Summary:
Rina immediately confesses that she kissed Touya and hired him to be her personal assistant again. This is too much for Yuki, but rather than hit Rina, Yuki forcefully bites her own hand and then cruises around town in Yayoi’s car of death until sunrise. Rina wants the two of them to be rivals in love and work, but Yuki is just trying to sort through the tangle of lies woven by Yayoi and Touya. It doesn’t help that Yuki comes home to find Touya left her a voice mail with more lies about getting a job with Rina.
Things aren’t going that well for Rina either. Itsuki tolerates the presence of Touya since Menou has Natsuko, but the president informs Rina that Menou will be the one competing at the Venus Festival and that Rina will just provide some vocals to pump up the PR for Menou’s latest single. Itsuki even disparages the hodgepodge album that Rina and Eiji had put together in happier times, and puts Rina’s album on hold. Things get weirder when Rina sees that ex-Sakura-dan leader Ayako Muromachi has become Touin’s manager and Touin is 2 years older than what’s listed on her profile. Finally, Rina tries to take her work with Menou seriously, but Menou gives Rina free rein in order to spend time flirting with Touya (and later ambushing him at his train stop).
Reaction:
This was one hell of an ugly episode. It’s like the animation studio isn’t even trying anymore! I swear Touya-philia is a terrible contagious disease that sucks the electrolytes out of you and leaves you absolutely nuts. Only Haruka offers hope that the disease can be cured, but perhaps only if it’s caught early enough. As sad as it was seeing Rina succumb to Touya, I hope this is some weird tough love from Eiji that will cause Rina to dump Touya and demolish M3 in a blaze of glory. It only makes sense that after vanquishing the Sakura-dan, Rina takes out M3 from the inside, for the ultimate hatchet job. Menou is lucky she didn’t start working that pole in the studio, or Rina for sure would have smacked her down.
The revelation about the Sakura-dan was both humorous and kinda sad. It was so ironic that they were all fake lolis; they were older than Rina all along and just flat-chested and under-developed. If Yayoi was telling the truth about being the same age as Rina and Yuki, that would mean that several members of the Sakura-dan are even older than Yayoi! I guess Mana is the only true loli in this show, although I still have yet to figure out why she is in this show. What a terrible blow this revelation must be to all of Sakura-dan’s lolicon fans. Finally, I’m glad we got a quick drive-by of Misaki pushing Akira away after a kiss. Their farce of a relationship truly rivals that of Touya and Yuki, but at least Touya is using Yuki to meet and bang every popular singer and manager this side of Japan.
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 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.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hell yeah, making connections and using them to do the dirty. Touya is getting better at this by the day. He may even be able to overtake Makoto if he keeps up this pace.
The animation is dropping off again noticeably, so I’m guessing the extra time between the first and second half didn’t do them much good. Which is a shame really. I mean, it’s certainly not AS bad as episode 13 was (good lord was that bad), but it’s definitely continuing to drop off again, which makes me think episode 26 will be just as bad if not worse than 13 was.
I can’t wait to see your thoughts on episode 20, it’s absolute madness.
Spartaaaaaaaa!
Yeah, I don’t know why the animation didn’t get any better at all with season 2. I am just pretending it is a two-cour season that had a short break in the middle. The animation has been downward sloping this entire time, although episode 13 does deserve special mention.
Wait till you see the next ep, it looks like the animation was outsourced to the yu-gi-oh team.
Maybe the drop in quality reflects the downward spiral of Yuki’s ‘perfect’ world? Sure seems like it.
And, wow, is Touya REALLY trying to get his head in a bag?
Ugh, you spoke the truth!
But it was never perfect, because in the next episode Akira reveals that Touya was always a slut.
so is misaki going to go for Fujii jr or Fujii sr?. In the latter case, would the wife’s picture have to be present during intercourse? That is true devotion.
I always thought that the wife’s picture would have to be there. It’s non-negotiable. The Browning book should probably be there too.
Oh god, I can’t wait until you blog the next ep. I am confuuused.
Is Yayoi using Touya or does she genuinely like him?
And that scene foreshadowed in ep 8 and 14 (i think) where touya is going through the bushes/tall grass — what’s the deal with that?
I hope Yayoi gets pregnant.
It sure looked like she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the pole though… maybe that’s where she knows Touya from.
I think all the smoking stunted their growth.
Yuki showed a little more of her violent side this episode, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if she has a total psychotic breakdown later on. I always figured that the slasher would be Haruka, but Yuki has definitely edged her out the last couple episodes….
It’s one thing for Yuki to defer to her buddy Rina and her manager Yayoi, but when Menou starts putting moves on Touya, I imagine Yuki clenching her teeth around Menou’s jugular!
Where has Mana been…? Did Haruka kill her or something?
Nah, she’s just trying her best to finish her research paper thing. y’know, so she doesn’t fail for the class. =3
I don’t have any hope for Haruka at all. For all i know, both she and Mana have a thing for Touya.
WHAT DO THEY SEE IN THIS FUCK. :blank:
Pheromones.
WHAT KIND
Unfortunately, such a thing is not for sale. Touya won the chemical lottery in that regard, but he had to pay for the ticket with a few minor things. Like half his brain.