Hellomotto on July 3, 2010 · in B Gata H Kei

Summary:

After the little run-in from last episode, Mayu musters the courage to take the initiative. Thankfully, Kosuda’s sister can read her like a book, and it turns out that May’s “prince charming” during their childhood was no other than Kosuda’s sister. (Yeah, that was my reaction too.)

At school, Yamada notices that Kosuda carries around a camera. She thinks that he’s taking rather…exposing images of Mayu, and is [naturally] jealous. She thus tries to get into his pants by watching him take pictures and, going even further, by getting them in the dark room; and he succeeds to a certain extent. You see, she tries to be very seductive in the dark room, but that doesn’t work out so well. However, once she turns off the red light, everything seems to get better: Kosuda searches for the switch and mistakenly touches her breast and holds it firmly, making Yamada squirm with delight. And, just like that, Yamada (or Kosuda, rather) hits a double.

To take another chance, she tries to gain his attention when the class creates a haunted house for the school festival. Yamada happily finds out that the school festival also hosts a beauty pageant-like contest…which means that Yamada will win and gain his attention. Although she has some tough competition (some pink-haired foreigner–which is awesome, by the way), she eventually Dressing up as a ghost, Yamada tries to scare Kosuda, but it turns out that they never find each other. Kosuda, as it turns out is doing stuff for his photography club and can’t visit anyone. Yamada, however, waits for him at the campfire for a dance, and even when the dance ends, they still do. That’s just so cute.

Reaction:

My dear ladies and gentlemen, I have come here to inform you that the prospect of B Gata H Kei has gone slightly up. Although I was rather disappointed from the previous episode, the third episode wasn’t as disappointing as the last. Still, it was not nearly as excellent as the first episode, though my perspective of the premier might be one through rose-colored glasses. For example, I found the scene in the dark room quite funny (yet nowhere near as hilarious as the library scene). Even if the coming events reeked of predictability, I managed to let out a few chuckles, especially from Yamada’s sensuous reaction.

The comedic value of the dark room scene, however, cannot work without the “coming-of-age” value of the said scene. (Yes, I realize that I do tend to overemphasize this “coming-of-age” stuff.) When Kosuda touches Yamada’s bare breast, she experiences a euphoria like nothing she ever has. Her libido has gripped her tightly and increased the sensation, one that shakes her to the bone. Ironically, though we do see her as a “sexual” individual, she’s barely made it onto second base–and it turns out that Kosuda was totally oblivious. In essence, we are not entertained so much by the misunderstanding of the event (as well as Kosuda’s rather lewd act) as much as Yamada’s overreaction to the event, contrasted with her supposed heightened sexuality.

While I did talk about B Gata H Kei as a coming-of-age story in the beginning, it seems that the series is turning more into a romance. The relationship between Yamada and Kosuda seems to take on hefty amounts of development. While I do not mind such development, B Gata H Kei simply cannot deliver in this department. For one, the cliches simply kill the mood and the development in general. Even moreso is the inconsistent development and attempt to simply insert jokes into the development. If B Gata  H Kei strives to be a romance, it should learn a thing or two from His and Her Circumstances. (Here’s to the hope that the series will retrace its true roots and become the coming-of-age story I want it to become.)

I rest my case.