An episode where a lot of things happen but nothing really happens at all.

I’m feeling quite torn with my impressions of this episode. I was bored with the first half of it with all the minor things that happen that do not seem to have much relevance to anything. But, the second half was a thrill ride all the way through. But despite all of that, we just keep getting more questions and no answers. Well, I guess it IS only episode 3.

Izaya and Shizuo really do seem to steal the show whenever they appear. If it wasn’t for characters like them, I wouldn’t know what the fate of this show would be in the hands of the weak Mikado. Masaomi is great, but him alone just isn’t enough.

So after Mikado is assigned as class representative along with Anri, him and Masaomi go out to flirt with girls (well more Masaomi than Mikado of course). After a while they find Anri who is being bullied by a group of girls and one “thug-life” guy and with the help of Izaya, they chase away the bullies (again more Izaya than Mikado). After introductions were through, a trash can comes flying in and pegs Izaya right in the head. This, of course, is the work of Shizuo who apparently knows Izaya from before. The two are about to fight when they are interrupted by Thug-life and his G-unit. The fight then turns into Shizuo vs G-unit and when Izaya starts to run away, Simon jumps in and stops Shizuo from throwing a vending machine at him.

Creepy teacher returns.

It seems like Anri has already noticed how creepy he is and is already beginning to avoid him. Good job Anri, good job.

A bit of self-promotion?

Japanese cell phones are quite durable aren’t they. I bet if that was an iPhone it would be in pieces by now.

Thug life fo’ sho.

It seems kind of interesting to see how Masaomi’s personality changes when he’s talking to Izaya. Maybe it’s the whole “don’t make an enemy out of him” deal or maybe something else is going on between them. They seem to have an obvious past since they know each other, but I wonder what went on to make Masaomi talk so differently around Izaya… or maybe he just talks like that to all his elders, who knows.

Greatest scene of the episode. Even better than Izaya getting a trash can thrown at him.

Looks like Simon has a bit of supernatural strength in him too. Of course not as much as Shizuo who seems to have rearranged Simon’s face by the end of the episode.

Way to be the main character Mikado.

I really dislike weak main characters like Mikado. They just annoy me to death. I can only hope he mans up by the time this series is over. But at least he’s trying right? …Right?

So basically episode 2 was episode 1 but with the main focus on the young miss Rio Kamichika who was part of the attempted kidnapping. Rio wanted to commit suicide when she found out that her father was cheating on her mother and was supposed to meet someone by the alias of Nakura. Nakura, or Izaya Orihara (his real name), told her that he simply wanted to observe her reactions and emotions the entire time. What his real motives are, if any, are still unclear. Rio decides to go ahead and proceed with the suicide attempt, but is saved again by the headless rider, Certy. She departs with a single message for Rio, “The world isn’t as cruel as you take it to be.”

It wasn’t that great of an episode in terms of content, but I do like this style of story telling. Being able to see what goes on from different perspectives is always fun especially with so much going on. We get to meet a few more characters, both entirely new and some from episode 1 with more exposure. There’s so many that you can’t help but wonder how they will all interact with each other.

So Izaya is supposed to be the sinister badass of the show I guess. At first I thought he wasn’t going to be a bad guy and that the whole thing was supposed to stop Rio from wanting to commit suicide. But boy was I wrong. The guy just wanted to observe humanity like some sort of god looking down on a petri dish. Of course, this makes him a perfect candidate for the “villain” of the series if there’s supposed to be any.

I honestly liked her better with her hair this way… not much else to say about this character.

Creepy teacher is creepy. Already checking out the students on the first day, eh?

This guy seems like a prick. If you’re not going to come to school then don’t show up at all.

Despite the show’s natural realistic setting, it’s a bit nice to see some supernatural elements embedded in. We of course have Certy (or Selty? Which is it?) the headless rider. Now we have Shizuo Heiwajima who we saw during the opening and a little bit in episode 1 throwing around vending machines. I’m not sure how this will all play out in the end, but it certainly does make me curious enough to watch the show even more.

This is a bit off topic but I’m kind of liking Erika Arisawa’s character design. It’s strange since the character seems so plain, but just the outfit itself is a bit unique and somewhat refreshing among all the school uniforms, plug suits and fancy clothing you seem in anime these days. Or maybe I just have a thing for plain looking women… who knows.

On a side note, I thought including sort of a summary of what happened in the previous episode in the middle of the opening sequence was kind of clever, but that’s just me. =)

Shokkeru here. Back after a long hiatus with a mini review of various shows of the Winter Season. Keep in mind that these are merely my impressions based on the first episodes of these series.

Today’s Menu:
Baka to Test to Shokanju
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Durarara!!
Ookami Kakushi
Seikon no Qwaser

Baka to Test to Shokanju
Students are divided into six different classes based upon their placement exams. Each class serves as a ranking within the school ranging from rank A all the way down to rank F. The facilities in each class are also a reflection of their rank with rank A being the luxurious suite and rank F being the run-down shack. Classes may also battle other classes in order to have their classrooms changed using summoned avatars. The power level of these avatars are based upon the student’s test scores, thus motivating the student to do better theoretically.

The Good:
-Test scores are the key to victory!: I kind of like the idea behind this series. Having students’ battle powers be based on how well they score on tests certainly does seem like an interesting idea. If only our education system was like this, maybe some people would be more motivated to do well in school… maybe.

-Transformation!: While some of the character archetypes are rather cliché, I still find them enjoyable. Hideyoshi being the obvious trap character even has his own “mahou shoujo” transformation scene. My favorite characters so far have to be the clever Yuuji, who appears to always have a plan and the perverted Kouta, who tries so desperately to sneak a peek.

The Bad:
-Idiot Main Character: I understand that these guys are supposed to be the “worst” students in the school (one of them being the obvious exception) but Yoshii is a little too dumb for my tastes. Not to mention, his summon seems to be a bit useless as well.

Verdict:
Not too shabby even though the first episode did seem a little rushed… well maybe not. Regardless, this is a show that I probably will continue to watch if not for the character interactions then for the interesting battles.

Dance in the Vampire Bund
Thanks to a series of murders where young females are left with bite marks on their necks, rumors begin to surface of the actual existence of vampires. The rumor makes its way onto a TV show where five judges decide whether or not it’s true based on discussions and evidence presented to them. Despite the notion that vampires are not real, one of the judges turns out to be a vampire himself. He is then pursued by other vampires as well as the vampire princess herself. After disposing of the “criminal”, the princess, Mina Tepes, officially announces the existence of vampires and their new home.

The Good:
-It’s SHAFT: I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that SHAFT is producing this, I probably wouldn’t have given this a chance. The first episode was a bit slow paced, character designs are a little bland and I wasn’t sure what to think during the whole TV show portion of the episode. But, in the end, it did turn out to be something interesting and I’ll have to check out the next episode for sure.

The Bad:
-What is that, an iguana?: Vampires are cool an all, but transforming into lizards wasn’t something I expected. I understand that this guy happens to be one of the lesser vampires, but I hope not all of them turn into lame animals.

Verdict:
It wasn’t a spectacular first episode, but I’ll be checking out the second for sure.

Durarara!!
Mikado Ryugamine moves to Ikebukuro to attend a new school with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida. When he arrives, Masaomi takes him around town showing him the sights and introducing him to a few acquaintances. While taking his tour of the city, Mikado happens to be “lucky” enough to see the appearance of what appears to be a modern day headless horseman (except that it’s female and rides on a motorcycle).

The Good:
-Awesome OP: The OP for the series is just so cool. It’s probably my favorite of this season so far. Very hip indeed.

