First Impressions / Series Introduction

Summary:

Yuuka’s first day at her new school goes poorly after her nervousness gets the better of her and her classmates all laugh at her. Unaware of this, back at home, Kyouka suggests having a wedding reception and insists that it’ll be an event to deepen the family’s bonds. Ouka knows that Kyouka just wants to have some fun, but he’s powerless to stop her, and by the time Yuuka returns home, Kyouka has dresses prepared for her to try on. Afterwards, Teika notices the smell of blood from Yuuka, and when he asks her about it privately, she tries to hide her bruised knees. She trips though, and out of her backpack spills her notebooks, all of which have insults and threats from her classmates written on their covers. Teika advises that she talk to Ouka about this, but Yuuka doesn’t want to ruin everyone’s excitement over the wedding reception. The following day, after Yuuka leaves for school, Kyouka tries to get Ouka to sample some of the reception food, but he feels that getting to know the children by looking through their files is more important.

As Ouka says this, he notices that Yuuka is a daughter of the powerful Himemiya family which makes its money from supporting wars and violence. He’s concerned for her, but Kyouka calls him naive and points out how each child has come from a tough background. What’s more, she chides him for losing sight of the essentials by paying attention to data on paper instead of to Yuuka herself. Their conversation is interrupted when Teika and Hyouka suddenly run out of the house, and Ouka recalls that he noticed something about how they were acting yesterday too. Teika and Hyouka had actually attached a listening device to Yuuka and are now heading to her school because they heard her in trouble. They find her getting beaten up by a group of boys, but Hyouka prevents Teika from helping because he knows that they’d just end up killing everyone. The two rush to her side after the boys run off, and Yuuka claims to be okay despite her injuries. She doesn’t want Ouka or Kyouka to know about this, but Ouka had actually followed Teika and Hyouka to the school and now finds out about it. With the secret out, Yuuka explains that she didn’t want anyone to know because she wanted their home to be a place where she could smile with everyone.

Later that afternoon, Ouka tries to go to Yuuka’s room to talk to her, but her door is locked and she doesn’t answer. Ginka then informs him of a letter that Yuuka left in the refrigerator. In it, Yuuka writes about wanting the world to be destroyed, and she wonders if God hates her. Ouka is alarmed that Yuuka has had enough with her life and sounds like she’s decided on suicide, and after Kyouka has Hyouka cut open Yuuka’s door, he rushes into her room. Fortunately, she’s okay, but she questions why she is hated and gets bullied. Yuuka thinks that if she were the child of Enka, then she might really destroy the world, and for that reason, she should die even though she doesn’t want to. In response to this, Ginka makes her realize that someone would have noticed her call for help because they all love her, and Kyouka decides to do something about all this. Her plan involves having Teika and Gekka terrorize the kids at school until Yuuka stands up for them as their friend. This in turn leads to a scripted scene where Ouka creates a cloud of dust by firing a rifle into the dirt around Yuuka, allowing Hyouka to take her place to give the illusion that Yuuka changed into a combat robot. Hyouka then pretends to defeat Gekka and forces Teika to retreat. After Yuuka switches places again with Hyouka, she’s mobbed by all the impressed kids who think she’s really strong.

In the aftermath, Ouka and Kyouka have their wedding reception with much fanfare. Unbeknownst to them, the two main kids who were bullying Yuuka are meeting a girl who now orders them to go break Yuuka, and she pays them to do it.

Preview

I was a little surprised to see that the beginning of this episode had a more family drama approach with the bullying of Yuuka. That’s not to say that this episode wasn’t funny – there just wasn’t nearly as much of the fast-paced insanity as last week in the first two-thirds of this episode. In its place, they gave Yuuka some character development and introduced at the end the girl who looks to be the final member of the family. The hilarious part came with the approach the family took to help Yuuka out, complete with an AK-47 and a magical girl robot. Now how often do I get to say that…

Even in the serious situations though, it’s Kyouka who really gets to shine – everything she does is so self-centered, yet she still manages to teach Ouka few things about parenting. She’s the glue that holds the family together, and she’s fun to watch because she’s also the catalyst for all the crazy stuff. It’ll be interesting to see what role she ends up playing in next week’s continuation of the Yuuka story (complete with a heart-shaped eye-patch).

30 Comments

  8. Alright this anime show got my vote, i’m watching this from now on. But there’s something i don’t like about the show it’s the person with the “yellow” hair, i wish he/she was not in the show! I think “Wagaya no Oinarisama” is better than this show.

    (Needs to calm down be back in a week)

    The_Worlds_Best_Anime_Fan_Freak
    Reply

  9. Is it safe to say that this show is unfathomably weird? I mean, much more so than even what is the norm in an average hyperactive comedy series. Its ability to effortlessly transition to and from “family drama” scenes makes it even more unnerving.

    kadian1364
    Reply

  12. @kadian1364
    Yes, this show is extremely weird. I did not like the first episode as much as this one because the comedy was so nonsensical that i did not know what or where to look at.

    Well, even that, this second episode managed to get me in with the so out of scope way to resolve Yuka’s problems. I mean, it would be really interesting to have some crazy family like that.

    banzemanga
    Reply

  18. Valk: Kyouran is among the most-difficult-to-translate shows ever. Cut Omni some slack. When even veteran native speaker fansub translators need several hours for one episode, it would be even harder for bloggers.

    I’m actually glad that the show will have more to offer than only hi-speed jokes. The serious parts in the beginning demonstrate that they’ll have actual STORY behind it which waits to be animated. Nothing against craziness (we’ll get enough of that anyway), but some beef definitely helps the taste!

    Mentar
    Reply

  19. No wonder this show didn’t seem that funny to me. The first episode might have been funny at some parts but for some reason i kept getting the feeling that there’s more to the story than just mayhem.

    Kagekyuubi
    Reply

  25. I hate bullies so GOD DAMN MUCH!!!! I used to be bullied when I was in school. AFter entering high-school, I learened Aikido, and the next bully was also the last. The younger kids would call me if they needed help.

    DmonHiro
    Reply

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