天下制覇

More bitter than baker’s chocolate.

Impressions:

Makoto in a maid outfit is a nightmare that will stay with me for awhile. As expected, it was a Valentine’s Day episode centered around the girls (and Makoto) making chocolate treats plus gossiping about who they like and who they’re going to give chocolate to. Most of the entertainment came from Makoto… who was forced into a maid suit and then badgered into confessing who (s)he was going to give chocolate to. He tried to answer Haruka… but she made him say her favorite guy… and he said "Makoto," to universal scorn. Poor Yuka looked like she was about to have a heart attack keeping her laughter in. I can understand the feeling.

Fujioka also makes a rare personal appearance (at least in Okawari), which is only really noteworthy for how little he’s been around this season. He even got a few billion chocolates from all his lady consorts… as did Touma and for some reason that I don’t understand, Fuyuki… though none from Chiaki’s gang for him. Serves him right. Poor Hosaka didn’t get any chocolates, though he did make hhis own amazing chocolate cake. They missed a comedy gem there. I will say that Minami-ke’s makers get points for using a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Smart girls. Chocolate will scorch if you heat it over a direct flame. By distributing the heat better, you can make sure that you don’t get any of that crispy and disgusting burnt chocolate. Thumbs up for the culinary skills, Minami sisters.

I am extremely disappointed that they had to talk about Fuyuki even though he didn’t show up until close to the end. Damn you, Kana, for bringing him up. I did get a laugh about Kana eating Chiaki’s trapped chocolate. When I worked in a kitchen, that was a common activity to discourage other chefs and cooks from grazing on your foodstuffs. Slice open a strawberry, put in a little clove of garlic, then dip it in chocolate and leave it somewhere prominent. Give it 15 minutes, and somebody would try to eat it and then be rushing for the garbage to spit it out.

Anyway, this has been an especially ADHD entry, but that’s probably because this episode was one of the more entertaining ones of Okawari. I don’t think I’d say that it was constantly a barrel of laughs, but between the Makoto stuff at the start and the chocolate giving stuff towards the end, it certainly felt like it had a lot more energy and humor than usual. The kids with the dark faces but barely visible eyes were really really freaky looking though. I understand wanting to stick to a style… but you could sort of see their eyes and… well… uncanny valley and all that.

Preview:

To the pool for more fanservice… and hopefully fewer scary scary floating boobs.