Asobi Asobase – 05

「悪魔的センス / 誘導尋問 / 前多の呪い / 性教育」 (Akumateki Sense / Yuudoujinmon / Maeda no Noroi / Seikyouiku)
“Devilish Taste / Loaded Questions / Maeda`s Curse / Sex Ed”

In our latest Asobi Asobase, new but very much welcome additions to the cast to stir things up for the Pastimers Club. The first of which is Aozora, who puts the pressure on the girls after Olivia discovers that she is secretly trans after trying to break up with her boyfriend who was perfectly fine with the revelation. Kasumi doesn’t share the happiness that Olivia had about the couple, but trying to get Aozora to confirm if she was the girl Olivia overheard was something Aozora humorously had her work to find out. Seeing Olivia squirm as Aozora slowly gets her to tell her just what she overheard was great as was seeing everyone but Hanako being satisfied with her explanation on why she undresses away from the other girls.

The star of this episode, however, was Oka-san, the sole member of the Occult club, who finds herself migrating to the Pastimers Club now that she’s forced to disband. With her presence in the club room, she introduces the girls to the notoriously horrifying “One Man Hide-and-Seek” game. It’s something I remember reading on the internet ages ago, but it’s hilarious to see it make its way into anime with the girls fearing that they’ve summoned a possessed doll to chase after them. The scene was a perfect storm of comedy with how the doll’s disappearance made them believe they really did start the game was partnered up with the doll being a poop with googly eyes, resulting in the girls frantically screaming about trying to find a poop doll holding a razor blade. Much of the jokes in this episode thrived on the segments ending on an abruptly-placed punchline and the nonchalant reveal that a do-gooder tossed out the doll to unclog the sink was the icing on the cake for the section. If all of Oka-san’s scenes will be like this section, I’m looking forward to seeing how they include her throughout the rest of the series.

While Oka-san brought her A-game to this episode, Hanako had some of the best segments as her attitude, way of living, and mindset cooked up one laugh-out-loud scenario after another. Her weekend meeting with the other Pastimers was great in how far in spiraled down the drain as time passed. Hanako using her wealth and tastemaker ego to dress up in preppy haute couture “Harajuku” fashion that make her look like a demonic technicolor dinosaur is just the beginning. It’s the eventual escalation that her attempt at pen-twirling takes to cause a chain reaction that burned down the restaurant that truly made the scene. Similarly, the Sex Ed section was a riot with how far the segment went merely from Hanako suggesting that she wants a boyfriend to hold hands with and marry young. Her confusion of how exactly babies are made creates a series of uncomfortable responses from the other girls around them with each one being funnier than the next. Olivia’s idea that it comes from kissing while a man’s genitals are exposed quickly turns into Kasumi’s emphasis on “docking” as she awkwardly mashes two dolls into a confusing sex pose. Sensei’s reaction eventually becomes comedy gold as the visual element of the dolls comes into play and she uses them to have them pose in the Cirque du Soleil style sex positions that her friends talk about doing. It’s the element of surprise that comes with the show that makes it so funny in how hard it is to predict the direction of where a joke is going only for it to sneak up and get you where you least expect it.

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