Horimiya: Piece – 10 – Scent of a Soulmate

This week we’re (re-?) introduced to Watabe, Izumi’s not-so-secret admirer. He liked the longer-haired, glasses-wearing Izumi, but doesn’t mind this new fun-loving version. One person who does mind all of the attention and affection Watabe is showering on Izumi is Kyouko, who doesn’t like how he arrives at her house with Watabe’s “scent” all over him.

Izumi can’t fathom discerning different people’s scents, such that Kyouko assures him that if she cheats, she’ll let him know. The next day, Izumi sidles up to his friends and smells them one by one, but still can’t really tell one smell from another. When he returns to Kyouko’s house after school, she’s furious, as he smells even more like Watabe.

When Izumi turns around and hugs her, she gets mad because she thought he was finally going to “be rough” with her; marking this the first S&M Kyouko sighting this season. Izumi was never 100% comfortable being rough with her in the first season, but knew that she liked it so indulged her.

She slaps him out of frustration, then runs straight into a wall, and the next day they’re both wearing bandages on their faces and their friends are concerned. It then starts becoming annoying to those friends when Izumi and Kyouko act distant and ignore each other, despite not being able to say exactly why they’re fighting.

That’s just how it goes with couples sometimes, especially when one of them is a stubborn as Kyouko. But when she genuinely starts to worry that Izumi hates her, she withdraws outside in the cold and skips class. Thankfully, Izumi finds her, and assures her that he could never hate her, and in fact he likes her much more than she may realize.

Izumi pulls her arms around from her face and describes her red, embarrassed, tearful face in great detail. Many other women would be quite put off by this mocking, but Kyouko is loving it, and shows a sign of her gratitude by kicking Izumi in the gut. In their own weird way, they’ve made up, and all’s well in Horimiyaville.

The next segment follows up on Kyouko’s obsession with people’s scents, as Izumi comes to class wearing a hoodie since the rest of his clothes are in the wash. Shuu likes the new look, even if it’s copying his own style, while Sengoku warns Izumi that he’s violating the dress code (Shuu is a lost cause).

Kyouko stares at Izumi all day, and he’s not sure why until after school, when she takes him by the hand into an alley and smells his sleeve, and smiles widely because now he “smells like himself” now that he’s wearing his usual cardigan. Kyouko looks so cute in her joy that Izumi kisses her right then and there.

Kyouko admits she’s not the best person, but that doesn’t matter. You can’t choose who you love, and Izumi loves all of her—the good and the bad.

Komi Can’t Communicate – 01 (First Impressions) – [……hic……]

Komi Can’t Communicate is a dazzlingly fresh and new high school comedy in the best tradition Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Instead of two hyperachievers, we have the Most Ordinary Kid Ever in Tadano Hitohito and the Class Princess Komi Shouko, who is so popular in her class that nobody realizes she never talks.

Nobody, that is, except for Tadano, who ends up sitting next to Komi in class, and is knocked out during what must be ordinary break time class horseplay. Komi ditches gym in order to stay beside him until he comes to, which occurs just as she meows to her black cat doll. In what is a pretty fun habit, Komi ends up dashing away at top speed.

But Tadano alone, ordinary kid that he is, comes out and asks Komi if she has trouble communicating. Komi, amazed with his insight despite how blatantly obvious it is, wants to respond verbally, but gets simply too nervous and self-conscious.

But give her some chalk, and she’ll fill a chalkboard with her thoughts. Tanado joins in, and a silent conversation ensues that’s thrilling in its presentation (and ASMR cred!) and ends with Tadano saying he’ll be her first friend and help her get 99 more.

I freakin’ loved this show, and if you have Netflix, you should check it out. It’s a thing of astonishing beauty and quirkiness. The episode drops a bombshell by indicating that making 99 friends is not going to be easy in a school that’s apparently full of unique weirdos, which I guess actually makes Tadano special, since he’s the only “normal” one.

