Busou Shoujo Machiavellism / First Impressions

「ある「スキャンダル」の覚え書き」 (Aru Sukyandaru no Oboegaki)
“Notes on a Scandal”

There’s no denying Busou Shoujo is stupid as hell. Ridiculous premise, equally ridiculous character cast, and no pretensions about busting out clichés and tropes like a mad man. You would think the whole thing would collapse under its weight, but nope, if anything this show is gaining strength. Yes, I might have enjoyed this episode a little more than usual.

I’ve mentioned it before, but what keeps me entertained every week is the humour. Parts have been hit or miss—like the ridiculous Warabi-certified chuckles—but when it works, it works. Nomura inadvertently forming a harem? Funny sure, but how about we take the idea all the way. Add on top some accentuated Rin/Mary jealousy—blown into overdrive with some late night escapades—and you have yourself a party. It particularly helps Nomura is not meek or ignorant to the situation. He knows Rin and Mary like him in some manner, but simply doesn’t care. Clothing changes and perfume swaps? Only brought up offhand and after the girls give up. Swooning background cast? More annoyance than embarrassing fascination. Besides hilariously showing the limitations of Busou Shoujo’s utopian feminist microcosm, it’s grade A alpha mentality at its finest—at least until the boner denial becomes public knowledge. Don’t even need to mention the potential of that cross-species infatuation.

The fun part, however, is how the story is playing out. I always hoped Busou Shoujo would shake things up, and the show certainly has these past few weeks. The Swords are pretty much fractured at this point, fighting over love interests, revenge, or simple mental insanity. The surprise of course is Warabi playing the arbiter rather than joining the harem as originally expected. Yeah in a way she could like Nomura—bum kissing and all—but I pin her actions more as payback for the tsundere duo fraternizing with the enemy and frisky Satori daring to act alone. I like this change up because by not knowing how the Swords will act post-defeat, the stamp collecting scenario remains interesting and can be drawn out further. Nomura is pretty much guaranteed to deflower defeat Satori for example—seriously, who would pass up that opportunity—but Warabi’s tagging along means it won’t be as simple (i.e. repetitive) as immediately apparent. Couple that with Satori’s horror squad and some ingenious weapon choices and this show has a lot left to entertain with.

So with another stamp so close to acquisition and only one left outstanding, I dare say we are nearing Busou Shoujo’s endgame. With the season only halfway through it’s looking more and more likely that Nomura and the Five Swords will wrap things up by facing off against the Empress and settling matters once and for all. Well, after figuring out Satori’s role going forward of course. The important questions come first, and nothing could be more important than finding crazy eyes an appropriate position in the Nomura harem hierarchy. Resident yandere maybe? We shall see.

 

Preview

16 Comments

  1. And now we’re into new material for us manga readers… not the least of which is Kyo-bo being female. The MC molesting a mother bear is definitely new for me in harem anime, lol.

    Resident yandere is definitely the safe guess with Satori, although she’s certainly crazy enough to do just about anything. I wouldn’t put it past Satori to actually keep this fake affair going just for the sake of enraging Rin and Mary.

    PurpleBomber
    Reply

  3. In God’s sacred name that torture scene was something else. It was as jarring as it was eerily hilarious.

    I think it’s the fact that they played the MISUNDERSTANDING cliche in harems completely straight. Instead of bog standard jealousy and flustered wailing, they took it to the most extreme place they can and conjured up a scenario where the haremettes involved were complete fucking sociopathic wackjobs — which of course resulted in actual torture.

    And if that wasn’t crazy enough we have the actual lunatic Satori fighting Nomura in her birthday suit. This show just keeps on grinding my head into grounded idiot mush and I fucking love it. Is it next week yet?

    Tiles
    Reply

    1. Guaranteed without the parody aspect a lot of this humour wouldn’t work. The misunderstanding could be played straight because we don’t expect any serious emotional catharsis at the end, just more jokes and Nomura harem building. Likewise the torture functioned like a visualization of Rin’s/Mary’s mind, the sort of thing you’d only glimpse elsewhere–at best–through the girl’s eyes or actions.

      So long as the show refuses to get serious and keeps up with the crazy situations, it can only get better 😛

      Pancakes
      Reply

  4. “Only brought up offhand and after the girls give up.”

    Oh but he’s a sly dog. He didn’t say he liked the new outfit and perfume but the old ones. How to keep them off balance. Gives them an explanation for why he didn’t say anything (didn’t care for the changes) and appears to praise them without explicitly saying so directly.

    AFA Warabi goes, it seems like they’re are political factions within the school and Five Swords followers. Nomura makes a good ally because of his strengths since he can take out her rivals without her having to deal with them directly.

    Bear
    Reply

    1. Summed up Nomura’s actions better than I could apparently 😛
      I wouldn’t say it keeps them off balance though as much as it drives them. They want Nomura to pay attention and praise them, but he only gives a little bit here or there, keeping the carrot out of reach, but within the realm of possibility. It’s perfectly played textbook flirting.

      I think as well the Swords are politically divided, but Nomura was the one bringing the differences out into the open. Warabi is simply the first who recognizes the possibilities he offers.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. I think it keeps them off balance because if he had said something when they were wearing the outfit and the perfume they would probably gone tsuntsun and complained about him being sexist or trying to flirt with them (even though they wanted to have him notice). Never let it be said that a tsundere was rational about these things. By the delay they had assumed that he hadn’t noticed anything (or maybe didn’t care). They were both annoyed that he didn’t notice, but not only had he noticed but he gave them a compliment. Just not about what they were fishing for.

        Bear
        Reply

  5. Even if Kyou-bo is a she, I’m pretty sure bears don’t have breasts that high up, Nomura.
    But then again this is absurdity at its finest. I never thought I’d see the classic fondle boobs until she climaxes applied to a bona-fide bear. Whatever you say about this how, you can’t deny it has originality at times.

    ruicarlov
    Reply

  8. that torture scene just made my whole manly body shiver with RAGE. i know its anime but damn man… i seriously want to see that crazy feminist some serious beating next episode.

    Jeffers
    Reply

  10. Despite all of his antics and alpha male tropes – including the “you try to fish for compliments but I’ll turn the game on you” antic – it’s becoming wildly apparent that deep down, Nomura is falling for Rin Onigawara. After all, he put himself through torture because he couldn’t cope with her tears. It’s almost as if the only thing that is driving him now, is proving his innocence to Rin. Of course, if he manages to subdue another of the Five Swords and gain another stamp in the process, that’s all for the best.

    Anyways, this is a show that keeps on delivering. It’s subversion of the harem anime shines a pretty funny show.

    Kiritsugu
    Reply

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