「美し風、吹き抜けて」 (Mikaze, Fukinukete)
“MIKAZE blows through”

There weren’t any last minute changes to this episode following the leak last week, which was pretty much expected after director Itou Tomohiko joked about it on his Twitter account. It’s a pretty stark contrast to when CODE GEASS R2’s episode three was leaked to say the least, since Sunrise was busting balls to find out who the culprit was, only to find out it was a result of their own mistake (…supposedly). In any case, the early viewing of this episode I had was nice, but nothing I couldn’t have waited for given all the other shows I had to watch (and cover) in the meantime. The best part of watching a good mix of shows is that there’s always a new episode of something to watch every day, and I’m never twiddling my thumbs out of boredom waiting for the next episode of a certain series to roll around seven days later.

As for the episode itself, it primarily involved the mysterious disappearance of townspeople and a rumor going around that it’s the work of Tengu, a mythical dog-like Chinese demon. Fumiaki wasn’t all that interested in investigating it further, so it was funny to see Maya beat his ass into doing so while bringing up how there’s a theory that the Tengu’s beak may actually be the oxygen mask of an alien. Her facial expressions are undoubtedly one of the highlights of this series and that big-mouthed one was definitely another one to add to the list. Incidentally, one of the most amusing moments this episode came from Fumiaki getting Chihiro off his case about visiting Maya regularly by complimenting her dango-like hairstyle. After the size of her breasts made him reconsider the dreadful lips in his face, I got a good laugh out of him using his phone’s camera to get a future outlook on what they’d be like together. I just love how the picture had to show his skeleton with his hair intact and in the same suit just so there’s no mistaking that it was his corpse lying there. His subsequent reaction was priceless as well, but all I could think of was how handy that camera is. Imagine how much time you could save from dead-end relationships with it!

Ultimately, what I was looking forward to the most this episode was the introduction of Chihara Minori‘s character in the series, Nakagawa Mikaze. Unfortunately for me, Minorin voices her with that one voice of hers that I’m not a fan of whatsoever, which is right along the lines of Hayama Nayu in Chu-Bra. Luckily, Mikaze turned out to be a pretty interesting character to help offset the voice, as she not only works at her family restaurant across the street from Fumiaki’s apartment, but also drives a Porsche like a race car driver with her drifting and heel-toe shifting techniques. What’s more, she’s proven to be girlfriend material to Fumiaki since she’s cute and the only person other than his mother (Hisakawa Aya) to call him by his actual name instead of “Bunmei”. I guess he needed some nice treatment to offset all the abuse he receives from Maya, but I wasn’t expecting the two of them to provide another form of humor altogether. In particular, it’s how Fumiaki gets to try and act kind of cool around Mikaze, which led to some good laughs when they were touring the remnants of the Zouzan Bunker together — the military base that served as the Matsuhiro Underground Imperial Headquarters during the Second World War.

In addition to the variety of character designs — including the two freakish-looking sisters who are Mikaze’s relatives — the extremely unusual personalities that go along with them have been one aspect of this series that I’ve taken an immediate liking to. They sure help bring out the comedic side of things in a very unassuming way, while the story continues to progress on the supernatural side. With the cliffhanger at the end where Maya runs into and gets attacked by the supposed Tengu, it looks like we’re in store for more surprises next time. Somehow, I get the feeling that Kozue got abducted as well, despite Ami’s suggestion that she went off somewhere to hone her spiritual powers, so it’ll be interesting to see if they come across her in the bunker.

 

Preview

42 Comments

  1. This was fun. I need to place an order for that phone ;P it will save me so muuuuuch trouble. The porche was so out of place comparing how the dinning looks like and is always empty. But somehow they pull it and I enjoyed it. The only scene missing is when Maya was scolding Fumiaki , he’s on the floor and she has a leg up on her desk wearing a skirt… well yes there’s no way he could miss a pantsu shot!!!!! That was a nice setup to make her blush and back down a bit. I know isn’t an ecchi series but the setup was so obvious. can’t wait for next one!!!

    Island Esper
  2. Good to see that I am not the only one who didn’t really appreciate Mikaze’s voice. Doesn’t happen often that I find a voice annoying.

    “Girlfriend material”, yes, but doesn’t she almost seem to be too perfect? Suspicious!
    Anyways, she obviously comes from a rich family. Another oujousama?