But that’s the fallacy of his assumption of ordinariness: if it were so ordinary to empathize with and reach out to someone struggling to communicate, maybe she wouldn’t have this problem. But in a school of kids either gawking or being gawked at, Tadano actually observed his desk neighbor’s issue and offered to help. This looks to be something special.

Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy – 02 – Taking Out the Trash and Making Friends Along the Way

The culprit in the “throwing things at Mizuki” mystery turns out not to be Rei/Purple, but Sekiya, a third-year who asked class rep Watase Nanako out. She never outright rejected him but said she needed time to think about it, and in the meantime, Sekiya has been stalking her, while taking his frustrations out on Mizuki.

In a meeting Nakamura/Black’s house, the club determines that the best way to get Sekiya off Watase’s back is to make it appear she has a boyfriend, even if it’s a fake one for that purpose. While “pretty boy” Tomoki/Yellow is the most obvious choice, Watase picks a wild card in Nakamura, judging him the best guy to get the job done.

She doesn’t get Nakamura Kazuhiro, but Hououin Kyouma Ryushouin Touga, his chuuni alter-ego. This proves highly effective at the mall where Watase tells Sekiya she’s already dating someone. As Sekiya follows them while they go clothes shopping (Kaz gets soaked in the rain during his introduction), the stalker is constantly kept off balance by all of the chuuni jargon and Watase’s apparent fondness for it (and knack for translating).

By the time Touga whips out his “Lost Child Apocalypse” tome (at which which the others got a sneak peak while doing a room search) Sekiya is in full chuunibabble overload.

With the stalker dispatched, Watase expresses her gratitude to Nakamura for helping her out, along with Mizuki for giving her courage to deal with Sekiya face-on. For this, Watase asks if she and Mizuki can be friends, and if she’ll call her by her given name, Nanako. Thus the Hero Club completed two missions: ridding Watase of a pest, and getting Mizuki a new friend.

As for Rei/Purple, there’s still something shifty about him, like he’s hovering over all, controlling things. Mizuki’s suspicions were only intensified when he saw Rei with Sekiya outside the mall bathroom, discussing something. We’ll see if there’s anything to this, or if like last week, attention on Rei is directed to someone else. The preview indicates the latter.

Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy – 01 (First Impressions) – Those Who are Wise Do Not Court Danger

Transfer student Hijiri Mizuki just wanted to blend into her new class quietly and make new friends. Too bad the day she transferred she has an eye infection necessitating an eyepatch. That eyepatch is a veritable target for precisely the opposite sort she wanted to be associated with: those afflicted with chuunibyou.

They include Noda Yamato, who is obsessed with superhero shows and considers himself a low-key hero. To be fair, he and his fellow members of the Hero Club are known for performing acts of kindness and assistance for people. When she can’t come out and tell the friendly class rep Wakase that she wants help making friends (and who can blame her?), Wakase sends Mizuki to their club, who make her their latest client, and she meets more weirdos.

Takashima Tomoki is handsome but only likes 2D girls. The theatrical Nakamura Kazuhiro dresses like Ikari Gendo and believes he’s the spawn of an angel and devil. Tsukumo Rei, well…aside from wearing bright clothes and cat-themed accessories, we don’t learn much about him, except that he’s by far the most standoffish.

Noda plants the seed that the others (excepting Rei) quickly adopt and embellish: Mizuki’s eyepatch is a result of her having yet to awaken the latent powers contained within, and instances of numerous projectiles thrown in Mizuki’s direction (a soccer ball, a rubber flamingo, and a shuttlecock) indicate that “the Agency” is hellbent on eliminating her before her powers awaken.

This is all delusional chuuni nonsense, but concurrent with that investigation, Noba is hard at work making hundreds of paper airplanes to launch from the roof during a school sports event, each with a call to make friends on Mizuki’s behalf. So Noba is trying to help—just in way she finds incredibly embarrassing. Mizuki also learns that Noba is popular due to his considerable sports acumen (and ability to jump from great heights without injury) and Tomoki also has lots of real guy friends.

