Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – Episode 7

The previous episode of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai marked the beginning of summer vacation.  Oh boy! Summer vacation means going swimming and visiting festivals and watching fireworks and being caught in an endless time loop that triggers a revolt among your fans.  Let’s hope episode 7 of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is a good one, because we’ll be watching it for a while. …thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 12

The previous episode of BakaTest was all backstory about Yuuji and Shouko.  I wonder if that means they’re going to give us an episode focused on that relationship?  It’d be nice to see it treated on more than just the shallow level of “Yuuji looks at another girl, Shouko pokes his eyes out”.  On the other hand, the end of the season is drawing close, so maybe they just wanted to do a Yuuji/Shouko bit before they ran out of time.  I guess we’ll find out in episode 12 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu season 2.

…thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 11

Last time on BakaTest, the nascent war had fizzled out, but at the cost of spreading the knowledge of Minami and Akihisa’s mutual feelings for each other around the school.  Practically everyone now knows at least one half of it, and people who really would be happier not knowing, like Miharu and Himeji, know both.  So long as the only people who know that the feelings are mutual are jealous romantic aspirants who have every motive to keep the two apart, the secret may still hold, but I think there’s too much knowledge out there to keep them from eventually discovering they like each other and starting a wonderful romance.  Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part!  I guess we’ll find out in episode 11 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu season 2.

…thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 10

I was gonna watch some SKET Dance, but last episode was unreal bad, and there have been some pretty bad episodes scattered throughout, too.  I think I’m just gonna drop it.  Instead, let’s watch BakaTest!  Last episode, Akihisa and Minami had resolved to pretend to be a couple in order to provoke D-class into attacking them in order to prevent B-class from attacking them.  I’m not sure those rules make sense – if the top two classes formed an alliance, couldn’t they be constantly making phony war on one another?  I guess there was some restriction on how often you could declare war, I wonder if there is some restriction on how long a war can last if the two sides both refuse to fight it.  I guess this isn’t Kaiji, this is episode 10 of season 2 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu.

…thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 9

Last week on BakaTest we got Minami’s backstory, finally explaining what she sees in Akihisa.  He’s a nice guy, and that’s great for him.  It explains why he’s been able to take the constant abuse from all sides, from his classmates, teachers, family members, and romantic interests (yes there is some overlap among the categories.)  If I were in his position I would have either started fighting back or started running away.  But Akihisa just takes it and keeps smiling.  We’ll see if that strategy is finally going to work out for him in episode 9 of season 2 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu when, hopefully, the kiss of two episodes ago is resolved.

…thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 8

Last time on BakaTest, Minami totally kissed Akihisa ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod.  I’m totally, like, squeeing times a bajillion here.  Usually I say I like tsunderes better when they’re tsun, but that doesn’t apply to physically violent tsunderes like Minami.  When physically violent tsunderes like Minami turn dere, you have the opportunity to unleash their furious vengeance on your enemies, rather than suffering it all yourself.  With the power of Minami’s backbreaking knee combined with Mutsurini’s intel gathering skills and Yuuji’s passionate tactical genius, Akihisa will be an unstoppable force. Next time he won’t stop at A-class, he’ll show them that an idiot can conquer all of Japan!  Mwahahahaahaha!  Except that probably it is all going to turn out to have been a silly mistake and everything will be reset to normal at the end of episode 8 of season 2 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu.

…thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 7

Last time on BakaTest the guys were tracking down a mysterious blackmailer who had been planting hidden cameras and listening devices to capture embarrassing footage of the guys.  The blackmailer has a distinguishing burn mark on her butt, so they have been trying to sneak peeks at the girls while they are bathing.  Which is fine as a gag, I guess, but this has been going on for two episodes now, and is going to continue into a third.  Let’s hope they can put a more interesting spin on it in episode 7 of season 2 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu.

…thirty minutes pass…

What I Watched On My Summer Vacation

I’m heading back home tomorrow morning, so I hope to be back to my regular somewhat-irregular anime blogging schedule then.  I have watched some episodes of currently airing anime while I’ve been here, so here are some brief thoughts on them, almost twitter-style.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Episodes 5 +6:  Funny enough.  The jokes about how the girls dominate and beat up the boys for perceived infractions are starting to grow a little repetitive, though.  It was fine when it was just Shouko, that was sort of her gimmick, but it’s getting old.  And I dunno that I’m really looking forward to the rest of this arc, the whole “track down the secret blackmailer” hook never really took with me to begin with.

Hanasaku Iroha Episode 19: Cute!  We got lots of Minchi, and even some Yuina.  I’m always in favor of seeing Ohana’s school life, too.  And it looks like we’re headed toward some sort of resolution on the Tohru/Minchi/Ohana love triangle maybe?  I know I’ve said that before.

Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 5: I still don’t understand what this show is trying to do.  Maybe it’s trying to deconstruct a genre I’ve never watched and so has never been constructed for me in the first place.  I thought Ringo was a murderer from last episode, but she seems unwilling to murder in this one, so I dunno what’s going on.  It’s starting to look like they may eventually tell me?

SKET Dance Episode 19: Quick fun double feature.  I never have anything to say about SKET Dance so I’ll use this as an excuse not to say anything.

Steins;Gate Episodes 19 + 20: Things have gotten serious again, it was almost in the “horror” genre the way everybody was treating poor Moeka.  I’m surprised that recovering the computer wasn’t enough: why can’t they just give it to John Titor and let her do the stuff she was gonna do with it?  You’re so obsessed with returning to the Alpha timeline, why not create a new Gamma timeline where nobody has to die?  Maybe it’s because Makise Kurisu is a CERN spy after all, and we can never be free so long as she lives? BTW I totally called the identity of FB right the first moment his name was mentioned.

Usagi Drop Episode 6: Yep, Rin’s a cute kid.  It’s nice that we have issues of ownership squared away so now Daikichi and Rin can just hang out doing cute slice of life stuff, at least until the next crisis arises.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 4

Last episode of BakaTest was a flashback filler double feature, a million miles from any possible continuity carrying over into this episode.  Fine by me.  I’ll take as many silly episodes about Hideyoshi crossdressing as they’re willing to put out.  There’s been a surprisingly strong trend toward that, hasn’t there?  Not even considering that even a three-piece suit is crossdressing on Hideyoshi, the past two episodes have had him dressing in unequivocally female clothing.  Let’s see if the trend continues in episode 4 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu season 2.

…thirty minutes pass…

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 – Episode 3

At this point in BakaTest, our heroes have definitely returned from the beach, so we can put that whole nasty business behind us and move on.  To the start of the school year, maybe?  It is a school life comedy, after all.  In fairness, I guess “summer vacation” is a quintessentially school-life activity – once you grow up and start working for a living, summer just means you don’t have to scrape the ice off your car before you drive to a 72 F climate-controlled office to sit and pretend to work for eight hours.  It’s possible that the people of F-class aren’t really cut out for office work, though.  Possibly they will end up unemployed, which is like summer vacation all year long!  Let’s wish them good luck in episode 3 of season 2 of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu.

…thirty minutes pass…