-So many characters you won’t know what to do with.: Just judging based on the OP sequence, the amount of characters that would appear in this show is just amazing. Some may see it as a bad thing just by having to keep up with all the names and such, but I for one think it opens up a lot more possibilities with character interactions. Let’s just hope I’m right.

-We’re just so hip and cool.: I just absolutely love the character designs but then again I am a sucker for a lot of things urban themed in anime.

The Bad:
-Are we there yet?: This seems to be a trend amongst shows recently. The first episode just seemed to go by so slowly for me. It seems that they spent a lot of time explaining things while not really explaining anything at all. We got to meet a few of the characters and the modern day headless motorcyclist in action, but despite all that, I’m still not sure what this whole show is about. In short, I kind of feel annoyed by having to wait till episode 2 to fully understand the basic flow of the series.

Verdict:
Definitely a candidate for one of the best shows this season. I’m watching this show till the end and may even end up blogging it if I find the time to.

Ookami Kakushi
Hiroshi Kuzumi and his family move into the town of Jouga (seems to be a popular opening to a story) where everyone seems to be more than welcome of his arrival. The town is divided into the old town and the new town and apparently residents of each are not too fond of each other. At night it seems that people are killed off by a strange wolf cult just before going mad.

The Good:
-Something’s strange in the neighborhood.: I got to admit, I can’t say no to a good mystery. Despite the mood the beginning part of the episode conveyed, you could feel the eeriness of the entire town especially when all the of the students were drooling over our main protagonist. It had a very “Twilight Zone” feel to it. However, I have a feeling that it’s going to take a majority of the series to find out just what the hell is going on in this town.

The Bad:
-Too sweet for my tastes.: I’m not a fan of the character designs at all. They’re much too cutesy for me and I find it very hard to watch the show because of it.

Verdict:
I don’t know if I’ll be watching this show for very long. The only thing keeping me attached to it is simply the mystery itself. Once that’s solved, I may not care for the rest of the show… if I even make it that far.

Seikon no Qwaser
Alexander “Sasha”, a Qwaser, is able to manipulate metal (Iron I think) and use it however he wishes. He does this in order to chase down a criminal who can control magnesium. What fuels their powers, you ask? Why it’s Soma of course… in other words, breast milk…

The Good:
-At least the main character is kind of badass?: The only reason why I decided to even try this show was because of the main character and just how badass he looked. I also liked the idea of alchemy. But sadly, this alone won’t save this show.

-Ending theme is catchy.: The ED song is actually kind of good even though the visuals are quite questionable… well nothing compared to the actual content of the show.

The Bad:
-Seriously? Breast milk?: I heard that breast milk as a main plot device for the series, but I never imagined to this extent. Now it just seems to be an excuse to show as much boobies as one possibly can and still try to take itself seriously. I mean breast feeding to power up just seems a bit wrong does it not? Not to mention all the other fanservice in this show just disgusts me and I’ve watched and read To-Love-Ru all the way through.

-Censorship is bad ‘mkay?: Fanservice is one thing, but I absolutely cannot stand censorship. If the show is bad enough that you’d have to censor 1/3 of it then you might as well not show it at all. Not to mention that the censoring job on this was so terribad. However, I do hear that there will be an uncensored version airing 2 week after the censored version. So, if you still want to feel a little hot and bothered, you can get your jollies there.

Verdict:
A big no thanks on this one. I may just watch the uncensored version just to see how bad it is and for a few laughs, but other than that, I’m staying away from this one.

In my desperate search to find a show I could write about this winter season, I’ve come across this show and decided to give it a “why not?” try.

What the hell is this show about?

Ooo, pretty.

Honestly, it was kind of hard to tell what was actually going on in the show based on the first two episodes. So far the story seems to involve giant bugs terrorizing encapsulated colonies in a giant barren wasteland. A guy named Layfon (I think that’s how you spell it?) appears with a couple other guys and starts attacking the giant bug with pretty lights and colors. Anyways, it appears this Layfon guy gets sent to some school in another colony for some reason and he’s apparently bitter about the whole situation and doesn’t want to use his powers anymore. But of course, various situations causes him to reluctantly unleash his hidden talents (didn’t see that coming) which awes the crowd. Layfon gets assigned to a military platoon and stuff goes on from there.

What do I think of the show so far?

Gotta love those random names they come up with for attacks.

Between all the crap that’s going on and the OP sequence, I’m really not sure if this is going to be strictly a school-life thing with a bunch of action going on the side or if there’s actually going to be some major bug squashing going on. I really don’t care either way since the story seems to be a bunch of blah anyways. Seeing as how I consider this show to be one of those mindless action shows you can just enjoy without having to think about much anything, I consider the more action this show has the better. Some people may not like all the flashy lights and overpowered crap going on but it has a fairly nostalgic feeling for me which I somewhat enjoy. Growing up watching shows like Yoroiden Samurai Trooper will do that to you I suppose.

Nina: He’s also mah bitch.

The characters are super generic and I’m pretty sure you can find and exact copy of each one in some other anime. The obvious example is Mr. Layfon a.k.a. Suzaku “Jesus” Yamato. As long as he doesn’t start spitting out morals or goes all emo and crap I can be cool with his character since it’s always fun to watch those scenes where he goes and WTFPWN’s everyone in sight.

Meishen: OMIGOSH! Thanks for saving me!
Layfon: All in a day’s work, babe. That’ll be $12.50 by the way.

There’s also a high harem alert for our lovable main character. This is apparent even in episode one where he gets a farewell kiss from some chick and then he goes to save another one in the next few minutes. Not only that, he has a loli-looking character (she’s actually older than him if I’m not mistaken) and a tough captain lady looking after him as well. Of course, this is far from the main point of the show (or is it?).

Final Verdict

Haven’t I seen that pose before somewhere?

Weeeell… I’ll watch it for the mindless action/fighting but as for blogging it? That’s probably yet to be decided. So far, it’s looking like a no go unless I get a fair amount of positive feedback for the show (which I doubt will happen but who knows). So what do you guys think?

So the series is finally over (for this season anyway) and it’s been a heck of a ride. We’ve been overloaded with fun and humor for a good portion of the series, but when things finally got down to it, they hit us hard with a bunch of drama and emotional episodes towards the end. I can’t really say that I liked the pacing that much, but overall, I think it was perfectly fine if you weren’t really watching the show for a profound story or anything.

Episode 12

Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around

Jin tries to find out more about Nagi, or more specifically, the god/spirit enshrined at the site where the sacred tree was from. After visiting a family who was supposedly one of the guardian families of the shrine, he doesn’t learn much more about Nagi except that “Kannagi-sama” saved people who tried to hang themselves during a war. Jin also tries to get information from Zange, but this probably only made things worse. Jin also finds out soon after that Nagi has ran away from home, leaving a note saying that she’s been lying all along. This causes Jin to become heavily depressed and even staying up all night awaiting for her return. However, the episode ends with Jin unsuccessful in finding or hearing from Nagi and leaving him in an unhealthy state of mind.

Episode 13

Jin and Nagi sitting in a tree… Get it? Tree? Cuz Nagi was- nevermind.

