What They Say:
No episode information provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So we’ve accepted that this is just a standard harem show with some decent ideas and nice production values and execution, right? Alright, here we are. Now that all the girls are in place, it’s time for them to all attack each other to try to win. The constant theme of this series the “battlefield”, and while there had certainly been plenty of that in the first few episodes with Masuzu and Chiwa, it gets a lot more hectic now that we’ve got the full crew. Hime actually sits this one out, which reduces the chaos a bit, but there’s still no shortage of it.
I know I should just accept that it’s the way of the genre to have an incredibly dense and oblivious male lead, but the level of this that we reach in this episode is really ridiculous. It’s mostly still Eita, of course, but the girls have plenty of moments as well. While Eita doesn’t think there’s any romantic potential with girls who blatantly scream that they love him in his face, Ai shrugs off the fact that Eita is clearly talking to Masuzu on the phone right next to her, even in a movie theater. And the character on the other side of any of these scenarios never seems surprised that there’s no suspicion or questioning, or even that there’s any reason something might be suspected. It’s like these kids just live in a world where everyone is so unperceptive that it’s a wonder actual human connections can be made. Masuzu says she can’t trust anyone, but with the way everyone else acts, she’s not so much cynical as simply realistic.
On a similar note regarding how far removed from reality the people in this world are, the entire movie theater scene that comprises the “climax”(?) of this episode was pretty laughable, and not necessarily for the right reasons. The movie the characters are watching is clearly a slightly altered version of this very series, and the counterparts on the other side of the screen spend the entire time yelling at the movie. While it seems like someone ought to be a tad annoyed at this extreme disruption, nearly all the background characters in the theater are simply standing up and cheering this all on. The movie-within-a-show looks like it involves zombies and space travel, but it honestly doesn’t look much less realistic than this.
Fortunately, the one interesting part of this arc is being advanced upon, which is Ai’s past with Eita that he forgot. This was touched upon enough for a viewer who was paying attention to know what the deal was, and in this episode Ai brings it up in a way that anyone around, especially the person who actually shared this past with her, should easily be able to piece together… if these characters were able to piece anything together. At this rate, though, it seems like a guarantee that all will be revealed to the characters, no matter how much it has to be drilled into their heads.
In Summary:
Another episode brings some more standard harem wackiness. Most of the girls are now directly competing, this time working to take down the newest addition. Along the way, most of the characters, especially Eita continue to show painful obliviousness to all their surroundings, and the rest of the world seems about as unaffected by the ridiculous public performances that arise from these characters’ emotional battles. As the drama ramps up, though, some progression is made on the more interesting issues at hand, and it shouldn’t take more than an episode to bring them to the forefront of the plot.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Custom-Built PC, 27” 1080p HDTV.
