Life continues on in anything but an ordinary way.
What They Say:
Yukko is on her way meet Mai in a neighboring town, where Mai supposedly has a way to get free candy, but on her trip she constantly makes a fool of herself and gains a stalker. The professor creates Biscuit #2, but he isn’t that impressive. And the servants of Starla are playing a very deadly game.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the show rolls on, the situations continue to have their amusing moments, especially as Nakamura continues in his attempts to prove that Nano is a robot. His attempts to put her to sleep went awry the last time around, but that just gives him more of a challenge sine he views it as her messing him in a way that he couldn’t have expected. There’s definitely plenty of fun to be had with his quest to prove this, but it’s also welcome that a good part of the episode focuses on other events as well. Yukko always provides for some good fun as she tries to get through her days but finds some of the simplest things to be a struggle. A trip to meet Mai out at a restaurant has her missing the directions often and repeatedly coming up against large metallic dummies and asking them for directions, much to the amusement of those who are watching her from a slight distance.
Helvetica Standard has another appearance in this episode and while it generally does annoy me and comes off as an odd piece within the show, this one worked surprisingly well as it brought out some great animation and design to make something really atmospheric with the perfect punch line at the end. It goes from serious and beautiful to that in a heartbeat and did it perfectly. For it to shift back into the story of Mai and Yukko again works just as well as the two continue their odd post-Halloween costume wearing adventure. This is definitely one of those areas where the show works its surreal magic in a very good way. The multiple uses of the pair as they go about the town, either mocked or misunderstood, is good, simple fun.
When the show does focus on Nano and the Professor, you have to feel bad for Nano and Sakamoto. The introduction of her latest creation, a new dough faced robot named Biscuit, is just sad. The Professor’s attempts to create something that’s a bit more in line with her sense of humor is important, but the way that the others reacts just makes her angry in her very childish way. Having her go that route is definitely amusing, and it feels right having Sakamoto just laying there trying to ignore it as much as possible.
In Summary:
My Ordinary Life doesn’t exactly hit it out of the park here like it did a few episodes ago, but there’s a lot to like in general and plenty of good fun and laughs. The variety is both the shows strength and weakness since characters you want to see aren’t on at all or some spend too much time. The mix here is decent across the board, but the humor itself and the stories aren’t ones that really reach as high as we’ve seen before. There’s even a return to the princess storyline at the end here where the massive group she has tries to make her laugh before they’re sent plummeting to their deaths from the sky. It’s one of the more surreal parts of the series that we haven’t seen in awhile but it has some really hilarious moments as it plays out. It’s such a hilariously long way to go for a gag that it’s perfect and ends the episode in such a fantastic way that you can’t help but to laugh.
Grade: B+
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
