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「絆と約束」 (Kizuna to Yakusoku)
“Bonds and Promises”
With more mention of The School and the kids who want to be reunited with one another, the appearance of Shadow-Mirror’s leader, Vindel Mauser (Umezu Hideyuki), alongside his top researcher and head of the W-Numbers, Lemon Browning (Mizutani Yuuko), finally gave us faces to some of the antagonists in this series.
So this is what I was seeing in the opening sequence. It’s the abominable Sohara snowman!
「死闘！零下1.4度の温泉（カッセン）」 (Shitou! Reika 1.4 do no Onsen (Kassen))
“Life and Death! The -1.4°C Hot Spring (Battle)”
Last week was a pro wrestling debacle and this week is a snowball fight pitting the guys against the girls. Mikako doesn’t look like she’s grown tired of messing around with Astraea just yet, but unfortunately the same can’t be said about being Eishirou’s New World Discovery assistant.
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「時と鍵」 (Toki to Kagi)
“Time and Key”
After this episode I will never forget just how hard it is to be a mangaka. That and I hope I never look like this, ever.
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「ダイエット・シンドローム」 (Daietto Shindorōmu)
“The Diet Syndrome”
I laughed, I cried, and hurriedly told a friend to watch PSG episode 4 as soon as possible.
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「猫省年」 (Neko Shounen)
“Catboy”
Continuing on from last week, this whole “student & teacher” relationship thing started to feel a little overplayed (except I love hearing Sugita Tomokazu, so I don’t mind). At least, that’s what I thought until a stark (but hilarious) reality check comes tumbling in and destroys all of Hotori’s teacher loving affection. What would you expect a teacher to say if you asked them, “Did you happen to fall for me?” Yeah, I didn’t think of anything positive either. Plus, new character this week!
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「七咲逢編 最終章 コクハク」 (Nanasaki Ai-hen Saishuushou – Kokuhaku)
“Nanasaki Ai Final Chapter – Confession”
Between Ai and Junichi running the girls swim club’s oden booth and Itou Kanae walking away with the Miss Santa championship because Haruka was a no-show, the founder’s festival as a whole didn’t quite have much relationship-related development in it. The two of them were alone together, but too busy serving the endless line of customers that the other members of the swim team were bringing in.
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「ドライヴ・マイ・カー／パーティーはそのままに」 (Doraivu Mai Kaa / Paatii wa Sono Mama ni)
“Drive My Car / A Party Like That”
So it turns out the secret to dancing (and how everything in the world works) is the infamous Konami Code, or at least that’s what any avid gamer will probably conclude. Between that and the big Zaku head bicycle carriage, I wasn’t sure what made me chuckle more like a big geek, but watching Keima work his magic on the surprisingly poor Mio as well as Elise whine about not being able to wear a cute outfit made this episode one to remember.
Since taking over Random Curiosity, various generous individuals have e-mailed me asking if they could show some financial support for the site. While I had thanked them for their kind gesture at the time, I was intent on keeping the blog self-sustainable as a fan site, regardless of how much my double-edged personal standards made it feel like a second job. What’s more, it just wasn’t in my “style” to accept donations even in light of some trying times when I was forced to change web hosting earlier this month. However, I admit the thought of just dropping all the extra work that goes into maintaining the site and looking forward to days of an abundance of free-time did cross my mind at one point. I found myself working tirelessly for four days straight exploring options to configuring software to get things back up, and ran into one problem after another both in setting up the new server and in real life, and seriously started questioning why I’m working as hard as I am — almost always at the expense of sleep.
* More after the jump…
