The return of Riko starts a new arc, though most of the episode is given over to play and silliness.
What They Say:
A lethal temptress returns to Butei High to recruit Kinji for a mission in exchange for information on his brother. Bribes, schemes and a shrine maiden’s dreams are exposed as a naughty loli attempts to pull Kinji’s trigger.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The return of Riko to the series is a double edged sword since she represents something familiar and safe in a way. That makes it easy to dive into another storyline without having to create extra background and work with a new character or situation. Riko’s a known quantity, crazy as she comes across at times, and throwing her into the mix again produces the kinds of results that fit the series. When she tricks and seduces Kinji into a girls room, pretending to be Aria no less, she does her best to seduce him with the potential of getting information about his brother that he wants to know about. What works is that Kinji is so blasé about her in general that her outlandish moves and performance falls flat because of it. The fun is in watching him not react rather than the things she does.
Because of how Riko has massaged the situation after the events earlier in the series, she’s able to return to Butei High in some fashion and that has her wanting to work with Kinji again as she has a mission of her own. The thing with Riko is that you can’t trust her to be honest about anything she says so it’s ahrd to take her seriously since she’s so manipulative. When she has a moment of crying tears over talking about things, it may be honest as you watch it, but after what she’s done there’s no way that you can be taken in. Unless you’re Aria and you’re taken in easily even after just stomping your feet about not trusting her. Riko’s strangely persuasive with them as she wedges her way into their lives and this is just the opening salvo.
With Riko wanting to bring Kinji on board with her little thieving mission, she goes pretty far in trying to win him over. There’s a great scene where she curls up on his lap in class, looks up at him and asks him to pet her. She really plays him well here as she does what she can to get what she wants, all while Aria does her best to make sure that her slave is not taken away to serve another master. Riko’s nature of being child like at times is problematic, but it has its cute moments as well as she plays out a scene like this. You can understand how all parties involved are working here and it’s admittedly fun as it works towards getting the next storyline in gear. Being a mostly character driven slice of life silliness piece is definitely needed once in awhile otherwise the adrenaline pumping nature of the show gets to be overwhelming.
In Summary:
Aria has a cute episode overall as it deals with Riko being a part of Butei High and how it impacts both Kinji and Aria. Things play out in a sexy, sultry way for good parts of it while Aria gets furious over her being there but still finds herself being won over slowly but surely. The part where things felt like they didn’t go as well was when Shirayuki got involved in the final act and did her best to try and win Kinji over to her side some more. She has her cute moments, but she puts Kinji on such an absolute pedestal that it’s very frustrating to watch her practically hyperventilate around him by just his mere presence. While I would pretty much like to slap all the women in this show, she keeps coming across as the one that I’d want to slap the most. When you see Kinji running away from her, you understand it completely.
Grade: B
Simulcast By: FUNimation
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.
