It’s Kanako’s birthday and she can have a nosebleed if she wants to!
What They Say:
Kanako’s Birthday
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The last day of summer vacation is a doubly special day for Kanako as it’s also her birthday, and she really looks forward to celebrating it every year. Leave it to Mariya to mock it easily though as she reads the date as Vegetables Day, which in its own twisted way works pretty well when it comes to Kanako herself. Naturally, Kanako gets mocked with other important days brought out as well which just frustrates the hell out of her, allowing her another moment to act out in a loud and big way. I do have to admit that Kanako is the type that practically begs to be mocked and made fun of in this way because it gets to her so easily and everyone can get in on it easily enough. She’s so responsive to it that you can’t help yourself, even if you feel bad. Which you mostly wouldn’t.
While everyone does torment her and ignore what she’s saying, there is a push to make a surprise party for her among some. And they do clue her in on it, which leads to some very active imagination on her part. Which, with her pervy ways, is beautiful, since it means we get the whole class all done up in swimsuits in her minds eye view of the kind of party they’d throw her. What makes things more awkward along the way though is that conflicting surprise parties are being thought up and she gets different people asking her about her plans, which in turn leads to even more fascinating views of what kind of ideal surprise party she’d like to have thrown for her. Kanako’s mind is just as good as any boys mind, though it does have a little restraint, but comes close overall.
Because of the nature of the story, we get a lot of wacky and silly scenes throughout, including a very amusing segment that has a couple of them thrown to an underground passage where she’s just with Mariya and her servant. The variety of characters involved prior to that is good and it’s a moment where they’re down in the passage that Mariya gets to really push against Kanako, but it feels all too cruel and unwarranted with what she says. It certainly fits for Mariya’s character, but it’s also why she’s been less interesting as time has gone on as well. She’s got her issues but she has too biting of a personality, even when Kanako deserves it, but this was a time when she definitely didn’t deserve it.
In Summary:
I continually found myself frustrated with how I felt about this season of the show after thoroughly enjoying the first season as much as I did. The cast of characters and the approach used to tell the stories is ideal and Kanako is a character that I pretty much like because she’s a rare lead with a personality like this. Her constant nosebleeds only makes her more endearing. I really like Kanako, but few other characters really make an impact overall and only Mariya really stands out for me but even she’s pretty restrained here overall. What felt like hurt things more this time around is that Kanako herself is pushed out of the picture a lot, though they did use that to good effect sometimes, and the rest of the cast could not carry the show for me without her involvement. Which is why this episode proved to be fun for the finale as it dealt with her a lot, her mental state and the way she imagines things. It’s definitely a fun way to close the show, but makes me wish more of the series was like this.
Grade: B
Simulcast By: The Anime Network
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.