Once she’s on the field for the sports event, the biggest object yet to threaten her, a basketball hoop, starts to come down after a gust of wind that blows up mere moments after she sneezes, unwittingly dodging another soccer ball, and her eyepatch falls off. From that point on, Noba & Co. believe she’s awakened, but the threat of the Agency lingers, and Nakamura fingering Tsukumo Rei as the mastermind behind the series of attacks. Rei, for his part, smirks as a found-out villain would.

But this is only the beginning! Mizuki didn’t get the group of friends she wanted, but they’re so damn sincere in their delusions, she actually starts to kinda-sorta believe some of their chuuni nonsense. I first heard Mizuki’s seiyu, Akasaki Chinatsu, in Kill Me Baby! a zany, rapid-fire adaptation of a 4-koma comic. In that she was usually the manic comic instigator, but here she expertly plays the exhausted straight-man.

The rest of the cast is equally game, and while their particular chuunibyou antics are nothing I haven’t seen before, I appreciated the various different styles of chuuni bouncing off each other, and the execution and attention to detail are above reproach.

If you’re kinda over depictions of chuunibyou, I wouldn’t blame you; this wasn’t on my initial Fall 2019 list for that very reason! Nvertheless, the heartening and charm-filled Outburst Dreamer Boys is a fun, breezy, better-than-average-looking show I’ll be watching more of, both to see what further antics Mizuki is subjected to, and to find out if she ever gets used to it or—lord forbid—participates in!

Aho Girl – 05

Summer Vacation is here. A-kun wants to study. Yoshiko wants to play. For once, I’m on her side (wait…when am I ever not?). Ruri has recovered from last week’s unintentional assault. Yoshiko invites her to go see a new magical girl anime movie. A-kun tells her that stuff’s for kids, and Ruri starts to cry…so A-kun agrees they’ll all go to the movies.

BIG mistake. Neither Yoshiko nor Ruri can keep it down, making such a disturbance A-kun has to smack them both and carry them out with apologies to the rest of the audience. Though I must say, Yoshiko breaking out of her tape binds, magical girl transformation-style, was pretty nifty.

Next, Yoshiko wants to go to the beach. She’s not alone; Sayaka thinks it’ll be fun times as well. Fuuki Iinchou and Ryuuichi happen to be in the neighborhood (stalking A-kun in various ways) so they want in as well. Suddenly A-kun is all alone on an island of people who don’t want to go to the beach.

While everyone is shopping for swimsuits (don’t they own any?) he mentions he won’t be joining them on the trip. Then Sayaka pulls out all the stops to guilt trip A-kun into coming along, by calling him a weirdo who draws other weirdos, like Yoshiko and Ryuuichi and Fuuki Iinchou…and yes, even Sayaka. But she bets—correctly—that even if she is a weirdo, A-kun will still be her friend.

The morning of the trip arrives, and Fuuki ends up facing off against Yoshiko’s mom, who smells an “A-kun-stealing homewrecker” and a “sow”. Neither Fuuki nor Ryuuichi are a match for Yoshiko’s mom’s extensive cat fight experience…but A-kun is, and warns her to knock off the violent behavior and leave them in peace.

She does, but not before slipping A-kun her still-warm bra (for some reason) before scampering off while laughing maniacally. I think I’m realizing where Yoshiko got a lot of her brash theatricality…

WWW.Working!! – 05

This newest version of Working!! just isn’t clicking for me anymore. It’s another episode full of little skits and running gags that doesn’t move beyond the ensemble’s individual quirks, which in most cases, remain muddled, and Hayashida is the most muddled character of them all.

Tha manager seems to have a seedy background, Muranushi has a handful for a mom, while Kamakura waves a katana around…but if you’re going to have a new cast, recycling jokes form the old one isn’t a confidence-inspiring move.

Perhaps the third season of Working!!, in which most arcs were wrapped up for the ensemble, was a good place to stop. A new cast was a bold idea, but it’s a risk that hasn’t really paid off after five episodes. Nearly all goodwill I started with for this new cast has been whittled away, and so unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be reviewing any more.

