Sea Slugs! Anime Blog

It’s the first day of school, and Yamato’s cheer turns to sadness as he finds that everyone already has a circle of friends. Although Suzuka invites him to go shopping after track practice, she doesn’t pay him any attention during class. Fortunately, he has a girl of his dreams girl from his past, Sakurai Honoka. Honoka chats Yamato up, and reminds him of how he helped her out of a pinch, after she dented the shrine’s bell. Apparently Yamato just turned the bell a certain way to cover the dent, and the two made a pinky-swear to never let the old man know. And everyone knows that nothing impresses the ladies like helping them avoid justice.

Suzuka returns to see Honoka and Yamato all friendly, and Yasunobu chimes in that Honoka’s hitting on Yamato. Suzuka gets pissy about this and cancels their shopping date, which misleads Honoka into thinking they might not even be that good of friends. Honoka cleverly uses the story about croquettes to invite Yamato to a new okonomiyaki restaurant in front of the station, but Yamato even more cleverly refuses so that he can go help Suzuka. This has the double bonus of secretly placating the raging Suzuka, and impressing Honoka with his kind and earnest nature.

Yamato ends up waiting 5 hours for Suzuka to finish practice. As she exits muttering about how she will have to make 2 trips and how Yamato is scum, she sees him waiting out in the cold for her. Of course she acts all unappreciative, and Yamato ends up getting sick for his trouble. Honoka’s latest attempts at getting on Yamato’s good side are foiled as Yuka and Yasunobu show up and eat all of her delicious meal, and in the end Suzuka breaks down and uses Yamato as a guinea pig for her new microwave cooking ryu. Yamato survives the honey and lemon juice (which has no honey), but gets owned by the exploding microwaved egg.

Wow, totally awesome episode, as Suzuka tries to avoid feeling indebted to anyone by acting like she doesn’t need help. By turning the kindness of others into an act of intrusion, she totally gives herself a license to bitch! Even more amusing is the fact that Suzuka’s messages are so completely mixed, that not even other females (even a miko, no less!) can decipher them. Poor shy Honoka ended up exhibiting some impressive game, but she was foiled by bad luck and Yamato’s penchant for emotion trampling at every turn. Honoka definitely came out the best, as it was great fun to watch her logical planning and flawless execution in the game of lovu lovu. Of course, life is often unfair, and so Yamato keeps on chugging after Suzuka, and while he’s taking Honoka for granted, Suzuka’s taking him for granted in turn. I am rooting for a mild Yamato-Honoka date in hopes that Suzuka will be forced to tag along with Yasunobu to spy and rage. Yasunobu and Yuka would also form an incredibly obnoxious team, but I get the feeling that he’s too young for her.

Other great moments include the numerous cute, random moments of Gorou-chan fanservice, and the mysterious quick-change of Yuka into a forceful meganekko nurse. I was in total agreement with Yasunobu when he wondered, “Who catches a cold in April??” I can’t help but wonder if part of Suzuka’s bitchiness stems from her fear of pseudo-cheating on her crush who doesn’t love her back (since they keep showing that photo). More realistically, Suzuka probably hates having to rely on others, which is why she thinks she hates Yamato so much (as he keeps proving she needs his help and that he doesn’t expect anything in return). That girl is seriously twisted! Mad props for the hilarious exploding microwaved eggs, too.