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「先輩にライバル。」 (Senpai ni Raibaru.)
“A Rival for Sempai.”
If there’s a series that’s right up there with Rinne no Lagrange in terms of sheer unadulterated entertainment, Ano Natsu de Matteru would be it. The two are quickly becoming some of my all-time favorites in their respective genres — mecha and romantic comedy — which actually says a fair bit in my case since they happen to my two favorite genres too. Suffice to say, it’s been a good season — one that’s made even better by Kayano Ai and Iguchi Yuka joining the cast here and really putting the comedy in the romance. (…or is that the romance in the comedy?) The dialogue continues to be extremely witty and clever, largely from Remon messing with Ichika, and now we’re treated to lots of “interesting looks” that make the series even better.
Looking back, it’s almost as if this series is incapable of missing a beat, as the introduction of Kaito’s childhood friend Kinoshita Kaori not only served as an absolutely hilarious catalyst to the whole love pentagon situation, but also hinted at something deeper, such as the possibility that Kaori’s been recently dumped and using Kaito as a rebound. (A wild hunch of mine based on all the signs.) It also comes with the benefit of hearing Ai use yet another subtly unique and refreshing voice — much like Tomatsu Haruka as Ichika — and provides bundles of cuteness from both past and present, while her friend Arisawa Chiharu really got things going from the Tetsurou/Mio angle. (The girl who’s too good for clothes in bed (bless her soul) is apparently too good for underwear in public too, which surely got Tetsurou’s attention.) The best part of it all? Their sudden arrival and interest in the male leads even surprised Remon, who was quick to reassess the situation and have even more fun playing puppet master. Great for her for me, since moments like these amuse me to no end.
From what I gather, neither Kaori or Chiharu will have any real stake on Kaito and Tetsurou’s hearts, especially since Kaori’s already giving off vibes that her feelings aren’t entirely sincere, but the thought of that doesn’t deter from the experience in any way whatsoever. In fact, I’m really liking how much they can stir things up because they aren’t real candidates for the guys’ affection, as the group was in need of some more outside interference. To me, what constitutes a good old-school romantic comedy is the inherent “teasing” aspect from seeing the characters caught up in various situations and feelt stifled by their inability to get their feelings across. Thus far, this series has done that quite amiably, and in ways that have set a new standard for me to compare future series of this genre against. If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s that good writing should never be underappreciated in anime. I can’t wait to see more.
* Full-length images: 04, 08, 12, 15, 29, 20, 29.5, 35. (Credit goes to verdant this week.)
Preview
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And Girls F and G appear! We’ve upgraded from a romance pentagon to a septagon! And one of them is yet another childhood friend that happens to still like Kaito despite not seeing him for years!
This show will not let me look away, will it? The romantic pace is pretty damn fast, but it GETS THINGS DONE. Hear that, other harem/rom-com shows? GETS THINGS DONE. It’s only the 6th episode, and we’re already at a pivotal point. Characters that were shoved to the sidelines previously now have to take action to keep their seating, I.E. Mio and Ichika.
Tough luck, Kanna. I’m still rooting for ya.
F & G?
Hmm I wonder what each of the girls’ cup sizes are..
[Sorry to ruin the mood]
Well….Amagami gets things done in 4 episodes…just sayin xD
Oh, that doesn’t count. They time reset.
Well we finally get to see Mio in an active role from now on. She was usually overshadowed by other characters in terms of character development. Well if we get D+E, what will happen to ABC then?
well, at the current moment, it is ABCF (F will be a great tragic catalyst), and DEG (although Girl G won’t have a chance)… enjoy them while we still can I guess?
this series just gets better every week!!! I like the new Arrivals, especially the new childhood friend… great challenge to the main group 🙂
Rinon is malfunctioning now… so that should be a plot device to push forward stuff… just hoping this doesn’t go on a tragic route!
thanks for the post, Divine! Good luck with work 🙂
Get your a$$ off Rino!! That poor thing…
No screen cap of Chiharu’s “I’m a carnivore” heart eyes?
I just realized that shot of Chiharu over Tetsurou is too similar to Mio over Tetsurou, so I replaced it. Force a browser refresh to see it.
Awesome – that part was one of my favs of the ep, the voice Yuka used for Chiharu was something I’d never heard from her before which was great
I never noticed anything suggesting that Kaori’s feeling weren’t sincere. Would someone mind pointing out when that happened?
