Things may settle down a bit but like a lot of harem series, the direction still stays very much the same.
What They Say:
Miyabi, Tina, and now Taeko. These are the girls living in the Sakuraba Mansion with Kaoru and Aoi that are not Kaoru’s girlfriends! While Kaoru succeeds in remaining faithful, the misunderstandings and challenges from these girls and the crazy situations they experience may still lead to bodily injury for our hero. Between ferrets and wild bathhouse parties, clumsy housekeepers and romantic evenings alone with women you are trying not to date, Kaoru can’t stay out of trouble! Then again, his pain is our entertainment…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the first batch of episodes I really fell in love with the way the first three episodes focused heavily on the introduction and sudden romance of Aoi and Kaoru. We particularly liked that while Kaoru isn’t exactly the big man on campus, he’s not like most other anime males in a show like this who’s spending time just trying to get into college and ending up in bizarre situations. While it’s not an entirely realistic depiction by any stretch, it’s far closer to real-world than a lot of shows get.
Of course, we were also dismayed by the end of the disc at the way the cast was growing and introducing more elements that we had hoped would not be brought over to this show. After taking in five more episodes here, I’m still feeling that concern, but not as strongly as I was then.
This set of episodes kicks off by adding yet another member to the household. Taeko, the young woman introduced previously as the latest member of the photo club who would do all the cosplay gigs, also spends her time as a live-in maid. Unfortunately for her, she’s just been fired and kicked out, so she ends up at the Sakuraba mansion where Tina is, as Tina had promised to give her advice should anything such as this happen. Of course, you can see exactly where it’s going, and yes, she does become a maid for the house.
The fun ensues though as Miyabi ends up riding her as rough as she does herself, but Taeko has a hard time managing it. All the basics are beyond her regular skills, so she ends up trying extra hard. All of this provides the setup for learning her past and seeing how her mother, a single parent, influenced her life and gives her the impetus to do the kind of work she is now. It’s not a terribly bad episode, but the only thing that really brings it down is some of the continual klutziness of Taeko, which invariably leads to her skirt flying up and giving us a panty shot.
Being that this is a Pioneer show, that means there’s a hot springs episode. This particular episode was rather fun since it focused on the photo club going out for the trip as a way to celebrate Taeko’s membership. Aoi comes along too, which nobody complains about of course. A lot of this episode works well in that it’s centered around Aoi’s desire to spend time with Kaoru in a beautiful place, which is what a lot of the area turns out to be once they find it and start exploring. There’s a fair amount of drinking and hilarity as well since one of the requirements of new members is to visit a particular shrine and get pictures of the ghosts that surround it.
Between two episodes, Tina turns from completely annoying to much more bearable. The first part has her bringing home a ferret to live with her, which completely upsets Miyabi. She refuses to have anything to do with it and for the most part insists that it must be gotten rid of. Aoi manages to actually override her in her own subtle way, but Miyabi avoids the little ferret completely. Unfortunately, said ferret has a real attraction to Miyabi and ends up causing her much grief. Things end dramatically though, which manages to bring everyone a bit closer together.
Though Tina is a small focus in that, it’s a later episode that really works towards redeeming her in my eyes. Through various circumstances, practically everyone is gone for a whole day except for Kaoru and Tina. Miyabi lets Kaoru stay in the mansion instead of the guest house as long as he takes care of things properly. With just the two of them there, Kaoru naturally starts having naughty thoughts about Tina, but does his best to keep them to himself and behave. Tina ends up having a little fun with him in a few areas, but for the most part she’s oblivious to what he’s going through. Once a big storm blows in though, the two end up becoming much closer and Tina starts to reveal more of her hidden nature.
In Summary:
The main draw to the series for me continues to be the blossoming romance between Kaoru and Aoi. That had such a strong upfront role in the beginning of the series that it seems like something is missing when they move away from it. That romance is still very much here throughout these episodes, but not quite as prominently throughout them. When it does resurface, it brings you back to exactly why you enjoy this show so much. But as we’re still in the first ten episodes, it’s also a normal time to give the secondary cast some time to shine and show their strengths and weaknesses to be built upon during the second half of the series.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
