guy. She waves back at him, but pointedly doesn’t say matane (see you later); she says sayonara, which has more finality.

The Dangers in My Heart – 15 – Trying for What He Wants

Valentine’s Day has arrived, and the girls want to get together to make chocolates. Yamada suggests her place, and invites Ichikawa too. When he encounters Serina and Chihiro outside Yamada’s place, he pretends to just be passing by, but thankfully his wingwoman Moeko shows up to drag him along. When they’re greeted at the entrance by Yamada’s mom, she makes a concerned face when she notices a boy is among them.

Thinking fast, Moeko takes Ichikawa’s arm and says he’s her “bae.” Mom seems appeased, but Yamada is understandably less enthused. The ensuing chocolate making progresses with not-great-to-bad vibes, not just because Yamada’s mom is loitering around. Finally, it’s Serina who shouts that “this just isn’t right,” obviously referring to Moeko’s ruse.

Ichikawa naturally believes his presence is what’s causing the awkwardness, and even though Cool Kyou tells him to set things right, he chooses an Irish exit instead. When Yamada’s mom notices him leaving, he admits he’s not Moeko’s boyfriend. That’s when Mom realizes that this is the Ichikawa Anna talks so much about. With the ruse lifted, Ichikawa comes back in.

By then, Yamada’s dad has appeared, and he resembles a giant Ichikawa (now we know where Yamada gets her impressive height). Just as Ichikawa developed a sour look and hid an eye in his bangs as a defense mechanism, belying his sweet nature, so too does Dad look a lot scarier than he is.

In fact, he’s elated to have another gamer in the house, though Yamada ends up grabbing Ichikawa’s controller and playing against her dad. This results in a beautiful scene of (hopefully) things to come, as Ichikawa is surrounded by Yamadas.

After the chocolates are done, Yamada pulls Ichikawa behind the curtains for a private tasting. He takes a bite of the piece she saved for him, which is very pointedly missing the full “obligatory” label, making it special. He declares it a bit too sweet, but she takes it from him and eats the rest (casual indirect kiss), then beams brightly, saying she’s glad he came.

That night she calls him and asks him what he thought of her parents. While scary at first, he admitted they were very nice and pretty much exactly what he expected her parents to be like. She says the same about how they regarded him, adding that her dad thinks his last name is Yamada (since they met in the elevator when he was wearing her jersey).

Kana is impressed by the strides her little bro has been making, even to the point she teases that he’s already built himself a harem. She then cracks open a 9% highball for herself and an amazake for him, and asks upfront, when he’s going to ask Yamada out. From what she’s seen, she sees no reason why he couldn’t.

Ichikawa talks about how he has no idea how she feels or what his “chances” are. When Kana says it’s fine, there are plenty of women out there, but he goes on, perhaps due to the effect of the amazake. He’s certain he won’t fall in love with anyone other than Yamada.

That said, he’s worried that as she keeps moving ahead and through mistakes, and keeps being loved by so many people, she may well end up somewhere far away, and forget about him in no time. And he doesn’t want her to. Kana being the Best Big Sister, tells him it’s not about “chances”, but what he wants to do. What he wants.

What Ichikawa wants, he admits to Kana, is to be Yamada’s boyfriend. And while the amazake may have worn off by morning, his feelings haven’t changed. Even if there’s no guarantee they have a tomorrow, in the meantime, he’s going to try for what he wants.

So on the way to school when Yamada decries the fact she hasn’t found out what chocolates to give “the guys”, he grabs her sleeve (a reversal of the usual), stopping her in her tracks, and tells her not to worry about the other guys. After some momentary shock, she smiles and nods her head in agreement. After all, this isn’t the story of her and the guys, but her and Ichikawa.

Ichikawa being so honest with his sister in admitting what he truly wants and deciding he’s going to at least try to achieve what he wants is a huge breakthrough. I’m sure he’ll try to backtrack a little due to his deep-seated anxiety about being hurt, but his actions and words this week have convinced me he will eventually confess to Yamada and properly ask her out … if she doesn’t beat him to it, of course!

Kimizero – 04 – Let the Past Die

When confronted with nasty rumors, the honorable Ryuuto has no choice but to let the cat out of the bag: he’s dating Runa. When Runa confirms it, it send the class into an uproar, and Maria runs off. Ryuuto follows and learns she started the rumors. Well, that certainly blew up in her face!

It would be enough if a rivalry between Runa and Maria for Ryuuto’s love were to proceed from there, but Kimizero felt that wasn’t soapy enough, so it also drops the the bombshell that Runa and Maria are fraternal twin sisters, and Maria has a chip on her shoulder the size of Kyushu.

Ryuuto, for his part, doesn’t kick Maria when she’s down. Heck, he even tells her he can relate to how hard it is for him to express his feelings, even if he can’t fully understand her plight as the “plainer” sister. When she slips on the steps, she catches him. When he leaves, Maria is determined not to fall for him for real…but I’m not holding by breath!

