So this episode is mainly about completing the establishment of the series foundation.

First is to introduce the rest of the harem:

On the left is Tachibana, who is from a family that runs a famous group of dojos. Her fighting skill is excellent. On the right is Hotaka, whom the teacher calls "oppai-chan", Miss Boobs. And indeed it seems her special power is gainaxing, and probably her main job in the series. She can't seem to move without doing a lot of jiggling and bouncing. I'm waiting for the teacher to call her "boin-chan".

And this guy (no, not part of the harem) is rather odd:

All he seems to do is flex and grunt. The teacher calls him "Barbarian-san". He reminds me of Papoi-kun:

So it's gym class now, and everyone is supposed to spend it fighting in pairs. Initially Julie takes on Tachibana, and does very well.

Which impresses, and quite frankly terrifies, everyone else:

Which means no one else is willing to take her on, not even the guys. Eventually Our Hero does because he feels sorry for her. (We don't get to see the resulting fight, so no indication of whether he was able to keep up with her.)

At the end of this episode everyone is supposed to pick their permanent partners, or have partners assigned if they don't choose their own. Initially Our Hero wants to go with his friend with the glasses, but it won't surprise you too much to learn that he eventually partners with Julie.

If I were to characterize the story telling in this series, it would be pedestrian. There isn't any spark here; it's all by the numbers. This is pretty much a classic "magical girlfriend" story, with enough fighting and weapons to overlap into shounen territory. And Oppai-chan's presence (and all the closeups of her boobs) makes clear that they're pandering. Oh, and we get to see Julie take a shower at the beginning. IIRC there was a shower scene of her in the first episode, too. I think I didn't mention that Our Hero keeps waking up to find that Julie has crawled into bed with him. There's enough stuff like that going on to make it Pandering with a capital P. Keep going like this, and we'll have to put it in bold face and italics, too.

I'll keep watching, I suppose, but this series is not going to be one I remember as top drawer. It will, however, make a substantial contribution to the top rotation, come the day.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:17 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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