The episode picks up directly after the previous one with Tsugumi trying to find out what has happened between Jin and Nagi. Tsugumi finds out that Nagi has ran away from home, but as she tried to press further, Jin gets angry and tells her that it’s none of her business. After a while, Tsugumi realizes that she needs to snap Jin out of his depression and gives him a good lecturing. Jin springs into action and attempts to search for Nagi yet again with the help of Tsugumi and the Nagi fansite’s message board. Jin manages to find Nagi and he finally makes up with her by telling her that it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t understand herself and that they’ll “find” the answer together. Also at this time, Jin meets a ghost who appears to be a younger version of the old lady he met in the previous episode. The ghost explains her “encounter” with Nagi in the past when she tried to hang herself, but the sacred tree would break off its branches when she tried to do so. Jin and Nagi return home and Jin suddenly becomes all flustered when he sees Nagi’s cute face smiling at him. Coincidentally, Jin sees Nagi’s almost nude body after Nagi tries to grab a change of clothes. Tsugumi walks in right before Jin can “act” on his emotions and Nagi follows up by smacking him upside the head with a frying pan. Nagi goes on to say that Jin would surely make fun of her if he saw “these”. This last statement might be an attempt to keep fans from thinking that Nagi might have feelings for Jin (maybe?).

Insert Takako epic nosebleed here.

Overall, these last two episodes have been pretty decent for me. I’ll admit that I didn’t really like episode 12 (and to an extent episode 13) purely for the fact that there was a lack of comedy in it. This is only natural since we’ve been spoiled by all the comedy and non-serious episodes for a good portion of the series. However, that’s not to say that I don’t think they were good episodes. I, in fact, think they were great for what they were. It was just a too drastic change of pace in my opinion. But at least I’m glad that they ended the series on a happy note.

Ya’ll got served.

It was kind of weird that they used the same three guys that harassed Zange the first time again in episode 12. I’m not sure if they were actually the same guys or if they just thought they could get away with using the same characters for very minor roles. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter, but I thought that was a bit interesting the point out aside from the awesome butt-kicking they got from Zange personally.

Is it just me or does Jin look especially retarded in this shot?

The events of episode 13 were kind of cheesy, but props to Tsugumi for waking Jin’s stupid ass up from his emo-ness. I swear, if he didn’t get those injuries from helping Nagi, he would have probably given them to himself. But you do kind of have to feel sorry for Tsugumi for having to see that scene at the end after all the work she’s done for Jin. Hell even the “Oops, I fell over your naked body” bit was a bit cliche.

Series Review

Thank you to all of you who actually take the time to read and comment on my posts.

What can I say about the series that most of you don’t already know?

Kannagi the anime has been known for its high quality animation/production, the very nicely timed jokes and punchlines and great character designs and personalities. It wasn’t a show so focused on heavy drama or depth in plot, but one that aimed to be a very entertaining experience. There wasn’t too many references aside from the occasional jabs at KyoAni so the show was pretty humorous and entertaining on its own merits.

The only problems that this series had were probably the overall cliched themes and perhaps the pacing of the story. However, these issues were pretty much overlooked with how interesting and amusing the interactions between the characters of the show were. Sure you have the mysterious girl showing up suddenly at your home, the childhood friend, the flirtatious one, and the whole idea of love triangle/square/whatever-it-is thing going on. But all this became a minor point for some reason. Perhaps it was because of a great cast of supporting characters or just all the great moments we’ve witnessed. Whatever it is, it’s made Kannagi a great series to follow despite its minor issues.

My favorite characters of the series has to be Akiba or Takako. Jin has pissed me off more and more as the series move on. Nagi is great, but there are times where she’s not too interesting to watch. Tsugumi and Zange are cute, but they lack great lines. Daitetsu was pretty great in his own little episode and during the whole “misunderstanding” but aside from that he was a pretty dull character. Shino hasn’t had enough to say or do to warrant her any mention really. Akiba has always been a character that connected me to the series. His otaku nature and fanboyism has made him a very entertaining character within the series and his comments sometimes really relate to what the viewer may be thinking (assuming the viewer is familiar with what he’s talking about). Takako wins purely for her awesomeness in being the fanatic she is. Some people think that she might be bisexual, but she hasn’t really shown any interest in guys. She’s been mainly a pervert when it comes to same sex relationships whether it was between Jin and Daitetsu or any cute girl and herself really.

Overall, this series has been a really enjoyable one and I’m sure many people would agree with me. Here’s hoping to another season and to the health and recovery of Kannagi’s author Eri Takenashi.

Looks like they’ve decided to cut down on the comedy and get on with the story since we’re coming up on the end of the season. The transition was a bit rough, but it was probably necessary given the short amount of time left. Regardless, we’re finally given a bit of insight on the situation with Nagi and her not knowing much about herself or why she’s doing the things she does.

Summary

Minus points for you Jin.

Jin and Nagi resume their quest to exterminate the impurities in the local area. Jin becomes more and more injured from all the hunting and everyone starts to take notice. Jin confronts Nagi about all the trouble she has caused him and asks her why she’s even exterminating the impurities in the first place.

Uh oh…

Nagi doesn’t really understand why she’s going around exterminating impurities or where they come from. It is revealed later that she doesn’t even know much about herself and that she’s just doing what she feels she needs to do. Nagi gets angry (again) when Jin tries to push her to “think” about what she’s doing and runs off to the rooftop.

Nagi: “Being a playboy must be tough.”

Jin bumps into Suzushiro-sensei who thinks he’s triple-timing on Zange. Of course this is a misunderstanding that Jin clears up for him. Jin goes on to confess that Nagi claims to be a god to Suzushiro-sensei. He tells Jin that he believes that Nagi possibly isn’t a god but a spirit who thinks she’s a god or is simply saying they’re a god for their own convenience. Jin leaves to go do some research on the deity who was supposed to be enshrined where he got the sacred tree from. He finds out that Nagi has also checked out the same book he was researching from.

Impressions

It’s the kind of life otakus and apparently Takako dream of.

The first half of the episode had decent comedy in it. A few moments here and there were particularly funny (the calls from Zange/Daitetsu stalkers, the VN scene). But about half way through, I guess things start to get really serious when Jin and Nagi have another fight about things Nagi doesn’t really know about. I’m not sure why, but the second half really seemed to fly by for me. By the end of the episode, I said to myself, “That’s it?”. Not sure if it’s because I was so into it that time just flew by or if the episode really didn’t have much going on to feel as long as the previous episodes. Either way, there are somethings that need resolution that I’ll be waiting to see in the next episodes.

This week’s Kannagi treats us to a delightful karaoke episode starring the “all-star” cast, as Akiba would say. The episode starts off very similar to the karaoke endings of Lucky Star, however that’s not all that’s not all for the Lucky Star references, I’m afraid.

P.S. More fan-made material (Niconico link only at the moment… can’t find youtube ver)
KannagixHaruhi?

Summary

Takako hentai desu wa.

There’s really not much to summarize from this episode. The gang all take turns singing songs with Takako and Daitetsu as possibly the best singers to Jin and Zange being the relative worst. Tsugumi tries to subtly get closer to Jin, but with Zange’s flirting and Jin’s natural obliviousness, her attempts fail miserably. At the end of the episode, Jin realizes that everyone but Shino has sung. Takako mentions that you shouldn’t make Shino sing as it will force her to open her eyes (yes I’m serious). At this point, Shino starts to turn around and the crew apparently see something amazing as Shino (supposedly) opens her eyes.

Impressions

Haha, I feel your pain. Hahaha… sorry.

I don’t know what it is, but I always find terrible singing (in comedic fashions) very hilarious. Seeing how I’m probably a worse singer than most of the characters in this show, I feel kind of ashamed of myself for laughing at people for their misfortunes when I’m very much in the same boat. Oh well, no one’s perfect.

She really should have let her hair down for this episode. It would have been so perfect.

Apparently, everyone’s in love with Takako’s little performance. While I did very much enjoy it for what it was, I could pretty much agree with the reaction of the gang. Takako does have a pretty “mature” image compared to someone like Zange and doing a song and dance of that nature would be very unfitting. It’s kind of like if Daitetsu, with his strong and masculine image, were to sing emo songs. Of course Daitetsu’s scenario would be no where close to being awesome like Takako’s performance.

