天下制覇

See if you can count the number of Negima! posters in the background of this episode.

Impressions:

Part 1 was centered on everyday emergencies, like someone declaring it’s their birthday and not having a present for them. Then they accidentally killed Itoshiki and Chiri’s murderous rampage ended with a series of dolls made up to substitute for everybody in the class (and her family). It was decent enough, although did they really have to go through every bloody single member of the cast during the birthday scene? Three or four, fine, but all 15 or so? Ugh.

The second part was easily my favorite and began with a rare test for the class… which immediately changed into a quiz show based on the world’s realities. "Which should be more popular, Negima! or SZS?" and because the world is wrong, it’s Negima. Subtle, Shaft. Reaaaaaal subtle. I’m sure there’s a better way to explain the theme than that, but the television show format, while entertaining, kind of obfuscated things a bit by flipping in and out of genres towards the end.

The final part was an extended metaphor of golfing and life. I’m not sure they finished it either. Not so much on the ‘fairways of life’ or the more western golf metaphors, but closer to "getting off your ass and going out into the world is a good shot for the first hole." They only got to the fifth or sixth ‘hole’ and then things just stopped. Which isn’t to say that the segments usually have a well defined beginning or end, but the ED kicked in practically in the middle of a conversation. My metaphorical golf Japanese isn’t exactly up to snuff anyway, something about how far you can ‘drive’ yourself to bizarre, mostly antisocial goals. I’ll be sure to bone up on it for next week.