Suzu’s whipping up a surprise for Tonkatsu’s birthday – a tofu statue. Of Tonkatsu. More on this later.

Naturally, she’s having some trouble with the rigidity of it all – her tofu is more of the “silken” consistency rather than the “mildly firm” kind that she needs to use in order to maintain the shape of a bite-size piece of bacon. In related news, the only thing I have left in my fridge is a three-week expired block of tofu I bought from Ranch 99 – I guess dinner is tofu with soy sauce to go with a bowl of rice, coupled with a nice sitdown on the crapper for dessert.

Ayane busts through the door holding two dishes full of mame-daifuku – one labeled with Suzu, the other Ikuto. Seems like she has some master plan – the Suzu plate is supposedly rigged with some spicy paste…therefore rendering Suzu useless to prevent Ayane from putting the moves on Ikuto. Brilliant. Except, Suzu tells herself she’s not going to indulge herself until she finishes with the tofu de pig. Cue the futile attempts at force-feeding.

In the meantime, Ikuto has vanished. Suzu and Ayane check around and find a picture of Ikuto outside a school with a rather moe chick clutching his arm at her delicious flat chest. Hoh, Ayane says, he’s missing his lover back in Japan. Sounds like high time to take advantage of his lonesome self and work her magic.

Suzu goes to consult with Baba, and Ayane’s hypothesis seems to check out – it does seem like around the time for Ikuto to really start missing those he left behind. Meanwhile, Suzu turns out her jealousy switch again, Ayane goes to put on her battle gear, and Rin, Yukino, and Chikage overhear the whole thing and start getting ideas of their own.

Ayane’s battle gear? Looks kinda like Mikurun-run’s combat waitress dress, except Ayane kicks it up a notch with knee-high white zip-up boots. I guess at this point I should also point out that while not readily seen behind the white leather (or suede?) her ankles are sure to be of epic proportions. Either way, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Ayane onee-sama in future episodes.

Rin’s battle plan involves filling her shoddily-made lunchboxes with rather impressive looking food, including roasted seahorse-looking fish and a steamed roundish lobster. Chikage shows up wearing a rather impressive getup consisting of white nekomimi, school mizu, loose socks, and a schoolgirl top with the big bow at the neck (the kind you’re supposed to pull at and her boobs spill out of her shirt. Except she’s got the school mizu on…huh?) It really should be seen as some haphazard combination of random moe characteristics, but I don’t think anybody really cares and would just rather see Chikage do some more crazy cosplay. Like most of her other costumes, she got the idea for this one out of some otaku cosplay magazine.

Yukino and Kuma Kuma show up with that hideous Eureka over-makeup look where they look like ghosts, or clowns, or ghosts of clowns.

So with their preparations complete, they head into battle.

Except Ikuto isn’t there. Turns out he’s down at the beach, launching off in a dinghy that looks just like the one Sashimi sacrificed in episode 1 to prove his point. Suzu pulls some deft rodeo moves with a long string of kelp (take THAT Americans! Japan has nipponized yet another of your creations!) and ropes him back onto shore. Ikuto! Why are you leaving us! Is it really for your lover!

Eh? No, I’m trying to get this message in a bottle clear of the whirlpools.

Oh. Psht.

Lover? What lover? Oh, the chick in the photo? That’s my sister.

Wow, didn’t see that one coming. Anyways, Ikuto was also cooking up some soy beans on the beach for the tofu – by running it through a cloth filter, you can remove a lot more of the moisture and therefore have a firmer tofu. Useless woman, need a man to teach you how to cook too?

So the tofukatsu gets made and there’s a surprise party for Tonkatsu. Then, in one of the strangest scenes I have ever seen, Tonkatsu starts slurping at the tofukatsu, from the nose. Five years ago I would’ve been like “haha, that’s cute,” but years of anime corruption have taught me better. This could perhaps be the very first example of cannibalistic tofu self-cest. Which also got me thinking, what if Machi made a full-scale tofu voodoo doll of Ayane, then had a 3-some with the real Ayane? What would that be called? What the hell am I talking about?