Unless Shino is suffering from the same symptoms as Cyclops then I really don’t know what could be so frightening about her eyes. Unless it’s like when Nunnally opened her eyes… oh gawd.

You could very easily forget Shino’s presence in the show if it weren’t for those few lines she gives every so often. Apparently, they decided to take notice of that. The whole deal with Shino not singing was nagging at the back of my mind up until Jin mentioned it. Then along comes the bit about her eyes opening to shock and awe the cast and leave us to our imaginations. Since this is a filler episode (I think), I’m not too sure how canon the whole thing with Shino’s eyes is. There’s always been characters in anime with “closed” eyes and most of the time, there’s been an episode or two in the series where that fact gets made fun of. One example was in Sketchbook during the fireworks episode (the two characters with “closed” eyes could not squint when everyone else did). Anyways, I’m sure that’s the case here, but I’m just wondering if it was ever originally planned for Shino’s eyes to be really closed or if it was just the way the mangaka decide to draw her.

Tsugumi is not impressed.

Zange’s performance, despite what others have said, wasn’t really that bad. Like the characters said, it was bad, but really cute. For some people, I guess cuteness is all you need. I honestly thought Jin’s attempt was a lot worse, but knowing me, I’d probably end up the same way in that situation.

For some reason, I think her outfit kind of fits the song she sings. Maybe I’m just crazy.

Nagi. What can I say about her performance that hasn’t already been said. I have to admit it was very unexpected to hear her choice of song especially when she’s the one singing the OP/ED song. It’s almost like a slap to the face of those anticipating a beautiful performance. But then again, it does sort of fit her personality and the way she stood up straight and sang that song was especially fitting. That being said, I think Nagi’s performance was the second best in awesomeness (the first being Takako’s).

Getting a bit up close and personal, aren’t we?

Let’s not forget about Akiba. Even though his performance wasn’t anything special, I’m left kind of wondering why Takako was so persistent in trying to get Akiba to sing anime songs. Does she simply want him to open up to his otaku nature or is there something more to this?

We’re not in Kansas anymore…

Look familiar?

LOLOL

And the reference can’t be complete without the matching room number from the Lucky Star ending. Yes, I really checked.

See you next week!

After the events of the previous episode, things escalate even further when Tsugumi accidentally starts a rumor within the school about Jin and Daitetsu’s “relationship”.

Summary

Takako, Shino, Akiba and Tsugumi get together to discuss the recent events between Jin, Daitetsu and Nagi. Takako lays down the facts right before Akiba makes a bold conclusion which Takako gladly follows. After the conversation, Tsugumi leaves to ask Jin directly about the situation. Takako tries to stop Tsugumi from doing something so bold, but instead makes things worse when Tsugumi accidentally shouts out, in the middle of a crowded hallway, that Jin and Daitetsu might be in a homosexual relationship. This, of course, starts a rumor that quickly spreads throughout the school.

One of Tsugumi’s classmates comes up with the idea to take her to see Zange since she felt bad for what she’s done to Jin’s reputation. Zange comes up with the idea to date Jin to show everyone that Jin, in fact, likes girls and not guys. Tsugumi quickly disapproves of the idea and decides to go visit Jin instead. It just so happens that when she goes to see him, it’s right after Jin exiting the shower.

Shortly after the embarrassing incident, Nagi returns and learns of the recent events. This leads to more embarrassing stories and a picture album about Jin’s childhood as Zange arrives as well. As soon as the stories get to the point of Jin’s junior high school days, Jin immediately interrupts the girls and confiscates the picture album. Jin comes back into the room saying that he has something to talk to Tsugumi about. At the same time Zange mentions the rumor about Jin being homosexual which pushes Tsugumi to try and apologize for starting it.

Jin apologizes to Tsugumi for an event that happened during their junior high school days. From the looks of it, it seems that Jin got angry at Tsugumi for something that happened to a book (possibly belonging to his father). Tsugumi didn’t think much of the incident, but it has bothered Jin ever since. Tsugumi goes on to tell Jin that he doesn’t have to apologize since she understands him whenever he cries or gets angry.

The conversation continues with Jin asking Tsugumi what she has to apologize for. This, of course, is when Tsugumi is forced to tell Jin the truth about all the rumors going around school. Nagi agrees that Tsugumi should be the one to be Jin’s pseudo-girlfriend since she is responsible for everything that has happened. Zange adds on that Jin also has her as a “special candidate” as well. Jin is eventually forced to choose between Zange and Tsugumi and right when he was about the choose, Nagi gets impatient and says that Jin only has to be seen flirting with girls for people to see that he has interests in them. Therefore, he doesn’t really have to choose between the two and can be seen flirting with both. However, while this plan seemed to work at first, it only caused the rumors to get worse, saying that Jin doesn’t prefer either gender and just wants everything for himself.

Impressions

This episode was mainly a Tsugumi episode that focused on the relationship between Jin and herself. Their relationship wasn’t anything surprising to say the least. We already know that they’ve been friends since childhood and because Tsugumi cares so much for Jin, it’s natural that she would know so much about him. What I thought was kind of interesting was how Tsugumi obviously has feelings for Jin, but at the same time she has these conflicting emotions which holds her back a bit. It’s nothing new by far, but it’s a bit refreshing to see (maybe it’s just me).

It’s kind of funny how the “fried eggs and vegetables” joke is constantly a running gag for Tsugumi’s character. Is she even trying to learn how to cook different things?

The part where Takako and Shino were discussing Jin and Daitetsu’s relationship as well as raiding Akiba’s personal doujin collection was pretty funny to watch. It was especially amusing to see Tsugumi’s reaction as well.

It was interesting to see that Jin was about to pick Tsugumi to be his pseudo-girlfriend to clear up the confusion at school. This doesn’t really prove anything in regards to Jin having feelings for her since there’s a number of things it could have meant. Things such as Tsugumi being responsible for the rumor or simply because Jin would feel more comfortable with someone he’s known all his life rather than someone he barely knows. What would have happened if Nagi didn’t interrupt Jin would be interesting to speculate as well.

Hmm. So it’s okay for them to place Sony, Blu-ray and Betamax into the show but not a proper VAIO? Looks like they don’t have as much freedom as we thought they would with Sony products.

In this episode, we are treated with a generous amount of Nagi fanservice as well as some more appearances of this “other Nagi”. Daitetsu also becomes enemies with Nagi after a series of unfortunate events.

P.S. I am writing this post even though I’m really exhausted from work and school so excuse me for any errors or anything that just doesn’t make any damn sense. On a side note, I think I’m pretty much resistant or immune to the effects of energy drinks (I know they’re bad for you). I’ve never felt any less tired after drinking one, but I’ve heard that other people had vastly different results. Your thoughts?

Summary

Daitetsu is forced to stay over at Jin’s place during a rainy night since he happened to lock himself out of his house. He observes Jin and Nagi’s interactions with each other and starts to gain suspicions about the two of them. Later on, Daitetsu overhears Jin and Nagi talking and finds out that they’re not really siblings and that Nagi is only living there out of convenience. This causes him to suspect that Nagi might be some sort of evil woman who is taking advantage of poor Jin.

After a lame attempt by Nagi and Jin to make it seem like they’re really siblings, Daitetsu randomly asks Jin about a drawing he found in the closet. The drawing was a design for the statue that Jin created at the beginning of the series. He mentions that the face on the statue looks very much like Nagi’s and asks that if Nagi “was” the statue. Nagi admits to this claim thinking that Daitetsu has realized that Nagi was not a human being. However, Daitetsu was only thinking that Nagi was the model for the statue and that it has not been finished yet.

