What They Say:
Yuzuko, Yukari, and Yui explore their new high school for the perfect club to join.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having had its fun in putting the girls out of school for awhile to deal with some of the summer doldrums as well as the excitement, the show shifts back to the school season once again. And we get introduced to Aikawa at the start with a new entrance ceremony underway and some of the things that come with it. Aikawa is certainly a typical kind of girl for a show like this, and anime in general, but we see her caught up with the usual group in a hilarious way that normally shows don’t touch on as she gets texted with dirty pictures of Yui by Nonohara, which leaves her really unsure of how to cope with the event. With the ease through which people communicate, few series really touch on it in any real depth, so seeing at least an acknowledgement of it is welcome.
With that having happened, every time Aikawa sees Yui in school now, she gets all confused and uncertain of how to act around her. Not that Yui and the others make any noise about any of it as they’re just going on with their normal lives, and the usual weridness of it all at that. Even the strange moment where we see Yuzu wearing glasses and almost seeming like she’s a little bit smarter. When she does interact with the group, she manages to play it straight and there aren’t any problems, but you can see some of the tension to it. But the show doesn’t spend all of its time on it since it puts the trio in club mode and there’s some comical bits about their advisor and how she’s so completely like a mom in her nature and that it’s an awesome trait that she has and should be proud of.
Being that they are the Data Processing Club, they do spend some time doing some Internet research and their time is spent trying to learn about whales, at least through their weird point of view. Which is certainly amusing but it doesn’t lead them anywhere interesting, though it’s fun to watch as a viewer. The biggest laugh of the episode though is when the trio are walking home, Yuzu raises her hand, and a pigeon lands on it. It’s just such a calm, quiet and surreal moment that it had me in stitches for the rest of the episode. Like previous episodes, the show spends its time doing lots of silly thing sin school and we do see Aikawa drawn into it a bit more, but it really is all about the core girls. When things start to come together a bit more towards the end with Yui and Aikawa, it does provide for some laughs, especially with Yui’s near hysterical reaction.
In Summary:
Yuyushiki continues to be a surprisingly charming show that handles its material well, even though I really didn’t expect much from the series. Bringing in a fourth here with Aikawa changes the dynamic only a touch as she’s definitely on the outside of things, but it’s well handled and she brings some fun bits to the table. The show spreads itself across a number of stories to be sure but Aikawa won me over more than I expected and the moments with Yuzu and the pigeon were just too funny for words. It’s the kind of out of the blue fun that reminded me more of My Ordinary Life and that’s always, always a good thing.
Grade: B
Streamed 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.
