天下制覇

Koyasu, always. Horie, why not? But Noto? Never.

Impressions:

I’m actually surprised that they went as far as both of them naked and Kosuda on top of Yamada before she found a way to break his leg. And yet, oddly, that wasn’t even the most suggestive thing this episode, unless you find giant formless blobs to be unbearably attractive. Yamada in her naughty nurse outfit straddling Kosuda’s leg under the covers and gyrating would have easily taken the cake if not for the Yamada Chop to put an end to that. I also question the practical use of a cold stethoscope as sexual toy. Of course, I can’t think of that scene without remembering the bed spinning and Kosuda transforming into his superhero alterego, the Naked Caped Wonder, so my memory might be slightly tainted.

Overall though, while this was a very fun episode, it really wasn’t much of an ending. They just ramped up the sex stuff for an episode, even if Kosuda’s plug never quite made it into Yamada’s jack. It would have been a nice nightcap to the series if they had actually shown Yamada accepting Kosuda as her boyfriend and the like in lieu of her previously stated mass sex affair goal, but I’ve liked the lighter touch they’ve used between Yamada’s stated goals and her actual behavior through the season for the most part. Getting to read between the lines instead of having characters iterate exactly how they feel and forcing you to swallow that is a nice change… not that I’m looking at you at all, Maeda. It just would have been nice to have a little more closure in the final seconds.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Final Thoughts:

I do have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed after the very fast start that this quickly fell into the same kind of coitus interruptus routine that most other romantic comedies tend to suffer from. The bar was just set at a different level for the relationship. Instead of kissing or confessing that they *gasp* like each other, the base level was sex. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a place where almost no other shows dare to seriously tread for anything but slapstick which is then immediately forgotten, so there was a large enough vein of untapped jokes to power the Death Star, but particularly in the middle of the show’s run, it felt like much of the story was just being padded out. Adding in the very weak Kanejou siblings during that time didn’t do them any favors either.

Regardless, the start and end of the show were both excellent and it did maintain a fairly high level of production as well as comic writing throughout. Yamada and Kosuda are both very assertive and likeable characters. Takeshita was also an excellent straight man to Yamada’s antics and even Misato rose to glory towards the end. The rest of the cast… eh… they could use some work, but three or four strong characters is a lot more than most other shows manage.

I think a lot of people wrote this show off because they took Yamada entirely too literally at the start and immediately correlated sex with raunchy, but it treads a much different line than other sex comedies, which are just more about showing lots of T&A than having fun at the expense of the silly squishy act of sexual intercourse. The show’s an excellent romantic comedy, pure and simple. Very well made, very charming cast, mostly snappy writing with a bit of a lull and some traumatizing Kobayashi Yuu ‘laughter’ in the middle. And let’s face it, if you can’t unashamedly giggle at the bizarre otherworldly things we humans call vaginas and penises, what else is left?