Ririchiyo’s settling into her life, but she’s still dealing with certain things about the real world.
What They Say:
After dealing with the stress of making a good impression at her new school, Ririchiyo notices Soushi turning down an admirer. After questioning him about it, her emotions get the best of her and this time, the contract has been terminated.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The slow exploration of who Ririchiyo is continues and the opening does a very good job of expanding on what she and her family is, by exploring the way she was considered a “throwback” and lucky charm because of the thickness of her blood due to the mixed nature of the families. That there are many families like this in general with inhuman blood in them doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue, but she notes that they’re all quite rich and that makes things easier for them in the long run. With her life being both easy yet difficult, a lot is conveyed in that short segment that highlights how valued she was but that she missed out on truly being a daughter for her parents and instead was more an object.
Her moving out has given her a chance to be a bit more of a normal person, which is quite difficult to be sure. One of the changes she gets to deal with is being in high school with other kids and that has a whole realm of possibility as she’ll be going in as a freshman. Of course, because of her family name and money, there’s plenty of rumors and things to be said about her once she gets there, but she handles it well when you get down to it because it’s been a part of her life for so long. She wants to just fit in and be normal, but there’s so many roadblocks for her. Of course, there are those that do make things easier at times but it’s a double edged sword.
While the high school stuff plays an interesting role, it’s not the main focus here. Where it really wants to work with is finally getting things in place with her relationship with Soushi. She ends up terminating his contract at one pint due to an issue that she catches him involved in, not really understanding the nature of it and making a snap judgment. But Soushi is the kind of bodyguard who does what he has to do even when it’s not required of him, which helps to smooth things out. You know from the nature of the series that he’s not going to be tossed anytime soon as he’s a key figure, and it’s more likely to go for an easy solution like this rather than work something else over the course of it. But at the same time, the easy solution feels right with what we know of Ririchiyo through the bits of her past that have been explored just in this episode.
In Summary:
Inu x Boku SS has a pretty decent episode here that does just enough to cement my interest in it. I liked what I had seen before, but it wasn’t compelling. And admittedly, this isn’t hugely compelling either. But it works well enough to showcase more of the lead character and give her a bit more personality that makes me want to see her situation and understand where it is she’s coming from. Her arrival and settling in was decent enough, but it didn’t give the material it needed to explain why we should care about her or her situation in the right way. The episode also works well to finally cement things between her and Soushi and to do it in a way that actually works because of her past. Soushi can still be a problem with his personality, but it’s something that you can overlook because of what his job is and how he has to handle himself with her. I don’t have high hopes for the series, but it’s showing more potential for solid enjoyment here in terms of its story.
Grade: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
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.