When Urabe turns out to be a track star, poor overshadowed Tsubaki’s ego needs nursing.
What They Say
The school sports meet is coming up and Tsubaki is ill and he won’t be able to cheer on Urabe. With a risqué idea from Oka, Urabe visits Tsubaki’s house to help him feel better.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a series of strong episodes, it’s inevitable that a disappointing episode will come along, and unfortunately this is that episode. The episode starts out in gym class while the girls are running trial laps. Urabe turns out to be nearly as fast as the gym class’ track star, so she gets approached to run relay in the upcoming school sports festival. She’s reluctant, but ultimately tricked into joining.
Oka teases Urabe that her “golden legs” are no longer Tsubaki’s exclusive property, and now the whole school gets to benefit from them. Urabe doesn’t quite agree with this description, but in truth, Tsubaki is somewhat jealous of all of the attention she’s getting. He ends up catching a cold that will potentially prevent him from attending the school sports meet. However, Oka tells Urabe a secret to make boys feel better by whispering it in her ear.
Unfortunately for the dirty minded, the big surprise is just to wear a bikini for your boyfriend. And somewhat more unfortunately, Urabe keeps it hidden under an overcoat and just feeds Tsubaki some drool. The summery feeling he gets from the drool, however, still works as somewhat of a cure, and he’s able to attend the sports meet.
Urabe tries hard, and with Tsubaki and Oka’s encouragement, comes in first place. She’s offered a place on the school’s track team, but Tsubaki doesn’t hear her answer. After school, Tsubaki, finally having overcome his jealousy, tells Urabe to join. She gives him more drool, which provides her answer. He smiles, as it turns out her legs are once again his property.
It’s somewhat disappointing to see the narrative laid out this way, as it comes off as being a big, overblown tragedy for Tsubaki that he’s not as talented as his girlfriend. Urabe’s been pretty independent in the past, so it’s not surprising she’s not eager to join a team, but it still feels like she’s holding herself back somewhat for Tsubaki’s sake.
This isn’t the episode’s only problem, however. Since it deals with track and illness, the only scenes we’re treated to are ones we’ve seen before: the school and Tsubaki’s cool sci-fi paradise of a room. There’s no nature, and so the nostalgia effect is cut down. There aren’t any surreal dream sequences, either. Due to the relay running, this episode also has more actual “animation” in it than all of the previous episodes, perhaps combined. Unfortunately, it seems that Hoods was out of practice, as the animation is rather rough, and some characters go off-model.
The final strike against the episode is that the fanservice “punchline” is kind of a letdown. We’ve already seen Urabe in a bikini before. The addition of Oka is nice, but doesn’t really escalate the tension. All in all, it’s a nice diversion, but it’s disappointing that Mysterious Girlfriend X’s sports festival episode couldn’t equal the majesty that was the beach episode.
In Summary
A step down for the series, the sports festival episode has several strikes against it. The animation is rough, the settings are dull, the fanservice isn’t novel, and the whole episode seems to revolve around Tsubaki feeling sad that he’s not as cool as Urabe. The risk of an episodic TV series is that sometimes the episodic adventures just aren’t that great, and that’s unfortunately the case for this week.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
