Subculture Anime Blog

A bit more romantic than usual?

Episode 10 Summary:

Touma visits the Minami household after running through the rain, but after being helped to the bath, Chiaki notices that she seems to be full of herself despite being in the family’s hospitality. In response, Chiaki refuses to give Touma any clothes as Fujioka approaches the home. After being greeted by Kana outside, Fujioka enters the apartment to see Touma chasing and begging Chiaki to lend her clothes. This disturbs Fujioka because of the usual misunderstanding, and when Touma suggest that he mind his manners as well, he puts on an overly-formal type of speech for Kana who is undressing him.

Uchida enjoys hard candy at the Minami household, but when Chiaki mentions a bit of trivia about artificial coloring, Uchida’s enjoyment turns into panic. Chiaki goes on to tell more pieces of information, but when Uchida shuts this out, Chiaki choses to lay down. According to Kana, Chiaki hates it when people do not listen to her. When Fujioka enters the home, Chiaki quickly runs to his side. The two notice a contrail outside, which Chiaki reveals the details of to Fujioka. This frustrates Uchida, as this was a much more acceptable piece of information when compared to hers.

Chiaki is currently on great terms with Fujioka, but Touma recalls that this caused her trouble when she had first met him. Chiaki had one day walked in on Touma sitting in her spot; Fujioka’s lap. Chiaki made constant attempts to have her leave, but Touma constantly returned because of miscommunication. When the two girls started quarreling, Fujioka finally revealed his misunderstanding that Touma was a boy. This resulted in training for Touma early in the mornings.

Natsuki prepares to visit the Minami household, getting advise from his brothers about how to approach them. When Touma meets her brothers, she advises Natsuki on how to treat Kana and Chiaki. When Natsuki visits the the sisters’ home with these pieces of advice in mind, he causes various forms of misunderstandings for them. In the end, he simply requests that Touma come home earlier. Unknown to him, Touma had been at the apartment the whole time.

Episode 11 Summary:

Riko observes as Fujioka gets into a conversation with Kana as usual, and while asking Keiko what she should do, Hiroko appears to mention her observing of Fujioka. Hiroko assures RIko that she doesn’t have the same interest in Fujioka as her, but she does confirm that Fujioka can only see Kana. Hiroko tells Riko not to give up though, then allowing her to practice with her friend Yuu. Riko is able to get Fujioka’s image in Yuu, until she starts making unpleasant gestures. Further more, Yuu enthusiastically approaches Kana upon seeing her. This causes Riko to despair as if it were the typical situation.

Kana invites some of her usual classmates to study at her home, and when she learns that Fujioka would be attending, Riko quickly agrees to go. After awhile at the house, Kana allows her friends to use the apartment’s bath. Because of guilty consciouses or otherwise uneasy feelings though, everyone settles with a shower. Kana goes last, believing that her hospitality has been a success, opening up the bath to reveal that it is full of peppers. As this causes Kana a great deal of pain, she returns to her friends to ask for their true opinion about the bath they all supposedly used.

When Kana and her friends next meet, they all have positive news about their recent test grades. Riko is particularly delighted, as she plans to use this as a way to get closer to Fujioka. Fujioka eventually thanks Kana for helping him with studies, and when Kana next approaches Keiko for help with the next test, she denies out of guilt from Riko. This causes Kana to beg Riko for help, which she eventually gives half-heartedly, which coincidentally helps Kana to do well on her next test.

Valentine’s Day approaches, but despite none of them having any partners to present chocolate to, Kana convinces Chiaki and Mako-chan to make some. As Touma observes, this was actually all so that Kana could enjoy Chiaki’s chocolate for herself. Mako-chan has made some chocolate as well, but he does not have anyone to give it to. This brings Kana to challenge Chiaki to find a partner to give chocolate to. Makoto suspects the next day that Chiaki’s partner would be a nobody, and to his predictions, she approaches him from behind.

Episode 12 Summary:

Chiaki enjoys resting in the warm sun, but she is waken by Kana, Uchida, and Maki’s idiotic chatter. This brings her to confront them, causing Kana to throw Uchida in for the challenge. Despite Uchida’s suggesting that Chiaki sleep in her own room, she is quickly defeated. When Maki is put down just as easily, Kana steps in to finish the job. Kana clearly sees that Chiaki does not wish to move, and though she starts to upon Haruka’s appearing with a snack, Kana prevents her from doing so. This starts their usual battle, which Uchida and Maki describe as their good relationship with each other.

One day while visiting the Minami household, Maki approaches Kana and the others with requests to observe her face while sleeping. This is because of a previous event she experienced with her usual classmates. Maki and Uchida eventually go to sleep for Mako-chan and Kana to observe, but as they do, Kana takes the chance to write on their faces. The two can hardly hold in their laughter from this point, and they finally break when Maki says something in her sleep. Haruka and Chiaki return home to see this, and to Chiaki’s curiosity, Uchida has the word “princess” written on her forehead. This was because of her interest in one of Kana’s stories earlier.

With hopes of changing herself, Kana requests a try at sewing while she is alone with Chiaki. Chiaki cuts a piece of cloth for Kana, but to the sister’s panic, Haruka’s skirt was cut in the process. This brings the girls to panic while searching for ways to deal with this in the following days. Natsuki one day visits Haruka’s class to thank her for her usual taking care of Touma, but as he does, Maki notices a piece of string coming from Haruka’s skirt. When she pulls on this, Natsuki sees something amazing. At home, the younger Minami sisters continue to wonder what they should do. Haruka, on the other hand, searches for ways to present herself the next day.

Kana one day starts taking special note of Chiaki’s way of speaking and aggressiveness. Kana sees this as her not getting enough love, but as she advances on her sister throughout the night, Chiaki cannot help but feel that Kana is acting strange. This pursues as Kana requests to bathe with Chiaki, and she offers to read a book for her in bed. This brings Chiaki to Haruka’s room, fearing that she would be eaten while she sleeps.

Preview: Last one.

Impression:

Episode 10: I was told that this was going to be the funniest episode of the season, and I was delighted to find that this was probably true. I was already laughing out loud upon seeing the KOF ‘95 parody and Natsuki’s preference of the joystick (fighting game fans would get it, eh?), as well as the typical Touma gender confusion antics, but the last part made it for me. It was just so ridiculously over the top, and despite being warned beforehand, I couldn’t believe the direction taken by the end. (Didn’t we see Chiaki as a dog in a previous episode though….?)

Episode 11: RIKO-SENSEI! So, while episode 10 was very central to Fujioka’s step-brotherish relationship with Chiaki, this episode went back to the usual love triangle we were all introduced to in the first season. While not as over the top as the previous episode, I still had a good laugh out of things like Kana’s special form of “hospitality” (Peppers? Ouch….). Megane jokes are always fun too, as is more Saeko Chiba!

Episode 12: I guess Kana is the father figure! The nostalgia factor was really high in this episode, which had me appreciating the most out of the last three episodes. From Kana and Makoto’s trying to hide their laughter after writing on the friends’ faces to the sisters’ panicking over an accident, I felt right at home while watching everyone. The art and animation were both really…..unique in this episode as well. I was guessing that asread wanted the episode to feel more like the manga? This season was already on the border between the first and second season’s art style, but this episode just went somewhere else.

I’ve been wanting to discuss this for awhile now, but since these episodes were full of love love antics, who are the suspected canidates for the Minami sisters in the future? There’s the obvious Kana and Fujioka angle, and Haruka seems close to Natsuki, but what about Chiaki? Would she end up with Makoto? Ah….the horrors….