Jin apologizes to Daitetsu for getting the wood for him and Daitetsu reveals that he did not really ask for the sacred tree. In fact, Daitetsu actually stole the tree for Jin’s sake. This angers Nagi greatly who immediately proceeded to punish Daitetsu for this sinful act. Daitetsu claims that they would have disposed of it anyways, but Nagi says that it would have been an act of purification and proceeds to threaten him with a curse.

Daitetsu runs off to the site of the shrine to apologize for stealing the tree. A bolt of lightning strikes down right before him causing a large pillar to appear with Nagi in front of it. However, this doesn’t seem to be the Nagi we’re familiar with but someone of a “higher being”. She forgives Daitetsu before fainting and returning to her normal self the next morning.

Jin questions Nagi about what happened, saying that Daitetsu carried her home that night. Nagi claims that she does not remember anything nor does she know anything about what’s happening with her. Nagi even gets mad like she did before when Jin tries to question her further about it. The recent events cause Jin and Daitetsu to try and make sense of everything that happened, but Nagi only remains bitter towards both of them.

Impressions

This was a very Daitetsu-centric episode. That being said, I’m not sure how I feel about this episode even though it is straight from the manga. There wasn’t much for me to talk about aside from a few moments here and there. It was mainly a bunch of laughs and arousing moments that’s a bit difficult to discuss in detail. Other than that, it was an enjoyable episode for the most part.

I have to admit it. I didn’t think Daitetsu had it in him. I mean for Daitetsu to have an imagination that would rival Takako’s and possibly Akiba’s is pretty impressive, especially for him. Of course now that he’s made enemies with Nagi, I can’t see his future being too bright. Not even his huge physique will save him from the wrath of Nagi.

I think this is the second time we see Nagi’s eyes losing their “shine” for a brief second or two. The other time was after she woke up from absorbing the kittens. I’m really curious to what significance it has and it’s pretty obvious that it has to do with Nagi’s other self. Speaking of her “other self”, it seems that Nagi really does have a split personality that she may or may not be aware of. Either that or I’m guessing that this “Nagi” isn’t the true incarnation of the deity she claims to be. I hope this gets explained sufficiently since we’re almost winding down to the last few episodes.

A bit random, but if you didn’t know who got this very brief cameo, it’s Puniata from the bonus chapter from chapter twelve in the Kannagi manga. What she was doing in the boy’s bathroom or why there was so many people in there to begin with remains a mystery.

Is this a reference to Lucky Star or am I just going crazy? The art style of the little character just yells out “Lucky Star” to me.

Nagi Fanservice Gallery (because you know you want it)

Are those pillows or marshmallows in the background? Maybe marshmallow pillows?

OMG nekkid Nagi.

Wtf? Nekkid Nagi #2? I almost died of blood loss here.

Jin does seem like the masochistic type.

Baka inu!

I knew Daitetsu was into cats, but…

With a bit of editing, could this pass as a ceiling cat?

Too lazy to look up who the guest artist is for this one. Would anyone like to contribute?

I don’t care if this show every gets back on track with the supposed “main story”. As long as they keep up the comedy I can watch these random side stories forever.

P.S. Check out this Kannagi fan made video.
Nico Nico Douga
Youtube

Summary

Looks like your “textbooks” have been discovered, Jin.

In terms of story and plot, not much has happened in this episode so I’m going to keep this one brief. The basic premise was that Jin had done something emotionally hurtful to Nagi. We learn later that Jin apparently recorded over Nagi’s recording of Lolikko Cutie with a show about cats (which Nagi liked as well). Nagi has shut herself inside Jin’s closet because of this and refuses to leave.

Oh Akiba, you so funny.

Throughout the episode, Tsugumi, Zange and the Arts Club members all end up visiting Jin one way or another. Despite their efforts, no one was able to convince Nagi to leave the closet. Not even Akiba, who was supposed to bring a copy of the latest episode was able to get her out of the closet.

I knew it was coming, but it was still pretty funny.

When all was said and done, Jin tries to give Nagi a very sincere apology only to find out that Nagi has already left the closet and probably hasn’t heard a word he said.

Impressions

Yeah, it was hard to watch porn when your parents put the computer in the living room, isn’t it?

This episode kind of hits home for me and possibly some of the other viewers out there. It reminds me a lot of my childhood and how I would get upset when I wasn’t allowed to watch my favorite TV show since the adults would be watching something else. I’ve locked myself in closets a few times as well but I don’t think I’ve ever stayed that long. On a random note, this episode reminded me of that South Park episode where random celebrities went into a closet and the recurring joke was that they won’t “come out of the closet”.

I wonder how much money Sony gave them for that shameless plug.

Akiba has to be one of the best side characters I’ve ever encountered in a comedy anime. “It’s a Sony” will probably live on in the hearts and minds of all the Kannagi fans and probably all the Sony fanboys out there as well. If not, I will certainly never forget Akiba’s epic words.

We are the champions, my friends.

The Jin X Akiba scene was pretty amusing yet slightly awkward to watch. Not that there’s anything wrong with two guys running towards each other and embracing passionately. It’s just that well… it was a bit unexpected and a little over the top. But it still gives a good laugh. Hey they had to appeal to the female audience and to balance out this next scene I’ll be talking about.

It’s not what you think! It’s not what you think!

Ah, yes. I can’t get enough of Jin X Zange. Whatever exactly went on between the two will forever be left to the imaginations of all perverts (and possibly non-perverts) out there watching this show. Is it just me or was there a lot of sexual stuff going on in this episode? Not just with Zange, but the chat between Tsugumi and Nagi was filled with it too. Of course in that example, only those of us with dirty minds would probably pick up on it. (¬.¬)

Suteki na sutekki!

Return of the Nagi puns. I’ve actually missed these and this one in particular made me laugh pretty hard.

Akiba-kun saitei…

Tsugumi didn’t have much of an impressive role in this episode, but she did contribute to a pretty amusing moment between Akiba, Takako, and herself with the whole KamaPure thing.

Tsugumi told you to GTFO.

Oh and let’s not forget that brief moment where Tsugumi’s “dark side” appeared again with Zange.

Even a noob like me can spot this Ultraman reference.

Crimeny! More roaches.

Ten points to the first person that knows where I got that line from.

Lolikko Cutie Mania

I must be either totally crazy or a fanboy, but I wouldn’t mind if they made an actual series of this as long as they maintain that level of animation quality and cheesiness.

A perverted magical wand. How awesome is that?

Mahou shoujo that involves the President? How crazy is that?

Is that bad?.

LOL. I almost fell out of my chair when she got randomly hit by that truck.

I’ve never seen such fluid animation for a slice of bread.

Eww. I just noticed that he even uses his pubic hair.

More random goodness, although you can’t really see it in this shot.

Haha. More Ultraman parodies?

Doesn’t seem like Nagi was too impressed. Oh well.

Nagi gets a part-time job at a maid cafe to try and make some spending money for herself. Tsugumi coincidentally finds herself working at the same cafe and the Arts Club members also happen to visit all on the same day.

Summary

Hurray for Nagi faces.

The episode starts out with Jin calling Tsugumi and asking her if she was free to help out with some shopping. Tsugumi misunderstands this (although it was more of Jin’s fault for not mentioning…) and finds out that she’s shopping with Nagi instead of Jin. Nagi received 10,000 yen from Jin to do some clothes shopping which she soon finds out that 10,000 yen can’t buy you much clothes to begin with. The two girls end up going to an underwear store where the matter of bra sizes come up. Nagi gets depressed over her small chest size while Tsugumi tries not to boast (too much) about hers. However, the two of them are overshadowed by a junior high student who comes in right after them.

