Busou Shoujo Machiavellism / First Impressions

「ワラビンピック」開幕宣言！」 (Warabinpikku, kaimaku sengen!)
“The Warabinpics are Starting!”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Busou Shoujo is that the parody never disappoints. Realistic martial arts and feminism gone wrong? That’s nothing I tell you, we can go deeper. Thematically deeper, get your minds out the gutter already :P.

While sports festivals have been parodied in the past, Busou Shoujo certainly upped the hilarity by going all out. Who needs relays when you can have bucket races to kill for. What not good enough? How about a bit of bear sumo wrestling. All topped off by the fantastic title of Sports Deathtival Warabinpics. Yes it’s the usual comedic setup, but Busou Shoujo tickles the funny bone bare with its character responses. Nomura and his new tsundere harem were hilariously on point with the initial bickering over supervising, then over mawashi attention, and finally the order of competition. Likewise Nomura raises the stakes with how on point his reactions are. Flashing, fan service, 800 pounds of furry competition? Nothing a little wise crack or six cannot handle. A part of me cries happy knowing a successor to Masamune came so soon—you don’t realize how badly you miss these character types until they are gone. Of course things are also helped by Rin’s and Mary’s tsundere synergism between embarrassment and masochistic desires. Makes me curious how Warabi will slot into this little harem, because that’s pretty much a foregone conclusion.

The one annoyance this week though lay with the competition. Warabi and her gaggle’s laughter were funny for the first 30 seconds, but quickly grew tiring due to repeated use—the perfect example of how a joke can be overused. The ironic part too is that better context could have been given for it. Warabi’s girls aren’t actually musketeers, they are better translated as the “four beasts”: fan girl is a fox, our dual-wielding police girl is a raccoon, and miss four eyes is a monkey. And the fourth beast? None other than the cuddly Kyoubo. The laughter is basically their identification, which gives some reason for it, even if excessive. At least the ridiculous sumo wrestling made up for things, especially Nomura’s hilarious win on a technicality. Not as great as a German suplex would have been, but hey, you cannot have everything in life.

With one teddy bear down for the count and a pint sized handful thoroughly enraged, it’s time for round two of the Warabinpics. Considering the “traditional” sword battling is likely next time, the fighting should prove entertaining, particularly if we get all the girls duking it out over Nomura ownership rights. Plus it might help shut that maniacal laughter up for good. There’s a harem to flesh out boys and girls, it’s time we got on that.

 

Preview

18 Comments

  1. I’m not gonna lie, this episode made me want a Coke.

    Also I thought it was interesting that Warabi made sure to convene the meeting without Tsukuyo, even though her senior vote outweighs junior votes. I guess a nay vote from both Satori and Tsukuyo would be enough to turn down Warabi’s motion, meaning the senior vote thing is just a tiebreaker. Even with that though, Warabi had to account for the possibility of Tsukuyo voting no and possibly even convincing Satori to vote no as well… That’s a lot of caution for a first-year, lol.

    PurpleBomber
    Reply

    1. It would be pretty funny if she put that much thought into it, because she doesn’t seem that big a schemer to me. Creative when it comes to punishments yes, but not really political. Hell it looks like she bet everything on Kyoubo winning, and had no real backup plan lol.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  3. A little fun fact.

    This particular chapter in the manga was actually so disliked by its readership during the chapter’s initial publication that the production committee debated whether or not they put this into the anime.

    Lordings
    Reply

    1. Interesting, but not surprising. I hate this annoying 5 Sword’s voice and her flunkies too. If this episode was more of an obstacle-style course-type episode, I’d have been on board, but this whole “Warabimpics” thing that felt like a single event just seemed utterly stupid =01.

      frubam
      Reply

    2. Heh that’s curious. Keeping the chapter in wasn’t a bad idea given the comedy I think, but I’m surprised they didn’t remove the laughter then if actually mulling over changes–that bit IMO was the biggest offender.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  7. I swear I’m gonna be hearing those giggles in my dreams(nightmares?) – Kekeke,Kokoko,Kikiki…” – MAKE ‘EM STOP NOMURA! I’m surprised it wasn’t pointed out tbh, the show missed a chance to break the 4th wall in hilarious fashion here.

    Manly Tear
    Reply

  8. I cannot wait for Warabi to get out of focus again. Of the Five Swords, I easily found her to be the most obnoxious. I know the gag is that her name contains a homophone for laughter/smile (warau) but it draws thin quick. The most common comments I recall from the manga release was “how can two of the Five Swords pass anything? Have you people never heard of a quorum?”, “isn’t Rin the leader? Can’t she and Mary just overturn a decision with one of their own?” and the one I found funniest, “why are you people playing along? Stab her three flunkies and then triple team Warabi. Who’s laughing now?”.

    Her three flunkies are also being awfully disrespectful to two of the Five Swords. No way in real life would that come to bite you in the ass. Or stab you in the face.

    Mechamorph
    Reply

    1. I like at least how it was insinuated the flunkies’ actions will come back to bite them. Nomura will crush Warabi, no question about that, and after he does the flunkies are screwed. Or at least I hope they are, I want to see some vengeance lol.

      Pancakes
      Reply

    2. I think since rin failed miserably in correcting nomura, the remaining 5 swords could basically have an automatic emergency power of sorts (like a government) that whatever they think is the “best” in correcting a student is automatically approved and doesnt need sort of permission from “those who failed” members of 5 swrods.

      Jeffers
      Reply

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