天下制覇

 

Or in some cases… a swim meet.

Impressions:

There were some really really really weird facial expressions in this episode. That’s most of what it contained though. It was interesting enough, and it passed by quickly, but at the end of the episode, I just felt like absolutely nothing had happened. I guess Futami and Sakino started their little catfight routine, and Yumi/Spineless nearly kissed, but I dunno… something just didn’t click for me. I think it was the fact that they had to shove the frog-brats into my face within the first two minutes, then the scary Japanese one pieces. I’ll never understand how or why anybody thinks their attractive in the slightest. Dark blue rubber makes me think of tires, and those horrible squeaking noises balloons make. Is it the fact that that’s the closest Japanese high school nerds will come to unconvered female flesh? Or is there really a subset of the world attracted to solid blue unitards?

Good lord, this is quite the tangent.

Back to Kimikiss and less on the fetishism of vulcanized rubber. I’m a little annoyed that after they made the end of the previous episode seem significant that they’re going to freezer pack the Kai/Kouichi thing for a little bit, but on the other hand, I think Kai really doesn’t care about Kouichi in the slightest. I can get behind that opinion. The Mao/Kouichi angle still seems strange and unnatural. It takes him literally 30 seconds to go from being preoccupied with Mao to (what passes for) flirting with Yumi and back again. The dude needs to settle down and make a play for the girl he’s lusted after for the past couple years, not the one into… musicians. Speaking of the sax-fiend, granted, she didn’t really show up much, but she needs to get back to her energetic self and stop moping around. Being the only unhappy person in a show full of teens somehow choked with endorphins instead of hormones is not endearing.

At Udon Central, Drama Club Extrordianaire reads over the initial script. Kouichi is lost in thought about running into Mao the previous day. Hiiragi jerks him back to reality and makes him give his opinions. It needs more drama and the like. THEN THE DAMN FROG WHORES BUTT IN and try to add the frogs as mascots… complete with new swimsuits for the frogs.

Hiiragi jumps up and says that’s exactly what they need. Not the frogs… but swimsuits. Fanservice. Kouichi is aghast, Yumi blushes, and Mitsuki is all for it. And luckily, there’s a swim meet tomorrow to… gathering information.

On the walk home, Kouichi apologizes to Yumi for Hiiragi being a pervert. He accidently blurts out that he’d like to see her in a swimsuit too and giggles are had all around.

Mao is slumming it up at Kai’s bar. She flashes back to running into Kouichi. She introduced Kai as a guy in the same class as her. Coming back to the present, she excuses herself and tells Kai that she’ll see him tomorrow at class.

At home, Kouichi knocks on Mao’s door and comes in. She wants to play the racing game, but he’s after his goggles. She has a really nice one from France… though it’s a little swimpy.

She pulls out her tiny tiny old grade school swimsuit too. She even pulls out her goggles and scares Kouichi half to death with them.

At the pool, Hiiragi sends the troops forth to gather data on the girls with cell phones. This is going to end well. Kuryu wanders over and rightfully chews the doofuses out for being deviants.

After she flounces off, Yumi comes over and Kouichi immediately zooms in on the erogenous zones.

Kazuki turns away and takes pictures of random things. Nothing interesting, but gets Futami in his sights. She asks what’s up, but he just puts the camera away.

The meet starts with Sakino taking first.

At lunch, Kazuki and Kouichi eat with a veritable harem. Kazuki, having no survival instinct, makes fun of Sakino for being good at sports and not much else.

Udon Frog Girl brought udon from home and everybody digs in. This so cannot be heathy eating. Kazuki sees Futami eating a sandwich by herself and offers her some as well. She gives it a taste, and declares it a failure… nowhere near as good as the berry-berry ramen.

The rest of them talk to Futami and get her to open up a little bit. Sakino and her talk a little bit. They don’t understand the others’ interests and start getting a little catty over it. Finally. Took them long enough.

The swim meet continues. Kouichi notices that Mao is limping and nowhere near as energetic as usual. He’s staring at her and needs Yumi to poke him to go out for his turn. While he’s setting up, he notices that he’s racing against Kai, who gives him a nod.

Kouichi puts his goggles down and his world blurs. He loses his balance off the starting block and falls backwards. Mao and Yumi are both concerned, but only Yumi runs to him.

At the nurse’s office, he’s getting treated for his bruises while Yumi watches on. He explains that the goggles are borked and she leaves him alone with Yumi. They both blush as they realize that between the two of them is about a third of an inch of rubber. Kouichi winces, and Yumi goes to check on him. She leans in close and the two realize how close they are.

Kazuki spoils the moment by barging in as they’re about to kiss. They’re startled and pull back. Kazuki apologizes, but he’s got Sakino who managed to twist her ankle. He drops her off and has to run back to race himself.

At the pool, he manages to lose his balance and fall into the pool before the starting gun.

The score is nearly tied between the two teams, but with Sakino out, they’re screwed. She shows up and tells them not to worry, she can still swim. Kazuki tries to talk her out of it, but she says it’s fine, they’ll lose if she doesn’t. Futami strides up to them and the frog tramps decide that she can take her place. Futami shoots that down immediately and tells Sakino to give it up.

Sakino gets pissed and limps over to the starting block. She dives in with the rest and swims on to victory as Futami watches, confused. Kazuki wonders if she was really injured as she seems fine now. Futami sulks in the corner. Kazuki goes over to talk to her, but she’s feeling uppity too and walks off.

Hiiragi wanders in and wants the data that Kazuki and Kouichi collected. Kouichi beats a hasty retreat. Mitsuki is there to pick up the slack… but is somewhat confused as to what Hiiragi was getting at.

Mao is walking around school. The wind blows and one of her contacts bounces along the ground. Kouichi runs by and asks her if she’s alright. She tells him that she’s fine. She then realizes that she dropped a contact and scrambles to the ground to find it. Kouichi gets down and helps her look. Mao smiles.