Fission Mailed.

We jump randomly to the next part of the story where Takako wants to visit a maid cafe to see pretty girls in cute maid outfits. She asks Akiba to accompany her and the rest of the Arts Club as sort of a guide to the maid cafe. The group meets outside an anime store where Akiba cracks a joke about Takako and Shino being fujoshi (basically female otaku). Unfortunately for Akiba, the rest of the group are totally unaware of the slang he used and are left in the dark.

I like how Nagi doesn’t seem like she cares about the people staring at her.

Once they get to the maid cafe, they soon find Nagi and Tsugumi working there in a special cosplay event for a galge they’re advertising. Nagi receives a lot of attention from the other customers which makes Jin very jealous and almost ignores Tsugumi completely. Meanwhile, Zange finds out that Nagi is working there and plans on working there herself to steal her fans away. Back at the cafe, Takako drags Nagi over to their table where Jin is too embarrassed to get near or even look at Nagi.

Boys will be boys I guess.

Nagi tries to apologize for not telling Jin about getting a part-time job since she thinks Jin is mad at her. Of course this isn’t quite true and Jin spills the beans by yelling that her clothes are too cute and that he’s too embarrassed to look at her. This causes everyone in the cafe to hear the little ordeal including Tsugumi.

Nagi catches up to Jin on his way home and tells him that she’ll quit the job if he wants her to. Jin admits that he didn’t like the fact that people were taking pictures of her and Nagi then decides to simply quit. Tsugumi becomes depressed and Zange finds out that Nagi quit the job right before she got hired. The end.

Impressions

LOL.

Despite being sort of a random episode, I thought this episode was quite enjoyable to say the least. They’ve really brought back the side characters into the spotlight which I really appreciate. Takako, Akiba, Tsugumi, and even Daitetsu had pretty humorous roles in this episode. Nagi is awesome as usual of course, but Zange got the short end of the stick this time.

I wonder why no one was concerned that she was banging her head against the wall.

Tsugumi has been mostly a pretty normal character with nothing too interesting about her. However, there are times where they decide to take her away from this normal role and make her much more interesting to watch. This hasn’t happened since episode 3 until now. It seems that Tsugumi’s character really shines when she’s put into comedic situations and it really shows in this episode. Her attempts to resist bragging about her bra size and the time she starts banging her head against the wall were classic moments that will rival her little victory dance from episode 3.

Wait, what?

I knew Takako was kind of a perverted individual, but I didn’t really expect her to be into girls as well. It was hinted at last episode when she was taking pictures of Nagi, but they just came out into the open with it in this episode. I thought she was more into the BL thing when she got that extreme head-asplode nosebleed from watching Jin and Daitetsu, but I guess there’s more to her than I thought.

Akiba you are my hero.

I consider Akiba to be the voice of the viewer. Of course, this might only apply to those of us who are familiar with the otaku-culture, but I’m assuming most people who watch this show are anyways. Akiba’s character points out a lot of things in the show that the viewer might be thinking as well. This especially happens when he goes “tsundere?” after Tsugumi’s little “I’m not doing this because I want to” bit. I also laughed my ass off when talked about “moe” mostly because of the way he said it.

I dunno how office ladies dress in Japan, but they don’t really look like that where I’m from.

Akiba’s fujoshi joke was pretty funny to watch as well. I’m not sure, but I think Jin’s comment about Takako looking like an office lady had something to do with the fujoshi joke too. It was just too random of a comment and I think I remember hearing somewhere that a lot of female office workers in Japan are into BL stuff. That’s just something I heard though so don’t take it too seriously.

Daitetsu has gone hard… teehee. Sorry couldn’t resist.

Daitetsu’s role in this episode (and actually every other episode he was in) is probably best categorized as “comedic background character”. Daitetsu doesn’t say much nor do much, but the way he turns to stone and his funny expressions as he stands in the background is always funny to watch. Kind of interesting when you consider that he’s supposed to be God’s gift to art or something like that.

Moe! …sorry Akiba.

I’m not too sure how I feel about the whole thing between Jin and Nagi. I don’t think Nagi has any real feelings towards Jin besides him being the one that provides her shelter and meals. Jin’s jealousy is probably proof that Jin has feelings for Nagi and that he’s not just a boy gawking at revealing clothing and underwear. I also felt that the whole event where Jin was trying to keep away from Nagi was some what awkward, but I guess that’s how it was supposed to feel.

Oh snap.

Zange really had a short appearance in this episode and it’s probably to balance out all the screen time she got in the past two episodes. I’m kind of disappointed though since Zange is really fun to watch. The part with the maid cafe’s owner was pretty damn funny too.

Is this another jab at KyoAni? Goku SZS did this too only more blatant.

No, it ain’t Colonel Sanders.

I just had to point this out since everyone blogging the darn show seems to have pointed it out as well. I spotted the “Haruhi” look-a-like probably on my second watching of the episode when I was paying more attention to the visuals instead of the subtitles. What I didn’t notice were the two anime directors in the background.

Pssh. Those aren’t real.

What’s funny/disturbing about the D+ cup size junior high school student is the fact that it’s closer to being true than being some pervert’s fantasy. Especially here in some parts of America, early teenagers seem to be a lot more developed than they used to and it’s not just the girls either. I’ve seen freshmen in high school taller than most adults even hope to be.

So Zange isn’t exactly moving in with Jin, but tensions between Zange and Nagi continue to increase as Nagi starts to capture some of Zange’s fanbase.

Summary

A flirtatious girl in religious clothing. Can it be anymore ironic?

Picking up where we left off last week, Zange shows up at Jin’s home while Nagi and Tsugumi are there as well. Zange treats Jin to a well-made dinner (assumed to be made by Hakua and not Zange herself) and tries to get him to leave Nagi for her. Tsugumi (and eventually Nagi) interrupt Zange’s flirtation with Jin and ends up in a cooking competition with Nagi and Zange. Zange’s dish turns out to be a burnt pile of trash since Hakua refused to help Zange with the competition. Tsugumi’s dish consisted of (surprise surprise) fried eggs and vegetables. Nagi’s dish looked the best but had a strange taste to it. I’m not too sure what became of the outcome of this battle, but from the looks of it, nothing has changed.

Couldn’t get the TL note in here, but it basically says that Yamakan, the director of Kannagi, was previously sacked by Kyo-Ani after directing four episodes of Lucky Star.

Later on, there seems to be an official Nagi fanclub starting up around the school. Students from the school start to praise Nagi as she randomly appears around school and socializes with them. This is great for Nagi as her powers as a god seem to slowly return, however the faculty at the school are starting to worry and see her as a problem. Zange also see’s this as a problem since Nagi is basically taking away some of her fans.

Take that! Volt Lighter!

Nagi is eventually caught by Suzushiro-sensei who apparently knows of Nagi as a deity and is also Hakua’s dad. Although Suzushiro is on Nagi’s side, Nagi is placed under interrogation from Hagashima-sensei while Suzushiro goes to talk to the principal. As Nagi’s fans start to chant her name outside of the room, Nagi starts to feel more power within her and is able to shine a light through her wand.

Okie Dokie.

Nagi’s situation is finally settled as Suzushiro manages to get Nagi enrolled into the school. Suzushiro happens to be a teacher of religious studies and a priest, explaining the reason he would know of Nagi. He also asks Nagi to free Hakua from Zange’s possession in which she gladly agrees to.

Not sure why Zange is scared of her “dad”. Maybe it’s just Hakua.

Zange continues to intrude on Jin and Nagi, however it seems that Zange has a problem with Nagi being able to call upon Suzushiro for help.

