The show seems to work best when there is jousting. It fails when that isn’t present. There’s no jousting in this one.
What They Say:
Episode 07: “Under the Windmill”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
So, it’s time for Japanese culture again here in faux Europe, with Akane providing an exemplar of elegance in flower arrangement, with Takahiro noting that concentration is important for jousting as well. Of course, Noel being the troublemaker she is at times, all she has to do is mention the name Celia and Akane is suddenly scatter-brained. Since Akane has a match against Celia coming up, it’s going to be tough for her if she can’t concentrate at all.
Sword practice swings are not going to help you regain your concentration, Akane, so what will? How about a tryst inside one of the windmills? It’s dark, it’s raining and Akane takes shelter in the windmill, but she’s not alone. Who could it be? With that white uniform jacket? Of course, it’s Celia. And she’s soaked down to her underwear, so she starts stripping and suggests that Akane do the same, lest they catch a cold from their wet clothes. In order to stay warm, Celia suggests a snuggle (since cutting open a horse and warming themselves with the horse’s innards is not on the table—not my suggestion, by the way, this was mentioned by Celia). Of course, you’re in a windmill. You put your clothes on some of the gears. Suddenly the wind picks up and carries your clothes upwards. Of course, they just happen to go all the way up and out of the windmill (yeah, right). Ahh, lazy storytelling. So now the windmill joins Sakura the horse and Lisa’s annoying little friend Fiona.
It just so happens that Takahiro picks up a bra. So maybe there is help on the way for Celia and Akane? But first, we have to see Akane and Celia tie themselves up with rope (okay, how many sexual fetishes will this show cater to?). In the meantime, Takahiro continues on his clothing quest and it looks like he might head towards the windmill. He does…and also manages to lock himself in (good going windmill). Not knowing what to do, Akane and Celia douse themselves with flour to make themselves look like sculptures (…right). Okay, this is beyond silly. So, when Takahiro does too much exploring of the Akane sculpture, she gets out her sword and slices up most of Takahiro’s clothing. Looks like they’re in a pinch.
And the story conveniences just keep on rolling in. It seems that Celia has an appointment that she needs to get to, but it’s going to be too late at this rate. Along comes Akane’s horse Shion, however, who picked up her scent (from her panties, which happened to be floating in the stream where Shion and the other horses were being attended to by Takahiro earlier). And now Takahiro blabs on about windmills being used as lookout posts, so there just happens to be a suit of armor hiding in the floorboards. Not the crap armor they wear for jousts, but a full set. So, after getting the door to the windmill open (using the flour to make a dust explosion…seriously, who is Takahiro? MacGuyver?), Celia and Akane escape on Shion. The urgent appointment of Celia’s? To pick up one of her teddy bears from the bear shop who had needed repair. This one’s named Friedrich. Sure.
While the previous “let’s have everyday scenes” episode was not too bad, this one was much worse in comparison. You can tell the erogame origins of this show from that fact that the events of this episode had no other purpose than to get Akane and Celia naked and then have Takahiro come along and find them thus (and have him grope Akane to boot). While lots of shows do similarly silly or exaggerated things for the same goal, this was just so specific in its flow of events (how is it the windmill’s gears didn’t start moving until exactly when it was most likely Celia and Akane would not be ready to quickly grab their clothes off of them? How is it that the gears carried the clothing up perfectly to the top of the windmill and then launched them into the wind? Why didn’t the clothes instead get stuck inside the gears and get ruined or damaged as they would do in the real world?). Everything happened exactly in the exact sequence for Akane and Celia to wind up naked, with Takahiro coming and finding them. All too tidy and all too impossible to believe in.
This is not a case of a viewer (me) not getting the point of this show. I understand fully it’s about seeing beautiful women in states of undress. But having things happen like this kind of insults the viewer’s intelligence. They could at least make it either funnier or more interesting. This was dull.
In Summary:
I guess the lesson is, if it starts raining, don’t try to find shelter in the windmill, as the windmill will be determined to send your clothes flying all over the place. That’s only if you’re an attractive girl, though. Akane and Celia find themselves in this predicament, such an artificially constructed one that it just makes one shake one’s head. This is like early diet soda, where the first artificial sweeteners were so artificial in flavor, they ruined any pretense at it tasting like soda. Thus the artificiality here has ruined any sense of fun, as simulated fun just does not measure up to the real thing.
Episode Grade: D
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard