Kurumi’s got a chip on her shoulder that’s as big as Haruka.
What They Say:
Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are two students at St. Cherine academy. Haruka is always filled with bubbly energy while Aoi is more mature and a top student in all her classes – but despite their differences the two are the best of friends. The two girls look like any other girls, attending the academy, but the truth is they are hiding a little secret, that they can’t let anybody know about…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The arrival of Kurumi in the previous episode was awkward enough, but having her join the school with Haruka and Aoi and be in their class, a middle school class no less, it just bothersome. It adds to her ego with the way she’s so smart since she aced all the tests to get in through the transfer program, and she’s pretty blunt about not accepting Haruka as a Twin Angel. She continues to come across as a mean, spiteful little girl with a big chip on her shoulder. She has her reasons, but they’re the reasons of a child (which of course makes sense), but shoving it into the middle school setting just makes it all the more glaring.
A lot of what we have here is Kurumi not really able to grasp what kind of person that Haruka is, which Aoi does try to help with by bringing her into the fold a little bit. It’s not something that Kurumi can easily come to grips with, her age being a big part of it, but you can see it starting to change a little bit around the edges. It also helps that there are general school events that the two have to attend together and that helps to reduce things with Kurumi and her contention with Haruka as others are generally positive about her and friendly as well. As much as Kurumi wants to hate Haruka, the more she spends time with her, the more she softens her stance towards her. Part of it has to be that Haruka is just such a goofy ditz at times that you can be frustrated with her, but not hate her. She’s simply too nice.
Naturally, there has to be a bit of action to the episode and it comes in the form of Salome getting involved, which she does while wielding a Gatling gun no less. It is cute in its own way, but like the other characters, she hasn’t really defined herself well and they have her servant bring in some unnecessary pervy material, albeit briefly. It’s not as bad as it could be, but we don’t need to see him in bikini briefs and reaching inside to pull out some soap. Like the previous two episodes, the action here is goofy and over the top for the kinds of problems they face, especially since it has an underwater component to it, but at the same time there’s no threat because you know it will all turn out well. Few magical girl shows take chances, or can take chances, and that continues to stifle things creatively and leads us to bland, familiar shows like this one.
In Summary:
Not surprisingly, this episode focuses on trying to ease and dissipate the tension between Haruka and Kurumi after ratcheting it up a bit by putting them in the same classroom. You know there will be tension at times in episodes to come, but they’re largely going to get along outside of some snide comments. Aoi is the natural broker of peace between the two, the one who tries to show that Kurumi isn’t getting the full picture, but there’s little done to get Haruka to try and help effect the change. For the most part, Haruka just continues to be herself, which is actually a good thing. The final act is where things just become too much though, more of the same in a way which is bad to say by episode three, but that’s because we’ve seen it in so many other series. They may think they’re paying homage here to the greats in a way, but it’s just dull and predictable because of it.
Grade: C-
Simulcast By: Nico Nico
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.
