Summary:
Etsu is busy ogling the new middle school girls, when the new head of the theater club, Fudounomiya Sumire, overhears Kei berating Etsu for being a perverted kappa-face. Because Sumire is looking for someone to play the kappa extra, she becomes a rival of sorts for Etsu’s attention, leading Koyoi to note that rivals always seem to be especially top-heavy. As if on cue, loli-looking Kyuuma “Q-chan” Nanoka shows up to challenge Meguru to a swimming contest. Nanoka ends up beating Meguru in a 50-meter backstroke race, which devastates Meguru after hearing that Gengorou likes fast girls best.
Kei tells Meguru to have confidence in her breasts and Meguru starts a “bust showcase campaign.” In response, Nanoka drags the whole swim team with her to harass Meguru for showing off the twins, but ends up getting goth-loli’d by Meguru instead. Gengorou then pulls Meguru to the swimming pool for another thrashing, but afterwards he really raises Meguru’s spirits by mentioning that he likes big breasts. Meanwhile, Kei is still threatened by Sumire, and continues to say harsh things to Etsu. Finally, Etsu can’t take it anymore and lashes out at her for giving him false hope, leading a stunned Kei to remember Rika’s advice about being honest and give Etsu a simple apology.
Reaction:
At first I was thinking that Nanoka disproved the “all rivals have big breasts” theory, I realized that the theory could still hold because rivalry is a two-way street and Meguru has the goods. When I saw this would be another breast-centric Meguru episode I groaned, but this episode ended up being very entertaining. Nanoka brought a lot to the table, and I loved how she was muttering about one day killing Meguru. Rivalries are only fun when both sides get to win, and I look forward to more intense swimming matches. As fun as it would be to get crazy dorama like Nanoka stealing Gengorou away from Meguru, I hope Meguru can win quickly so we can move away from the breast-joke spam (although the entranced swim team and the crashing delivery boy were pretty funny).
There were some ominous emo moments with Mamoru and Hiroyuki, and I don’t get why Hiroyuki is so depressed. It’s not like Nao rejected Hiroyuki, and his main obstacle has been eliminated. At least we got to see Rika repay Kei with some good advice, and Etsu revealed the dark truth about how frustrating and annoying tsunderes are in real life. You could just see that Kei wanted to return fire at the end with some more verbal diarrea, but thankfully she shelved her insecurities long enough to give a heartfelt apology. I still don’t understand why we never see Yuu, though.
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1940 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought this episode was a bit random, probably because it didn’t stick to one dominant storyline and had two main topics and a couple of smaller ones on the side. Nanoka was kind of annoying too.
I agree it was a bit all over the place, but we’re at episode 10 already and time’s running out!
Argh, you took the words right out of my mouth… now I’m speechless. :hmm:
I’m gonna guess that none of the romances get resolved by the end of the season, and they hold out everything for a season 2.
Haha I would say that Haruto and Rika count for one, but otherwise it doesn’t look like too many of the romances will get resolved. At most we will get Kei x Kusuda since they obviously both want each other, and maybe Meguru x Gengorou, but the major tangle with the Zaitsu brothers, Ayumi, Misaki, etc. etc. can’t possibly get unraveled in time.
But the obstacle looms large in Nao’s memories – how’s he even going to fight back against the idealized image of someone who’s no longer around to falsify it?
He should just take some painting lessons.