What They Say:
Hachi Siou has been smitten with Roka ever since she bagged him once. When he hears that Roka has bagged Kazama, he decides that the three of them are in a love triangle! He challenges Kazama to a game duel that turns into a school-wide tournament.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
D-Frag! has certainly had its fun moments so far, especially when it does the parody side of things, but it hasn’t done quite as good a job of actually making me interested in the characters beyond the comedy. Which is certainly not a bad thing as with some shows you just want to laugh at the situations. And the cast that has been assembled here certainly allows for that, especially when you have a character like Roka that sets into motion so many things just because of her personality. Kazama is one that can play off of her well and the two of them together definitely has a weird vibe about it that you can’t quite look away from. Though I do find myself far more interested in the Kazama and Takao dynamic than anything else as she’s definitely been the interesting character here.
With this episode, we’re introduced to a new character to alter the dynamic as Hachi Siou is brought in. He’s one of those son of a wealthy conglomerate characters that has a huge love for Roka and views it as his lifelong mission to pursue her to bring their relationship to fruition. He’s kind of soft and odd in a way with how he presents himself but he’s also popping up at odd times to throw off Roka. When he ends up meeting Kazama amid an attempt to get closer to Roka, he starts to talk to Kazama and that allows him to reveal his back story of how he ended up falling for Roka more than anyone else. It’s simplistic but also the kind of thing that definitely makes sense for the simple mind that is presented for him here. The whole thing just turns worse though when after spending some time with Roka and Kazama, he declares that the three are now in a love triangle. You have to feel bad for just about everyone involved at that point.
As it goes on, it ends up turning into a competition of sorts as you’d expect and it just rolls into all kinds of silly situations, including a hilarious one where Takao attempts to zip up her sweat jacket, which is a hugely difficult thing considering her dimensions. That it takes on such an epic feel is just perfect. With it turning into a huge school event overall, it just has a lot of back and forth and plain slapstick material involving the ring that they’re in and the silliness from there. It’s very content free for the most part and it’s easy to just watch it and not really take much from it other than to see how everyone sort of just waves and gesticulates a lot without anything really happening.
In Summary:
The introduction of Hachi isn’t a bad point, though the character pales next to so many other sons of wealthy family types that have been done over the years. His interest in Roka makes enough sense within the confines of the series itself and there are plenty of amusing points throughout it, though I continue to think that Takao manages to regularly steal the show. She’s a character stuck in a series that’s not good enough for her. The sort of triangle that gets formed is amusing and Hachi certainly makes it work for all its worth, but it’s just pretty light and nonsensical overall. D-Frag continues to be a series that won’t tax your brain any.
Grade: C
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
