H2O Episode 4+5: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

My thoughts exactly Takuma…my thoughts exactly…

Two weeks since my last post and I have returned! All my efforts in studying for tests were futile though. With my great luck, my calculator ran out of batteries 10 problems in so I had to cancel my scores. Regarding the anime however, these two episodes were the complete polar opposites. While one of them was absurdly bad, the other renewed my faith in the series. Now if only the animation quality can keep up…oh yeah, no tl;dr summaries this week fortunately for you all. If I did summaries on both episodes, I think I would break a record for paragraphs in a post. You can find summaries at Atarashii Prelude or…heck, is anyone else still blogging this series?

Episode 4

The one major qualm I have with this series is that it is so inconsistent. Not just animation-wise or Plot-wise but everything in this anime is inconsistent. Hell, even the genders are inconsistent as Hamaji reveals himself to be a guy, which totally killed the meido-outfit image imprinted in my mind from episode 2. The fanservice is aplenty, but it doesn’t fit with the previous episodes, creating a much lighter atmosphere than the series suggests. Much of this episode could be considered filleresque, as there is no real plot revelations until the very end, where Hayami confronts Takuma about his true feelings. You could have taken out 99% of the episode and still continue the storyline with no problems whatsoever. For example, Yui and Takuma’s little showdown behind the school was apparently for nothing because Yui invites Takuma along with the rest of his harem to a private beach. I thought that Yui would mistreat Takuma from then on because he protected Hayami, but there was not one mention of a “roach” at all during the episode. Bravo, writers.

One thing that annoyed me was how Takuma just goes along with Hinata, who apparently happens to have boobs twice the size of her head hiding behind her school outfit. Unfortunately for her, the animators decided to make them lopsided, much to my amusement. He shows little resistance to Hinata’s advances, and even finds himself staring at her bazoomas at times. The character designs are really beginning to bug me, for aside from Hayami and Otoha, there is little attempt to keep them as cleanly drawn as the first episode. Yukiji, who is introduced as Hamaji’s imouto, is a perfect duplicate of her sibling, right up to the flower in the hair. Hell, I don’t even know how this episode was supposed to focus on Hamaji, as the majority of the screentime just featured Yuki’s attempts to kill Takuma.

5…4…3…2…1…

When I said killing, I meant killing. The one scene where Maki tries breaking the watermelon has a godamn knife flying out of the hilt of her stick. My awesomely cool self started jumping up and down screaming “SCHOOL DAYS, SCHOOL DAYS”, causing my mom to come running into my room in a panic. The CPR scene was also unexpectedly amusing. I’m not sure if the animators wanted the scene to be dramatic or funny because by being in slow mo, Hamaji ballooning up air to breathe into Takuma caused me to burst out in laughter.

There is another attempt to make Takuma look GAR by having him save Yukiji, who is drowning, but instead of making him look like a badass, for me, it shows that he’s as weak as before. He has to be saved by the rest of the girls from drowning himself, and although he shows balls for his rescue attempt, there just is no progression in his character. From the start of the anime, he has always had a good heart but aside from that, his development hasn’t improved at all.

Episode 5

I really wish that I could do a summary on this episode. So much happened that I’m bound to forget something in these next couple of paragraphs. It’s a shame that the Animation was DEFINITELY done by the B-team. I admit, in the beginning, because I’m such an animation freak, I was pondering just skimming through the entire thing. I’m glad I didn’t though. There was such an immense shift forwards in the plot, and it’s easily the best of all the episodes so far. Takuma begins to emerge as a strong lead character, and Hinata turns out to be less of a bitch than I thought.

Her Grandfather on the other hand is just plain cruel. Basically, since Hinata’s sister Hotaru has died, Hinata is the only one left to carry on the Kagura name. This leads to immense pressure placed on Hinata by her grandfather, who imprints the quality of being a ‘good girl’ in Hinata’s heart. However, Hinata is probably the most fragile of all the characters in the anime, and when confronted by Takuma, begins to break down. Rather than being a bad person, Hinata’s faults lie in that she continues to try to please her grandfather, but by doing that, she denies her own feelings, which inevitably leads to Takuma to realize who is behind all of this (Grampa if you still haven’t noticed).

It’s not what you think…perverts

Hayami is beginning to rival Otoha as my favorite character. The compassion and forgiveness that she showed Hinata despite everything that Hinata did in the past really touched my heart. I know a lot of you are going WOW! H2O TOUCHED SOMEONE, haha. I thought that the pinwheels in every episode were getting old until it was revealed that the pinwheels were made by Hayami in the past for the two of them as a sign of their friendship. Takuma has also garnered more respect from me when he forced Hinata to meet Hayami. Although he has been pushed and dragged around by Hinata, when he realized that something was amiss, he set off to fix it.

A couple of new plot revelations opened up in this episode. Otoha may in fact be Hotaru’s spirit, as a shot of a picture frame in the Kagura household shows what looks like a younger looking Otoha. A lot of questions are still unanswered though. I still don’t know how, despite being a spirit, Takuma can “feel” Otoha’s face rubbing against his or feel her land on top of him though. I’m unsure whether it will ever be explained in the anime, as everything thats happened so far is accepted without as much as a wonder (Ex: Hamaji being a guy, Takuma regaining sight). It is going to be interesting to see how Hinata and Hayami will act at school, and how Hinata will respond to her grandfather once he sees that the two of them have made up. Also, I’m guessing that Hinata will begin to develop actual feelings for Takuma later on, which may shake up her friendship with Hayami.

Well, It took quite a bit, but the potential this anime showed at the beginning is finally starting to reveal itself. Because of all that happened in the latter episode, I’m wondering what you guys thought of it, as I surely have missed something. For once, I’m anticipating a forecoming episode and with it, my tl;dr summaries shall return! Toodles~