Is Shiina more than a one trick pony? I’m starting to think so.
What They Say:
Sorata is tasked with watching over Shiina Mashiro, her naivety is slowing corrupting his life.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show getting us going in its first episode with setting and silliness, clueing us in to how unusual some of the characters are in Sakura Hall, it upped the ante a bit with the introduction of Shiina. Her simple nature and naive way of looking at things when it came to dealing with Sorata was cute, but you can see why it would be off-putting for some folks. She was too minimally defined to really be taken all that seriously in that introduction, but there’s always some allure to having that completely docile and compliant partner, if just for a few minutes. It’s not something for a long term healthy relationship, but it’s certainly something you can see how a teenage boy would perk up his interest at.
While Sorata is doing his best to get out of Sakura Hall and away from all of this, he’s still stuck there and getting a fair bit of grief. Amusingly, some of the girls are manipulating Shiina in order to make her play up her naive nature even more with him, especially in how she dresses, but it just serves to make him want to get out all the more. Being saddled with being the one responsible for her, it’s definitely a burden and is taken the wrong way by others, which just further complicates the situation. It’s cute if familiar in the manner in which she talks where the line of clarity always comes after someone has always left so that they end up just getting the worst of the conversation and not the real meaning.
Thankfully, the show doesn’t keep Shiina latched onto Sorata as she gets out on her own and starts to make “friends” with some of the other girls, though it’s pretty passive as one might expect. It does help to show that she can get into other situations, but things take a drastic turn when she gets back with Sorata and asks to see him naked. Not surprisingly, once you get the full story, it’s a different interpretation, but one that’s certainly cute and fun to work with. Using the manga work of hers as the reasoning, she makes a lot of progress and things get pretty dirty in a nearly clinical sense that’s just hilarious and somewhat unexpected. With her demeanor, it’s really amusing to see how it all unfolds since it’s such a conflicting situation for Sorata.
In Summary:
While Shiina could be a one trick pony, we do start to see that there’s more to her here and it’s definitely good that it’s coming in this early in the series. She goes through some of the already familiar motions in this episode but also expands a bit, spending time on her own and getting to know some of the other girls who may play with her just a little bit too much for their own sense of humor. But we also see the kind of strange yet focused dedication that someone like her has when it comes to dealing with Sorata later on in a very sexual way while being rather clinical about it. It works very well in showing a different side of her and then towards the end really opening up his eyes to the truth about her.
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.
