「みずいろの雨」 (Mizuiro no Ame)
“Light Blue Rain”

With the delay of Bakemonogatari episode 13, you’d think SHAFT is busy shifting their production efforts here, but doesn’t seem to be the case. Things looked pretty lackluster this week as well.

To be fair, it wasn’t nearly as bad as episode two, but it’s still leaps and bounds behind season one. Much like any series, the first season wasn’t without its noticeable dips in quality, but the average level was never this low. As such, it’s hard to make a pitch to watch this second season unless you were a fan of the first. It’s a bit of a shame though, since the comedic nature of the show hasn’t terribly lost its touch — it’s just that the crappy visuals are actually taking away from the whole viewer experience. Every now and then, you’ll get the odd scene that looks fairly good, but you could probably count those with the fingers on one hand. Do I even need to say that I’m disappointed with SHAFT at this point?

Story-wise, it was about a routine visit to Jun’s place — or so they would have you believe. Kaya, who’s been freeloading there, invites Arashi over for some cream puffs, which causes Jun to fret about Hajime coming with her. With her secret being at risk of getting out, Jun hides everything feminine that she can before Hajime and Arashi arrive, including a very neatly arranged suitcase of underwear. However, she’s left without anything to wear since her sister Kyouko (Neya Michiko) didn’t bother doing the laundry. Scrambling through some spare clothes Kyouko had received, Jun passes on a lot of normal looking clothes and somehow puts on a wedding dress without knowing it. How that’s even possible, with wedding veil and all, I have no idea.

Luckily though, Hajime is dense as bricks and mistakes Jun as having an interest in cross-dressing when he arrives. Somehow, they all manage to keep the secret from Hajime even when Jun’s suitcase full of underwear ends up in the fridge. Arashi on the other hand, thinks it’s better if Hajime found out about Jun’s secret, but it’s easy for her to say when she’s busy stealing Kaya’s share of the cream puffs. Later on, Hajime thinks it’s a good idea searching Jun’s room for “his” secret stash, which leads to a timeslip back to Jun’s childhood and the reason why she’s hated wedding dresses ever since. (Bloody bride screaming “Give it back!”)

Not a terrible episode by any means, but I did feel like it had potential be funnier. Also, SHAFT is continually giving us the shaft production-wise, so that doesn’t help either. Seeing as Gonzo has managed to produce a couple of decent shows in the past year despite their financial situation (e.g. Saki), I just hope that SHAFT can get their act together as well.

 

Preview

16 Comments

  1. After wacthing this one, I’m glad I never liked this crap. But really are girlboy secrets that great O.o This really is a nice show content-wise, but its really boring the hell out of me, maybe its because there are way too many weird chicks in it – along with guys to match. Is hard to like something when EVERYONE is crazy at some point.

    Megas
  2. Are the visuals that bad? It seems like it’s a bit of a different style than first season. But i don’t really find it ugly or annoying. Also they kept their trademark purple octagon whatever. What is that about. And also that salt guy. What’s up with him, will he ever get a side story?

    outcast
  3. Come on, Divine. So you’re saying you’ve never just had one of those really bad days where you’re rushing to put on some clothes, while terribly distracted, and you fully dressed yourself in a wedding dress – complete with veil – without realizing? I think we can safely say each one of us has done that at one time or another…
    Black with red stars? Interesting Jun, interesting.

    Meery
  4. Meery:
    Seriously, can’t say that I have!

    outcast, lvlln:
    It’s most noticeable if you look at their faces on distant shots. The fact that they use these poorly drawn shots frequently leads to what I feel is crappy quality.

    To be fair, I’m only comparing this to SHAFT’s own work on the first season. You can quickly skim the first episode of season one and instantly get a feel for the better artwork and colors.

  5. Wait didn’t Jun met young Jun in the same time/space continum ? Wasn’t she supposed to disappear? Or do they destroy each other if they touch not by seeing each other? They will be luckier taking the spoiled milk back time!

    Island esper
  6. I like this series and enjoy watching it but 2 things have gone on WAY TOO LONG…

    1. Someone pass that dude the salt so he will STFU!

    2. The joke about Jun being a girl and hiding it from him has gone on way too long. That should have ended after the 2nd or 3rd episode last year and yet here we are in the 2nd season and they still trying to make us believe the dude hasn’t figured out Jun is a girl? If ever there was an episode to revel it to him it was this weeks where he saw her wearing a wedding dress.

    Splash
  7. “This series makes me want to kill things. The stupidity between Jun and Hajime about Jun’s gender is just painful to watch”.
    Its original author also wrote School Rumble, so what did you expect?

    OverMaster
  8. jin:
    They never list the insert song names in the credits, but this one is actually from the first season’s character song album. It’s an old song titled “Kokoro no Tabi” 「心の旅」 originally by Tulip, except it’s sung by Sanpei Yuuko here (Hajime’s seiyuu).

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