First Impressions / Nyan Koi!

「暗くなるまで待って」 (Kuraku Naru Made Matte)
“Wait Until It Gets Dark”

Junpei never gets a day off, not even when he’s on a school field trip in Kyoto. After helping a cat named Masa return there, Junpei soon finds out that word on the neko streets is that he can help them with requests. Before long, every cat in the city is seeking him out for help.

What starts as one request in Kyoto quickly multiples into more than Junpei can handle. Burnt out and at a loss on what to do, he checks Akari’s online delusional diary and leaves his number there asking for help. Within seconds, Akari calls him back in a stalker-ish voice saying, “Nyan~ I already know it.” (It was creepy but sooo cute.) Junpei asks to get Tama on the line so that he can figure out where Masa is and get him to stop telling all the other cats, but our calico cat proves useless. At the hot spring inn later that night, Junpei is rewarded for his efforts by the cats he helped earlier in the day, who reveal a much better peephole than the others are using. He attempts to resist his urges, but the thought of a naked Kaede gets the better of him and he ends up paying for it big time.

As repayment for Junpei’s lecherous ways and to improve Kaede’s opinion of him, Kanako makes him accompany them during their designated free time the next day. This of course includes treating them to food and whatnot, which starts digging into the money Junpei’s mother gave him to buy souvenirs. However, that’s the least of his concerns when he runs into a lost kitten he has to help out. As luck would have it, the little guy turns out to be Masa’s kid, Komasa. To show his appreciation, Masa leads them back to their friend’s place where the two of them live, which is surprisingly the Ichinose group‘s Kyoto home. There, Junpei is introduced to Josephine’s wife Cindy while Masa gets a beating from his wife for cheating on her. Watching those two quarrel, Josephine suggests that Junpei must have a hard time choosing as well, but he’s unaware that he’s referring to the girls around him. At the train station the next day, Junpei gives Kaede a cellphone strap from her favorite yakuza series as thanks for the one she gave him at the amusement park, causing Kanako to get upset about receiving nothing.

To be honest, I was at a loss on how to write this post and decided to summarize a bit to get some coherent thoughts together. This is primarily due to all the scene transitions this episode and bits of comedy littered throughout. At first, I just wanted to just mention specific scenes here and there, like the quirky opening where Chizuru let Junpei walk by without saying “hi”, but that was just one of many things that happened. Seeing as I couldn’t do just that, I’m pretty impressed by how much scene variety they jammed into a single episode. There was so much going on that it was kind of hard to focus on any particular part. You just had to go with the comedic flow and take it all in as it came.

Unfortunately though, this didn’t help make things as funny as previous weeks. It had its moments with Kouta acting all gentleman-like about peeping on the girls before joining Haruhiko and the others, Junpei nosediving into the girls’ side of the bath, and Junpei imagining the perfect mood with Kaede on the touted love bench at Kumogawa, but nothing else was “flying Tama” level funny. Things probably would’ve been better if Kotone and Akari were around (especially after their hilarious debut last week), but it didn’t really make a lot of sense to have them here. Hopefully the laughs pick up next time. Underwear seems to be involved, so that’s always a good sign.

 

Omake

Preview

25 Comments

  4. You missed out a screenshot on Nabeshin the train driver reading up BL.

    That said, him helping out the cats in Kyoto seem to have fast-tracked his progress with removing the curse. Now I’m curious as to how they will resolve this series…unless they have Junpei doing something to anger the Neko Jizou again and thus resetting his fulfilled requests count.

    Fat Cat Lim
    Reply

  5. Kanako burns her hair for glaring too long! Creative use of the thumbs up sign for Junpei! The sword-fighting bit with Junpei’s classmates, hah hah! And did Nagi actually look good in a kimono? Better watch out for Junpei’s mom and sis’ schemes and Nagi’s gramps! What the hell in the preview?! Nagi and Kanako grabbing each others boobs?!

    samu
    Reply

  8. Yeah, I started reading the manga myself. This is… quite new.

    Can it be assumed that since the manga is still pretty young with the number of chapters that the anime doesn’t want to go too fast and use it all up before other chapters are releaed?

    Phosphatide
    Reply

  9. @ShiroiRyu
    there was a hint that they will be showing chapter 8 since “Chatra” or should I say the fat cat on chapter 8 appears at the Ending. The only question is when 🙂

    Ito Pala Ang Blog
    Reply

  12. Hmm…back now. That was a nice episode ^^. I’m the kind of person that takes in the stuff in the background while watching so it was pretty interesting when Kanako burnt her hair. I was looking at the pot, thinking about what kind of food might be in it (drool…) when I noticed the flame. I then thought, you know, that flame’s kinda close to her hair. Wouldn’t it be funny if Kanako’s hair caught on fire? And lo and behold, right at that moment, Kaede starts going “Kana, Kana, your hair!” Needless to say, I laughed my head off.

    Favorite scene though was the whole byplay with Josephine and Cindy…the dialogue was so clever! (“Shh! That’s not the kind of thing you say in front of the kids!” Good thing his kid was clueless lol.) And Masa is getting beaten up all the while. I really love the Kyoto dialect, reminds me of my grandma when she forgets where she is lol. Looks like Masa’s still seeing the cat with who he cheated on his wife…hence the second round of beat up (he didn’t answer her straight when she said that he better not have seen her since the incident) the odd thought that they might be talking about Nyamusasu crossed my mind, but I doubt it.

    Ence
    Reply

  14. I’m guessing they’re just trying to preserve the manga’s story, cause this is nowhere in it. And they’ve missed lots, like Junpei getting sick, the pool chapter, the wedding intervention…

    Nothingseen
    Reply

  17. @Nothingseen:

    I don’t think they skipped them. It’s more like they haven’t even reached it yet. Last episode they just introduced the twins, so I think they’re taking it easy now.

    I’m expecting a lot of problems coming up. I’m sure Junpei in the manga would have enough self-control to not peek. I think. Plus he seems way more obsessive in the anime than I think he really should be.

    Phosphatide
    Reply

  22. Yeah, unless the author is giving out later story arcs to the anime, this episode (and what looks like the next episode) seem to be original to the anime (I’ve read the manga up to the latest chapter). What I’m happy about is that studio AIC is able to make an entertaining original story, given how anime originals tend suck. Kudos to studio AIC.

    Aoihoshikage
    Reply

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