天下制覇

Har har, Key-kun.

Impressions:

Well, let me begin by saying that I really am disappointed that Mafuyu’s whole confession didn’t really mean anything or go anywhere except as a lead-in to all of them talking about their futures for the first half of the episode. Sigh. It really could have been a lot more interesting than just a couple throwaway gags and an affirmation that Mafuyu thinks highly of him and isn’t going to pursue a relationship. They kind of goes for all of them. We’ve know that since about episode 1. The middle chunk of the episode was the most fun. Ken and Sakurano really got into grilling Minatsu and he was ready and willing to toss her right back into the bridal outfit. I also enjoyed the Rocky spoof with Mafuyu (the obvious fallback career plan after game reviewer of course), complete with a corrupted Gonna Fly Now playing in the background. Ken’s future is starting a girl game company… too bad his name’s already taken.

The second half went off in a different direction when a real life Nakameguro showed up and Mafuyu went berserk. Even Ken couldn’t deny his attraction to him… her…? Honestly, I was expecting ‘him’ to end up being a girl just for the joke of Mafuyu suddenly not being interested in them. The last quarter of the episode was dedicated to Ken trying to cheer up Nakameguro by talking about how he’s not alone and the girls were all there for him in all seasons. Also, that Sakurano was the one who put the whole girl game obsession into his head as a way of looking at the world in the first place. Of course, they overheard all of this, but the status quo remains in the end and they start casting parts for the story they just wrote. Not that I expected anything different. Not a bad way to end things, but I really wish they hadn’t machinated that cliffhanger last week for it to not really go anywhere.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Final Thoughts:

This was definitely the most pleasant and unexpected surprise of the season. While it certainly could have been better produced, it excelled with both the comedy and the characters. Ken’s a great lead. Confident, charismatic, and perhaps most rarely seen in anime, completely open and honest. Even though almost every episode did have some kind of relatively major drama element to it, he accepted whatever happened head on. Nobody spent their time sitting in a corner being pissy or silently holding a grudge over some imagined slight. It’s easy to like characters who actively try to work out the problems that they have instead of moping around. That drama’s also probably one of the show’s weakest points too though, outside of the rather mediocre scoring. The mood whiplash could be a tad severe at times, jumping from bad lingual puns to full-on melodrama at the drop of a hat.

Overall though, this was a fantastic show and easily the highlight of the season for me. The parodies were topical and clever (and easily understood, not that I’m developing a grudge against Shaft lately or anything), the cast was all likeable, and even if the art wasn’t spectacular, it was certainly more than sufficient, and they did a good job keeping the service on the tasteful side of the fence. Deen’s really done a great job with their comedies this year, even if their other stuff hasn’t been… uh… well… they’ve done an awesome job with comedy. Let’s just leave it at that.