Kage Kara Mamoru! – 04

Summary:
Yuuna is entered into an idol contest thanks to Airi and is forced to participate in the second round. Also in the competition are Tsubaki and Yamame. First up is Tsubaki, who shows off her sword and calligraphy skills, but refuses to don a swimsuit. Yamame, on the other hand, does performance where she separates into several copies of herself and forms a dance line. Her special skill is her ability to fit her body into a small bag. Finally, we have Yuuna, who clumsily trips as she goes on stage. She sings a very unique song about bananas, leaving everyone quite speechless. To Airi and Mamoru’s surprise, Yuuna advances to the third round. Before it starts, the judging committee chairman wants to speak with Yuuna. He brings down a bed and hints that he wants to sleep with her, but Yuuna gets on the bed and fall asleep. Before the chairman can do anything bad, Mamoru (in ninja form) appears and knocks him out. Meanwhile, a famous producer, Zunka-san, has his eye on Yuuna and wants to make her a super-idol. However, when Yuuna wants to call Mamoru to tell him, Zunka-san forbids her from associating with boys. Yuuna thinks about it, but ends up turning down the offer because she doesn’t want to be separated from Mamoru.

This episode is probably the funniest one yet. The biggest laugh for me came from when Tsubaki screwed up writing Samurai (侍） with Wait (待） and had to correct herself by using her sword to slice off the extra stroke. I’ve been warming up to the series as the cast list grows and we get to see the comic interactions between the various girls and Mamoru. As cool as the ninja aspect is, I think I enjoy the series more when there’s no bad guy (like the Yakuza boss). I don’t really count the chairman this episode because he was a bad guy for all of like one minute before Mamoru knocked him out.