Impressions

LOL Tsugumi. Fried eggs and vegetables are really all you can cook, aren’t they.

Another great episode. The first part with the cooking competition seemed kind of random though. Of course they had to wrap up the loose ends from the previous episode, but after that it seemed like the rest of the episode had nothing to do with it. I guess some random fun is good once in a while though. There wasn’t much in the episode that was worth mentioning, but I’ll try to share a few moments.

No means no, I guess.

I thought the part where Zange and Hakua not cooperating with each other was kind of interesting. Could this possibly lead to to more problems with Hakua rebelling against Zange? This could prove to be an important plot element later on in the series, but then again it could totally be just for silliness.

A bit of comedy from a serious man. Neato.

Not sure how Suzushiro’s role will play in the later episodes, but he seems to be very knowledgeable and perceptive. He’ll probably show up whenever there’s stuff going on with the deity stuff and no some much the comedy stuff (except that one part with the eye twinkle =P).

Akiba is watching his role slowly fade away into the background.

Speaking of side characters, the members of the art club haven’t gotten much screen time lately. I want to see much head asploding nosebleeds from Takako, more funny references and outbursts from Akiba and more random moments from Daitetsu. Hopefully it’ll happen, but I’m not holding my breath.

Love Nagi’s face here.

I like how Nagi kind of turned her attention to the food instead of what was going on between Zange and Jin in this moment. It wasn’t until Tsugumi butted in when Nagi finally said something. It proves a little that Nagi doesn’t care much for Jin other than someone to give her a place to stay and cook for her.

Volt Lighter strikes again!

My favorite part of this episode has to be when Zange goes “Whoa! So bright!” in that surprisingly uncute voice. It totally caught me off guard even though it was so obvious she was coming. I dunno why, but it has me cracking up every time I see it.

With the discovery of Nagi’s little sister, Zange, Jin’s life gets a bit more complicated when Zange gets involved.

Summary

Nagi, idol of Kannagi City. It has a nice ring to it.

Nagi witnesses the sacred tree, in which she originated from, being uprooted and removed from it’s original location. With the “symbol” of her divinity gone, Nagi is afraid that her powers and her very existence will soon disappear. During the conversation, the topic of becoming an idol arises and causes Jin to wonder about it even during school. Some of the other club members overhear Jin thinking out loud and Jin is eventually told about Zange being the latest idol in town.

Whoa ho ho! Where’s nosebleed-senpai when you need her?

After volunteering to buy more art supplies for the club in town, Jin decides to take a shortcut home and finds Zange being harassed by a group of guys. Jin is accidentally discovered, but manages to escape with Zange after he gets in a clean hit on the guy with his bag of art supplies. The two of them run off to somewhere near the river side where Jin finds out that the girl who he just escaped with was the real Zange. They part ways after a brief conversation and a pretty provocative moment.

Dun dun dun.

Jin tells Nagi about meeting Zange and finds out that they’re actually sisters. Nagi goes off to find Zange’s sacred tree which happens to still be intact. This leads to Nagi eventually discovering that Zange has used a human being (named Hakua) as her vessel. The two, Hakua and Zange, apparently agreed to be with each other, however, it seems that Zange is the only one in control of the body.

Oh ho ho. I wonder what kind of antics Zange will pull off now.

The episode ends with Zange coming to Jin’s home (with Nagi and Tsugumi there) and announcing that she will be staying there from now on.

Impressions

I’m afraid to see what the doujins of this would be like after seeing this part. Afraid, but slightly intrigued. -.-

Another great episode of Kannagi despite having the comedy factor toned down a bit to be more serious for once. Zange’s character is a bit interesting but far from unusual. She’s basically the evil girl with the cute facade type of character, but I still found her to be a nice addition to the show. Her actions so far have been pretty interesting to watch and while she’s not as fun to watch as Nagi is, I’m eagerly waiting to see the chaos she’ll bring in future episodes.

I just noticed that it looks like Jin is carrying a man purse.

Jin’s role as the protagonist still impresses me a bit. There were moments where I didn’t expect certain things to happen. One part being when he finds Zange being harassed by those punks. It’s one thing to dodge the punch, but the “Gesso Can Attack” part was hilariously great. It kind of works out since he didn’t come off as too macho or too wimpy… a median in which I’m surprised to be to be impressed by now a days. Go figure.

Yes, hold on to that man purse, Jin.

Speaking of not too macho, Jin being led away from the thugs by Zange instead of the other way around totally makes him the non-macho type… but it does kind of make him a little wussy. ¬.¬

Sorry Nagi. Jin is too busy brooding over his loss at the Hula Hoop Championship finals.

The second part was when Jin found Nagi and Zange in the equipment room. The way he just closes the door and goes into “shocked” mode was absolutely priceless. Bravo Jin, bravo.

Come on Jin. Fried Eggs and Vegetables are obviously NOT the same as Vegetables and Fried Eggs.

Tsugumi’s role (as well as the other side characters) was quite small this episode. However, she still manages to squeeze in at the end and provide us with an amusing moment.

Would that count as a threesome?

So Zange wants Jin for his heightened sense for the supernatual, perhaps. But how does Hakua fit into this. It was hinted at during the “conversation” between Zange and Hakua that they both want Jin. So my question is, why does Hakua want Jin? Does she just have a crazy psycho crush on him or what? That’s probably the case, but I’m hoping for maybe something more unexpected. I’m not really getting my hopes up though.

I’ll show you a “storm of love”. ¬.¬

On final note. The part at the end with Zange on the TV giving the forecast as well as being at Jin’s front door was pretty clever in my opinion. If you read her forecast closely, it’s pretty clear that she’s referring to not just the weather, but to the current situation at Jin’s home. Not exactly breakthrough material, but pretty nifty I must say.

Fun Nagi Moments

Love Nagi’s expression here.

In real life, shouting loudly in public is just embarassing. In anime, it’s just awesome.

LOL

Nagi: “You Boobian! Go back to Planet Tits!” I also like the fact that Jin admits to liking bigger breasts and how the TV is focusing in on Zange’s chest.

Yes! I love it! This series has to be one of the better shows this season. I love the comedy and I’m impressed by the quality of production put into the show. It may not be the best show this season and it may not be for everyone, but I really do enjoy this show.

Summary

Bzzt. Wrong answer.

This episode basically has Jin going to school and introducing some of the side characters in the Arts Club. Shino and Takako are the upperclassmen of the club and enjoy messing with Jin and the rest of the students. Daitetsu is a behemoth of a man and also a genius at art. Akiba is a self-conscious manga artist and otaku. Jin apparently joined the Arts Club to become more like Daitetsu at art and eventually surpass his skills.

Akiba’s transformations are pretty awesome.

As tradition, Shino and Takako plan out sort of a “initiation ritual” for the three new members. They give Jin, Daitetsu, and Akiba the task of cleaning out the “abandoned” storage room for the Arts Club. There are also rumors of the room being haunted and this freaks the hell out of Jin. Since Jin is “good with supernatual stuff” he can see things that normal people can’t and this apparently has him more scared than the normal person as well.

Beast is probably an understatement.

The three newbies, plus Tsugumi, go to check out the place before they start the actual cleaning. Jin notices an impurity crawling around in the room, but after hearing a ghost story from Tsugumi and a loud noise coming from the basement, the group runs back to the Arts Club room scared out of their wits.

LOL

Nagi senses something strange when Jin decides to hide the fact that he saw an impurity at school. She then tricks Tsugumi into lending her a school uniform so that she can wander around the school. This, of course, troubles Jin in more ways than one, but they go off to find the impurity anyways along with Daitetsu, Akiba, and Tsugumi.