Ryuuto returns to a happy Runa and, to his surprise, a happy Nicole as well. Runa may not know it until he tells her (which makes her heart swell all the more) but Nicole is all to aware Ryuuto did what he did for Runa’s sake, and thus proved to her that he’s worthy of her.

When he tells Runa he couldn’t stand for the rumors against her, she asks how he knows they’re not true from when before they dated, which is a fair question. Yet even if Ryuuto didn’t hear Maria admit she started them (something he doesn’t share with Runa), he’s fine with letting the past be the past and move forward with her.

The next day, Ryuuto expects a wave of hate to come crashing down on him, but everyone acts normal. He even gets good mornings from girls who normally wouldn’t speak to him. After school, a Runa eager to learn what he likes gets Ryuuto show her a live stream he likes, and watches along with genuine interest.

The close proximity has him yearning to kiss this girl he’s liking more and more. Worried that it’s a bridge too far, he decides to try to start with holding hands. His pals put aside their jealousy to help him devise a plan, which involves going to Ueno Park.

When his thoughts wander in class and his name is called, Maria bails him out by telling him the question they’re on, then tells him she hopes he doesn’t hate her after what she did. He tells her he doesn’t hate her, so sweetly that it doesn’t help her goal of not falling for him one damn bit.

That weekend, Runa brings Ryuuto a homemade bento for him. For some reason Ryuuto has decided that the only way to hold hands with his extremely open, honest, and affectionate, straightforward girlfriend is to help her onto a boat. This plan fails twice when she gets on and off the boat all on her own.

Ryuuto is so discouraged by his failure, Runa mistakenly interprets his sour mood to mean they’re about to break up, since in her experience guys always made that face before dumping her. After emphatically disabusing her of that notion, he says he simply wishes they could go on another boat ride.

She’s all for that. This time it’s a rowboat, and this time he gets on first, so she takes his hand to hop aboard. As he rows, she admits to wanting to hold hand for some time now, and had been trying to get closer to do so. He admits he was thinking the same thing, and Runa rolls the dice and does something else they’ve both been thinking of: kissing.

Runa notes that all the little relationship checkpoints they’re clearing— holding hands, kissing, a first-name basis (once Ryuuto is comfortable)—wouldn’t be so embarrassing if they’d had sex first. But that’s okay with her; she’s enjoying these little embarrassments and the joys that result from achieving them, and above all wants to know and adore Ryuuto more and more.

Unfortunately for Runa, their road of love is about to hit some brunette bumps courtesy of Maria. Going over Ryuuto’s words about not trying to be exactly like Runa, which is impossible, she decides (with an accompanying eerie light from below) that to take Ryuuto away from Runa, she’ll have to become Runa. I wish her good luck, and look forward to the messiness!

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 04 – Perfect Attendants

Akira and Kencho have a pretty sweet setup on their Shinjuku rooftop, gathering everything needed for stay-at-home camping, an item on Akira’s list. The episode begins with a harrowing FPS shooter picking off zombies, but it’s just Akira playing video games.

Since his list is well short of 100 (only 33), he decides to add one of his own bucket list items: becoming a stand-up comedian. He also wonders if Akira is being realistic with the “wine and dine a flight attendant”—maybe score a date with a woman first!

After the two look down at the available women in the area—all of them zombies and one of them quite flatulent—Akira sticks to a more readily achievable item: playing video games on a super-big-screen 8K TV. They head out on the motorcycle—the perfect vehicle for transporting giant TVs.

When the path to the Ikebukuro electronics store is blocked by wreckage on one side and another runaway zombie Truck-kun, this one a tanker, stars to bear down on them from the other, Akira remembers how Shizuku saved him from the konbini Truck-kun and decides to go for the gusto.

Revving his motorcycle, he races towards the oncoming tanker, using another upturned car as a ramp to leap over it, then escaping the resulting conflagration by motoring down into an underground mall. Unfortunately, they’re immediately in danger again, as a horde of zombies dwells in the mall.

They manage to race to a store and lower the shutter before the zombie mob can get to them, and before they know it someone is shining a flashlight on them: more survivors! Specifically, an older salaryman who is scared out of his mind (constantly muttering “It’s all over”) and three women.

When Akira and Kencho assure them they’re not infected, one of the women (Reika, voiced by Hikasa Yoko) breaks out the booze, while the other two (Maki and Yukari) gather snacks. Just like that, Akira and Tencho have stumbled into a post-apocalyptic…mixer?

But here’s the real kicker: Reika mentions that they had just got into Tokyo from LAX—the three of them are flight attendants, which means Akira’s item of “wining and dining” can technically apply. That said, Reika is a lush, and the other two don’t seem to be having much fun.

