Koji Oe wouldn’t mind a second season. I’m not so sure. I felt that, wrt the OVAs, the franchise has lost some of its charm.

The reintroduction of the cast was somewhat tedious and the thing I particularly took exception to was how Gouzaburo has reverted back to Nagasumi-hatin’ – this takes away from his reluctant acknowledgment of the latter as his son-in-law. It would have been so much more interesting if Gouzaburo could have transitioned to become conflicted (as full acceptance right away would be both implausible and less fun).

A few further gripes. The meido cafe was completely predictable, you just knew that things would end in utter devastation. On the introduction of new charas, Saru’s sister was a lot more fun than the seaweed girl from the latter half of the Gi OVA.

But my main reservation is the whole one step forward, one step back vibe; it points to stalled dynamics, vicious cycles, gags getting old and stale, School Rumble syndrome if you will. Seto no Hanayome hasn’t plumbed those depths yet by far but the OVAs were not a promising glimpse into its future.

Ichigo Mashimaro Encore

Erica’s review pretty much covers everything of significance so instead of regurgitating my agreement, as a fellow member of the Cult of Miu, here’s the screencaps of the scenes she mentioned:

The role assignment in the afterlife was really appropriate. I don’t really know my Japanese mythology that well – who would Miu be?

This really was proof of friendship. First, Chika actually bothers to reply. Second, her reply above was such a dry witty putdown. No wonder Miu sees her as her best friend.

Best ‘we are lesbians’ line.

Nobue-nee-sama joins the ranks of Minami Kana, Bruce Springsteen and Suntory coffee-based drinks.

However I’ve never really liked Matsuri. While she makes a good partner with Ana to contrast against the Chika-Miu duo, she’s just so pathetic. I struggle between feeling sad for her and shaking her while shouting ‘Get yourself together!’ whenever she blubbers. And there was quite a bit of Matsuri in the park scene and then the Who’s Better Best Friends!? competition (though Miu’s mockery made the latter quite entertaining).

Pani Poni Dash!

I shared Washi’s surprise at ‘how familiar it felt.’ The premise was nonsensical but (1) even the cast commented so, (2) it was as good an excuse as any for how hilarity ensued, and (3) the kick the can contest didn’t make sense in of itself but it provided the context and structure, making sense of everyone’s actions during the OVA.

Characters were reintroduced and familiar gags were replayed with a verve and flair that had plenty of justified confidence that the memorable cast was indeed memorable. This velocity allowed the madcap events of the contest to speed through the time of the OVA, all the while with a wink, a twinkle in the eye, a tongue firmly in cheek as the ending unfolded with its multiple twists and turns that had a surprising bite, a LOL flavour and texture followed by an ‘Ah I should have known’ aftertaste sprinkled with otaku references, udon torture, Jackie Chan and Al Pacino (Heat?). And lots of eye catches and fan service.

Good stuff. I certainly wouldn’t mind another OVA like that.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

The Miuness of Minami Ke caused me to revisit one of my favourite moments in the Ichigo Mashimaro OVAs, as I felt the three sisters comedy was very funga. I first heard it used in Ichigo Mashimaro OVA 1 when Miu shouted it as Nobue-nee was speaking to a potential employer. And then Nobue-nee uses it to terrifying slow-burn effect in the following scene (complete with a terrific scream BGM):

The other anime where I heard it was from Tsukasa at the start of Lucky Star OP. Although I have no idea what in the blazes funga means, I’d love to see it proliferate in the world of animu. Unless, of course, the Ichigo Mashimaro use of it was already a homage to some other anime series?

BTW I’m quite surprised that the episode summary cum comprehensive screenshot coverage of the Ichigo Mashimaro OVAs has been fairly thin, at least by the usual suspects. Would really appreciate it if anyone could point me to something along the lines of the above-mentioned.

With the exception of ThirteenSugar’s entry on the first OVA at THAT and Billy’s summaries on OVA 1 and 2 at MelonBread, I haven’t found a detailed screen cap and episode summary posts on the third installment of the OVA series. Also see reviews over at Okazu and Karura’s comparison between the manga and the OVA.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Not to me at least, either by the Ken Akamatsu‘s or Haruhi’s (‘turn on’) definition of moé. Extremely dojikko (clumsy, goof ball, klutz) anime characters make me think of the Darwin Awards. Having just seen the second Ichigo Mashimaro OVA (waiting for the subs before I fanboy about Nobue-oneesama), it seems that Matsuri’s dojikko nature is part of her moé appeal. Likewise Konata thinks that Miyuki’s clumsiness makes her cute too. Kurumi, the Invincibly Moéless Girl in PPD!, seems to think so too.

I’d venture that proponents of dojikko moé would agree that the character already has to be a cute or pretty female. Thus doji-nature is, at best, a sufficient rather than necessary condition for moé. By Akamatsu’s definition, the causal mechanism could be stimulating the moé-feeling observer’s feeling of strength (relative to object of moé) and also the desire to protect said object of moé. I have no idea how this works in Haruhi’s definition.

Also is the degree of moé positively correlated to the degree of clumsiness? Miyuki doesn’t seem to be that clumsy. Is she clumsy enough to arouse moé? What constitutes a general threshold of clumsiness that, once crossed, makes a character irritating rather than cute, funny or even mildly entertaining? I guess I wouldn’t mind if it were a sideshow but it were used constantly and in a heavyhanded way to interrupt scenes in a series (think a parallel to clumsy loser harem male leads), it would be a big turn off for me.

Matsuri is the Champion compared to Miyuki. I wonder how she even got through a school day before Ana arrived? The Kururu reference was pretty enjoyable though.

Matsuri is so clumsy on a daily, routine basis that even Miu is stunned for once, her stick of strawberry pocky falling out of her mouth in disbelief. And her comment, ‘This isn’t a manga you know,’ is just the cherry on top that completes this scene; an acknowledgment that people are not this clumsy in real life and/or this kind of clumsiness, like huge eyes and almost non-existent noses, are only appealing in the two dimensional worlds of manga and anime. Even then, this particular fetish isn’t one of mine.

Afterall, the best oneesamas are cool rather clumsy.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.