First Impressions / Special A

「おにぎり・まごころ」 (Onigiri / Magokoro)
“Onigiri / Devotion”

As per the challenge he won during the wrestling match, Kei is entitled to giving an order to Hikari which she cannot refuse. Much to Hikaru’s surprise (and everyone else’s), Kei simply asks her to make lunch for him. Committed to upholding her end of the bet, Hikari starts to prepare lunch for Kei the next morning, but gets kicked out of the kitchen by her mother. Apparently, given Hikari’s freakish strength and lack of cooking skills, her attempts to cook always end up in the destruction of the kitchen. Having no kitchen to use, Hikari decides to head to school and asks Akira to use the one there instead.

As it turns out, Kei has never eaten a home-cooked meal prepared especially for him, so he was eagerly looking forward to Hikari’s lunch. Unbeknownst to him though is that Hikari can’t even wash or make rice properly, with the latter being true even with the use of a rice cooker. (It’s amazing how she’s able to screw this up so badly.) After a bunch of failed attempts, including one she dropped and ate herself, Hikari uses a different kind of rice and finally makes some appetizing looking onigiri. (Given that she spent all day on it, it makes you wonder if the S.A students ever go to classes… o_O)

Much to their shock though, Hajime, thinking Hikari made it for his sake, steps in and takes a bite first, only to find out how bad they taste. Almost dying on his feet from the taste, Hajime ends up dropping the onigiri in the process as well. Kei, who had been waiting all afternoon for his lunch, is infuriated by this, but takes the onigiri that Hikari picks up off the floor and eats every late bite of them. With a completely serious face, Kei proclaims that the student council president is an idiot for not eating something so delicious, much to the delight of Hikari. Done eating his super late lunch, Kei then decides to go off and kill the student council.

 

Next Episode:
「兄弟･先生」 (Kyoudai / Sensei)
“Siblings / Teacher”

Well if you were on the fence about watching Special A and were going to use this episode to ultimately decide, I don’t think it’s going to have won you over. They literally went with the “Onigiri / Devotion” title and devoted an entire episode to Hikari’s attempts at making onigiri. After watching this episode, I found it to be a bit of a sluggish start to the series, but that’s not to say I’ve given up on the show or anything. As a personal rule-of-thumb, I try not to cast any preemptive judgment on a show for starting with a slow pace, since I’ve found that you can really miss out on a good series by doing so. Also, when you consider the fact that this is a 24-episode comedy series, you kind of expect there to be somewhat uneventful episodes such as this along the way. However, I’m not implying that this episode should be seen as a complete write-off though, as it did have some cute moments that I just couldn’t help but laugh at.

The overall direction of this episode is again, much like the first two. It seems the writers are continuing to emphasize Kei’s feelings for Hikari, while she still remains (for the most part) oblivious to them. Similar to the episode last week, we do see indication that Hikari is finally starting to catch on to Kei’s signs of affection though. With that said, the comedy remains light and witty (which isn’t a bad thing in its own way), so you shouldn’t expect to be floored laughing. (Well, at least not yet anyway.) Next episode, it looks like we see the introduction of Kei’s father (who appears to be a wacky parent) and more background story about Hikari and Kei’s childhood.

 

Cast:
– Hanazono Hikari (華園 光) / Gotou Yuuko (後藤 邑子)
– Takishima Kei (滝島 彗) / Fukuyama Jun (福山 潤)
– Toudou Akira (東堂 明) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Karino Tadashi (狩野 宙) / Shimono Hiro (下野 紘)
– Yamamoto Megumi (山本 芽) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
– Yamamoto Jun (山本 純) / Yonaga Tsubasa (代永 翼)
– Tsuji Ryuu (辻 竜) / Horie Kazuma (堀江 一眞)
– Childhood Kei (幼少期の慧) / Shimizu Kaori (清水 香里)
– Takei Hajime (筧 肇) / Fujita Yoshinori (藤田 圭宣)
– Matsumoto (松本) / Matsuo Daisuke (松尾 大亮)
– Hikari’s mother (光の母) / Nabei Makiko (鍋井 まき子)

22 Comments

  2. im suprised Kei didnt use his single promise for Kiss/Love/Date/”Spanking”
    okey maybe not the last one….

    Oh, and apparently, for the S.A. Class is optional, since theyre such “Great honor students”

    Rauzes
    Reply

  6. that is just so clichee =/ *of course* he has never eaten a home made bento and *of course* she cannot cook even if her own life would be at stake (eventhough she is a top level student, don’t they have cooking classes?) and *of course* somebody else will try to eat it … and *of course* he will eat it from the floor and *of course* eventhough it tastes horrible he’ll say it tastes good – because to him it tastes good, since she made it ………….

    this complete incapacity of cooking of certain female characters in a lot of anime series is just ridiculous and really growing old. If a least this was a parody, but this is just too much >.

    minikui
    Reply

  8. A whole episode is about the onigiri and how to make it? Who cares? It was hell funny. I don’t care what kind of stupid/annoying/lame story they gonna use as long they can continue the comedy/joke part. I’m gonna definitely watch this till the end. I though Kei use the promise to go on a date with Hikari but maybe that is to fast. This was only just the 3rd ep.
    ps.: sorry for the bad english

    yomax
    Reply

  9. I agree the episode seemed a bit slow paced but then again so did the manga at the beginning, next episode will be about Kei’s family nice! we are slowly getting to the good parts now!!

    game8910
    Reply

  11. i luv the show… the part in flash back when Kei looks on as his schoolmates tuck in to onigiri their mothers made… the Op and Ed really seem to fit in now, and we get to hear Gotouza at her best. how seiyuu give a character life, wow. Kei, without Geass abilities or VF-25 but still seemingly able to step away from everything without a scratch, much to Hikari’s relief. (^_^) nice to see how much Kei means to Hikari, and vice versa

    hmm maybe i’ll pick up the manga from now on… but i must say, AIC’s background department really amazes me…

    tonbo
    Reply

  15. Whoaaa Divine-san so, you’re blogging my favorite new serie Special A too??? I gotta love ya now!!!

    Please don’t quit blogging this serie *cries*

    Someone please sub this episode!!! I don’t know japanese T.T

    anti-yaoi fan
    Reply

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