WWW.Working!! – 04

This fourth episode of WWW.Working!! seems content to continue running three gags firmly into the ground: Hana is really bad at cooking, Shiho is extremely vindictive, and Rui likes Higashia but can’t tell him.

Everyone else is kinda just around, and Higashida exhibits a stubborn cynicism about just about everything that makes him a hard guy to root for. He has a couple choice rejoinders, but it’s not enough.

By the episode’s end, Hana has made more chocolate for Higashida, and it’s just as bad as her first attempt, sending Higashida into an unimaginative psychedelic trance. Shiho buys Yuuta dog food, because she’s horrible, and Rui makes chocolate for Higashida, but gives it to Miri instead (who goes on to give Higashida a surprise taste).

Back when I started this show, I took solace in the fact the characters showed promise, such that the lack of a plot that moved forward quickly might not be a problem. But to stay invested, the characters need to be more than just their quirks (or in Higashida’s case, his attitude). This week they weren’t, and the episode suffered.

WWW.Working!! – 03

This week the last two characters who appeared in the initial promo art are introduced, starting with Yanagiba Miri, who is not a staff member but a customer Daisuke initially believes is a ghost.

Turns out she’s just a truant from his very class, who got sick earlier in the year and is now worried she won’t make friends. Daisuke’s numerous protests for her to “Go to school!” are good for a chuckle in an otherwise par-for-the-course episode.

There was initially some potential in the pairings of Daisuke/Hana and Shiho/Yuuta in the forest “test of courage” segment, but aside from learning her parents are just as “weird” as his, not much happens on the former front, while Yuuta’s insistence he and Shiho start over merely as friends only makes her more hungry for pain-and-suffering damages.

Adachi and Maranushi barely register, and the discovery of a raccoon is neither here nor there, though it seems Daisuke will be fostering it at his home, meaning Hana will be by more often than before.

The second character introduced is the adorable Nagata Rui, who like Yanagiba is Daisuke’s classmate but actually attends school. He tries to get Rui to be friends with Yanagiba, but she instead gets fixated on the fact that Daisuke and Hana seem to be close.

It’s clear Rui sees Daisuke as a potential mate, and Hana probably wouldn’t mind if they dated, while he sees neither girl that way. In this regard, he’s the same somewhat oblivious romantic lead as Takanashi, but with one key, merciful difference: he’s not obsessed with small cute things.

WWW.Working!! – 02

I’m really liking this new Working!!, because it feels like it takes place in an alternate universe, where everything is the same, only different. The new show and cast is replete with echos of the old show and cast, but with enough differentiation to be worth the watch.

Still, this new Working!! might be trying to actually improve on the formula it refined with its first cast. Take Miyakoshi Hana. She’s violent and unreasonable like Inami, but not because she hates men. In fact, she gets along with Higashida just fine, and even insists he invite her to his house so he can help her study for exams. It turns out she’s a lot more normal than Inami was, and that’s actually refreshing.

Or take weirder co-workers like Muranoshi Sayuri. She’s very neutral and deadpan in her voice and expressions, but is still canny enough to use her ability to see customers no one else can see to put some rude bros in their place. She also shows she’s got a winning smile…as long as you complement her.

Like Hana and Daisuke, the other couple-in-the-making here doesn’t follow the same path as Satou and Todoroki in the other show. Instead, it’s a weird, long-standing situation where Shindou Yuuta actually got the lonely Kamamura Shiho’s rich dad to pay more attention to her, often talking about things so complicaed they fly over Shiho’s head.

Yet when it comes time to respond to her offer of marriage (thus wiping out his father’s debt to her father), he reverts to a little kid who thinks girls are gross. Shiho clearly hasn’t taken that well, and has since treated ever encounter with Yuuta as transactionary.

Just as I’d like to see Daisuke and Hana becoming better friends, which they’re well on their way to doing, I’d like to see Yuuta mend fences with Shiho. Even if neither of these things happens, the point is I’m invested with these new characters, so I’m going to keep watching.

