Thank God for censors.
All together, now: ‘KOU SAMA! GO SUMMER! KOU SAMA! GO!!’
…Er, I’d carry on a bit more, but they didn’t sub the rest of this Takai-centric OP after that point. But no matter, because, even just 58 seconds into this epi, we can tell that the Shaft A-listers must have returned from the holiday that they all must have been away on during epi 9 (and may that be the last time I ever have to refer to that epi *shudders*) in order to bring back some of the verbal and visual gymnastics that we all love about this show. And, lo and behold, we also seem to be on our way to Venus. Sort of.
Episode Summary:
It’s raining muscles.
Sister advises everyone on the riverbank that the rocket that is to take ‘em all to Nino’s planet can only carry a max. weight of 500 kilos, which is apparently the same weight as (cue Sister stepping onto the scales) five average adults. Clearly, Ric is having none of that, adding that they’ll just have to leave behind Sister. At which Nino gets rather upset and suggests that they all shift some of their flab in order to accommodate their favourite musclebound nun. The rest of the epi follows the successful efforts of Ric and the Mayor to become even leaner, the successful efforts of P-Ko, Nino and Stella to become sick at their you-must-only-eat-strawberries diet, and the successful efforts of Last Samurai, Hoshi and the iron heads, overseen by Sister, to Get Ripped. Which means, for the latter, weighing even more than ever before. Soon, basically all of them end up failing to maintain their various physical regimes. Except for a certain iron head, who, during one of Ric’s Sex Ed. lessons, decides he’s going to end up fathering Stella’s children. To which Stella has a few things to say. Cue some rather impressive fisticuffs from the kiddies, before one angry iron head somehow swaps his holy muscles with the other, less angry, iron head and all is well again in the classroom and on the riverbank.
Thoughts:
This is actually the face of relief. Nuff said.
Thank. Gawd. Okay, so they haven’t actually boarded any rockets yet. However, this epi basically remembered that they were clearly planning to do so, and they were so damn entertaining during said planning and even took it upon themselves to tackle serious issues such as the importance of having a healthy diet and weight. Well, if you swap ‘tackle’ with ‘take the piss out of’, might be more like it. Either way, we once again had some plot development, some character development and some lotsandlotsandlots of LOLs. Yay!
First up, the plot. Well, perhaps not that much to say about it that I haven’t already said, but it was nonetheless interesting to see who is and is not intending to travel to Venus, with the ‘is nots’ basically consisting of Jacqueline, Billy and Shiro. Nino’s worried chibi-faced head-shaking at the thought of having to leave Sister behind was as adorable as it was funny, and her connection with her fellow villagers (though not explored so much in this LOL-centred epi) was once again made apparent. Which also leads me to think that, beyond the LOLs, there may be a more serious drama mixed in if certain key characters change their minds or are unable to go after all. For now, though, it seems that most of the gang intend to go with Nino, so, er, yeah, we’ll see if that actually happens or not in the handful of epis that are left of this series…
As mentioned, this epi basically followed the various groups of characters in their efforts to lose weight/ get healthy. Predictably, P-Ko’s the one who suggests crash dieting, and hopefully her ridiculous antics are enough to put off anyone considering fruit-flavoured near starvation as a from of shifting that arse. In short, the girls clearly do not need to lose weight anyway, doing so merely for the beloved Sister. Of course, a certain red-haired gardener may have just had an ulterior motive behind the whole weight loss idea.
Yes, just like the ones he always wears, love.
This made me giggle. A lot. Not least of all ‘cos, amidst all the nuttiness, it’s true. That is, the idea of wearing nothing but your boyfriend’s shirt/ seeing your girlfriend wearing nothing but your shirt is a clichéd but nonetheless sexy image. Of course, the fact that the Mayor doesn’t actually wear shirts makes the whole idea all the more awesome.
In contrast to the girls, Ric and the Mayor’s weight loss methods were , of course, pretty successful. Disturbingly so. Therefore, you’ll have to forgive me for not going on about Ric in his itsy bitsy teeny weeny T-shirt and hotpants (personally, I prefer my bishies not to have visibly protruding hips beneath a Vivian Leigh-in-Gone with the Wind-sized waist. Nuff said). On the other hand, the buffed up Hoshi and the iron heads (if not so much the inherently manly Last Samurai) were only mildly less disturbing. But the very camp descending from ropes in ripped clothing as if they were extras in a remake of an ‘It’s Raining Men’ music video was pretty fab-u-lous, and one of the most bizarre/ awesome images in this epi.
The second half was fun too, though I felt the whole muscle thing was a bit drawn out. Saying that, though, the fight scene between Stella and Tetsuwhatshisface was very well choreographed and I enjoyed all those crazy angles during all their gymnastics. And the fact that it all kicked off while Ric was trying to teach them about Sex Ed./ the reproductive cycle (not sure if he was going for the PSHE or Biological angle here) was hilarious – especially as, in his words, he hadn’t even got to that part yet.
In short, until the Takai OP is subbed and I can talk about that even more, those were my highlights. It’s kinda hard to talk about a comedy show as zany as this one can be without just listing one’s LOL moments, but I did really enjoy this epi (though, yes, a good dose of relief might have been mixed in with the enjoyment) and I hope that this is a sign that the comedy is back on form, as well as (hopefully) the fact that the drama/ relationships and optional meta-undercurrents of social commentary will also be brought back to the forefront of things in the final arc.
More Pics:
Fabulous.
LOL.
