I really don’t know why I’m still watching or even blogging this series. I’ve been disappointed time and time again with many of the episodes that they’ve somehow came up with. I guess deep down inside I’m still grasping on to that little shred of hope that I have left for the series that will probably never extinguish until the very end of it… or maybe it’s masochism, who knows. But, whatever, it’s just a silly fanservice show anyways.
Summary
Rito contemplates over the words that Gid told him last episode. Rito decides to go out for a jog and bumps into Haruna who is out walking her dog. Haruna asks Rito what he’s doing and Rito tells her that he’s trying to change and improve himself. Haruna decides to support Rito with his training and the two start to meet almost everyday before school.
On a rainy day, Rito arrives at the usual meeting spot and wonders if Haruna will actually show up. She eventually arrives despite the poor weather and asks Rito if he’ll show up on Sunday as well. She tells him that she’ll even make a bento for him on that day.
The two meet up again on Sunday and Rito goes through more training. While Rito and Haruna take a break to eat the bento that Haruna made, Haruna’s dog escapes from his leash and tries to chase a duck into the water. Rito saves Haruna’s dog, but ends up getting his clothes soaked. Haruna tells Rito to come to her house before he catches a cold since it happens to be close by.
Rito ends up taking a bath in Haruna’s house while he gets his clothes dried. However, his clothes are still not dry by the time he gets out of the bath and has to sit in Haruna’s room with just a towel on. Haruna ends up tripping on a stack of books and Rito goes to save her. Rito ends up on top of Haruna and right as the two are possibly about to kiss, Haruna’s sister shows up causing Rito to run all the way home.
Impressions
New ED: kissの行方 by Anna
Haruna has been getting a lot of attention and screen time lately (possibly to make up for her lack of appearances in the other episodes). Even the new ED has her has the main focus. I don’t really have much of a problem with Haruna, but she is indeed kind of a boring character. We need to see more of the side characters, but I’m afraid that the main focus on this anime series will be on Haruna and Lala. A pity because I’m hoping to see more of Yui and Yami. Hell, they could even put in a Mikan-centered episode or two.
I don’t know… maybe it’s kind of good to see this kind of development with Rito and Haruna. They never really had much development between them in the manga so it’s a nice change of pace. I don’t even think Rito has ever been in Haruna’s house (let alone her bathtub) in the manga aside from that one time he turned into a dog.
8 Comments
I can’t say I’m happy with this episode…much too boring in my opinion.
I need a Mikan focused episode <3
I don’t think we’ll be seeing a Mikan episode in this series.
I was disappointed with this episode. They reused some of the footage from the last episode to introduce this one and it didn’t really move the story along at all.
There wasn’t really much fanservice either, outside of one shot of Lala dropping her towel the focus was all on Haruna (and a naked Yuuki Rito).
If you’re looking for alternatives to blog, Tetsuwan Birdy Decode isn’t that bad. It’s a bit fanservicey, has nice action sequences and a comprehensible simple plot. At least, the first episode wasn’t terrible. Where it goes from there, who knows.
Koihime+Musou is also worth a look. Lots of fanservice! But still marginally better than TLR.
As much as I enjoyed the first few episodes of TLR, this thing has tanked worse The Incredible Hulk at the box office.
@Ziggy: I think we’ve figured that any episode with Haruna as its focus = boring.
@Halcyon: Thanks for the suggestions, but Birdy is taken already. I think maybe either Riex or Extrange will blog it. As for Koihime, I might give it a shot. I’m not really a fan of eroge adaptations though. One show that I might try to blog would be Natsume Yuujin-chou depending on how the first episode goes for me.
*sigh* I’m missing Kure-nai already. ._.
I’m on the fence with eroge adaptations.
On the one hand, most of them are garbage, but then on the other hand you get a RARE gem like Utawarerumono that makes it all worth it.
Natsume Yuujin-Chou looks interesting but it reminds me of a cross between Bleach/Chrno Crusade/Pokemon.
I haven’t seen Kure-nai yet but now that I’ve burned off Lovely Complex, Darker than Black and Dennou Coil I might give it a go!
You basically summed everything up. . .anything focus on Haruna and Rito together = BOREDOM. . .and I see that the producers are going the other way from its manga counterpart. . .If I remember correctly from somewhere, many writers or producers like to change things from the manga because they think that fans wouldn’t like a regurgitation of the manga. . personally I disagree on that theory; but hey I am not one of the big shots.
@Halcyon: Kure-nai is definitely worth a peek at especially if you like shows like “alternative” shows like Dennou Coil. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed when you watch it.
@Paj: I think that may be a consideration that they have to take when making anime from a manga. Will fans want to watch an animated form of the manga they’ve already read or will they want to see new content? I can see it go either way, but in the case of TLR they could’ve gone with the manga and do fairly better than by trying to give the fans a different version.
Rito is cheating Lala,he must rot in hell for this XD
I like the new ending
I felt like the animation quality in Episode 14 was very bad,or am I the only one who felt this?
In most of the other episodes ,I was thinking hmm ok,the animation looks often quite simple but ok.
Weird this was my favorite episode. It definitely had the most character development.