Summary:

Otohime runs into old classmate Mimi and the latter, sparked by a tussle over Toru, challenges the former to participate in the Ms Otogi Academy beauty contest. If Otohime wins, Mimi will have to stop calling her by her old nickname Turtle. It is a reminder of her past, as a slow, clumsy and chubby girl, which she has been working to overcome for the sake of being worthy for Taro.

Otohime takes a loan-favour from Otogi Bank so that she can get first place whereuon a vicious mud-slinging campaign is waged between Otogi Bank and Mimi’s supporters; both girls’ get more exposure but the negativity also drains their support. Ringo is also entered to split the lolicon vote (the other Otogi Bank girls are also entered for fun) but a foul-mouthed confrontation during the Zero no Tsukaima cosplay photo shoot ends up disillusioning the otaku fanboys and Mimi’s hitherto loyal defence force. After the swimsuit appeal segment, the votes are tallied and neither Otohime nor Mimi are in the top ten. In fact, Otohime has garnered only one vote (one more than Mimi) but realizes that Toru’s vote is the only one that really matters. After the credits, we learn that Ryoko also received only one vote – from Ryoshi, of course, who predictably gets socked when Ringo teases Ryoko about it.

Reaction:

I did not and still do not care about Otohime and/or Taro so this episode was pretty meh. But it was definitely an improvement over the bad vibes from Ryoshi’s creepiness last week. (I did wonder if Ryoshi’s dog-like begging for a taste of Ryoko’s omelette would have been funnier if it had not been utterly and completely upstaged by Junichi x Haruka’s antics in Amagami SS 03.)

The parody of the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare was also not as cleverly done as the link was much more tenuous and thus the subversion was much less effective – Otohime is no longer turtle-like and we were not shown the process of her slow and steady struggle, only the result. The prideful rabbit did experience her fall but while she was confident, she certainly did not slack off in her efforts. Instead her downfall came about from her falling into the trap (pun intended) set by Liszt which resulted in MAD which was a nice twist. What did interest me was how there was no saccharine, feel good ending were both antagonists were able to reconcile and become friends. Mimi was a thoroughly unsympathetic character – she is manipulative in the present and was manipulative even in elementary school. Worst of all, she’s a sore loser who blamed the voters for her loss. As such, it was possible for me to feel Good Job, Prez even though I didn’t actively support Otohime.

With respect to the voice talent, I liked how, in a departure from their typecasts, Rie Kugimiya played a non-tsundere loli while Aki Toyosaki also got Otohime’s ojousama-style and stalker mania right. While my expectations for this series continues to trend downwards I am, like Evirus, looking forward to the episodes when Otsu (Ayako Kawasumi) and Alice (Yui Horie) get their turns in the limelight and, of course, any screen-time for the real star of this series – Ryoko’s legs and boots:

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