Summary:

With the ongoing battle between Yamada and Kanejou, Yamada needs to kill the competition. However, opportunity comes knockin on her door when the class has to take swimming lessons. Naturally, Yamada’s got a hot body, but she’s also got some heavy competition: Miyano’s got those two watermelon jugs in the front, while Kanejo’s got those perfect proportions. That, however, is the least of her worries: Kanejou, as it turns out, is an excellent swimmer! Yamada and Kanejou finally battle it out in the pool, with Kanejou coming out on top.

Realizing that she can’t win against Kanejou except by upping her feminine side, she beseeches her sister Chika to teach her the secrets to being a woman. Chika, in facing Kanejou for the first time, actually establishes friendly relations with Kanejou, as they both respect each other as “boy magnets.”

What’s worse is that Yamada and Kosuda, despite their best efforts, don’t seem to have any open times to go on dates during summer vacation. Alas, tired of being bored, Yamada seeks him out, only to find that he’s gone to some camping grounds with his family as well as Mayu’s. Afraid of the endless possibilities arising from their potential alone-time, Yamada treks her way down there. When she gets tired, though, she hitches a ride with some airsoft maniacs, hardening her resolve to lose her virginity to Yamada. (Don’t ask me how one led to the other.)

When Yamada arrives at night, she sees Mayu and Kosuda having a heart-to-heart, making Yamada extremely jealous. When Mayu leaves, Yamada appears and wants to smother Kosuda with her airsoft pellets, but he makes it up to her by taking pictures of her (for the first time!) and showing her the starry night sky.

Reaction:

What’s better (or worse): a fight against Kanejou, or against Mayu?

Of course, defining good and bad are relative and ambiguous. We also haven’t considered from whose viewpoint we wish to see the situation. From Yamada’s view, however, both are equally bad, since she doesn’t seem to have neither the innocence nor feminism nor bust size to compete with either of them. Poor Yamada; even though her best friend told her that it’s a matter of personality and traits, she just doesn’t understand why Kosuda likes her. In fact, even I am not even sure exactly why Kosuda likes Yamada in the first place. Sure, she’s attractive–but is there anything about Yamada’s personality that attracts Kosuda? If there was, I must have missed it.

Complaints aside, there were certain moments where the episode really shined. For all my complaints about cliches and all, the pool scene actually wasn’t that bad. I loved how the chibi-like girl (Misato, I believe) was constantly being ripped on for her small, fruitless body and lack of athletic talent. (I’m sure Shin wouldn’t mind to hit that for a second though.) I also loved the moments when no words were necessary, particularly the scene before Kanejou and Yamada were about to race. Their poses were only partially funny, but Takeshita’s “I can’t believe it” look perfected the scene.

The second half of the episode wasn’t as great in the comedy department. At best, the hitch hiking scene was executed well; the WTF factor really did wonders in terms of random hilarity. I really never knew that Yamada could be such a fierce fighter! Otherwise, however, I felt that nothing was as salient as it was in the first part.

To completely regard the second part of the episode as worthless, however, would be wrong. I’ve said for a long time that I had been irked by the cliches of Yamada and Kosuda’s romance. In truth, however, there was some nice development in the end of the episode. True, it was very cliche–but Yamada finally felt as though she was noticed by Kosuda and finally spent time with him.

As a final note, I’d like to thank Myssa Rei for telling me how awesome the sister would be. I must say, she’s quite right: I think I’ve found my new favorite character in B Gata H Kei.

I rest my case.

Related posts:

1. B Gata H Kei 10
2. B Gata H Kei 09
3. B Gata H Kei 12 [FINAL]