Akira, so inexperienced in things not related to his exploitative job, manages to ask Yukari if she has a boyfriend, which…not the best time dude! However, when he sees how well Kencho is getting along with Maki, Akira decides to try raising everyone’s spirits…by chugging a bottle of tequila.

I love how Reika, so surly up to this point, gets a kick out of this and joins in. Before long, everyone’s trashed, Akira is passed out, and Kencho is naked and doing his stand-up routine.

Akira eventually comes to and has to run for the bathroom to pray to the porcelain god. To his shock, Yukari, the victim of his boyfriend question, comes to check on him, and even pats his back while he boots so he’s more comfortable. Meanwhile, it’s revealed the salaryman in glasses is infected, and he turns just when Reika is alone with him, drunk out of her mind.

She initially thinks he’s trying to get with her when he jumps on her, but she is very soon disabused of that notion. Kencho and Maki, having hooked up in the mattress store (as you do), hear a faint scream, and while Kencho is curious about what’s up, Maki wants to go another round.

Unfortunately, when Kencho and Maki check back on Reika, she leaps on Maki like a lioness on a gazelle and rips her throat out. When Reika then turns on Kencho, he has no choice but to use lethal force, which fucks with him even though Reika had become a zombie.

While this carnage is happening, Akira is feeling better, and Yukari talks to him about how it’s her third year too, and the job is not the glamorous thing she dreamed of. Akira can only speak from experience, but he believes his production job was a “borrowed” dream, not one that came from his heart.

If Yukari truly dreamt of being a flight attendant, she shouldn’t let something like the odd irate passenger ruin that dream. In the middle of having this very pleasant, gentle chat about their lives, the salaryman pounces on her, and bites her in the neck.

Akira punches the zombie down the stairs, but the damage is done. Nevertheless, in the minutes Yukari is still Yukari, she gives Akira a hug and tells her she remembers now why rubbing his back felt so nostalgic. On her first flight as a kid, she was extremely airsick, but a flight attendant helped her feel better by rubbing her back.

From that point on, Yukari wanted to be like that cool lady. And so she’s confident it is her real dream: she’s a flight attendant. Peoples’ lives are in her hands on a daily basis, and that’s how she wants Akira to remember her as she pushes him out of the way and tells him to run while the salaryman prepares to jump her again.

Akira runs, and is, as you’d expect, incredibly messed up by having to do so, and having to say goodbye to someone as gentle and sweet and courageous as Yukari so damn soon. But in this new world where death is always around the corner, one can’t let oneself become consumed by despair.

Akira reunites with Kencho, who is now being chased by Maki and tells them they need to get out of there. But they won’t be leaving without a giant 8K TV, which he happened to pluck in the meantime. The fact that Kencho did this for him launches Akira into a bout of cry-laughter.

After the absurd image of the two carrying the very tall, wide, and thin TV on the motorcycle, the two best buds are back on their rooftop campsite before sunset. When Akira dies again in his video game, now writ large thanks to the 8K, he pauses and thinks of Yukari’s words to him, and decides to add another item to his list: Remember my childhood dream.

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 07 – The End of Gamer Boy

This week takes us back ten years to the meeting of Jun and Tomo. Having moved from Tokyo, Jun is content to play his handheld game until Tomo hops over the fence to introduce herself (at this point he thinks she’s a boy). Within seconds, his video game is broken.

He learns what a decent person Tomo is when she and her dad stop by to formally apologize (having told on herself) and she asks to be his friend. From that point on the two are inseparable, with Jun doing his best just to keep up with Tomo as she runs, leaps, and climbs all over the place.

Before long, Tomo introduces her even older friend Misuzu, who is hilariously exactly the same as she is in the present, making her quite the precocious kid and future shit-stirrer. When the three go on a bug-hunting trip atop a 200-step shrine stair, Tomo carries Mizuzu on her back and looks smug.

This propels Jun to run up the steps to beat them, and he later smiles one of his first smiles in front of Tomo when he finds a stag beetle. When Tomo embraces Jun, Misuzu grabs her by the shirt, and we witness the origins of her and Jun’s long-standing mutual antagonism.

Jun notes how just being with Tomo made him feel stronger, until one day he learned that was just an illusion when some bullies beat him up and took his (replaced) video game. Tomo is concerned about the mark on his cheek, and even Misuzu derides no joy in making fun of it when clearly something’s amiss.

Then, totally unbidden, Tomo shows up at Jun’s front gate with his video game in hand and a face full of bruises. Jun is furious that she went and took it back alone, but she says she’ll always help him when he’s in trouble, because they’re friends. But Jun is frustrated to the point of tears, because he knows he can’t do the same for Tomo…not until he gets stronger.

That’s how he ended up joining the Aizawa dojo and becoming the impressive physical specimen on display in the beach trip half of the episode—all to become stronger than Tomo so he could take back the video game with his own hands.

