Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Kūsō Rumba (空想ルンバ)” by Kenji Ohtsuki and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi – This is the trippiest and most awesome OP I have seen since…..Zoku ended. I love you, Shaft.

Summary:

While the a few of the girls are out in town, they notice that Valentine’s Day is soon. When Nozomu appears as usual, he wonders if it wouldn’t be better if holidays like this only happened once every four years. Like the Olympics, it could be possible that people would be more excited about the events when they happen. In the classroom on a later day, all of the girls give Nozomu Valentine’s Day chocolate. Chiri’s is notable in particular, as it is a properly shaped heart. Nozomu suddenly questions if this is a “honey trap”, something that will suddenly reveal all of his secrets while he is weak. In response to his wonder, Kafuka introduces Nozomu to a team that cannot fall into honey traps. Because this group of men has been exposed to things such as eroge games, they are not effected by the lure of women. Kaere is put on display to prove this, and the men show a fairly uncaring response as expected. When another organization attempts to break this team of otaku with an alluring woman, they are surprised to see the strength of their resistance to the honey trap. Even when they attempt to imitate anime goods to trap them with, they still find that they fail.

Matoi one day finds Nozomu watching a boring program on TV. Though she expresses that she is uninterested in the program, Nozomu reveals that there is much more going on beneath the surface of the show. This brings the two around the city as usual, as Nozomu gives several examples of how many things happen underneath what seems to be the obvious surface. In class, Rin mentions that Nozomu has his own secrets that he doesn’t reveal. When Chiri hears this, she decides that she must properly find out what this involves. When Chiri follows Nozomu into an exercise facility, she discovers that he has been training the muscles in his neck. When Nozomu runs out in fear that his secrets have been revealed, Rin further reveals that the items in his suicide box are not as lethal as they look. In reality, he did not want to die. While Nozomu is outside, he learns even more frightening secrets from Kafuka and Chie. After watching a display between Chiri and Abiru, he also learns the true meaning behind the injuries the girls seemed to have earlier.

Nozomu is invited to a Halloween party later, but when he arrives, he finds that none of the attendees are dressed in traditional Halloween attire (with the exception of Chiri). This puts him into despair, as he mentions several other things that no longer have the same meaning they had originally. When Matoi leads Nozomu to a secret meeting over this type of thing nearby, he further despairs. After seeing a few seemingly proper Halloween costumes, Nozomu meets an Indian who is not pleased with the curry of Japan copied from his country. When Kafuka appears with a new hairstyle, she suggests that things are simply making progress. Giving Nozomu examples such as chocolate that is closer to its original, she reveals that there are many things that were not that good in their original states. Still wanting to see things in their original state, Nozomu even follows Abiru to a jungle to find animals that no longer exist anymore. Though they do not find these, they meet a soldier who had been lost in the wilderness for quite some time. As he returns to Japan, he despairs at the state it is in. When Nozomu sees Harumi complaining about the loss of originality in manga later, he reveals the reason why change had to be made.

ED: “Marionette (マリオネット)” by ROLLY and Zetsubō Shōjo-tachi – This is unchanged from the original with the exception of Nozomu retaining the face he had at the end of the episode. The chorus of this song always pops into my head at random, so I’m glad they used it for this episode.

Impression:

Oh man, I am overjoyed. When this OVA was announced a few months back, I’m pretty sure I had a “told you so” moment. The end of Zoku really wasn’t an end at all, and I’m sure Shaft already knows how great of a great fanbase they have for this series. Being an OVA, this episode was packed with hilarity, references, and just everything we love about Zetsubou Sensei. There are probably too many to list (especially during the Halloween costume scene), but the Kyoani, Sunrise, and self references were all obvious as usual. I always like to see this as Shaft throwing out their challenge to the bigger studios, using originality as their weapon. They’ll never lose in my eyes! The Michael Jackson and Indian scenes were hilarious too. I love how this show just isn’t confined to Japan in all of its cultural displays.

Speaking of which, it was awesome to return to the “Zetsubou sociology and psychology lessons” that I have come to love so much in the past year. My favorite in this episode probably had to be the topic of loss in originality. Taking a look around my room, and I can already see several things that wouldn’t be that good in their original states. Skateboards, Computers, and phones would be a nightmare to use if they retained their original states throughout all these years. Nozomu’s reference to bands using the same name despite losing their original members was genius too, since it’s something I feel like I’ve seen way too much (Seeing the Halloween costumes made me want to play a Misfits song!). Chie gets points for making the “proper heart” too. I always love seeing how symbols become embodied in people’s heads, despite how abstract they are.

Seeing all of the characters return was definitely nice too, since there’s just about none that I dislike in this show. Hearing several of my favorite seiyu was just as pleasing, as this show has had a strong cast from the very beginning. Miyuki Sawashiro using her signature voice during the television scene caught me off guard in this episode, and it’s still hard to believe that she plays Maria. Even though seeing Kafuka with long hair was nice among other things, I feel like some of the characters (like Meru) didn’t have enough time at all in this episode. Seeing that there is a second episode coming though, I suppose I can only look forward to seeing more.