    Didn’t the animation quality (slightly) drop for this episode?

    boingman
  3. I recommend air gear the tv series,its kind of a spinoff of the manga but still follows the main plot.Even though its not loyal to the manga,its amazingly well done.There were some times when i laughed with tears and was amazed at the same time.Anyway the main character is unique,start watching the series or reading the manga and ull see why lol
    (he’s epic).
    Oh and this ova was made because more then 40000 air gear fans made a petition for season 2 and i think there even will be one.

    Diabolikul
    1. The first season is only good if you haven’t read the manga though. If they made a second season of Air Gear that followed the manga, that would easily be my favorite show of any season hands down. Really can’t wait for the OVA and even though it’s unlikely, I really hope sales are good enough so that a second season wouldn’t be out of the picture.

      lHyDrAl
  4. “she’s proven to be girlfriend material to Fumiaki since she’s cute and the only person other than his mother (Hisakawa Aya) to call him by his actual name instead of “Bunmei”.”

    That is an inconsistency with Fumi saying no one called him “Fumiaki” other than his mother, since the announcer on the 2nd ep called him “Fumiaki”. He could have been talking about relevant people though(fam/friends), but Mika has no relevance to the young Fumi.

    frubam
    1. Well, the announcer was introducing him. You generally give a person’s family and personal names when you introduce them… and then, you switch to one name or the other thereafter.
      Fumiaki wishes that more people would call him by his personal name – which, in Japan, is reserved for people who are quite close to you. In other words, he hasn’t had any relationships in which he was close enough to someone for them to feel comfortable calling him by his personal name – except his mom. Poor guy.

      Dandos
  5. I think that that Mikaze chick is really some secret agent. How else would a waitress at a crummy restaurant be able to afford a Porsche? She will turn into a baddy – Bunmei isn’t allowed to have love interests other than Maya!

    Booty Hole
    1. I don’t quite think that she herself will turn out to be a bad guy, but she’s certainly in a high-risk category for some sort of plot twist.

      Personally, I think that she might be the Key of Nostradamus, or be intrinsically involved with it somehow. The thought makes me sad, because I really like her character. Oh well, Fumiaki x Maya is also a fun pairing.

      Dandos
    1. I think the phone could be a great selling point to this series 😛
      I also think Mikaze to be too good to be true. There must be something wrong with her and with next episode’s title mentioning something about Bunmei’s fall, she might just be involved in it.

      Shinjiro
  6. Mikaze is so hotand so fitting for Fumiaki I have alarm bells ringing for “bad guys agent”.
    Maya is proving again and again to be fun as hell.
    I want that phone – then I need to find a girl that has me in the photo, and preferably well off…

    ewok40k
  7. Personally Divine, I think dropping Seikotai and blogging this show would be a good idea. Seikotai doesn’t seem to go anywhere, and while I have tried to give it a chance the humor is getting a bit old. This series, however, looks gorgeous and the scenes where they use modern weaponry are simply amazing. I nearly had a Gun Otaku orgasm in the second episode. The main characters are attractive, and while I think the cat alien spin is a bit silly, especially with those retarded looking anti-matter hammers (wtf?) I hope the human girls still get to do their thing killing evil agencies and dog aliens. Also, as for the dog aliens, I noticed the dog aliens (the scientist and the chick in the dark room near the end) didn’t have external ears. I wonder if they actually transform werewolf-style. That’d be pretty sick.

    Booty Hole
  8. Looks like they’ll finally explain what the deal is with that Mothman creature next episode (go Maya go, don’t die on us now!). And agreed that Mikaze, while really sexy (and a drift racer too!), her voice is irritating. Maya and Fumiaki were meant for each other, they just don’t know it yet, lol.

    Raiju
  9. I agree with the people saying that Mikaze may be a secret agent of some sort. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. There could be a deeper meaning behind the reason that it took so long for Bunmei to get his food.

    Tim
  10. I wish I had a camera that let me see how relationships would turn out, too. Fumiaki dodged a bullet lmao.

    I think we all know there’s something odd about Mikaze, I just hope that she doesn’t betray Fumiaki or turns out to be a Tengu in disguise.

    Suzuku
  11. hahaa xD the almost kiss scene was so perfect, xDD the photo, he dead xD so funny XD

    I love Maya really, another favorite character to the list ^^

    I think like some of you guys, I think that Mikaze is not just a simple girl…

    lol
  12. Ugh, could Mikaze be any less original? She has no character, she’s just there to be all moe moe for Fumiaki. Giving her one unusual trait in her driving does not make up for every other cliche she’s got going on.
    God I hope they make her deeper than this.

    senefen

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