Of course, present-day Tomo still plays the game, wondering when he’ll take it, assuming he’s stronger than her by now. But if there’s anything that makes his strength waste away to nothing and cause him to freeze in his tracks, it’s large breasts. Carol has them, but more importantly, Tomo has them too.

Misuzu and Carol are all too aware of this, and accompany Tomo and Jun to the beach trip specifically to see his face when he sees Tomo in her new itty bitty green-striped bikini top, which leaves Jun absolutely zero room to keep thinking of her as a dude.

He zips her up and hangs out under the umbrella with the modestly-endowed Misuzu, who seriously wants to hit him for what his proximity implies. But Tomo is so jazzed up about the beach that she completely forgets she’s in a revealing bikini top and treats Jun like she usually does, with a lot of physical contact.

In this way, Tomo is simply unconsciously demonstrating to Jun how far he still has to go to be stronger than her. He doesn’t simply want to match her in physical strength or prowess in the dojo; he wants to be strong enough not to freeze up every time Tomo touches him.

These thoughts provide more much-appreciated insight into how Jun actually feels about Tomo. The problem isn’t that he sees her as a guy, it’s that he sees her as a girl, and is still wrestling with that. The one thing he fears more than never getting stronger than her is losing what they have.

On the train home, Tomo is initially leaning on Jun but then leans over to Misuzu, already being glommed on by Carol. Her smug look is fantastic, and she asks Jun “what happened” to make him not enjoy the beach trip. For all their adversarial exchanges and glares, Misuzu and Jun go way back to those carefree days catching bugs with their mutual best friend Tomo.

This trip confirmed for Misuzu that Jun sees Tomo only as a girl, and is struggling with how to act around her. This is progress! Misuzu’s goal is to get Tomo and Jun together, but at the end of the day, Jun will need to do his part. This is considerably tougher than his handheld video games, but the rewards of victory will be just as considerable.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Tomo-chan Is a Girl! – 05 – Gamer Boy

Carol invites her first two friends Tomo and Misuzu to her house—or should I say sprawling compound—and they meet her mother, who totally explains why the way she is. For one thing, she’s a hugger. For another, she’s actually sharper and more perceptive than she looks, as she sees right through Misuzu pretending to be a “bad girl” who is only friends with Carol “for the money.”

In preparation for a math exam, Misuzu deigns to serve as Tomo and Carol’s tutor in a study group, during which Tomo makes clear she wants to follow Misuzu to college since they’re best friend.. It’s here where Tomo and Misuzu learn that Carol is actually a damn math savant! She even ranks #1 over Misuzu’s #2! Tomo gets #70, which is an all-time best.

When Jun invites Tomo over to play a new video game he got, Tomo agrees without thinking about the ramifications of spending the night at Jun’s. She wants to tell him she can’t go, but Misuzu and Carol are united to their insistence that she can’t do that. Tomo only has to go next door to Jun’s, and they get through a curry dinner without any incident.

But during and after Tomo showers, things are quiet and a little awkward. Jun re-breaks the ice by suggesting they play video games, but after Tomo loses and teases Jun for being a “former gamer boy”, they roughhouse like they always did…and end up in a compromising position.

It’s clear in several moments that this is as weird and exciting for Jun as it is for Tomo, as he has to steel himself by slapping his cheeks and seems to take great joy getting smacked by Tomo’s controller. The two are adorable in their complete inability to stay up past 10 PM. As Tomo takes Jun’s bed and Jun takes the futon on the floor, they agree that they had fun.

When Jun asks if they’ll always be able to be “like this”, Tomo is poised to reaffirm her feelings for him, only for him to nod of before she can. She then notices his face and its details for the first time when he’s asleep and motionless. When she starts holding his nose for fun, he puts her in a lock in his sleep, so they’re essentially cuddling all night.

The next morning, Jun wakes up first, sees Tomo beside him, and does a backflip out of bed and straight into his desk, waking her. They say their goodbyes, and presumably reunite at the dojo later that day. The next day at school, they’re awkward, but still together, and not at all bothered by that fact. Misuzu and Carol watch the couple with great satisfaction.

With Tomo finally sort of noticing that Jun may be feeling the same things she’s feeling, only he’s doing a better job of hiding it, our athletic couple is gradually growing a little closer together. Jun’s sticking point seems to be a general worry that they might lose the good thing they have going now, but that is a common and not unreasonable worry.

The bottom line is, becoming a couple could well be a much better thing. It will take a leap of faith and a willingness to put themselves out there and risk getting hurt in order to evolve beyond platonic childhood chumminess.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 04 – Hayase

Once Nagatoro’s big sister, who Naoto calls “Anetoro”, realizes the famous “Senpai-kun” is here, she sees a perfect opportunity to toy with both him and her sister. It’s abundantly clear to her, an adult, that these two are absolutely a couple already, and are just been silly kids about it. Giving Naoto a glimpse of Nagatoro with bed head asking for pudding is a unique gift.

When Anetoro prods and lures her crankly little sister with a deluxe pudding bowl, it’s instructive to Naoto, because he’s able to witness Nagatoro with her defenses down. She can’t toy with him, because she’s being toyed with. The result is that Naoto gets to see a new side of the girl who, if he’s honest, he likes.

Indeed, once Nagatoro whisks him into her room to eat their pudding bowls without her sister’s interference, it’s clear that Naoto is not only ready and somewhat willing to slip back into his normal dynamic with Nagatoro, but can tell more than ever that her schtick is performative and not malicious. Toying with him has always been Nagatoro’s coping mechanism for showing affection.

She’s mortified when her sister sees her feeding Naoto, because she’d prefer to keep her thing with Naoto all to herself. It’s the same deal whenever her friends interfere or pry too much. She’s even willing to tell Senpai more about herself…if he can beat her at the video game they played before, and at which she’s been practicing.

While her improved play and ability to distract Senpai results in two straight wins, the decisive battle times out, and per their bet, the “secret” Naoto wants to learn is Nagatoro’s real first name. Not anything pervy. Nagatoro is caught off guard by the request, but realizes she’s never told him. But when she’s about to, he tells her he’d rather ask her fair and square than force her to by losing a bet. That ingratiates him with her even more.

And then, Anetoro goes and ruins their shit by bursting in and hollering her name—Hayase—and offering to show Naoto some albums of her when she was younger. She 1000% was eavesdropping, because this is surely the first and only boy Hayase has ever brought home, and she is also a Nagatoro, which means if someone can be messed with, you must mess with them!

Before departing, Hayase shows her genuine side first by thanking Naoto for checking on her and hanging out, then switches gears into Teasing Hayase by warning him that she’ll be back at school tomorrow to toy with him anew. Naoto’s comeback—”Have some mercy”, is delivered confidently, because he’s not loathing tomorrow; he’s looking forward to it. Also, now he knows her first name. If he ever needs to get her to simmer down with the aggressive teasing, he’s got that first-name bullet in the chamber.

We don’t have to wait till next week for Hayase to be back at school messing with Naoto, though when she strikes a Bruce Lee kicking pose and Naoto agrees they should go with that for his drawing, she has to hold that pose far longer than she had bargained for. Her thighs start barking at her, but she’s on pins and needles and can’t move. Then she stumbles and starts to fall.

Rather than hitting the ground, she lands on soft, fluffy Senpai. The two blush and scream and separate immediately, but it’s clear Hayase is impressed that he was able to move fast enough (and was bold enough) to break her fall. Of course, she covers that up with more teasing about whether he was trying to “get lucky”.

Then Naoto sneezes, and even before the preview confirmed it, I knew it would be Hayase’s turn to pay Naoto a house visit. After all, she just got over a cold, they just had a lot of contact with each other. It would be weird if he didn’t catch her cold!

More than a married couple, but not lovers. – 01 (First Impressions) – Mismatch

Fuukoi, as it is also known, begins with the two female leads meeting at a shrine. The “plain” but cute Sakurazaka Shiori stumbles on the stairs and into the stylush gyaru Watanabe Akari, asking if she’s also there to pray for good luck with their forthcoming “marriage practical”.

What is a marriage practical, you say? An extremely weird and far-fetched means of the country trying to up its birth rate (?), I guess, and by far the weakest part of this debut episode. Male and female students are paired up and must live like a married couple in a Big Brother-style apartment, but are pointedly not allowed to sleep in the same bedroom. This system also apparently makes no accommodations for same-sex couples.

Our drab protagonist Yakuin Jirou, another weak point (never a good thing) wants to be paired with his childhood friend Shiori, while Akari wants to be paired with the equally stylish, blonde (and genuine Nice Guy) Tenjin Minami. So naturally, Jirou and Akari end up paired together, while his and Akari’s preferred matches end up paired up.

Neither Jirou nor Akari are happy about this, but it is what it is, but the good news is there’s a way to exchange partners: score enough points as a couple to make the A-Rank by the end of the month. Akari suggests they take the relationship lemons they’ve been given and make lemonade, but this is all A Lot for Jirou, considering the “love experience gap” between them.

Of course, Jirou’s wrong about this: Akari is just as chaste as he is, and all this as new to her as it is him. It’s too bad then, that she never tells him this to reduce the tension; call it pride and an unwillingness to admit they’re on the same level in that arena.

When Jirou goes to get them drinks and spots Shiroi with Minami, he gets even more depressed, but Akari tells him, and is right, that being mopey and indecisive won’t get him anywhere. They’ve got work to do scoring enough points to get the partners they want. So when Jirou’s annoying nerdy friend Sadaharu comes by to hang out, she asks for a goodbye kiss.

