Zyl on July 2, 2010 · in Okamisan and Seven Companions

Summary:

Otogi Bank operatives Ryoko Ookami and Ringo Akai corner a stalker but he refuses their client’s C&D and lunges at Ryoko with a knife. A flying stone helpfully disarms him and Ryoko knocks out her attacker, leaving an indelible impression on his left cheek. Back at the underground HQ of the student mutual help society, the unusual if futile resistance is reported and the student mutual-help society’s president thinks another male should be recruited to beef up Otogi’s ranks. Sooner after, Ryoshi Minoro confesses his love for Ryoko and Ringo, in Mother-in-Law mode, brings him into the fold.

Ms Furious Ryoko refuses to accept him; she cites how he must have been watching when she was attacked and cannot trust a bystander like him to watch her back. This is on top of how Invisible Boy Ryoshi becomes useless when he sees others looking directly at him. His first solo mission is to fulfil a fangirl’s request to stop her Prince of Tennis from quitting the club due to a leg injury. He fails miserably four times before inadvertently delivering fangirl’s Cranium Kick when he loses his frog blindfold while powering Majo’s pumpkin cycle. Later the hoodlum stalker from the opening scene returns with reinforcements and Ryoshi finally wins Ryoko’s acceptance when he takes a blow while shielding her back.

Reaction:

As I mentioned in the Summer Preview, I have been really looking forward to this series and I am not disappoint. I expected humorous light entertainment and O7C delivered in spades. Satomi Arai was a brilliant choice as the narrator given her recent prominence and success as Kuroko Shirai in the Railgun anime and, if she (and the script) keeps this up, may even challenge Hayate no Gotoku‘s Voice of the Sky (Norio Wakamoto) as my favourite fourth-wall-breaking background narrator of all time. This playfulness played cleverly on the fairytale motif, giving a sense of the anime as story while also making ironic references to various anime tropes, like the characters’ flat chestedness – which is, in turn, given a salacious tilt by Arai’s abovementioned role as the very openly lesbian Kuroko. (Unfortunately these are minuses for Caraniel and Impz respectively.) And I was rocking with laughter at how the Cinderella story was incorporated into the tennis story, how lightly tradition weighs on the producers and the casual liberties they took with it in making Western classics into something distinctly otaku (see Joojoobees’ post on the parody aspect).

I had also put this anime on my Must Watch List due to the Shizuka Itou Doctrine and casting her as Ryoko is the perfect choice. Lots of comparisons have been made with Rie Kugimiya’s Taiga Aisaka from Tora Dora but Shizuka Itou has an impressive CV featuring a type of tsundere that is distinct from the KugiRie Tsundere Typecast in terms of toughness, offensive power and a certain masculine aura – three of her highest impact roles arguably being ToHeart2′s Tamaki Kousaka (with Iron Claw), Tsukihime’s Akiha Tohno (with Plunder hair attack) and Hayate no Gotoku’s Hinagiku Katsura (with the Wooden Murasame sword… or even without – something that has also been noted by others such as Aorii who pithily said what Ryoshi didn’t have the chance to finish: “More manly than a man, yet so cute~”).

Before watching this episode, my greatest concern was whether Ryoko’s male co-lead would be a worthy match for her as there’s nothing more depressing than seeing a lovely girl being tsundere towards some loser guy who utterly does not deserve her attentions. The repeated instances of “Don’t look at me!” were probably meant to emphasis how deeply ingrained Ryoshi’s quirk was but it wore thin rather quickly; fortunately, he (predictably) redeemed himself in the end. Thus reassured, I look forward to more Ryoko and Kuroko Voice.

Going forward, I would really pleased if the initial rock throw disarm resurfaces; usually a good sign when the script incorporates foreshadowing and forward planning. Without a doubt, the (not black) rock shooter was Ryoshi – the ED in this episode even shows him sniping the same way with a hand-mounted slingshot from his tree camp. Ryoko also suspects this as she noticed the stone (but not Ringo – her videocam might contain the evidence) and yet chose to say he did not do anything to help her – thus the next episode title being Lying Okamisan?

Chain Reaction:

Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought of hinano x jpmeyer’s blog every time Ryoshi yelled: “Minaide!” Now I can’t stop thinking of them cosplaying as Ryoko and Ryoshi at the next anime convention they attend…

Evirus says:

Second, Tall Taiga has legs that go up to her neck, and you’re nuts if you think I’m going to pass up a chance lengthen my “legs that go up to her neck” tag count.

While I have explained above why I think comparisons with Taiga are unwarranted, I cannot help but cry tears of BRODOM.  I am just helplessly in love with everything about Ryoko’s character design and it is pure joy, PURE JOY to see someone else with whom I feel who shares many of my likes and dislikes and suffered through the dark moments (e.g. Lunamaria kissing Shinn) to say something that was on my mind through the whole episode and to unleash the fanboy in me. Those legs. (Scamp is a fan too.) Through those slits in that long black and red dress. Those fierce eyes burning with determination here, denial there. Those boots. Those chestnut locks. That scowl, bending forward, arms akimbo. Even those neko boxing gloves and DFC. And. Those. Boots! PHWOAAAA~ *ting* spirit floats out of mouth~~~~

P.S. When kluxorious twittered with the allegation that O7C was a Railgun ripoff (see also lelangir’s tweet re: Ryoko being oh so Biri Biri), I immediately thought of:

See the above screencap in context.

P.P.S.  Author’s selection appended here for future reference.