WWW.Working!! – 01 (First Impressions)

What is it: A spinoff of the popular slice-of-restaurant-life comedy Working!!, with an all-new cast at an all-new branch of Wagnaria. High schooler Higashida Daisuke is forced to get a job at the restaurant when his dad’s business goes bankrupt. Like the previous iterations of the show, his fellow employees are weirdos in one way or another.

Why you should watch: If you enjoyed the previous Working!!s like I did, you’ll enjoy this, and possibly even appreciate the refreshed cast, since we’ve had three seasons of the original cast and there weren’t too many stories to tell. Unlike Servant x Service, the nearly-identical restaurant setting eases our transition into this new show. It’s also packed with star voice talent, from Nakamura Yuuichi to Tomatsu Haruka and Hisaka Yoko.

The comedy style is familiar, with rapid fire jokes and absurd situations and conversations. Each character acts and reacts differently to the bland protagonist, and he and Tomatsu’s Miyakoshi Hana (the unflappable high school floor chief who may not carry a katana but packs a mean punch and makes hallucinogenic chocolates) have an easy instant chemistry.

The cast includes a lazy college student who likes to quiz people on obscure history, a feckless manager who’s terrible at math, and a rich girl who arrives in a Rolls-Royce and tries to solve every problem she encounters with fat stacks of cash (usually successfully).

Why you shouldn’t watch: If you’ve had your fill of Working!!, or just aren’t on board with a new cast, many of whom share traits with the originals, you may not need this spin-off. Animation isn’t any worse than the previous shows, but it’s not any better, either. Like those shows, any serial progress will likely be slow, although this time misanthropy won’t play a huge role, thankfully.

The Verdict: We’re in familiar territory with WWW.Working!!, but there’s more comfort in that than disappointment. All of the new characters are likable right out of the gate, and there’s a lot of potential for both serial development and episodic wackiness going forward. As a low-stakes, low-effort workplace comedy, I rate this show highly watchable, with a good chance of recommendedness.

Mayoiga – 03

Dozens of people of every disposition and background suddenly isolated in a strange place full of mysteries…Mayoiga, I’ve decided, is the Lost of anime. This episode made that decision a lot easier, especially with the group’s need to hastily grope their way through some kind of rudimentary justice system after one of them tries to harm another.

One reason “Jack” is looking for a new life is that he was heavily bullied in school, lost it, lashed out, and ended up in juvy. Just because he was released doesn’t mean all his trauma and neuroses are gone; so when Judgeness prods him too far, he lashes out again.

That gets him tied up, and ultimately it’s decided they’ll throw him in a creepy undergound prison for the night, even though some (cough-Lovepon-cough) wants him swiftly executed for his wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Valkana searches feverishly for Yottsun after Masaki is found, with a story of him leading her along until he went off on his own an vanished. Valkana’s obsession with finding him stems from his absolute need not to be called a scapegoat—after just such a thing happened in his “previous” life as a systems engineer (ah, the flashback…one of Lost’s primary narrative devices).

That obsession makes Valkana very short-fused, and Koharun gets a taste of his wrath when she suggests deep down he’s lonely, otherwise he’d never embark on an adventure involving so many other people. The truth hurts some more than others.

In case anyone was in doubt, Maimai kinda likes Mitsumine, despite her standoffish demeanor towards him. When they encounter one another on the bridge, she’s clearly flattered by his desire to keep her safe, even if that desire extends to, say, Masaki.

Lovepon, meanwhile, remains as loopy as ever about doling out swift justice to those who upset the balance or safety of the group. She believes Jack deserves execution, and anyone who stands in her way deserves it to, as she grabs Mitsumine, falls off the bridge, and tries to drown him.

She does not succeed, but while fighting her off, Mitsumine notices the drowned body of Yottsun floating down the stream. Did Masaki kill him when he tried to rape her, or did he just get killed by a bear? The mind races with possibilities based on the scant information we know. And once more, an episode ends with a hook I can’t quite escape from…

…AND YET, were I to keep saying “One more episode”, I may one day turn around and see that I’ve watched the whole thing, and wasn’t worth it. I committed to watching three episodes, and I’ve watched those three. As enticing as the mysteries ahead may be, I think it’s time to move on.

