The title begins to ring true in a more fantastical sense.
What They Say:
Yonomori Kobeni is a high school student who leads a pretty normal life… and then the day of her 16th birthday arrives. Despite having very little presence, her fiance, Mitsumine Hakuya shows up suddenly along with her sister-in-law, a little girl named Mitsumine Mashiro. Without any prior explanation, they begin their peculiar life together. Kobeni’s older sister, Yonomori Benio, who has has a sister complex and is a bit of a pervert is thrown into the mix and things get even weirder. Kobeni’s life is no longer normal.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Contrary to the titles and implications of each, this episode actually ended up being more of a love comedy while the previous one focused more on Benio being a pervert. It’s not as if there’s not plenty of both aspects in each episode, we’ve always gotten a mix of the comedic with the serious, although the ratio has never been skewed to the latter as much as with this episode. And really, it’s just the natural progression from the previous episode; despite the very light and silly antics taking up most of the episode, it did end with Benio dropping the bomb on Kobeni of her history with Hakuya, causing her to react in a very self-deprecating manner that’s unfortunately pretty characteristic of her. This episode follows her throughout a day in bed because of the toll this revelation takes on her physically, and then brings the love comedy to the forefront for a more extended period of time as Kobeni and Hakuya try to sort out how to approach each other after these developments.
In all of this there’s a bigger revelation than what Kobeni learned just before this, which had been hinted to before the fact. Actually, this new development is more of a series of hints itself, and even this has been very subtly touched upon before, but it’s basically the first confirmation that this series isn’t entirely grounded in reality as we know it, and that the foreign half of the main cast is the proof of that. With the slight discrepancy between the connotations of the English title and the direct translation of the original Japanese, I wasn’t sure if this is what it was referring to despite other elements that continued the motif, but it looks like it’s at least closer than we had any right to guess before this point.
Again, even without being as front and center as it seemed like it might, especially compared to previous episodes, Benio’s usual antics are still an important factor to enjoying the lighter side of this episode and the series in general. Her continued acknowledgment of love comedy tropes as they apply to her series remains an amusing touch; I could see it growing old if used on a regular basis without much difference in delivery, but for now it still works, much like Hakuya’s elaborate building gags in previous episodes. Nadeshiko continues to serve her role well; while she may not have as many comically harsh tsukkomi moments with Benio, she shows that she’s earned her role as Benio’s best friend and confidant when the situation really calls for it, and the one notable time she does deliver one of her expected comebacks, it’s done with such deadpan execution in a less expected scenario that it also manages to avoid feeling like more of the same.
In Summary:
Something is going on in this series far beyond the scope of a simple slice of life or romantic comedy, and it’s very interesting to see how it will develop. For now, though, we’ve gotten a good variety of the elements that have been essential to forming how this series operates, and they blend together nicely enough, even if nothing feels outstandingly impressive by this point.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.