It’s a gloomy, rainy day in Airantou. Kinda like Taipei today, except here in Taiwan there’s more unsavory grandmas and smelly men than underage, nubile girls (not like Ikuto cares). Is the weather a sign of things to come? Let’s hope it’s not that obvious.

It’s pretty clear 90 seconds in that Suzu has a few more skeletons in her closet. Transparency is quite a desirable trait on girls as long as it refers to clothing; in terms of personality, well…the whole “damaged goods” moe mode is appealing to some extent too (Kaede is the king of DOA), but Suzu is too shallow, too predictable of a character to exploit this (or be exploited, for that matter).

So it turns out that the island pretty much shuts down during rainy days. I suppose to tradeoff for working every day is that you get rainy days off; except I’m pretty sure it rains a whole lot in the Pacific. Then again, it’s not every day that you have sheep that look like large albino dustballs, so I’m willing to suspend my disbelief of wonky meteorology for the moment. Ikuto, having the heart of a tiger that he does, can’t sit still at home and starts convulsing on the ground until Suzu challenges him to a game of Shogi (that chess game that the Ranma panda always plays, the same one that got Jin a hefty bag of gold to allow his Champloo gang to continue on their plucky adventure). Ikuto, being the intellectually superior male, fully expects to dominate Suzu, but predictably, the opposite happens as he is smacked worse than those Tetris newbs when faced up against the vast spatial abilities of Utada Hikaru.

By now I start lamenting what could have been one of the greatest moments of sexual tension ever in anime, brutally twisted to become a completely sterile Shogi game. One of Austin Powers’ massive mojo and ero mind was able to turn chess pieces to phallic objects (understandable), but Shogi pieces are flat, unappealing, and definitely lacking any girth or suppleness. Nine months after the great Northeast Blackout of 1965, New York hospitals experienced a sharp spike in childbirth rates – and those were just normal people. You’d think being on an island with the only set of balls within hundreds of fathoms would prompt one to do something, but no such luck here. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

Yukino has a pillow fight with her beasts of burden. At least that’s something suited for her age. Ikuto and Suzu at the peak of their sexual capability playing Shogi…sigh.

Chikage puts on a school mizugi and scampers off into the rain. Cosplay queen going to do some cosplay. See, it works.

Machi and Ayane sitting there eating snacks. Machi’s crackers are all soft due to the humidity, so she eats some of Ayane’s dango, which just happen to be the super spicy kind. Machi gets mad and gets ready to go voodoo. Works.

Elsewhere, cosplay ojou seems to have played her role too well and is passed out in the river. She’s probably on her way to that massive waterfall we saw back in episode 1. Rin, Machi, Ayane, and Yukino chase after her. But the episode doesn’t really seem to care – it cuts back to Emokuto feeling bad about Suzu and her loneliness. See, that type of empathy and sappy emotional stuff totally worked in Fruits Basket (you know, when the cat and mouse guys ran back home to find the chick crying over a picture of her mom), because it was only natural that it happened, given the context of the story and the characters. Airantou? A lone, reproductively capable young male washes up on an island of virgins. Instead of channeling blood to the necessary organs, he lets it all out through his nose. And then gets more sappy than every Backstreet Boys song put together. For starters, we now know for a fact that at least 20% of BSB would feel right at home with his sisters on Airantou.

Oh, wait… here comes the good part. Suzu sees Ikuto dazing off and sticks her face inches from his, asking him if he’s ok. In every other anime, this would 10% result in a first kiss and 90% result in someone walking in, leading to a massive blushfest and an eventual kiss hours or days later. What happens here? The Save Chikage Gang (post-saving) busts in, and a completely oblivious Suzu turns around and says hi.

Everyone’s brought some random stuff for Suzu for no apparent reason. Which is nice, really, since you don’t really need a reason to give a gift. Except in this case, it’s a totally retarded null reason, as it’s supposed to show, in the most shallow way possible, that Suzu isn’t alone because she has all these great friends on the island. This mediocre scene is immediately salvaged by a group strip session (I’m assuming to go take a bath, but who knows. Either way, nosebleed – see above rant on misappropriation of blood).

Suzu talks about her mom and sings a song more awkward than the Seiou Gakuen anthem. Ikuto gets all groggy eyed thinking about marriage, as my patience for this show runs thinner and thinner. I’ve made every excuse to try to like it, but the sheer shallowness of it is unbearable for me to watch every week. Fortunately, the summer season is starting in less than a month – if there’s something worth blogging about, I’m dropping this show faster than Suzu can chug down thirty mame-daifuku.

-jaalin

24 Comments

  1. I see your point Jaalin as it’s just becoming centered around stupid plain comedy (that nosebleeding is annoying!). However since that’s the only show I watch with that kind of comedy I think I’ll continue it (so or so I just watch 5 series atm).

  2. I think that’s a Japanese wedding dress or Kimono. I remember I saw it in a Japanese movie before. In modern japanese weddings brides also like to change. They wear western as well as japanese wedding dresses.

  3. hmmm…I read the manga, and from reading ja’s summary, this ep > rain chapter in manga. This is only ep 10 of 26. Can’t expect something to happen already (thou it’s getting there with Ikuto thinking marriage). Have patience pls! =D

    Delon
  4. Considering what one would expect with the way the show set-up, I guess it seems a little underwhelming. I’m sure all the little childrens wouldn’t mind watching it, though.

    Personally, I’ve liked the show quite a bit so far, but, indeed, I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more … er, “character development”. *cough* So, yeah.

    cbhl
  5. Isn’t the Rain Chapter an extra chapter in the manga?

    >Hudson at 11:27 am on June 7th, 2007
    >DON’T YOU DARE DROP THIS SHOW!!!!!

    *Kneels with puppy-dog eyes*
    I second to that! Please at least finish this, we begs you! I’m sure as hell something MIGHT happen if you waits.

    Moondoggiebuiscuit
  6. Is it just me, or does the last few drops of nose bleed from Ikuto looked paler?? HAH!! Maybe his body is finally running low on blood cells!! But boy, would I like to be in his shoes…

    JCSlim
  7. Ah man! I love this ep so, one my favs. This episode had a real strong connection between Ikuto and Suzu thats spectacular and adorable. There’s no way you can watch it and not like it. By da way, how da hell can u say u didn’t like it and worst of all not liking that very beautiful scene where Suzu is singing that lovely song to Ikuto? That was perfection! You gotta reconsider it. Good amount of romance, very sweet. I almost cried watching & listening to that wonderful scene. God its beautiful.

    biku

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