Caught between Akari and his insistent friend, Jirou kisses her without thinking … on the lips. It’s his kiss, but little does he know it’s also hers. The next day, Jirou wakes up on the couch, having apparently spent the night there (a little odd, considering I doubt he and Sadaharu got blackout drunk), and Akari urging him to get up and pull his weight.

A week passes, and Jirou and Akari make no progress. Shiroi and Minami, on the other hand, look like two peas in a pod, further frustrating and depressing Jirou. Their teacher asks him and Akari to come to the faculty office after school for a check-up. When Jirou tells Akari, she’s already off to karaoke with Minami, and tells him to do it solo.

He calls this his “worst day ever”, but Sadaharu says he’s got “a flower in each hand”—Shiroi the lily, Akari the rose. With no umbrella, he waits for the rain to subside, and then chance smile upon him when Shiori appears, having also forgotten hers.

As they talk, Shiori suddenly clutches him, because she thought she saw a bug (it was just a comical doodle of one). Turns out that’s why she clung to Minami earlier in the day—completely innocent, as expected. Shiori also objects to Jirou, her childhood friend, calling her “Sakurazaka” instead of her first name, which makes her feel lonely.

Jirou is taken aback by this, wondering if Shiori has the same feelings for him after all, but before he can say “Shiori” properly, Minami appears with her umbrella, and the two take off.

On the other side of the wall, Akari stands and waits a few beats, then approaches Jirou with an umbrella that they share on the walk home. She tells him how he struck out on trying to make something happen vis-a-vis Shiori. Indeed, by saying goodbye by calling her Sakurazaka, he actually left things worse off than they were before.

Yet again, it’s up to Akari to grab the mopey Jirou by the cheek and tell him to cheer up and focus his energy on the goal they agreed upon. It’s unfortunate Akari has to carry the mental load of her own issues while also trying to prop Jirou up. Dude needs to get his shit together because he’s quite unlikeable at the moment, whereas I like Akari a lot.

There’s another reason to like her when they come home, as she prepares perfect omurice for dinner, and even writes “love” on top in ketchup (while spouting quite a few double entendres). Jirou can’t deny it tastes amazing, and for once takes the initiative and offers to feed Akari with his spoon. After briefly hesitating, she takes the bite, leaving their faces oh-so-close together.

The moment is interrupted by a call form Sadaharu (silence your phone at dinner, dude!), for which Jirou is extremely relieved. But both their hearts are left pounding, which of course sets up the most likely endgame of shows like this with mismatched opposites gradually becoming closer and possibly eventually choosing one other over their original crushes.

The forced big brother scenario is dumb and troublesome to be sure, and Jirou needs a lot of work (obviously he’s supposed to be pathetic at this point) while, Akari has some great Kitagawa Marin vibes (albeit not nearly as honest with herself) and her and Shiori’s character designs are solid.

Aside from Akari, the main draw is the general look of the show: the scenery and colors are gorgeous and bold, making the darker rainy scenes feel that much more morose. It’s just so nice to look at, lacking the modeling or animation flaws of lesser productions.

ANN’s writers all hate this show, and I won’t argue with their reasons why. But for me, for now, the show’s pros are outweighing the cons. Sometimes you just need a bright, shiny, slightly horny show with a super-dumb premise. I had fun watching it.

Isekai Ojisan – 07 – Power Trip

We witness along with Takafumi and Fujimiya Ojisan’s continued misinterpreting of Elf’s words and actions (ironic considering his translation ability), accusing her of being a thief for insisting on keeping the hoodie she believe was gived to her as a gift.

That said, Elf did give Ojisan something in return: her sparkly green dress you can bet cost a lot more than the ratty hoodie. Ojisan lets Fujimiya try it on, and Takafumi admits she looks good in it. The trio are trying to determing how Ojisan’s “Wild Talker” translation is triggered, but Fujimiya is called away on an errand.

Takafumi and Ojisan keep watching, and come upon the first time Ojisan met Alicia (Toyosaki Aki) and her party-mates Raiga and Edgar, who came to fight a horde of goblins and assumed Ojisan was one of them due to his looks. The group then teams up to fight the actual goblin horde.

That said, Alicia’s party doesn’t get to do much but watch as Ojisan puts on an amazing display of magic. Ojisan claims that playing Golden Axe on Genesis prepared him for this fight while the opposite is true. That said, he prevails, and as the party heads to the village for their reward, Alicia takes Ojisan aside and tells him she witnessed him raising the barrier protecting Luvaldram.

Rather than trust her to keep the secret (and she says she will), he wipes her memory and those of Edgar and Raiga, ending their friendship before it could really take off. However, Ojisan soon encounters the three again, this time assuming he’s the beast they were sent to slay due to his appearance It’s not deja vu for them since all memory of him was wiped.

