「新学期 – Abnormal Circumstance」 (Shin Gakki)
“New Semester – Abnormal Circumstance”

In what feels like an answer from the gods, everything’s been turned upside down and inside out — but in a fun and entertaining way. It felt really refreshing to get a closer look at some of the side characters who populate this show. Instead of constantly watching our group of four live their lives, I was overjoyed to watch Miho and Yutaka get nearly half the episode to themselves. First off, it’s hilarious just how tight of a chain Miho has over Yutaka. Not only does she control Yutaka with nothing more than a stomp of her foot but apparently she’s smart enough to alienate Yutaka from entering a conversation. But if that wasn’t enough, she isn’t as brash as Yutaka and is pretty good at reading the situation — sounds like the perfect girl to me! She’d probably end up being really popular is she got more screen time.

With Kitou-sensei, Kamade-senesi, and Satou-sensei things felt a bit more interesting. With Kitou revealing her somewhat serious teacher attitude, Kamade continuing to give off that “Yakuza” feel, and Satou being equally normal and weird at the same time, all the teachers seem to complement each other fairly well. After this episode, it’s a little bit harder to see if Kitou and Satou actually have feelings for each other or just like picking on each other a lot. Even though Kamade pokes fun at the pair’s constant bickering, I think that teasing can only go so far. At some point it becomes a competition and true reason is lost somewhere in-between.

What caught me totally off guard was the fight that Tooru and Run had and its effect on everyone. At first, I was nearly in shock when Run didn’t have that trademark smile on her face, but as the details were revealed and even though the reason for the fight may have been really dumb, I was still amazed that two best friends were actually fighting each other. What really sold it to me had to be a combination of Run’s depressed face (and lack of o_o faces) and watching Tooru try to drink her problems away. With the entire world fretting over what to do, I’m glad that Tooru and Run managed to solve their problems by themselves. And even though their methods of apologizing to each other felt corny, it worked perfectly in my opinion.

It goes to show you that a colorful cast of characters can really enhance just about any show. Even without the entire argument section, I think this episode could have easily held its own by continuing to focus on all of our side characters. With such awesome characters like Miho and Kamade-sensei just asking for a proper introduction, I hope that we get more episodes like these.

INS7: 「翼はないけど」 by るん & トオル (Run & Tooru)
Watch the 7th INS: Streaming ▼

 

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11 Comments

  1. A surprising amount of Yutaka and Miho. Lord ChooChoo es muy pleased!!!

    This is easily one of my favorite episodes so far. Kamade had 2 of my favorite moments this episode. I wonder what was really in that notebook? If it made Kitou that embarrassed, it must be something good. Also, it was nice to see Kamade’s sweet side at the end of the episode. I thought leaving the coffee for Kitou, while she was slaving away at whatever it is she was doing, was a really cute thing to do.

    Ah, I love this show.

    BabyChooChoo

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