First Impressions / Masamune-kun no Revenge

「ミステリアス・キャット」 (Misuteriasu kyatto)
“Mysterious Cat”

Let the harem games commence. I was anticipating Masamune not getting Aki that easy, and this episode sure proved that by throwing new girl Neko in our faces. Among the many potential romantic rival types this one isn’t all that bad, between the cute face, bubbly personality, and a desire to let things literally hang in the breeze. What really intrigues me, however, is how bloody devious Neko looks underneath that clumsy attitude. She nonchalantly conceived of a mutual history with Masamune on the fly, and damn near tricked our awestruck Casanova with that hilarious ketchup packet. Neko too is obviously hiding something important, given the talk of plans and how she seemingly already knows about Aki. I really hope it’s not some arranged marriage with Masamune backstory, but that certainly lies close to the top of potential answers, especially with how quickly she recovered on that rejection.

What really entertained me though was Masamune’s continued floundering. For all of his looks and manga learning, Masamune is hilariously naïve at times, falling back on overthought plans and defensive posturing when Aki attempts biting his head off. Given how well he knows about Aki’s personality, you would imagine Masamune could understand when she’s acting and when she’s serious, but apparently not. Here he nearly blew it trying to apologize to Aki with food, and was only saved from the wrath of Darth Vader by Green Beret Master Yoshino herself. Masamune really needs to stick with spontaneity because that’s where he succeeds best. The sprinkler stunt and smirking while Aki tripped into the pool were perfect, hilarious bits of female catnip keeping to the mysterious, amused personality which drew Aki towards Masamune in the first place. Combine it with Masamune’s impulsive dive into the pool to “save” Aki and you have some potent chick crack feeding into our cruel princess.

Masamune’s spontaneity also has the dual purpose of showing just how unsurprisingly smitten he’s becoming with Aki. Jumping into pools or calling out Aki is hint enough, but that little comment about Masamune’s annoyance with Aki’s personality—and those great remarks about body features—seals the deal. You’re never going to be aggravated by specific parts of a person’s personality unless you like them in some capacity. Masamune for all his talk about revenge is quickly growing infatuated with Aki.

Doubly amusing is how hard it will be for Masamune to resist the temptation given Aki just gave into it herself. The demand for a kiss was one thing I never expected from Aki, especially given how hard she’s tried keeping her feelings under wraps. It’s not a bad bit of drama though given Aki’s introspective development of late, and certainly provides Masamune the opening he has been waiting for. The only question left is what will screw this fantastic opportunity up. Don’t deny, you know something will go wrong just like last time. Seriously doubt MnR is going to break the traditional romcom setup that easily, it would take away all the fun.

Random Tidbits

Agreed with Masamune here, all Aki has going for her are those—albeit amazing—legs.

Oh yes Kojuurou, you will fit in perfectly; the bow only helps with the disguise.

If you want additional evidence Neko is devious, look no further than the commando scene. She knew exactly what she was doing there.

14 Comments

  2. I fully expect something to screw up the so called “kiss” that is potentially coming up, but no I will not be happy in the slightest when it does get screwed up. I’ve long since run out of patients for the typical romcom setup where the entire world is against the main couple.

    I feel like Masamune, Aki, and Yoshino were interesting characters enough that they alone could have made this an entertaining ride to the end without the annoyingly typical addition of a love rival.

    Just my two cents though. Since they’ve gone this route I hope they can make the most of it without it getting too frustrating.

    Avalon
    Reply

    1. So long as the interference is funny and not excessively forced (ex. Neko popping up and ruining things, again) I’m fine with it personally, never expected this show to deviate excessively from the script. God help things though if Masamune’s progress is set back to zero every time, that will annoy the hell out of me with how far he’s come so fast lol

      Pancakes
      Reply

  4. One might say, the cat…

    (•_•)

    ( •_•)>⌐■-■

    (⌐■_■)

    … is out of the bag. (YEEEEEEAAAA — OK, old meme is old…)

    Seriously though, is this really a case of mistaken identity, or has Neko actually known Masamune for quite some time now?

    Because, damn… If not for Masamune’s current “romance-then-dump” revenge plot toward Aki, he should honestly just go for Neko. Hell, if Neko plans to NTR Masamune away from Aki, that would probably be the one time I’d condone such an action…

    Incognito
    Reply

  6. https://randomc.net/image/Masamune-kun%20no%20Revenge/Masamune-kun%20no%20Revenge%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2021.jpg

    I still can’t stop laughing at that scene. XD

    I think the only thing that could make things better would be Konosuba-style facial expressions from Masamune at times, like the =T look, lol.

    https://randomc.net/image/Masamune-kun%20no%20Revenge/Masamune-kun%20no%20Revenge%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2031.jpg

    I also loved the interaction here, “Let me ‘accidentally’ spill this water on you!” XD

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

  7. Awww, no full length pic of Aki in her swimsuit (Yes, I know it’s already been posted somewhere else, thankfully)?
    Funny, how Pancakes is blogging twocompletely different romance shows.
    This one being the harmless romcom style where even a kiss would be a surprise or only happen in the last episode, while the other is the kind of (disgusting) smut anime where a (french) kiss is the least of its problems.

    boingman
    Reply

    1. I’m lazy, what can I say, plus being sleepy at the time likely didn’t help matters 😛

      MnR and Kuzu happen to tickle different parts of my interests, the former being the comedy and surprisingly featured pickup strategies, and the latter being the provocative relationships. I love analyzing things, which both shows–especially Kuzu–encourage me to do given their material. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ramble on about both XD

      Pancakes
      Reply

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