Tonkatsu ending. Instead of Horie Yui singing we get a string of melodic Bu-bu-bu-bu-buuuu. This is rather funny given that the normal ending is a sort of galge simulation – you fail in scoring with any of the girls, so you end up with the PIG. Poor Tonkatsu, hooks up with the loser guy while his swine brethren Boota is sitting comfortable between Yoko’s double D’s. Ah, anime.

The episode closes with some cheesy blush scene between Ikuto and Suzu while sitting atop Sashimi. Hooking up? Gonna score finally? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Nagasarete Airantou. Yay.

Thoughts

In all seriousness, that was actually a pretty good ep, probably because Ayane is a pretty good character. As we’ve seen in previous episodes, her imagination is quite vivid, and we’re given a full repertoire of them in this episode as well. Not to mention this awesome image of Ayane onee-sama… see, they can do it if they try! Throw in a few more of these curveballs and this show gets better instantly.

Unfortunately, having an Ayane ep means that Machi and Ayane aren’t getting another episode for a while, meaning we’ll have to cycle through some more boring episodes. Next episode has to do with being embarrassed in a kigurumi (those big stuffed animal costumes that Mint likes to wear), so it’s likely to be a Chikage ep.

-jaalin

22 Comments

  1. Chikage+cat ears=WIN in my book. Just one question, how in the world did she get that magazine? And the whole ‘Lover?That’s my sister!’ thing, saw that coming a mile away.

    Chiu^2
  2. One good thing about this episode is we actually get to see Ikuto’s adorable little sister, since in the manga you really don’t get to see what she really look like or even know she has purple hair. Nagasarete Airantou is very good in manga but somehow the anime version is just not the same, reminds me of ranma 1/2 whe=re manga is good but anime bad.

    Mike
  3. Your blogs of this show always make me laugh in the finest ways…
    Ex:
    “Suzu and Ayane check around and find a picture of Ikuto outside a school with a rather moe chick clutching his arm at her delicious flat chest. Hoh, Ayane says, he’s missing his lover back in Japan. Sounds like high time to take advantage of his lonesome self and work her magic.”

    Deadlyrain
  4. LoL “Lover? What lover? Oh, the chick in the photo? That’s my sister.”
    the manga didnot show her sister look , yet this show a cute little sister

    but funny ayane the way her imagines and plans work lol

    Darkniter
  5. “Next episode has to do with being embarrassed in a kigurumi (those big stuffed animal costumes that Mint likes to wear)…”

    If you have read the manga, it’s actually a mei mei episode.

    Delon
  6. Next episode has to do with being embarrassed in a kigurumi (those big stuffed animal costumes that Mint likes to wear), so it’s likely to be a Chikage ep.

    …well…it would be time for Mei Mei to show up, but if the ep title and jaa’s prediction mean anything…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    ShonenPunk
  7. pretty good, his imouto is actually pretty cute, I like that addition.
    But I can’t BELIEVE they cut out
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Dash
  8. Actually, Iread the manga in a Chinese website and I get to see Ikuto’s sister’s whole face and it is cute.

    Also in the manga, SPOILERS BEWARE:

    *Ikuto’s sister seems want to talk to Ikuto about something important during their date.

    * 2 new girls join in the fun. Shinobu, a ninja girl but wishes to become a swordswoman.Michuru, a half human half snow girl which was ignored since the first volume.

    * Second groom chasing competition also took place with more great participants and action.

    SPOILERS END

    Asia Fan
  9. You know, if Ikuto really wanted to repopulate the island with viable male children, he would have consulted Baba and scheduled stud-time with the MOTHERS, the stupid idiot!!!

    That way, if no other male appears in the next 13-15 years, the DAUGHTERS will still be in their early 30s and can bear children…so in 2 generations everything goes back to normal without danger of inbreeding but WTF am i taking this too seriously for?!?

    BTW, is there anyone else translating the manga besides ATT? They’re soooooo slooooow…

    PassinGass
  10. I havent seen this ep. yet but ive read the manga about this part, so my question is where the hell is machi?! I hope she did show up to “comfort” ikuto as well just like the manga where she Show Spoiler ▼

    Zero

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