hontou ni sou omou?

Ask and ye shall receive.

Though it may be something you DO NOT WANT. Oh dear, San-chan’s cosplay was hilarous (I’m sure it’s a parody of something but I can’t put my finger on exactly what), great for chara relationship building (showing Nagasumi how far he is from San’s ideal) and just slightly less orz-inducing as Sailor Fuku Luna-papa (quite a feat given how it’s almost impossible for a young, beautiful girl to wear something that makes her anything other than beautiful).

I can feel your pain, Sun brigade! When Lunamaria kissed Shinn (as Xellos-_^ keeps reminding me OTL), I was going: ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!‘ too. BTW while the ‘Sun’ and ‘Lunar’ spellings are canonical, I still prefer ‘San’ and ‘Luna’… somehow, the real sun and moon girls are Himeko and Chikane. Yuri trumps all!

The Maki hand puppet segment was great too, particularly how Maki was moved by Luna’s WILL TO SUCCEED and thus her chivalry yet again. Luna’s admission of why she didn’t want Nagasumi to be her rehearsal partner was also a nice and cute touch to end off.

Another example of sneaky foreshadowing, Mermaid Examiner Akenochi realizes that San-chan is trained in the same school of swordsmanship as her and that may prove to be a link to her missing oniisama. Utterly typical of San-chan of not knowing nor caring what school of swordsmanship she practices. If it works, who cares?

The opening scene of Masa-san in Snack Akeno was also another foreshadowing type moment that tied Masa-san into this thread.

SISCON versus YAOI!

Akeno’s reversion to her younger ‘Oniisama!’ stage was also great. It’s always the quiet ones.

Quite a tidy fix. Masa-san regains his memories but decides to stay with his current family. Akeno achieves closure but cannot remember Masa-san’s true identity.

Episode 24 was definitely my least favourite episode, given its focus on Kai and Saru.

My reaction was mainly along the lines of Fujishiro. GG, Shark!

And another foreshadowed event. Akeno and her Leisure Suit Larry superior’s preoccupation with breaking up San x Nagasumi is revealed to be a plot by Kyoto nobleman, Yoshio Minamoto to acquire San-chan for his harem.

Ren-aneesan had initially been worried about bringing San along and was the first to realize the danger of the sweet incense. Seems that the Setouchi gumi’s intel isn’t that good, given how Luna and Kai immediately knew the danger of Yoshio’s invitation. But then if it was, there won’t be a chance for Nagasumi to come to the rescue.

So there was a point to having Kai around after all…

Yoshio, you have just chosen to mess with the wrong crowd… it was great how bad ass everyone was.

Nagasumi’s sakura speech was great. He’s finally levelled up to be able to express that feeling. Also very tidy how all his suffering so far (from the San and Luna’s howling voice attacks and other mermaid songs as well as the constant attempts on his life by Gouzaburou and company) have also made it much more plausible that he could stand a chance in the penultimate and final Boss battle. Great how Gouzaburou was finally able to express a moment of acceptance.

How all of San x Nagasumi’s friends (and rivals!) joined the fray reminded me of the title of an episode in Shana Second: 合わせの力 (combined powers). It’s so convenient to have friends in high places!

What a great final battle! Nagasumi being able to level up just by being at San-chan’s side and then combining their powers FTW.

I also loved the punnery… not just chivalry and mermaid but also the word for ‘mermaid’ made up of human (Nagasumi) and fish (San-chan).

And the culmination of the opening moments of the series. Very satisfying ending, definitely no SUNRISE screwed up endings or GONZO character/story mutilation here. Given my bias against GONZO, I’d attribute the success of this series to AIC’s involvement if the following testable hypotheses are borne out: the directors and script writers were mainly from AIC rather than GONZO. True or false? Like Skane, I’m a fan of AIC’s Black Heaven. While Cautionary Warning got my nerves after a while, it’s still one of the few anime series that confronts adult relationship problems and was the best anime depiction I’ve seen of Corporate Soul/Dream Crush x Marital Breakdown.

LOL another karaoke ending! :D BTW I was wondering where Maki was and how she could be in the room with Mawari and Inchou present but when I finally realized where she was, it was perfect! Hiding in plain sight FTW.

A really enjoyable series and looking forward to the OVA!