Akiba: I’ll never hit a woman, but I’ll shake the shit out of one!

Despite “sensing” the impurity within the basement, it turns out that Nagi was mistaken and it was the Arts Club’s advisor who was using the basement as his studio. Shino and Takako enter the room explaining that the whole thing was set up to “welcome” the new members. Nagi, embarrassed that she was wrong, goes running off and ends up in a church. In the church she finds someone who is apparently Nagi’s little sister with the impurity that she was looking for this whole time.

Impressions

More drama for your mama.

I must say that I was really moved by the ending of the episode. Playing the ending song/credits during the final moments of the episode is pretty common for a last or second to last episode, but having one at this point is kind of strange. Regardless, I felt that it was really effective in setting a dramatic feeling that makes you anticipate the next episode even more. I really enjoy the quality of the production with this series and I give it a major thumbs up.

Akiba is very “knowledgeable”.

It’s always fun to discuss the comedy in shows like this one. All you have to do is go “remember when this happened” and the other person goes “yeah!” and we both end up laughing and all is well. Anyways, there were plenty of parts where I ended up laughing my ass off in this episode that I feel that I just have to share some of them with you all.

Sorry, I always hit people on the head when I greet them.

The first part being the part where Akiba storms up to Jin and bashes him in the head only to say “Sorry!” a second after. I don’t know why but the randomness of that scene is hilarious to me.

Aho-Aho-Man? Not even close buddy.

The second part is when Nagi goes to give Jin a loving hug, but Jin dodges it at the last second. Highly unexpected and the reaction from Nagi’s fanboys was highly amusing.

Tsugumi, you’re officially awesome in my book.

The third part is when Tsugumi overhears Nagi saying that Jin likes big boobs and Tsugumi, noticing that she has bigger breasts than Nagi, does a victory pose off in the distance. Oh, Tsugumi, you’re forgiven from your cliche-ness since you’re turning out to be so awesome.

Was he going to yell out “moe”? You know… the part where he goes, “MO… MOOAAAAAAHHHH!”

Now onto the new characters. Daitetsu is pretty amusing to watch. He’s pretty random for being the quiet giant he is. The part where he gives Jin the book about cats and starts to go crazy was damn funny.

You don’t know how right you are.

Akiba seemed like a stuck up bastard when I first saw him, but he turned out to be not so bad. Actually, he’s shaping up to be one of my favorite characters. It’s kind of funny that he comes close to breaking the fourth wall a few times and it’s like the writers are poking fun at who cliche this series appears with this very character. His outbursts, though, are my favorite things about him.

Girls who nosebleed are pretty funny… and scary.

Shino and Takako seem pretty standard and typical. There’s not much to talk about regarding their characters expect the part where Takako gets a violent nosebleed when Jin declared Daitetsu as his “rival”.

A bit of randomness

Wait for it…

YES!

I wasn’t really as impressed by this episode as I was with the first episode. However, I still found it quite enjoyable despite all the cliches being hammered into my brain. I mean come on, a childhood friend that takes care of you and also has a crush on you? A fight between two people that separates them until they reconcile only a few moments after? The male protagonist that saves the damsel in the end? A lot of these recurring themes seemed to run rampant through the episode and really made me wonder if the series was going to turn out okay in the end. So what saves it for me? I’d have to say Nagi’s personality (or perhaps “multiple” personalities) as well as Jin’s personality really sells the show for me at least.

EDIT: Cliche is NOT spelled as “clique”.

Summary

You know… sniffing is a bad habit Jin.

The episode picks up right after the events of last week’s episode. Nagi accidentally breaks her magic wand in two by stepping on it so Jin gives her some high quality adhesive to glue it back together. After Jin changes his clothes, he finds Nagi outside admiring some helpless kittens. Nagi wishes to keep and take care of them, but Jin refuses due to how troublesome it would be. He also states that they already had a mother and taking them in would considered “kidnapping”.

Nagi says, spreading newspapers is for puppies.

After Jin goes out to by a few necessities, he comes home to find half a magic wand perfectly glued to the top of his table. Nagi amusingly blames this on a split personality which she cleverly uses at a later time to trick and even save Jin.

I GOT YOU SOME PANTIES! DO YOU LIKE?

Tsugumi, Jin’s childhood friend and also his “caretaker” in a sense, comes to visit him and conveniently intervenes during an argument between Jin and Nagi about Nagi’s undergarments. Jin attempts to explain the situation to Tsugumi, but Nagi interrupts and gives her an elaborate story that describes Nagi as Jin’s half-sister.

Yeah, you tell her Jin!

After few series of events, Jin finds the dead mother of the kitten’s from earlier. As he rushes home to see if the kittens were okay, Jin witnesses Nagi carrying and eventually “absorbing” two dead kittens. Nagi collapses shortly after the incident and Jin carries her back into the house to rest. After Nagi wakes up, Jin questions her about what happened. However, Nagi just gives him a cold response about him not needing to know and not needing his help. Angered by this, Jin yells at Nagi to leave and Nagi does so in response.

Congrats. You found the zero star ball! Wait…

Nagi goes to visit the area where her shrine used to be and finds a group of children. She finds an impurity on one of the kids and attempts to exorcise it on her own. However, without Jin to hold on to the impurity, Nagi cannot exorcise the impurity properly and so it escapes via a magical dragon ball superball. Nagi chases the impurity down into a small tunnel, but is soon to find out that the impurity has been leading her the whole time. Jin, of course, comes at the last minute to save Nagi and even carries her home.

Impressions

It’s Nagi saying it, but Jin was thinking that.

Well despite all the cliche madness, I found a few moments to be truly entertaining. Jin’s almost perverse moments (again), the expression of the old lady from the store, Jin’s reaction to the magical wand getting glued to the table, Nagi’s “Gira gira gira” laugh, and much much more. I think these moments are the saving grace for this show (aside from the personalities of the two main characters like I said earlier). Without them, I can’t see how the series would succeed with such a premise.

O_O

Tsugumi… what can I say about her. I thought the animation of her talking at first was kinda strange looking as it didn’t really sync well with her speech (maybe it’s just the video I’m watching) but that’s really besides the point. Her character is probably the most cliche so far. Her earnest personality, the crush on Jin, the fact that she’s his freaking childhood friend (can we not stay away from this archetype or something? -.-) it’s all just so annoying to see. But I really am happy for you Jin. I hope you have lots of babies or whatever with her since that’s OBVIOUSLY the thing to do, right? (Don’t mind me I’m just really tired.)

Next episode, Nagi develops kitten-like powers!

The part about the kittens was kind of strange. I’m not sure if it’ll have anything to do with future aspects of the show, but it was interesting enough to see. At first I thought she was just going to mourn the loss of life, but actually seeing her “absorb” kittens into her, well… that’s just darn weird. Of course, we don’t get to know what really happened either since Nagi was being a pain in the butt about it too. Also, if you noticed, her eyes were kinda dull at first, but they regained their “shine” when Jin asked her about the kittens. Maybe this might be an important plot element later perhaps?

I choose you!

So far Jin has impressed me with his no nonsense attitude. I’m quite surprised to see him get pissed off so early at Nagi (episode 2! Usually this wouldn’t happen until much later). Of course the fight itself was pretty same ol’ same ol’, but Jin coming back to save the thankless wench that is Nagi in the end was the usual icing on the cake. Jin also showed off a slight hint of badassness when he basically said to Nagi “Yeah, I’m only bringing you back cuz I don’t want the rice bowl I just bought you to go to waste.” Smooth.

¬.¬

Nagi’s love for lame puns is kind of getting old. But I’ll forgive you just this once since you still gave us some pretty amusing moments.