No, really, you should excercise guys.
I… I still don’t know what to say…
You know this is going to be awkward…
The face of a happy learner.
What?! You ARE still children yourselves, ew.
LOLLL.
Don’t worry, Ric, you’re still a good teacher.
KNEAD WITH LOVE!
Funny how this guy ALWAYS looks cool.
I’m guessing those guns also weigh a fair bit too… I’ll leave you to tell Sister that when he’s packing, eh…
20 Comments
I find it quite intresting with how recruit is most definitely a business major, his lectures thus far have be about Phyics, Biology, Mathamatics, and Organic Chemistry… and that his audience is like 7 excluding nino who just sleeps through most of his lectures anyways.
in my opinion this episode was all kinds of disturbing from the new opening to one of the metal brothers deciding that a like 8 year old is gonna bear his kids….
Well, at least there was still learning taking place (ganbatte, Ric-sensei!). Those scribblings and equations always go over my head (I did Eng. Lit. at uni), but I find the use of them interesting too, not least of because it makes a change from the endless English lessons that most students on TV only ever seem to study in school just so that the programme makers can tie-in the storylines that they’re reading about with whatever emo-drama is supposed to be going on in most of the soaps and teen-dramas that I used to watch. Despite the disturbingness though, I still wana see the subbed version of DAT OP!
Good post for a good show. I’ve had to catch up on it this season and it was made a bit harder by a couple of episodes that didn’t make for great viewing. I can only hope that things will be back to being this properly insane for the rest of the season. I think disturbing is good for these kind of SHAFT shows. If it’s not weird I think it gets boring very quickly. And how can you NOT look cool when you have a bird head?
Lol @ ‘properly insane’ and ‘how can you NOT look cool when you have a bird head?’! Agreed, and, funnilly enough, though, I know exactly what you mean!
Cheers mate!
While, it was a lot better than ep…. errr other nameless episodes, I still found it one of the weaker offerings of Arakawa to date. The humour was there, but the first part was too similar to the health tests/bunker episode in setting, while the second had too much muscle action. Stella’s Fist of N. Star transformations are one of the few things in the show I just don’t find remotely funny. I didn’t need more.
The fight was great though, only marginally behind the Star Driver and occassional Panty/Stocking battles (I’ve done a U-turn on that series, it’s now officially awesome in my books).
As for the OP, I heard the name Ric mentioned enough times that I think I have a general sense of what Takai was probably saying; it’s probably best to remain untranslated, lol.
Dammit fb, now you’re making me want to back and give P&S another chance *shakes fist* Oh well, I guess if I’m in a bored and perverted mood…
Re: Stella’s transformations, I agree, and thus thought it was interesting that she didn’t transform for ages into the fight, so that was kinda interesting seeing her take him on in her loli form. Disagree re: the OP though – Arakawa disturbia FTW!!
this episode is far better than the legendary 9th.
well, I guess… I love the fight scene.[not to mention the thing that fuel this episode is the battle, but I was surprised that it is not Stella who beat him.
Yes. Hell yes. Surprised but a nice touch, right? Would have been too predictable, and Arakawa, when it’s on form, is never predictable, eh!
Ah, I’ve finally caught up! This was a pretty good gag-focused ep. And extra kudos for actually making the metal brothers entertaining for the first time ever. Up to this point, I just wished someone would rip off their damn helmets and send them to the labs… now? Well, I suppose I’ll give them a reprieve since they did achieve Holy Muscle Revolution.
Yay RP! That’s a good point about the metal heads; hopefully soon they’ll be so interesting that we’ll actually remember both their names *fingers crossed*.
This was the only gag-focused ep I liked so far. The fight scene was actually well animated and directed, and hilarious as hell. As a workout buff myself, I found it even more amusing.
Episode 11, while not quite as funny as this one, does return to relationship development, with Amazoness in good form, so I think you’ll enjoy it.
Sounds like your on the path to Holy Muscle Revolution yourself. I am impressed and just a wee bit terrified.
Re: what you say about epi 11, thanks, glad to hear it. Now that it seems to be subbed (are you able to understand the raws? Lucky!), I’ll look forward to it.
That was a pretty good episode, even if it was just stalling for Venus XD I think I’ve seen enough muscles to last me a few months now @_@ I agree the fight was a bit drawn out, but they had good choreography to make up for it. I loved seeing how happy Sister was to see them fight XDD
This is a random point, but I’m glad we actually see Jacqueline do her job. I like when characters are useful (although, in the end she made Kou even more gay. Why does he get more feminine every episode?)
Ah, Sister’s face was priceless, wasn’t it? It was also strangely satisfying seeing the bee bimbo doing work, wasn’t it; shame her, er, line of work, just reinforces her bimboishness though. And AGREED about Ric; the uber-bishie moments I can happilly take, but DAT was just, er… *shuddershudder*
No ofence to creators but this anime is really turning into bullshit ><
Bit harsh, mate… but, unfortunately, I cannot entirely disagree with you *sigh*.
Well I’m disappointed myself cos 1 season was excellent but since the 8th episode of the second season , my opinion is: what the hell….
I thought the muscle thing was a bit drawn out too. Having multiple stand-offs between Stella, little metal brother, and big metal brother became one too many… Still, fun nevertheless.
The diet loss sketch is funny as heck! P-Ko and her romantic heart is adorable.
P-Ko’s romantic heart is defo working for me too. She’s really grown on me this season, except for the diet nonsense of course. Those fantasies with the Mayor are damn funny though!