Kaito picked up that something was bothering Kaori and said she’s unnaturally energetic (as if she were forcing herself). This is where he brought up her finger habit when something’s bothering her. My suspicion is that she was dumped (or it’s something else altogether) and she’s on this Okinawa trip with Chiharu to forget about it. She then spotted Kaito and is now trying to use him to cheer up.
The details are just a hunch of mine, but that’s the way I interpreted the scene at the end.
I got the feeling she was forcing things too. I think she does like Kaito, but something just feels off, especially like Kaito said with the finger and the full-on crying when she heard he liked someone else. Be very interesting to see how this turns out.
Unlike Onegai Teacher, Rinon currently has a lesser role than Marie.
Hope after this episode it gets more of role 😉
And with this episode, I feel like the ‘reminiscing’ times from Onegai Teacher are over. The romcom starts to go in a fresh direction. I’m really.. looking forward to this series.. ^-^
I also caught that flag, Divine. it sounds like Kaori was dumped. She says otherwise, but we know girls in anime always hides their ‘true’ intentions eh?
I’m so happy Tetsurou is not thrown to the side as an extra character. I hope he start to get the signs from him.
Scoreboard: Two love triangles with one guy each, connected with a girl who is liked by a guy on one side of the love triangle, liking a guy in the other love triangle.
Looks like this to me: >–<|) 7 lines representing the roles^^
-_- That should be..
>-< or |>-<|(A)>+(B)+(D)<(G)
And over on the sides we have Lemon and Rinon as L/R.
Tune in next week when it turns out Mio had two male childhood friends that like Kanna and Ichika!
Why does this blog keep deleting portions of my attempts to make a relationship chart?
Probably because the angle brackets are being interpreted as invalid HTML. Try using “< ;” and “> ;” (without the space before the semi-colon) for “less than” and “greater than”.
It should have been A>B<C and F from below but it deleted it and merged it with the Tetsurou triangle so it looks like G is a part of it.
I suppose I should make use of the preview button more…
A
V
B<F
^C
And
E>D<G
(L/R)
There we go! Thanks Divine.
All I could think of was Menma trying to get the guy before Anaru…
Really love the pacing of the show so far. The comedy and dramatic tension were all wonderfully placed, especially in this episode. Definitely one of the shows I look forward to the most in the week.
Fan service + advancing plot + character development = good episode.
This anime meets those standards in this genre each time. (Next episode~come quick)
Girl F(Former Love Interest) and Girl R(RAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEP)
Good to see someone adds spice to this show. But I could only see the two as temporary characters. It’s main purpose is to define the main relationships in this triangle.
Now if that cottage rape scene could just only end up with Boy D having s3x with Girl E in the spirit of any Onegai series…..
This show is telling me to go to Nagano and then to Okinawa. Well mainly Nagano.
Mio goes commando… O.o
Nothing like the sudden apperance of strong rivals to get the girls’ going! That might be a bit too strong in Arisawa’s case though XD Then again, it finally got Mio to take some action, so I guess she had her use! Still feel for Kanna; as if one rival in an amazing bikini wasn’t enough for our adorable Girl C…
Definitely one of the best beach episodes I’ve seen… for many reasons! XD Love where this show is going.
What? I just realized my mind censored Mio.. I had to look at the screencaps to make sure Mio was commando. When I was watching it I thought she was covering her undies.. d’oh
One bit of information I learned during the episode.
Mio is a propagator of the No-Pan movement.
I wanted to comment on that.. haha she is a no-pan girl exibicionst at heart…
Ep.3 she had such weird reaction to a cross-wind there that almost lifted her skirt, Got me thinking why..
now its explained haha
Mio your fanbase just grew by 300%
seems like everyone is waiting for this post, just shows how excited people are
Yup, it’s a great show. People keep comparing this series to Onegai Teacher. And quite a few think this series inferior to Onegai Teacher. I understand that comparisons can’t be helped when the screenwriter and the character designer worked on that series. But I haven’t seen Onegai Teacher so I don’t care. What I do know is that I am totally enjoying this romcom as its own series. So thanks for blogging Divine. I wouldn’t have picked this series up if it weren’t for your positive reviews.