When they describe the beast as a prickly hedgehog that rolls up into a ball to attack, Ojisan’s mind naturally wanders to visions of Sonic. However, the actual beast turns out to be a biologically correct hedgehog, and thus unrecognizable to Ojisan. Worse, when he uses Wild Talker to converse, he learns the giant hedgehog is a sadistic monster, and incinerates him on the spot.

Suddenly a phone rings; Fujimiya’s phone, which she left at Takafumi’s. He enlists his uncle’s aid in flying him to Fujimiya’s college where they spot her being hassled by a skeevy looking dude. Ojisan leaves the handling of the situation to his nephew, lending him his powers for an hour, just in case.

But when Takafumi gets a better look at the red-haired menace who is all over Fujimiya, he suddenly recognizes him as her cute little brother, Chiaki…who is still in the fourth damn grade. Similarly, when Chiaki realizes it’s Takafumi, his twisted, grotesque face (a quality his older sister shared at that age) suddenly becomes flush and enthusiastic.

Chiaki looking like a skeevy twenty-year old while he’s actually Fujimiya’s fourth-grade brother is an amazing joke that had me rolling, especially due to the consistency with which young Fujimiyas are depicted as more orc (or goblin)-like than everyone in the other world regarded Ojisan. As a little kid, he has also never heard of most of the stuff Ojisan talks to him about, once he joins the group.

When Fujimiya asks what Takafumi would have done if Chiaki had been an adult guy flirting with her, he shows off his temporary uncle powers and makes the two of them invisible, creates two holographic decoys, then teleports them to Fujimiya’s lecture hall several stories up.

Fujimiya is impressed by how quickly Takafumi has managed to master Ojisan’s magic, and notes that this situation reminds her of when he stood up for her when she got shoved by three boys back in grade school. Takafumi decides to tap into her memories and project them as Ojisan does so they can take a look at what happened.

Naturally, things unfolded much differently than either party remembers. Fujimiya wasn’t shoved, she was the shover, and was probably going to do more had Takafumi not arrived to “rescue” her. But even though she was the instigator, Fujimiya was happy then, just as she’s happy now to know he’s got her back.

Takafumi then meets Sawa, Fujimiya’s friend since high school, who tells him Fujimiya has gotten quite popular with the guys since “becoming cuter” in the last six months. Takafumi, still drunk on Ojisan’s temporary power, demands to know the names and locations of said guys (so he can wipe all memory of Fujimiya from their heads).

This protectiveness/possessiveness and his blushing when Fujimiya leaned in to whisper to him suggest there’s something there, but she has a long way to go to get out of the Friendzone. Back at Takafumi’s, he and Fujimiya watch as Alicia reveals herself to be the Hero, AKA “Shining Crusader”, just as I suspected she would be. I look forward to her future interactions with Ojisan.

Isekai Ojisan – 06 – Skipping Karaage Night

Ojisan continues to show Takafumi and Fujimiya his torturous first days in another world, where his captors try to sell him but end up making forty times more bronze coins selling a used scoring pad, adding insult to injury. Ojisan is imprisoned for seven days, but thanks to his translation ability is able to communicate with the world’s spirit of light.

He reaches out to the beam of moonlight in his cell, and it becomes a solid sword in his hands. He uses that to break out of jail and release all the cute little creatures imprisoned there, but they turn out to be vicious monsters and he spends the rest of the night slaughtering them.

This, to Ojisan, represents being “off to a good start.” Fujimiya gets a text from home; it’s fried chicken night, but she’s eager to learn more about how he saved Elf from the vemon dragon. She later regrets passing on the chicken as the dragon fight is over in five seconds. Ojisan makes the right first move by offering the half-naked Elf his hoodie, but she temporarily “glitches” from the sudden urge to kill the orc-looking man before him.

She checks herself and stows her dagger in the transdimensional inventory, but to Ojisan it looks like she’s stabbing herself, and lifts up the hoodie expecting to find a gaping wound. Needless to say, it’s not the best first impression to expose a girl’s nudity right after covering it, so in this instance Elf’s berating of Ojisan is justified. But he’d only ever interpret that verbal abuse as contempt, when really the opposite is true.

That’s proven to be the case when Ojisan fast-forwards to the night he was frozen by Mabel, as he wakes up with both Elf and Mabel sleeping on top of him, perhaps to hasten his thawing but also because at least in Elf’s case she has a thing for the guy despite herself (and his looks).

Elf’s monopoly on Ojisan is disrupted by Mabel, who talks in her sleep about not wanting to work. Ojisan suggests that after sleeping in a bit, they go out for breakfast. Mabel and Elf formally introduce themselves and their goals (Mabel wants to explore, Elf wants to find ancient relics, and Ojisan, AKA “Wolfgunblood”, wants to find a way home. “Wolf”, as Mabel starts calling him for short, plans to scout out a dungeon where the storied Hero known as the “Shining Crusader” apparently is.

