Nagasarete Airantou – 11

This episode wastes no time and kicks off with a bath scene. Wait, something’s not right – where’s the nosebleed? Ikuto is calmly scrubbing Suzu’s back, then carries her into the bath, full frontal and all…! No, can’t give this show too much credit – it’s just a dream.

Suzu is pretty perverted considering she hasn’t gone through middle school health class. Problem is, she’s dreaming of all this while soaked in a barrel of cold water. You guessed it – it’s time for the collapsed feverish girl and guy has to take care of her and do her chores episode! While gender-heads could argue that appreciating the hard work the woman does around the house is indeed a sign of equality, the fact that the whole “sick girl” appeal hinges on her flushed weakness and complete subservience to the powerful and versatile male completely blows that idea out the water. Oh Suzu, you make me feel like a natural man…

Some cute green haired chick in a pink kimono is eating shaved ice with Kamo^2 and Kuma^2 when Ikuto walks by. Nope, it ain’t Yukino – it’s her mom! Yay for underage moms. “Call me Kagami-chan~” she says. *fist-pound*

Apparently Ikuto is on the prowl for some ice to cool Suzu down – the one in the refrigerated cave got shaved clean by the three icekateers, so he needs to scale “Fuji Yama,” that rather suspicious looking Fuji San clone right in the middle of the island.

It should be noted at this point that Kagami-chan has a rather bipolar personality, causing her to have outbursts of anger whenever Yukino talks smack about her. It should also be noted that when she gets mad, she sounds exactly like Normad (the pink stuffed animal supercomputer) from Galaxy Angel. It’s probably the same voice actor, but the thought of Normad being recast as a bipolar underage mom with an obvious age complex is lol material.

Elsewhere, Machi is craving some shaved ice so sends Ayane into the cave, and then hops aboard the Ikuto train. Along the way, Machi’s sandal strap snaps and a black cat crosses her path. Oooh, bad omen. She sends a morse code message to Ayane via voodoo telegram, which leaves Ayane in a sweaty, disheveled, flushed mess on the ground. Oh Ayane.

If none of this is making sense, it’s because nothing is making sense to me. Or maybe there is nothing to make sense of. Maybe it gets better – I’m writing this as I go.

So they’re heading up the mountain…and then it starts snowing. It’s cold as hell as Ikuto is getting annoyed…reminds me of that one scene in Lord of the Rings when the whole group is trudging through neck-high snow, and Legolas is watching on top of it all…that elfish bastard. Similarly, Yukino is hitched up in the poka poka mouth of a giant hamtaro and Normad-chan is perched up on Taka^2 and speeding ahead.

Inexplicably, they start having a snowball fight. Then shack up to have snacks. Ikuto gets pissed off that they’re wasting time and wants to grab his ice and leave, which gets Normad-chan all suspicious as she asks Ikuto if he’s “done this and that” with Suzu – instant nosebleed. Except this time it freezes as its coming out, and falls on the ground as glistening bloodsicles. Hmm…that’s bloody hilarious.

So Ikuto packs up and heads off by himself, with only the image of a feverish Suzu with her shirt slipping off her shoulders to guide him. Being the boke that he is, he promptly falls off the side of a cliff. Nope, not kiddin.

Meanwhile, back on the summit, everyone gets really cold and lets out a collective sneeze with the force roughly equal to two Vin Diesel hand grenades, which of course causes a huge avalanche with all of them balled up. By now, Ikuto has seemingly broken the world record for bare handed cliff scaling as he is nearly back to where he fell from…but guess what’s waiting for him at the top! Guruguruguruguru

So like something out of Looney Tunes, they all get rolled up into a giant katamari, which is sent off a ski jump and falls…falls…falls all the way down to ground level, where Machi is sitting, waiting for her ice. Mmm, fresh. Apparently her topping of choice is… soy sauce.

Go Ikuto! Your precious Suzu snow is melting! Taka^2 swoops in and drops him off just in time for him to deliver his… half pint of melted snow. orz. Good thing Suzu seems to be completely healed. You know, from rest. Of course, Ikuto doesn’t really care as he’d rather be the reason for her recovery, but now that’s no longer a possibly – so he does the only thing left he can do – collapse in a feverish pile of exhaustion. Better get to nursing your man, woman!

Whatever happened to Ayane? Where else but stuck with her emu on the summit. She’s gonna have to go Luke Skywalker on her only mode of transportation soon…

Thoughts:

Why do I get the feeling the moms are better characters than their generic daughters? That can’t be a good thing…or is it? This episode threw a few more curveballs at us with the Normad-okaasan and the nosebleed icicles, but it’s still the same! We’re too far in and the show as been too consistent for me to see anything in the way of future improvement. I’m still trying to stay positive, though. As far as power rankings go, this one’s headed south…

-jaalin