「戦争を始めましょう」 (Sensou wo Hajimemashou)
“Let’s Start a War”

I know Subaru’s secret is hidden under the guise of a cross-dressing cafe, but who the heck is she fooling wearing a cheongsam that shows that much cleavage and with a side slit that high? There isn’t any room to hide anything… (not that I’m complaining of course). The more she wants to show, the more I’m willing to look at. I just don’t understand how anyone can mistake her for a guy when she’s dressed like that, including the leader of the Mimamorukai, Narumi Nakuru (Asumi Kana), after she got an up-close and personal look. I guess I’m supposed to chalk that up to being blinded by homosexual fantasies…?

Whatever the case, I’m really glad Subaru didn’t spend the episode depressed over Jirou breaking his promise with her and instead got right in his face after suspecting something was up. While it does sort of take away from her tears last time, I still think this is better than the alternative where she only shows up at the very end after everything’s been cleared up. It wouldn’t have been the same without Jirou pimping it out with a girl in each arm, pressing up against him for some inadvertent feels. Best of all, that led to Subaru at odds with Masamune right from the get-go, which snowballed pretty quickly after Nakuru was brushed aside. Granted, it was only as serious as the whole war between the S4 and Mimamorukai (i.e. not very serious at all).

I’ll be quick to admit that I find overzealous fan clubs in anime pretty stupid. They’re particularly bad in Mayo Chiki — even more so than MM — so I found most of this episode pretty idiotic. The two factions were mildly amusing when they were first introduced, but the same can’t be said about making them central players in influencing Jirou’s relationship with Subaru. The one saving grace was Kanade, since I do enjoy her meddling. I probably would’ve been more okay with the fan clubs’ antics if Kanade founded S4 just to tease Subaru, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Instead, it looks like she just hopped on the opportunity to mess with Jirou again. Seeing as we’re left with the revelation that Subaru’s first kiss was with Jirou when she gave him mouth-to-mouth CPR, it was definitely a worthwhile “venture” though. The embarrassed look Subaru’s face when she was put on the spot made it even better.

As for Masamune, there was little doubt that she’d come around when this was all said and done, but I didn’t see it being over her inability to make friends. Judging from her flustered reaction last time, there was little reason to believe she’d have a much more understandable ulterior motive in mind. With all the cleared up now, it’s probably safe to assume that she’s going to end up liking Jirou for real now and really force the issue between him and Subaru. On paper, Masamune probably isn’t necessary when a sadist like Kanade’s already on top of things, but I do like her character and want to see the different type of scenarios that only she can bring about. To that end, it looks like we’ll be off to a great start next time with Subaru in an actual swimsuit.

* Full-length images: 01, 07, 14, 34.

 

Preview

87 Comments

      1. I wonder what kind of excuse they’re going to come up with this time around. Or they’re just going to expose the whole thing and have her attend school as normal girl like in that spoiler OP(not likely)?

        Serapita
    1. Tsundere is definitely overdone in shows and getting too predictable. Subaru only hits him when she actually gets upsets and is sweet when she is happy with him. The only downsides is that it makes Jirou both dumb and blind to miss the obvious.

      znail
      1. to be fair, Jirou’s still supposedly gynophobic at this point.

        so it’s not so much he’s stupid and missing the obvious as much as expecting him to recognize the charms of a girl is antithetic to his character concept.

        Bob
  1. As expected Usami falls for Jirou, though I’m actually surprised he told her his secret. You’d think a gynophobic with a harem would be a nightmare.

    Also, I didn’t expect Kanade to be the leader of S4, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense. Where else can she troll anyone?

    fragb85
    1. I look forward to seeing how Usami “cures” him.

      And so Kanade really is the leader? It kinda makes sense when you put it that way too. ahaha They didn’t say it in the show necessarily but apparently Narumi’s the leader of the other group?

      1. Well, in this anime, technically they were one group until Jirou came into the picture, and I’m still not entirely convinced that Kanade does not have something to do with the formation of the S4 and the new splinter group.

        x
  2. [What I wanna know is if Narumi’s ears are real. I can’t stop thinking about them.] (They move, for goodness sake!)