I just marathoned Onegai Teacher to check out what’s the same and I really only see similarities in the setting and some of the characters (Rinon and Remon and Ichika’s appearance). The stories are completely different and so is the chemistry between characters, and I personally think Ano Natsu is far better in every way…
oOo…. so now we know the mio wear’s nothing even when she’s out casually! talk about being daring and fanservice…
by the way, anybody notices betty bebop resemblence for the carnivore? and im surprised that she’s too much for tetsuro to handle
frankly speaking… watchin this episode…. i have this unsettling feeling that kanna will get badly burnt by the end of the series
. so now we know the mio wear’s nothing even when she’s out casually! talk about being daring and fanservice…
Didn’t she tried to prevent her skirt to fly up during episode 3(or was it 4?)
I remembered that but it nv actually occured to me that she was going commando than
such a good series so far 😮
BUT WAIT REALLY? NO PANTIES? COME AGAIN????
After this episode, I am really cheering for Mio. She finally chose to act upon her feelings, after having supported the others from afar the entire time, and I would like to see her kindness rewarded.
It seems like Kanna is the one left out this time, with her alone in the forest.
Remon for me is an instant fave, she’s like Aizen or Kira incarnate!
I think Suzutsuki Kanade from Mayo Chiki would be an even closer comparison. These Goddesses of trolling entertain me to no end.
I always love the trolling that happens in the preview. Although it is insinuated that there will be a lot of Dynamite Drink going around, the preview shows Remon handing it to one person, who I will assume is…Kaito? Maybe she wants to get a straight answer from him to help “develop” her movie plot (i.e. everyone’s relationships). Also, the next episode title is “Senpai’s Feelings”? There’s more than one senpai…pretty far-fetched if it’s Remon’s feelings that are revealed.
Also, I think that Ichika WILL NOT confess to Kaito next episode. Perhaps her feelings might be conveyed to Kaito through Remon (like Kanna’s were through Tetsurou).
We shall see!
Addendum to the “Remon is also an alien” theory:
She only knows about humans through romantic comedies, and came to earth to film one with the biggest emotional powder keg she could find.
For all we know, Remon may just be the romantic comedy equivalent of Kyuubey – requiring the extraction of large amounts of emotional energy released.
Both goad their targets via endless trolling, though Kyuubey’s fuel is focused on the negative despairing side while Remon is focused on the WTF ecstastic side. 🙂
Wow, did I ever enjoy this episode. I think Kaori is really cute, and I didn’t even think of the possibility of her using Kaito as a rebound, but it seems really quite plausible. The way she was introduced seemed really natural too. I’m really liking the interactions between characters and how fast the drama is moving.
The forest scenes really have great shadow and colour in them too. The last shot of Remon is great too. I really like the art direction in this show.
I wonder if Tetsurou was thinking, “DAT ASS!”
The joy of this series is coming from Remon. She’s having way too much fun spectating. Course I would do the exact same.
I ship TetsurouxMio and KannaxKai. I could go with TetsurouxKanna (my favorite pairing) and IchikaxKai though… ;3;
I wonder since Rinon is knocked out and the ship came online will that affect Kaito. Also Kaito should just crate a Harem.
This show is always the highlight of my Mondays as its so damn entertaining. A romantic comedy genre that brings nostalgic feelings and memories. I’ve talked to my friends about bringing even more characters in with our already complex set of characters, and they mostly said that it kinda ruined the show because they feel as if too much character with very little development would utterly ruin a show. Though I would normally agree with this statement, ie. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (sorry for disrespecting any fans) I believe that the introduction of these characters serve as a catalyst, like you mentioned, and also, what makes this anime different from other shows with multiple casts is that Kaito actually knows what he wants! Well anyway, like the others, I can’t wait for the next episode to come, because this show is so damn good at leaving you starving for more after the end of each episode.
cheers.
Lemon is absolutely, mindblowingly brilliant at setting up awkward situations for EVERYONE… all the while pretending she is just improvising the script. The Galactic Police was shout-out to the classic Tenchi Muyo? When she said that nobody is returning, I called out in my mind:JUST AS PLANNED!
OK now, Tetsurou will definitely notice Mio went after him. Ichika and Kai-kun are in for a serious talk… and Kanna is lost in the jungle, both metaphorically and literally. She is likely to lose Kaito to Ichika, and she even doesnt realise she has Tetsurou to lose too…
Side note: Yep, Mio is definitely going commando, look at the scene where she prepares clothes for the travel, too…
Now if someone can draw a relationships diagram with all the people involved… right now there are 3 girls after Kaito, 2 after Tetsurou, and Lemon plays curious observer / matchmaker / meddler from the sidelines.
