Look forward to Ringo-sensei's Ryoko x Momo yuri doujin!
Summary:
Ringo is asked by an unusually manly SOUND ONLY Ryoshi about Ryoko’s past with Shiro and is told to ask Ryoko directly when he wins her trust and becomes a strong man that she can rely on. Ringo recounts to herself how she first got to know Ryoko; she brought a vaccination form to her dorm room and saw our feverish heroine crying in her sleep, begging someone to believe her. Ringo’s powers of cookery and persistence finally paid off, we learn through Ryoko’s reminiscing, when she saved Ryoko from a bunch of delinquents by crying wolf and then told her she would always be by Ryoko’s side and never betray her unlike her previous friends.
Ryoshi also recalls how he first noticed Ryoko; as he observed her with his stalking powers, he fell for the gap between Ryoko’s publicly fierce persona and her kind and gentle side in her unguarded moments (and as Kuroko Voice reminds us: her loooong legs). He is sick of not getting any dere dere rabu rabu being able to protect the woman he loves and makes a sudden confession to Ryoko outside her gym. Ryoko, who has been moody since seeing Shiro in the previous episode, has her mood (and appetite) tremendously improved.
Reaction:
If you want your dinner: Sit! Beg! Roll over! Lick the apple sepals!
Ryoko and Ringo’s background and the stories from both sides about how they were both RONERY and then became best friends was both informative and pleasant enough, though lacking oomph. But I still don’t really care about the Ryoko x Ryoshi angle. I did like how Ringo told Ryoshi that only the originating agency can declassify classified material issued by it – that’s always a point of proper protocol worth remembering. And when Ringo told Ryoshi to become stronger, they should also discussed the meaning of strength. In so many shounen series, strength appears to consist solely of the ability to grit your teeth harder and buttcheeks tighter and to call out your enemy/lover’s name louder. And then some more. She should have also brought him to talk to Ryoko’s boxing instructor at the gym and to hear that gem about how (definitions aside) strength needs to be built up slowly and gradually and that sudden level ups (another shounen genre pet peeve of mine) are weak.
I can understand why Ryoshi was unhappy with being unable to openly support Ryoko in that fight in the first episode but the end result of his intervention was still a positive one and he should be happy that he made a contribution without having the need to grandstand and try to claim credit at that time (which would have been an unnecessary distraction). Also long range fire support is only effective if the fire base is secure (usually by being well hidden and/or inaccessible) so, by the power of comparative advantage, it shouldn’t be such a big deal about not being up in front with the melee action especially since she now knows that he is fapping at supporting her from a distance.
This post was written by...
Zyl – who has written 233 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
I have a penchant for Bishoujo, Oneesama and Yuri character dynamics. Genre-wise I enjoy drama and satire; tilt-wise I am terribly weak against self-consciously arty farty styles and reference humour. Sieg Lunamaria!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
What I don’t understand is… how does Ringo cook all those meals in a dorm? Is there something I’m missing? Their dorm room is like the size of my closet, and somehow old-lady Ringo can cook every meal for the two of them.
If Ryoko would have just worked on some AOE moves, she wouldn’t get beaten up all the time. Ringo was pretty sneaky in this episode, and it’s a wonder she hasn’t completely destroyed Shiro yet. Maybe Ringo is letting Shiro be as a test for Ryoko’s eventual man.
I like that Ringo wouldn’t blab Ryoko’s secret, but I still don’t know what Shiro did. I can only assume he noticed her flat chest and manly demeanor and tried to coerce her into dressing like a dude for some pseudo-yaoi-riffic photographs to earn money on the side. No, no, Shiro-sama would never do that!
Whenever it comes to lack of space/facilities in dorm rooms, Mariya’s secret room or a pocket dimension/hammer space is the answer!
Ryoko’s weak spots are (1) not watching her back and (2) not giving out enough knockout punches. For the first, Ryoshi needs to step up and for the second, Majo needs to work on Neko Neko Knuckle beyond giving it cute sound effects.
There’s this ripping sound that accompanies the flashback so your theory about revealing that Ryoko stuffed her bra is becoming ever more convincing.
I think this was quite a good character development episode. What Hitsujikai did was probably get her to fall in love with him, then ripped up her clothes and almost raped her, and then when she tried to tell her friends what happened then nobody believed her. I think this makes Ryouko’s tsundere personality more realistic since she’s afraid of people getting close to her because of that trauma.
And I quite like Ryoushi. Usually people in love take FOREVER to confess but he’s done it three times already in six episodes, the last two being pretty cool-looking.
Yes that sounds likely. Though I wonder why he stopped short of going all the way? Was there some DFC jibe involved as well?
Good point about Ryoshi’s quick and frequent confessions. Seems to be a reaction against the ‘confession as ending’ trend in older harem anime. Likewise Junichi’s quick confession (twice) to Haruka in Amagami. A counter-trend?
I think Hitsujikai DID rape Ryoko.
Five bucks. BET!
But how am I going to collect my five bucks from you?
Wonder if Hitsujikai’s intention back then was to “crack” Ryouko but not “snap” her in the physical sense, with the effect of breaking her mentality at the same time. It could be one method of making other people blindly antagonizing her when she told them about the incident. The fewer evidence he committed the crime, the better? Although we weren’t shown the full picture… Besides that, the reasons behind him wanting to break Ryouko are anything but clear.
Ryouko and Ringo’s friendship history was pretty decent. It does lack a little something (perhaps there’s only so much you can reveal and cram into an episode at this point) but it felt it had more depth than say, Otsu’s back story. Nice to see both of their perspectives on it too.
PS. Wakamoto’s legendary narrations are too epic to top but I thought Arai Mikko-obaasan has been doing a good job so far in bringing a different approach and flavor into the game. Sly, perverted comments sound a lot more interesting in the way Arai emphasizes them (I especially *heart* her remarks whenever Momo-chan-senpai was on screen. “積極的” just became a deliciously dirrrty word in my ears).
Ryoko in the kneeling/curtain clutching flashback scene was still mostly clothed (though that’s doesn’t conclusively prove anything…) but given how arms-length Hitsujika had been playing it, the mind games aspect is very plausible. We’ll probably see more wolf-taming metaphors (which I’m not fond of).
Also good to see things from Ryoshi’s perspective – which was unintentionally comical. At least there wasn’t Rashomon-type divergence in the different points of view!
Arairration is also so awesome because she sounds like she’s having so much fun. Especially good when she’s talking about the girls in a dodgy sort of way haha.
The only thing I want to know and was wondering me for ages is if Ryouko got raped or only sexuallyused a bit or molestated.(I dont know if rape and a bit of unwanted sex is rape but wtever)and I really want to know if she was raped so I want to find it out as soon as I can in next episodes.
I think that Ryouko got a flat chest becuse she was aboused or assulted by Shiro and she might have somthing wrong with her brast or she might know he might be looking for her again and she didynt want him to get her and you know. So she bandaged her breast around so she lookes like she has not got any breast and Shiro might dont want her then.(I think that was shown when she was caught by that gang and left in that factory and when the leader tried to take her clothes off she was a noonoo beacuse she didynt want to see her bandanged breast, And in episode 7 when Shiro said she didynt changed from last time.)#
Also I liked the fact when Ryouko was lying that she cant remember anything so she coudl spend some nice time with Ryoshi.
This is a pretty fierce cause-and-effect statement you’re making here. -_-;;
Well in my opinion it is true because why doesnt she have even got a bit of breast showing when shes is 16?