Summer camping fun comes to the Rabbit bunch…but are they headed for a trial by starvation and terror in the mountains?
What They Say:
Bunnisode 11: “Stardust Mayim Mayim”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Last episode set things up for a camping trip in the mountains arranged by Rize (more, Rize’s father). Everything had apparently been taken care of, including food and a nice cottage in a scenic location. The problems start, however, when Rize discovers that there is no food ready at all. While she expects panic, the opposite occurs as Cocoa (who earlier notes that being the mountains reminds her of home) and Sharo immediately step in to help with finding food and the others follow. Chiya and Megu set off in search of edible plants while the others grab some fishing poles and head to the nearby river.
Leave it to Cocoa, of course, to propose a fishing contest. The oddity is that Cocoa and Sharo appear to have some skill with the rod and perfect timing in terms of catching (and being hit by) fish. Chino, who we know, of course, is disliked by most animals is having a hard time getting a single bite until Cocoa comes to help her and immediately catches a small fish—not that that makes Chino happy at all.
The theme of the episode is the fun that comes with surprises, thus the confounding of expectations going on throughout, from the initial distress of Rize to the surprisingly positive and adaptable response of the other girls. We get a quick tonal shift when Chino, trying to catch a fish on her own, loses track of the hat Cocoa gave her, which was blown off by the wind into the river. Chino goes after it even though she can’t swim and gets stuck on a sandbar in the middle of the river. Maya and Rize think Chino is just having fun, so Rize swims out to the sandbar herself…and so unexpectedly saves Chino. Things get completely thrown for a loop when Cocoa then scolds Chino, though she scolds herself more for not watching out for her.
In some shows, the shift in mood would probably not work, but for Order Rabbit, we’ve gotten used to the sister dynamic between Cocoa and Chino, so it was not quite as jarring as it might have been. But even if it were, this show gets you right back to its weird nature by having Cocoa scold herself even more severely than she scolded Chino. The outrageousness is also embodied well in Chiya’s choice of mushrooms (she was waiting in vain for Megu to point out that all the mushrooms she collected were probably toxic at the least) and the “Mayim Mayim” dance, which was more about spinning around until you are ready to be launched into orbit than having anything to do with dancing.
Never a show to let a good gag die, the ending cuts to Rize’s father and Chino’s father at the Rabbit House (which is a bar in the evening) arguing over payment for a drink which turns into…yes, you might be able to guess it, a contest involving a certain projectile weapon featured on the show recently.
So, Cocoa got to act like a big sister, Sharo got drunk on caffeine, Chiya almost poisoned everyone to death, and target practice was in session. What’s not to like? Eh, they had zombies, which do nothing for me.
In Summary:
A trip to the mountains for a relaxing vacation turns into the survival struggle of their lives…wait, no, this is Is the Order a Rabbit?? The girls face adversity with a smile and turn horror from a source of despair into a quick gag. That’s just what this show does and it does it so very well. And beware of wishes, for they may be granted more often than you might think.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite