hontou ni sou omou?

My interest in this series was piqued when Totali mentioned the OVA. Mermaid romance meets Married To The Mob sounded like a great premise - why didn’t I pick this up last year? And while looking for subs, I found my answer: GONZO.

It wasn’t a pure GONZO effort (AIC was given equal billing) and Totali and suguru enjoyed Seto but I was still apprehensive. No disrespect, guys, but Totali’s love power is legendary and I suspect that suguru must be a closet masochist for embarking on the Cabbage Project after the soul destroying agony of watching Yoakena first time round.

However Seto also got love from Scott, Omonomono and Kurogane so unless they also have secret love dungeons at home, I decided to take the plunge. And the first half of the series has been good fun (special thanks to the well seeded raw batch torrent and Totali’s episode summaries, EPISODE SUMMARIES BANZAI!). The most important thing to me was that there should be credible development of San x Nagasumi’s relationship and that the slapstick should help build that dimension rather than detract from it. And for up to the midpoint, this was definitely successful.

I loved the enka music and sakura petals when oh so kawaii San makes her punny mermaid-chivalry speeches; I see Stripey’s future when Gouzaburou rages about lousy rascal Nagasumi who’s taking his kawaii kawaii daughter away from him; I felt the Masa-san~~ ♥ too; I will gladly let Mawari (voice of Mako-chan!) arrest me and tell me the rules of society; of course, it goes without saying that Ren-anego is sooo hawt.

Ren-anego was the voice of reason who instantly brought Gouzaburou to heel with a curt ‘Husband!’ I somehow suspect that a lot of Gouzaburou’s aggression comes from being totally controlled by his wife and daughter. Makiko Nabei’s work was great, I’m surprised she has so few roles credited to her.

‘What’s wrong with you, Nagasumi-kun! Get a grip and force yourself on my daughter already!’ It was abundantly obvious that the above scene was setting up Nagasumi to be discovered and misunderstood by Gouzaborou but Ren-anego’s comment was the cherry on the top; the diametrically opposed reaction compared to her husband was such a hilarous contrast.

Ah, at least Nagasumi could appreciate the scent of a real woman. Not that he doesn’t appreciate San’s cuteness. But oh Mrs Robinson!

I just loved it when Ren-anego kicked Saru back into unconsciousness, reminding us that she can be absolutely ruthless if need be and that her favour is to be especially appreciated.

The sparkle chin-holding interrogation technique, Mawari-chan haz it! Right down to the katsudon too! LOL It was also priceless how San was extra deferential to Mawari in their first meeting reflecting the roles of their fathers as gangster and policeman.

Excellent summary by San-chan: My mom’s role is to give the comebacks to my dad.

Not making a decision at a council war is also making a decision.

And no decision was correct once the truth came to light. Ren-anego to the rescue once again!

Well, even Ren-anego can’t keep Gouzaburou’s antics under control all the time. Probably the first time I saw her lose her cool.

Ah the yuri fangirlz pulling powah, Mawari-chan haz it. That’s the effect of a cool costume, like how Akane got mobbed by fangirls after she changed out of her dumpy high school uniform to her knight costume in Blue Drop.

Nagasumi’s mom’s infatuation with Masa-san was so hilarious. Even more so because she shared it with her son. And it’s not even middle age yet!

BTW every time I see Nagasumi’s mom, I just went ‘Nyamo!’

It’s also quite telling that Ren-anego was Nagasumi’s last hope when no one else believed him about seeing the Terminator guy. And how he was totally crushed when she didn’t believe him. Of course she did get the hint and help bring things to a conclusion at the end. This neatly avoids the problem of having a powerful, always dependable character because having Chara of the Last Resort tends reduce the tension in any difficult situation for the viewers and the characters. This was a big problem in the Haruhi novels because of how our mightly and oh so lovely St Nagato-chi was constantly depended on to get the gang out of really messy fixes that the author eventually made Yuki the locus of the problem in the fourth novel, starts to introduce problems that Yuki is powerless to solve (such as the snow storm mountain castle situation) as well as to make it clear that increased strain will cause problems for her functionality and even existence (which then leads to delicious Haruhi jealousy at Kyon’s constant care and concern for Yuki).

Hmmm… this really brings home why Kitami decided to be the school nurse. Ahaha~

And the third time that Ren-anego rides to the rescue. This time with the Lance of Longinus Neptune. I really loved how they paralleled Rei’s Unit 00 javelin-style throw, screwing it up the first time but also remedying it via the shopping channel buy one get one free offer that had bandied around for the diet/exercise goods earlier. Wackiness that was balanced with great composition and flow.

I was a bit worried that characters like Maki and Shark Fujishiro would simply be used to constantly try to kill Nagasumi but I was really glad that both developed beyond that. Fujishiro became more interesting with how he confronted Luna’s father and the following scene really makes him more ambivalent, more than just of one of Gouzaborou’s thugs. Fitting as Takehito Koyasu was so cool as Mu La Flaga.

This was the second time that he’s used the ‘Can I eat this student?’ line with Mawari-chan. I think first being in Ep 7 when the San Defence Forces try to force their way into the gym and I had dismissed any significance for how it shows he relates to Mawari-chan. This time round, how Mawari-chan’s responded that Fujishiro’s seku hara comment will get him arrested, followed by both of them laughing, showed how they were sharing this joke and that it’s a running gag between them. Quite odd since almost everyone else from the Setouchi-gumi (and Edomae-gumi’s Luna) are all wary of ‘the policewoman’.

GG! I really enjoyed episodes 12-13 because I thought it was just going to build up into a silly misunderstanding that ends with Nagasumi getting clobbered again. But instead it spun out of control all according to the script’s plan to take San and Nagasumi’s relationship to the next level by posing a real threat of Nagasumi being married off to Loli Luna instead.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how Luna has developed as a character. Her resemblance to Akira Kogami of Lucky Star was really worrying at first, given that Lucky Channel is the only bit of Lucky Star that I actively disliked. Sakura Nogawa even sounded like Hiromi Konno.

But besides the excellent sing/dance-off competition of Ep 7-8, her character was made more multi-dimensional by increasing the profile of her friendship (instead of just emphasizing her rivalry) with San and the successful intertwining of the friend-rival dynamic made for a more interesting character and show.

San The Bride’s Kill Bill Vol.1 sequence was gorgeous too. I was also sharply reminded that she had not explicitly confessed to Nagasumi even though they’ve been engaged all this while and this very public display was also a great way to show her father’s henchmen and assorted thugs that she was serious, getting them so pumped off that they were prepared to fight for her even though she had tried to prevent it by renouncing her ties to her father and the Setouchigumi. LOL how it was resolved non-violently with mermaid powers. Though dancing for 50 hours straight should also be illegal under the Geneva Conventions and the Eighth Amendment.

Well, all’s well that ends well for this arc. Even though the mothers-in-law may have a difference in opinion. Hopefully the next half of the series continues to build on the first half, develop things further and end well to uphold the honour and the chivalry of the mermaids of the Seto inland sea!