Well THAT wasn’t in Onegai Teacher. Yay, for awesome plot progression!
Kanna was my favorite girl for this episode. Rinon gets some love too for being absolutely hilarious.
But Onegai did have a beach episode for each series. The original led to the series’ first implied sex.
Kaito been surprisingly in good health, I mean he pretty much fainted on both first and second episode, yet, no sign of weariness…
I wonder if with rinnon out of comission, he might relapse or somethin.
Ufufufufu
<3 this show, totally worth it just for Ichika in a swimsuit. Also was seriously loling when Mio revealed that she is in the No Underpants Club, and then reaches back to pull her skirt down as if it's not already too late for that.
Ugh, this whole episode felt like a story jump episode. One that serves to get the series out of the ‘wishy washy’ mode it’s been in and into the meaty bits. (Or the ‘heart’ of it, if you’re feeling poetic.)
Which is kind of a shame, since this episode could have stood on it’s own and not be a ‘plot jump’ device.
Though, that’s not to say this episode wasn’t amusing. With Ichika’s ‘childhood friend,’ Kaori. Popping in and eager to make up for lost time. Or her friend Chiharu, who’s moving WAY TOO fast with Tetsurou. Along withe the main cast either brooding or meddling…Remon doing the latter of course. Speaking of which, i was half expecting her to try and get Ichika’s goat. By pointing out her passive agressive behavior and stake a claim to Kaito, since no one else has. Just to get Ichika to come clean and confess that she likes Kaito…despite it being so obvious.
Though it’s hard to root for Kanna, when all she does it sit and sulk while Ichika and Mio actually taking action. (I’m not a Kanna shipper or anything, rather i just don’t like when the childhood friend losing to the ‘new girl in town.’ It’s a tiresome trop, since the prior is usually a more interesting character the then latter.) Also the whole Mio scene at the end was amusing, she knocks Chiharu off of Tetsurou. As if to say “he’s mine.” Only to remember her clothing choice, after the fact.
This is really a tough series…
…waiting for the next frekin’ episode!
Honestly, I can’t think of any weaknesses in the characters or story. Amazing.
Epic Trolling. I like the ring of those two words together 🙂
Oh wow. So Mio doesn’t wear underwear while outdoors. Who would’ve thought when she wrapped her nice bikini-clad figure so tightly under a jacket a while ago? At least you gotta give it to her for sticking to her “nudism principles” if only just. lol
Who knows, perhaps Tetsurou x Mio is actually the “real” main route here? 😉
Remon’s epic trolling has gone into overdrive, she is most definitely enjoying this on the behalf of all us audiences.
Kayano Ai continues to impress me since her big-break with Menma, now her voice is just as mesmerizing as Hanazawa Kana’s.
So too does Iguchi Yuka with her ability to play such diverse roles from Index to Konoe Subaru to the aggressive Chiharu here.
The new girl’s pretty cute~
too bad kaito won’t end up with her >.>
somehow i feel like im watching toradora..though im not sure if that make sense..but ano natsu sure is an awesome anime to watch..romcom ftw!..
I definitely feel the similarity to Toradora. Same kind of vibe or whathaveyou… maybe a bit better XD
Funny anime logic:
Mio kicks Chiharu out of the bed…with another bed between door and second bed…and Chiharu falls inbetween the two beds instead of between the wall and bed.
That’s some strange logic.
But nice episode anyways!
She came running from the door, kicked her upwards towards the wall.. she bounced on the wall, ceeling to fall in between the beds~ perfect plausible
Was it just me or did anyone else feel that Remons’ camera was staring in to your very soul?
That’s just her extracting your life-essence in exchange for more awesomeness. Pay it no mind.
Worth it. Totally worth it. 100%
I wouldn’t mind being her rebound 😉
I’m impressed that Mio’s nudist tendencies have become a plot point. Here I was thinking that they were just trolling us with some fanservice, and then this. I am very, very impressed. And now I have to go back and watch the two Onegai series.
*watches as his backlog gets longer. quietly despairs*
I am glad that Divine also picked on the obvious “girl was dumped by her bf and is now looking for a replacement”-trope.
While I like the series, these cliches are the reason why it probably won’t make it into my top anime romance list. I want to be surprised instead of seeing a plot where the development, including the final pairings, already seems to be set in stone.
On the other hand, it IS kind of an homage to the classic romcon, so it might be unreasonable to expect more out of it than Onegai Teacher/Twins had in store.