For now, though, it’s late, and Fujimiya is starving from skipping dinner. Ojisan in his magnanimity offers to treat her and Takafumi to ramen. Even though Takafumi ends up being a few yen short and Fujimiya has to pay after all, the three slurp with great abandon, as watching Ojisan’s adventures clearly worked up an appetite.

I imagine next week will pick up on the part of Ojisan’s story where he currently has two ostensible party members and seems poised to gain a third. I bet the “Hero” mentioned is the third female character in the OP and promo art, voiced by Toyosaki Aki.

Considering what entertaining characters Elf and Mabel are, I’m looking forward to her introduction and seeing how she bounces off the others…not to mention how Takafumi and Fujimiya react and comment on her arrival in Ojisan’s life.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Isekai Ojisan – 05 – Another Region Code

It’s clearly become a daily habit for Fujimiya to come by Takafumi’s place where they watch video of Ojisan’s isekai adventures. They’re basically couch potatoes watching fantasy reality TV. But hey, if it’s entertaining, and there’s no other way Fujimiya knows of to hang out with the oblivious Takafumi, so be it!

The latest “episode” they tuck into is when Ojisan was “nearly assassinated” The identity of her assailant in the night is made plain by her ice sword and silvery blue bangs. It’s Mabel, whom Ojisan scorned by ignoring the hints she dropped and defeating the Blaze Dragon without the god-freezing sword.

No sooner does Ojisan express worry about whether Mabel is eating well does she pass out, and she wakes up in an inn. When he asks what happened to her life of leisure, she says the village cut down the tree she lived in and gave her an ultimatum: get a job, or become the village pet. She chose neither, and instead froze everyone from the hips down and dropped icy water down their backs before fleeing.

She now finds herself aimless, but Ojisan tells her she already has the means to live the life she chooses, not just with the ice sword, but with a Cosmite ring he slipped on her finger while she slept. When Mabel considers reforming her gloomy personality, Ojisan rejects the notion that being an introvert is a bad thing, and says her eyes are attractive.

Between the ring and the compliments, Mabel has the distinct feeling she’s being proposed to by Ojisan. She offers him the ring back, but her claim about having no romantic feelings is debunked by the fact the ice seal on the sword (and thus, her heart) is melting like gangbusters behind her.

When Ojisan insists she keep it and that they should turn in for the night, Mabel’s first instinct is to ask for change for the public bath. That’s when Ojisan breaks her misunderstanding by saying once she sells the ring she can get change for the bath and everything else for the remainder of her life. Realizing this was not a proposal, her heart and the sword freeze so violently Ojisan takes defensive action.

When Elf hears the commotion and comes in the room, she finds what looks like Ojisan magically tying Mabel down to have his way with her, so she snaps his chains and lets Mabel free to encase him in ice for the night. The two women find kinship in their mutual emotional suffering at the hands of Ojisan. Mind you, he isn’t doing this intentionally…his brain just has a different region code.

The idea of being able to translate body language, sarcasm, and innuendo is expanded as the story continues, with Mabel and Elf chatting while Ojisan stands frozen. Takafumi and Fujimiya are intrigued when they hear Mabel say the word “Japan”, and starts to tell a story of another traveler from Japan who came to their world and was greeted by a god who bestowed upon him a divine power.

Mabel creates beautiful visuals for her story with ice and tells the story well, but it’s a story Elf has already heard, and she harshly cuts her off, resulting in having to comfort her with hug when she breaks down into tears. Back in our world, meanwhile, Ojisan feels cheated: when he ended up in another world, he wasn’t greeted by a god or given any divine power.

That leads his audience of two to insist that he rewind his memories all the way back to 18 years ago when he was 17 (and actually young looking!) and first arrived in the other world. While rewinding, he passes by dozens of instances of him being hunted, captured, persecuted, and nearly executed in a number of different ways, underscoring how rough Uncle has had it and how amazing it is he’s as well-adjusted and untraumatized as he is.

But the elegantly set up joke is that a “god” did in fact speak to him when he first arrived…he was just too busy being beaten up by adventurers who thought he was an orc to hear. Also, the “god” in question was simply a recording in Mandarin, which when Takafumi translates with his phone, reveals that when Ojisan was being beaten, he wished to be able to understand the language of his attackers, and that wish came true.

While we know from his misadventures over the next eighteen years that this didn’t make life in this new world much easier, it did make it possible, such that when he did come upon a couple of souls like Elf and Mabel who were willing to see him as more than just a hideous orc variant, he gained companions.

Of course, with Ojisan’s brain region coded as it was, simply speaking the language wasn’t enough. He missed the nuance and context of their words and actions and almost always completely misinterpreted them. One wonders if Elf and Mabel themselves were bestowed with divine patience to endure his infuriating conduct without murdering him!