Subculture Anime Blog

I’d join the Nagi fanclub.

Summary:

Being introduced to Zange at Jin’s house, Tsugumi is amazed at the ability to meet someone famous. When Zange begins to advance on Jin, however, Tsugumi quickly changes her impression of her. After giving Jin an elegant meal, Zange wonders if he would stay with her instead of Nagi. When Tsugumi and Nagi oppose this, she simply suggests a challenge to decide everything. This involves each girl cooking a meal, with the best cook being the winner. When the three girls start, Tsugumi is surprised to see that Zange is struggling. Unknown to her, this is because it is actually Hakua who is good at cooking. Zange seems to talk to herself after leaving the kitchen for a bit, revealing that Hakua does not wish to play unfair games. Tsugumi then notices that Nagi, on the other hand, is performing amazingly. Afterwards, Nagi admits that she simply does not cook because it is a pain. When everyone samples the meals, they turn out to be a bit different than expected because of varying tastes.

At school on a later morning, Jin finds a wallet with a Nagi fan club card inside of it. This brings him to the art room in annoyance, only to find that the fan club has a very popular webpage up as well. Jin can only see this as an invasion of privacy, as the site reveals that he is Nagi’s brother and Zange is her sister, but Takako contradicts this with all of the club’s policies that imply otherwise. Further more, she notes the refreshing atmosphere that Nagi brings to the school. When Jin wonders how Takako knows so much about these things, she reveals that she is a member as well. When Nagi appears in the classroom with the wish to hide, she meets Jin in his annoyed state. Elsewhere, Zange worries about Nagi’s website when she is alerted of it. When Jin confronts Nagi about her fan club at home, Nagi reveals that she has actually started to regain some of her powers because of her growing popularity. Although Jin is still against her doing unnecessary things, Nagi can only express her excitement for being able to rid impurities without Jin’s help.

Nagi is overjoyed by the popularity she has at school the next day, but she is soon brought elsewhere to talk with Zange. Zange threatens to reveal Nagi’s identity for messing with her operation, and although this is what Nagi is the most worried about, she keeps Zange quiet by making her realize that she would be involved as well if she did this. Zange quickly leaves when she sees the teacher Suzushiro nearby, but Nagi is unable to avoid his questioning. The students around school panic when they find out that Nagi has been taken captive, then gathering around the office she is in. Although the teacher Hagashima reveals that they know that Nagi is not a real student at the school, then wondering where she got her uniform, he is soon troubled by the loud shouts of support from the students outside. Nagi starts to feel a power growing inside of her because of this support, then revealing a shining light from her magic stick.

When Jin returns to school on the day after these events, he learns from the other art club members that Nagi’s fan site has changed quite a bit. Further more, Nagi has become a fellow student. The group wonders how things could have gone so smoothly, but Nagi soon appears to reveal the help that she got from Suzushiro. Further more, as Suzushiro is a religious studies teacher, Nagi was actually granted a scholarship after the school saw her talent in the field. The students then realize that Suzushiro is Zange’s father, and that Nagi was probably connected with him this way. When Suzushiro first appeared before Nagi, he surprised her by revealing his knowledge of her supernatural abilities. Suzushiro questioned if Nagi was possessing a body, but she quickly denied the thought. Suzushiro then expressed his knowledge that she and Zange were not evil, but he also expressed his belief that his daughter should be free. After seeing that Nagi certainly had a good reason to be at school, and that she was willing to cooperate with setting his daughter free, Suzushiro made preparations to have Nagi become an official student at school.

Returning home later that night, Jin finally sees that there was a connection between Suzushiro and his daugther Hakua at school. After getting into their usual quarrel about food, Nagi jokingly wonders if she should get help from Hakua’s family instead. Jin panickly suggests all of the things she already has at his home, but afterwards, he can only wonder to himself why he is trying to keep Nagi there. The two walk out to go to the grocery store next, and Nagi insists on using her new power to light the way. The two run into Zange on their trip, who only has the two turn around so that she can cook a meal for Jin. Of course, this causes the usual antics between the three.

Impression:

IT’S SO BRIGHT! Maybe it was my lack of a rush from not having to go to work today or something, but I think I enjoyed myself a lot more while watching this week’s episode when compared to the last. This could also be credited to the comedy aspect all around this episode too though, since we’re past a lot of the major introductions by this point. Now, with director Yutaka Yamamoto behind this project, it is probably going to be impossible to avoid the Lucky Star similarities brought over to this show. I tend to try avoid brining such things up, not being the most avid fan of hype and things that have already been talked about multiple times over, but several things in this episode were far too noticeable to ignore. Nagi’s blank eyes and nekoguchi mouth just stood out so much, and the general transition feel in this episode felt very familiar to the popular slice of life comedy. That’s not a bad thing though. I did like Lucky Star by the end of the day, and I’m glad to see that A-1 Pictures can step up to the standards that Kyoani seems to have been setting recently.

Plot-wise, besides Nagi being officially made a student, the most important part of this episode was probably the introduction of Hakua’s father. His knowledge of the supernatural brings an interesting element to the series, especially since his daughter is directly involved with Zange and Nagi. This brings a lot of possibilities to the table, especially with Nagi seemingly making a deal with him at the end, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how this develops. I also found it interesting that Hakua actually still had some control over her body, thought this was played on in a more comedic way earlier in the episode.

Notes:

• The OP single and PV were released, and I’m loving them.
• Nagi! She enjoys food while everyone else panics!
• FUFUFUFUFU.
• Loving the creative Sony laptop and Youtube.
• Loli Nagi ED for the win!