    I’ve seen sadistic meddling before but Kanade is just so good at it. She’s always behind the scenes of everything troublesome. (Whether it be for the benefit or destruction of Jirou, I don’t know. I can’t figure her out.) Speaking of which, this episode was being fueled by the two factions right? Was that ALL Kanade’s doing from the start? Or were they really planning to fight and she decided to intervene?
    (See what I mean about not being able to figure her out?) Dx

    1. She does it for fun. I won’t be surprised if she is behind the S4 and related groups XD , though I suspect she is not their “leader” or anything. Just meddling whenever it suits her fancy. She does have lots of authority in the school after all.

      x
  3. I wish those kids slippers that have squeaky sounds when it were used, come out in sheep sounds like the ones Narumi (voiced by Hirano Aya?) wore, it would be a brilliant birthday present for my 5 year old nephew.

    HD
  4. So in the end a lonely girl is just looking for a friend. That’s kinda sweet. If you don’t recall what lead up to this conclusion.

    Another girl joins the group, making this now officially a harem. Next week in typical harem fashion, we get a beach episode. So much for keeping Subaru’s secret.

    btw: The worse fan club in an anime was in Seto no Hanayome. They made an entire arch out of it.

    Snicket
  5. I know it’s an anime and all, but what’s up with Subaru’s chest size being inconsistent?

    At times it’s like this and at other times it’s like this?

    I completely agree that it doesn’t even look like they were trying to hide the fact that she wasn’t a dude. Don’t guys tend to overstuff like when they dress up as cheerleaders for powderpuff or like the dude by the bonfire in this episode?

    RickyMack
    1. Girls use pads in bikini’s to enhance chest size, skin color rubber kinds and all, however, I find that the ladies hieghts with respect to each other and Jirou can be really off at times. I guess it’s just a consistency thing between animation scenes possibly with different studios involved. LOL If that would have started some viscious rumor about Subaru’s hidden man booby problem maybe the fanclubs would thin out. “He’s really cute but that flabby chest…..”

      Breedo
      1. sure padded swimsuits may work on a one piece a la toradora and i’m well aware of things like push up bras. but she’s wearing a two piece that shows significant cleavage. i mean it could be as you say in terms of the different rubbers and designs. referring to this scene it could be that her covering herself that’s doing it but yeah whatever, not that big a deal.

        RickyMack
      1. It’s actually extra easy in that type of dress as if you use fake boobies so are the border between real skin and fake not shown. It would take pro make up for the bikini shot though 😛

        znail
    1. I beg to differ. I’m not going to link to it for reasons of decency but just search Youtube for tutorial on how to create cleavage using nude bras. You will eventually find a tutorial created by a very skinny Asian guy. Again not for the fainthearted.

      Kou
  6. To be honest, it was kind of just a run-of-the-mill episode. It wasn’t bad at all, but war between the two fan clubs never really went above and beyond. Still though, Usami and Narumi were… well, a real treat. They’re definitely welcome additions to the cast in my book.

    Click
  7. This episode was okay. Loved how Kanade stayed in character. Nakuru appearance and revelation was a treat.

    Masamune is really turning out to be like a combo of Kanade and Kureha in one. I wonder how these three will interact with each other in the future. Given that Kureha and Masamune are in the same club.

    As for why people don’t notice Subaru is a girl? My theory is that they either pretend not to notice or refuse to believe anything that will spoil their image of their “prince”. Jirou is different mainly because he does not see her that way.

    The inconsistent chest size is explained by her usage of secret butler technique to tie it up when she wants them small and Kanade’s supply of special pads when she wants them big (yes these pads work on swimsuits as well) XD. Seriously, at least this is not like Kamisama Dolls…

    x
  8. You know, at the end, when Usami smiled and said “Baka-chiki”, I had a deju vu moment.

    https://randomc.net/image/Mayo%20Chiki/Mayo%20Chiki%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2036.jpg

    And then I realized that was really similar to when Hazuki from Baka-Test calling Akihisa “Baka-oniichan”

    https://randomc.net/image/Baka%20to%20Test%20to%20Shoukanjuu/Baka%20to%20Test%20to%20Shoukanjuu%20Ni%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2039.jpg

    They even both have twin-tales and similar hair-color.

