My money’s on Sleeping Beauty, then again…
Clearly, the plot in this series is a rather amorphous being. In other words, it’s the penultimate epi and, rather than handing out boarding passes for the Venus-bound rocket we saw at the end of the last epi, the gang play games instead. Literally. A Battle Royale style game, in fact, (er, minus any fatalities… yet) to decide who is going to be crowned King of the riverbank and have granted to him/ her any wish that is in the power of the rest of them to give…
Episode Summary:
(See above.)
Thoughts:
Ganbatte, P-Ko!
…In other words, at this point it’s clear that the previously alluded to main plot has been put on hold and that, unless something pretty drastic/ deus ex machina-esque happens in the series finale, things will presumably coast along and just focus on the humour and character development. Not quite sure how I feel about this (will have to wait for epi 13 to be subbed, as it turns out that’s in fact the second part to this one), but at least, as a stand alone (er, half of an) epi, it was on the whole full of lol moment after another, and it was certainly nice seeing the whole gang assembled and at their zaniest for the pure purposes of our entertainment.
Firstly, of course, there was a return to the monologue-opener this week (or rather last week, lol), delivered by Nino. This, I felt, highlighted her current feelings towards the Bridge village in a rather interesting way, namely her desire to ‘keep’ everybody close to her and yet, inevitably, sensing the impossibility of such a thing, as symbolised by the little spheres falling open after dropping from the gumball machine/ container thingy that Nino is holding close to her. And the ‘triggers’ for these falls? Simply to ‘speak’ and to ‘laugh’, or, in other words, getting closer and closer to them. As she turns to ‘pick up’ the last figure, that of Ric, her comment that someday he’ll hold himself responsible for her ‘greed’ is a suitably enigmatic note on which to end her thoughts, heightening our interest once more on Nino’s back story and her intentions regarding her future with Ric.
Referee Nino = also cute.
Not so much to say on the game itself, other than the fact that it allowed the key players to be assembled and see how far their relationships have progressed: naturally, there is the familiar Nino-centric friction between Ric and Hoshi; Billy x Jacqueline were, er, just that; Stella’s desire to have Maria become her mummy was just as funny as was Maria’s disgust at the thought that this would mean Sister would see himself as a perverted daddy figure; the metal brothers seem obsessed with gelatinous snacks; and P-Ko’s love for the Mayor took a turn for the brave as we got to witness an outright confession from her. Well, sort of. The latter scenes also allowed (though, alas, briefly) some more experimentation with the drawing style, namely the heavy lines and cross-hatching used to highlight P-Ko’s expressions of fatigue/ resignation/ horror, which added to the comedy in these scenes as she battled to express her feelings to the oblivious Mayor.
Finally, as the competitors use one dirty/ random/ unintentional trick after another to knock each other out of the tournament, we are left with Maria and Sister as the last two standing, with the suggestion that the terrifying Maria must not be allowed to win. And cue the cliffie… Well, whoever ends up winning, I assume that his/ her ‘decree’ will end up being something awesomely random and a fitting note on which to wrap up this series. At least, I hope so, anyway…
More Pics:
Guess which face Ric makes next.
Well…
…that’s one word for it, Ric.
Ah, never gets old.
ANIKI!!!
Awww!
Just what is with that butt wiggle, Hoshi?!
I agree, P-Ko, loving the bow-tie on him too.
Well…
Thankfully it is just one *cough, Sister, cough cough*.
Oh, Sister, if only it were that easy.
It’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for, eh…
…unless there are heavenly cookies being chucked about, of course.
Now she notices.
LOL!
KYAA!
Uh-oh…
Ouch.
Good Lord, I dunno which one will be worse.
Lol – the most shoujotastic one yet!
18 Comments
It’s weird, my thoughts on Arakawa for the past few eps have been pretty much the same. on one hand, I liked the ep because it was pretty funny. on the other hand, it feels like that whole venus trip was a big red herring. are they planning to end the season on a cliffhanger? are they just prepping us for a third season? is this “trip to venus” just some kind of metaphorical revelation that Nino’s going to have at the end of the next episode? I wonder… ~kana kana~
Glad we’re on the same wave-length. I almost suspected that the rocket to venus thing might have been metaphorical too, except we actually did see it, more than once in fact. It does look like they’re leaving things open for a third season, then again, we’ll see what the subbed epi 13 holds in store, eh…
well this bit of manga chapters were some of my favorites… i was sad when they skipped them but im not sure about how i feel with them being the closer for the series… ah well bow tie RiC and Sister&Stella tower was full of win
Its so sad this season is coming to a close Now where shall we get our trap fix this winter 
Aw, looks like the season of traps is coming to an end… However, I think there’s at least one trap show (er, sort of) that I spied in the Winter season, so we’ll see, eh *fingers crossed*
What the…. I’m not even going to bother trying to formulate words for that last image honestly….
Hey, you only need one – shoujotastic!
Kyaa! Arina Tanemura ><
Oh, I thought the name/ style looked familiar! I haven’t actually read any of her manga yet, which one would you recomment first, I wonder?
The change in animation style with the heavy lines for P-Ko and Mayor’s bout is supposed to parody Ashita no Joe. Also some of the lines were a parody of the show cross counter, fists-down style, and the line about the Mayor forever being green that alludes to Joe’s famous death scene.
Ah, thanks for the info!
It’s a gashapon machine Nino’s holding. Also often called capsules.
Cool, thanks!
Honestly, I gave up this series at episode 6….the plot is dead my freind it is dead!
Unfortunately, that doesn’t surprise me to hear you say that. That aside, I’m still enjoying it though, so (for the gags at least) I’m looking forward to the series finale.
wow i keep hesitating with starting the second series after how the first one went, though this post seems to show some exciting scenes so I might give it a shot. The last pic is so cute as expected of Arina Tanemura. btw if you are thinking of reading her works you should start with full moon wo sagashite. So cute~
Cool, will check out fmws, thanks!
Now I want to see Tanemura draw a manga version of this show. Like NOW.
Lol, and I thought those random Ric moments couldn’t get any bishie-er…