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「スナイプベター」 (Sunaipu Betaa (9.5))
“Snipe Better”
Jumping straight into the more serious side of things, this second episode wastes no time in getting straight into the topic at hand — compatibility.
Horoscopes, Blood Types, Etc
I’m sure we’ve all done it — scrolled through tumblr looking through horoscopes and looking how compatible they are or maybe listened to a radio show that lists what to look for and/or what to avoid when it comes to lovers. But what do you do when you’ve already married someone without checking to see if you’re actually meant to be together? Because I mean, contrary to popular belief (I’m looking at you Midorima) those tidbits of information are literally the one and only thing that’ll tell you whether or not the person next to you is just someone or that special someone. Right?
If you didn’t catch the sarcasm up there, I’m not sure if we can be friends anymore. The very notion of basing your relationship solely on some factor completely out of your control is just ridiculous. Sure, it doesn’t hurt if you’re doing it for fun since things like these are always interesting but I felt a little disappointed that Kaoru would let something as trivial as compatibility get her so down.
Luckily Hajime managed to steal all the glory this week with that movie-style kiss in the rain. If there’s something that screams “I’m your man no matter what”, I’m pretty sure something like that’ll do it. Props to Hajime for breaking character and showing off some of his fancier moves!
In-between Episodes
It didn’t occur to me last week but seeing how the episode marker has 9.5 on it this week, I decided to re-watch episode nine from the previous season to see how things would fit in — and it’s all starting to make sense. Episode nine dives into our couple’s back story and their awkward first date. Going through the motions you’d expect between a normie and an otaku, you could describe the entire thing as pretty average. But what stood out was Kaoru’s comment about how unmanly Hajime came off as, something that you wouldn’t even bat an eye at until you add in Hajime’s awesome kiss at the end of this episode, something that has permanently made him a man in my eyes.
Basically, it looks like this season isn’t necessarily a continuation of where we left off but supplementary stuff that enrich the first season. Something that I’m not really bothered by but I hope I’m not the only one who would love to see just how cute of a baby Kaoru and Hajime were able to make!
Looking Forward
Not much to say here since it looks like there isn’t going to be any natural progression (at least not yet). Besides that fact that next week’s episode is going to be a progression of this week’s episode with that awkwardly placed “To Be Continued” right at the end, I just hope the production values continue to stay high and we don’t get another Episode 11 (animation quality wise) from last season.
See you next week!
This series deserves the usual 24-minute episode norm.
I wonder why its still in the short-anime format.
Also, kudos to you, Takaii, that’s pretty fast blogging considering it hasn’t even been 24 hours since debut of Ep2 in Japan..
I remember having a talk about the format with Stilts and I think we came down to the idea the source material might overstay it’s welcome if it were a full length episode?
And thanks! I personally adore this show which helps me push out the post as fast as possible. It also comes out on my day off from work so that helps too haha.
Thanks for commenting \o/
I don’t think Kaoru intended to take the whole compatibility thing seriously, but between having her friend talk so much about it (and imply that a marriage couldn’t last without it), and discovering how completely incompatible she and Hajime are by those standards, it probably just ended up being on her mind so much that she ended up worrying a lot more about it than she normally would.
BTW, thank you for covering this. If you hadn’t, I might not have realized that it was something worth paying attention to, and might not have taken the time to hunt down the first season and watch it straight through today (not that doing that takes all that long for a sereis of shorts, but still).
True, true. I might have gotten hung up on different points.
Glad you’re watching (:
I personally loved this episode. It was so full of meta knowledge. The writers for this show really are good on this genre, maybe because the short format helps trim anything unnecessary.
And that line… “When you’re too happy you don’t feel happy anymore, that’s what means to be human”. That blew my mind! Sorry if it was not that big of a deal for you 😀
I’m writing a post about this episode for sure!
I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE LINE. Oh my god — I don’t even know how I did that.
Miiiiiiind explosiiiiiiivooooooo!!!!
If anyone got that reference, I love you! hahahaha
I;m very curious now, where does that come from? 😮
I am more convinced than ever that this show is a secret project of the Japanese government. Almost every episode make me daaaw and then feel lonely. I bet after the episode ended they Show Spoiler ▼
mecha mecha sekusuuuuu
(meh-cha)
“When you’re too happy you don’t feel happy anymore, that’s what means to be human.”
And it’s true. If the relationship was so “perfect”, then it would be hard for anything to be exciting because…well…you would already have everything you could ever want, which could result in things becoming monotonous and stagnant, and the only way to go from there is down. Even after being married, one aspect of a relationship is being willing to learn more about, and understand your companion better. I’d say one of the strengths of Kaoru and Hajime’s relationship is BECAUSE they’re different. They help balance each other out.
Uke & Same
teehee~
Dat jojo reference
>I just hope the production values continue to stay high and we don’t get another Episode 11 (animation quality wise) from last season.
I’m pretty sure the way that episode was done is intentional, they wanted it to look different.
Also Imazaki Itsuki (known for Ai Mai Mii/Recorder to Ransel Mi/Second half of Sparrow’s Hotel) is the one who did the most of work for that episode.
Intentional or not, it was completely different from the past 10 episodes.
I personally don’t mind but when a friend drops the show because of it, I’d rather the show stay consistent :/
Sorry for saying that but your friend has a bad taste. And I don’t even get all this fuss about the ED getting worse or something – I understand that it eats more time if it’s an anime with the short episode but generally I just watch it 1-2 times and then start skipping. In my opinion this season’s ED isn’t worse then the previous, just a bit different.
It was how the original art looked. That was the point. I’m sorry you didn’t like it but that’s how the manga looks. If anything, you should be upset that the anime isn’t following the manga’s art.
I don’t think I said the ED was worse 😮
The song is actually starting to grow on me \o/