    Baka-Yuusha
      1. i wouldnt say that either…it’s called Niche appeal, which basically boils down to meaning that a SET number of people that REFLEXIVELY dl and watch this type of show, will. I doubt this is gonna make any REAL money on dvd/bluray sales. i mean these production FOOLS AREN’T EVEN TRYING!!!! Basically trying to RIP-off “i cant believe my little sister is so cute” physical characteristics and merge them in to this “they shoulda realized kuro-neko was more popular” AND am I supposed to believe that that BUTLER is really a guy????????? are u shitting me?!?!? LAZY LAZY LAZY!!! is what it is. and the “Blink of an EYE” timespan in which she became all emotionally attached to the main protagonist is also ludicrous, THAT shared with these wholly GENERIC and HOLLOW characters allow me to fully support Alec’s comment….
        BUT OF COURSE I STILL WATCH DA SH!T HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! it does have GOOD quality animation and decent Music. call me a lemming like the rest …i guess

        BROOKLYN otaku
      2. Still, I guess you have a different threshold for “stupid”. For me, “stupid” means I give up on the first episode (which is pretty rare), or if I feel generous enough, I find myself watching a couple more episodes where it annoys me to the point I’ll drop it without looking back.

        x
      3. @BROOKLYN otaku

        You need generic stuff to go with the exceptional stuff. Otherwise you get overloaded with the exceptional stuff and they won’t seem that exceptional anymore. The butler is not a guy, everyone is just pretending that she is. No matter what reality is like, people will believe what they really want to believe. It shows how infatuated everyone is with the image of a perfect butler (whatever that means for the individual, which also explains why there are 2 factions for the most extreme fanatics).

        x
    1. It’s true that you need the generic stuffs to go with the exceptional stuffs. But there’s a limit on how crappy a certain ‘generic’ anime should be.

      “No matter what reality is like, people will believe what they really want to believe”
      So that explains her visible cleavage? What the creators need to do is to at least make it believable for the viewers. Was it really necessary for her to wear something that shows her cleavage? No! It’s pretty much a pointless fanservice.

      Alec
      1. Well, like it or not, pointless fan service sells. I don’t really like it, but I know there are those who would pay real money for pointless fan service (while they won’t have the guts to buy real porn, weird huh?).

        Another thing is that I think the ridiculousness of the situation is part of the story. For me, the fun of this story is to let the totally ridiculous scenario play out without letting it get really extreme. I suppose, to you, this is not good enough. You would prefer a more realistic take on things. But that would not satisfy weirdos like me or those guys who would pay for fan service I guess.

        x
      2. You can’t really expect a Harem genre anime to go in that many directions? It’s either a:
        One-love Ending
        Harem-love Ending
        or School-Days Ending
        What makes us watch a Harem anime is not the story-line but more of the stupidity, craziness and fan-service that’s happening.
        Also…it’s pretty much the same…guy met(mis)fortune, first girl go tsun/cute, more girls come in, episode with other girls, first girl go jealoutsun, a Beach Episode, little drama, climax~ —> Choose one of the ending.

        ElZ
      3. I´m with you Alec, the only haerm anime that has been a perferct master piece of all the elements of a good romance story is Shuffle!. It´s one of my favorites romance harem-animes and is hard to belive that was adapted from a eroge, but well that´s the proof that things can be done right with a little effort.

        haseo0408
      4. @ Alec

        If possible I would like you not to lump this anime to Shuffle. Both of them is from visual novel dating simulation,yes. But the status is different.

        Shuffle belong to Clannad, Kanon, type: they were the one with emotion thicker than real life and a plot to die for.

        While Mayo Chiki belong to Infinity Stratos(I think there more example but I cannot remember, they pretty forgettable) type.

        For the first type, we enjoy it’s engaging and brilliant conversation and encounter. While the second one, we enjoy it by throwing our brain out of the window.

        That will be MHO. 🙂

        lkaze
      5. Hey, hey, hey! Atleast Infinite Stratos was more enjoyable than this. It even has one of the best heroine, who is also perhaps the best reverse trap character We’ve ever seen. You know what I’m talkin’ about xD. But yes, those animes are the easily forgettable types.

        Alec
      6. Yes, Infinity Stratos is the best of it’s kind and it better than Mayo Chiki. Although it still a forgettable type but we usually able to remember the best and not the second place. Seriously I actually sitting here thinking for 5 minute for any other anime and I couldn’t think any.

        ..

        .nope still nothing.

        lkaze
  9. Every day I´m more convinced that Kanade is not human but a demon from Hell with the mission fo torturing Jirou. By the way, Subaru eas too cute in this episode, what makes think that everyone in that highschool have brain damage for beliving she is a guy.

    haseo0408
  10. well there are body suits…i forgot how they are exactly called, but there are also used in one of the early chapters of w juliet, a manga where the main guy is crossdressing too and has to hide his secret…

    all in all, i find subaru adorable <3 funny because at first i wasn't fond of her at all.

    Medoi

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