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! 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!

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

Everyone loves school trip to Kyoto!

One of the things that concerned me slightly about the series as a whole is whether it glorifies or romanticizes gangsterism; Yakuza continue to be a real problem and I can’t imagine parents being happy if children start to speak like some of the Setouchi-gumi members. I suppose a lot of this type of controversy surrounds movies like the Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas and, of course, the Sopranos TV series. But I suppose the whole mermaid thing makes it so far out that it’s hard to think of the series as anything other than pure fantasy and comedy, which then begs the question of the big blue screen ‘no resemblance to organizations and persons living or dead’ disclaimer at the end of each episode. The yakuza arc in Black Lagoon: Second Barrage is probably a great example of negatively depicting the yakuza, showing their internecine fighting as well as being ruthlessly out-competed by foreign gangsters.

Akeno’s Saber moment. Okawari!

Something about hot springs increase appetite. One of my friends actually did do the above, eating all the (not inconsiderable) remaining rice with pickles confiscated from the rest of the group and when she finally fell asleep, she really did say: ‘もう食べられない。’ (I can’t eat anymore) in her sleep! -_-;;

Mawari check!

Faux yuri mentioned by petrichorlic – still better than no yuri. As Baka-raptor sayeth unto us, lesbians make everything better.

The coy look in those eyes. And blushing for greatness.

Mawari rope play. Not quite as good as Hato-nee versus Benisu though.

LOL cat user! Surely the most fearsome police opponent of the mermen gangsters!

‘Embrace me tightly!’ is the new RONERY.

Cool Afroman Masa-san must, of course, chill out in cool Pazu hangouts like Snack Akeno, complete with cool Mama-san and film noir lighting. ‘Sad father’ as the house drink, hope that was on Masa-san’s tab; that’s the least he could do.

So cute how Luna is totali love overpowered by Nagasumi’s mom. It was a great moment at the end of Ep 8 when the latter laid down the law unto the former about taking a proper breakfast.

Even more horrifying than Sailor Bubba!? Arnold Schwarzenegger motteke sailor fuku – CAN HAZ or DO NOT WANT!?

Oniichan~~ [In all fairness, Oneesama fans also have our genre ruined by the short clip after the ED and before the preview. orz]

You can run but you cannot escape from the power of moé!

Stop, right there, in the name of Aneesan!

In the name of the falling cherry blossom petals, I will counsel you!

San-chan nekomimi mode! No tsukkomi over the irony following the cat episode?

San-chan nekomimi meido mode!

Slipper power. I have cut another useless guy.

Snack bar’s Akemi-chan is Gouzaburou’s shameful secret! I do agree with him that one shouldn’t argue in front of the chewrens though.

Dragged off to a horrible fate!

MOAR counselling.

OMG

GEM OVERLODING

Bazooka FTW

Helpu mi, mum in law!

Sure. :3 I really can’t recall any other anime where the son-in-law has such a good relationship with the mother-in-law… though, of course, not that many series at all even get past the marriage point (or even the confession stage!)

You all make my bath time so much fun~~

Another inchou story… I was quite surprised that it was actually useful in building up Nagasumi and San’s relationship by raising the issue of how meeting San has obviated Nagasumi’s ‘normal school life’. The Last Amazoness was plenty ridiculous but it actually flowed very well, much like the rest of this series in general.

And the first thing I thought of was: ‘Hey! She’s missing the cap from Mai’s karaoke costume at the end of the Mai HiME Orphans battle arc.’ -_-;;

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

Where a pussy licking is fine too.

Skane mentioned that this series has a lot of ‘sneaking foreshadowing’ and I agree – episode 6, which introduced Mawari, had implied that mermaids were afraid of cats. And the humour in this episode, which played on this mermaid/men weakness to subvert gangster toughness, was a great way to start off the latter half of this series.

Masa-san is the only one who is explicitly shown to have overcome his ailuruphobia though from what Ren-aneesan says, she can handle it too. In contrast to her childish husband and his fishy flunkies.

The Britney ‘disguise’ was truly orz-inducing. Although it might have been strangely prescient about the current state of a certain school girl cosplaying pop star… Harsh punishment from Aneesan was definitely deserved!

And I’ve been finding my love for Mawari increasing. There’s something Herikawa about her… the childhood friend who doesn’t have a hope of getting the guy. But also the flourishes that come with her character… love how the whistle sounds in the BGM when she launches into one of her Law & Order diatribes and her trademark phrase of ‘Shall I teach you the rules of society!?’ But also the ‘We knew it!’ chorus when she went dere dere at the cat after her tsun tsun.

In addition, she joins hnso‘s banner harem, breaking the two year long Lunamaria monopoly, using the same rotate script as Stripey’s. Currently considering other pink-themed candidates. Definitely Hinagiku and Tama-nee will be on the shortlist, especially if I can find suitable art.

I liked Ashita he no hikari and how the karaoke room filled up as characters were introduced but Dan Dan Dan was a nice change of pace; certainly a more energetic ED, the revolving sushi theme was cute. Particularly liked how they continued to present the credits in right to left, top to bottom classical reading order.

Ren-aneesan’s shoryuken (without the twist though).

Fear the ear pull. Verily an even more terrifying husband subduing technique!

Quite surprised that an episode centred on the nameless class monitor (inchou) was actually quite entertaining. Actually I don’t think that the morale of the story is not to judge a book by its cover but to look for the potential rather than the current state.

And LOL Meriken Express Black card.

And Saru enuciates the part of the Stripey Doctrine: ‘If it’s natural, it’s not perverted.’ Of course, the tanuki then adds the flourishes about how his ecchiness is also actually ‘pure and honourable’.

Actually I found Saru and Mikawa to be right at the bottom of my favourite chara list. Not just because they’re guys. But Saru’s unrestrained perviness and Mikawa’s arrogance were irritating rather entertaining. Of course there was some irony and send ups but I didn’t really see the point of these two characters until the final three episodes and realized that I had, once again, been too hasty in my harsh judgement.

I’ve always liked the ‘soul coming out of the mouth’ way of depicting a character at death’s door and this variation was too cute too. San-chan could definitely pull it off plus an added kick from Akeno’s curt observation about how her soul was coming out.

When Akeno first appeared, I was thinking: ‘Oh no, not another Motoko Aoyama ripoff.’ But this banchou episode (made even funnier by me having watched Minami Ke) really allowed to come into her own as an interesting chara when saddled with a problem that she couldn’t solve with her mad sword skillz.

Not so sure if I’m a big enough fan to get a dakimakura though. -_-;;

Well, I certainly can’t fault Saru on his taste. Though I’m whether to salute or slap him for his foolhardiness.

Ren-aneesan settles that dilemma by meting out summary punshment! This is strangely hawt… kinda like one of the Hinagiku fanart pictures that Haesslich introduced to me.

Fear the wrath of the real boss of the Setouchi-gumi!

Slips of the tongue LOL.

Awww. Really great interaction between two of my favourite characters of this series. Great how Mawari saw Ren-aneesan as someone to turn to when she was in difficulty. And Ren giving sensible advice with a deft touch.

Resistance is futile. While he’s had his sweat drop moments, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Masa-san in uncool, SD mode.

Now we know where San-chan gets her sakura petal effect from.

MVP once again! Ren-aneesan puts an end to the quarrel between Mawari and Akeno as well as ending the rampage of the ‘Guys are the lowest!’ girls. I reminds me of this comment on those music video count down shows: ‘Deep down, the real reason why guys like Shakira because she is fit. Likewise gals hate Shakira because she’s fit.’ Likewise because Akeno is curvy. LOL

And remember: Always look on the bright side of death~~

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