Mayoiga – 02

Mayoiga makes liberal use of its CGI bus model…until it careens down a muddy hill, leaving all the passengers to continue on foot…but not before tossing the bus driver all their wallets as compensation for getting them this far.

The thirty clean-slaters are all different, but they’re alike in one regard: they don’t much care about the driver’s dignity; or at least those who do don’t speak up strongly enough when it counts.

We learn a little more about Mitsumune, like how Speedstar AKA Hayate is his classmate, friend, and long-time protector…and how he’s easily wooed by girls, due to not having much experience with them (all boy’s school).

With Koharun and her map, the group trudges through the forest, hoping to avoid bears (or bear-like monsters) and eventually come upon a bridge that leads to a village that matches the descriptive details Koharun has at hand. They’ve arrived at Nanaki Village.

They soon determine that there’s nobody home, which is kind of strange to start. The village has been abandoned for at least a year. There’s no talk of food or lodging, just exploration in various random groups branching off from the whole.

Mitsumune had hoped to accompany Masaki, but he’s snagged by two other girls who seem to have plans for him. Speaking of plans, the sunglassed Yottsun seems to have unsavory ones for Masaki, and manages to end up alone with her. A strange shadow in the woods catches her eye, and that’s the last we see of either.

Mitsumune, meanwhile, manages to ruin a potentially fun time with Maimai by congratulting himself on not getting so hot and bothered in her presence, which is a little insulting. Maimai then reveals she was only going to toy with him, but they’re interrupted by the sudden emergence of the bus driver from the woods.

Was the driver the shadow Masaki saw? And what did the driver see after everyone left him? Who sent Koharun the anonymous email telling her how to get to the village? And, of course, what happened to Yottsun and Masaki? Is this group only the latest of many who have inhabited this lost village, and have they suffered their first two losses?

Mayoiga – 01 (First Impressions)

Huh…Well, that was strange. My first taste of Spring 2016 had me riding along with no less than thirty passengers in various states of sanity on a seemingly dubious”Life Do-over” bus tour to the mysterious Nanaki Village, where they’ll presumably all start their lovely new lives.

The word “bizarre” came up in my head again and again as I was watching this. The characters, though we only get a line out of most of them, are bizarre. Their online aliases are bizarre. The pitch blackness of the world outside the bus is bizarre. The whole premise is bizarre.

Everything is so bizarre, I was not, after one episode, able to determine whether I actually liked all this bizarreness or not…but I do know I want to learn more.

After everyone introduced themselves and their various reasons for being there (which, for many, included the various problems in their lives they’re trying to escape), the bus driver chimes in, almost as an audience surrogate, calling them nothing but a bunch of self-involved babies.

The ostensible MC Mitsumune is also intentionally normal and dull, at least on the outside; he has some very disturbing dreams that may or may not be related to his past…or his future. For all the introductions of all these people, we leave week one knowing next to nothing about them beyond their most outward personalities.

Mitsumune starts taking care of a little wounded baby bird of a young woman named Masaki, who seems to have some OCD to go along with her carsickness. Then there’s the cynical Hayato, who hasn’t come because he’s bought into what the operators are selling, but to find out the truth about Nanaki Village.

So everyone here has their reasons for being on this bus. The driver’s reason is to make some money, and his frustration with the loonies he’s transporting almost provoke him into driving the bus off the road, but he regains his senses, and after one last stop, they reach the gloomy bridge to the village where everything is supposed to happen.

This episode creates far more questions than it answers, which is almost always a good way to entice an audience to stick around to learn more, bit by bit. Pitfalls may include a vast cast of characters, none of which we may end up caring about, and the hard-to-shake sense that the show and its mysteries aren’t as clever as they want to be.

We’ll see if Mayoiga can avoid or at least minimize those pitfalls. One thing it’s clearly got down is the overall creepy gloomy atmosphere suffused with that most dreaded of elements: the unknown.