First Impressions / Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

「おおかみさんと毒りんごが効かない白雪姫」 (Ookami-san to Doku Ringo ga Kikanai Shirayuki Hime)
“The Wolf and Snow White whom The Poison Apple Doesn’t Work On”

It’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in the form of the Miss Otogi Gakuin champion Shirayuki Himeno (Fukui Yukari) and her seven younger siblings. The fairy tale crossover this time around entailed Ringo’s childhood relationship with Himeno, and how the latter was driven out of her home along with her mother following a divorce prompted by the former’s mother (Ono Ryouko). In the literal sense of her name (i.e. red apple), Ringo is the poison apple of sorts that forced Snow White to leave her home and later meet the seven dwarfs. Beyond that, there wasn’t a whole lot else in reference to the original fairy tale though. More specifically, there was no jealous queen nor prince to wake up Snow White after she succumbed to the effects of the poison apple. Instead, we have an original tale about a very young and innocent Ringo who loves her stepsister, but grew up feeling responsible for breaking up Himeno’s family and has been unable to face her all this time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since the characters themselves are intended to be modeled after certain fairy tales and not the overall story itself, but noteworthy since Himeno’s subplot felt much more detached from her reference material than the other characters we’ve come across thus far.

Interestingly enough, the lack of resemblance actually made for a pretty heartwarming story. For one, Ringo was absolutely adorable when she was a kid and first started ending all her sentences with the “no” gobi. In addition, her innocent relationship with Himeno provided a really good setup for a touching conclusion. While things were working towards Ringo finally overcoming the guilt she feels towards Himeno, we had Otogi Bank babysitting the seven siblings to drive the lighthearted side of things, plus some inadvertent development in the Ryoushi x Ryouko department during their group outing at the pool. Seeing all the girls in a bathing suits certainly didn’t hurt, nor did Alice’s flustered expression when she was teased a bit about her relationship with Liszt. However, all of that was merely a pleasant distraction from the story at hand, where Himeno’s kindhearted self held no resentment towards Ringo and even apologized for not being around as her big sister. It was unbelievably sweet yet cruel at the same time, because it was pretty obvious that Ringo wanted to apologize first. As such, I even got a bit choked up at the sight of our not-so-poisonous apple in tears of relief that her stepsister doesn’t hate her. Poor Ringo. 🙁

Looking back, I can’t say there was a lot of depth to Himeno’s character outside of being very pure and bighearted, but that was all that was really needed for her to make an impact here. She put the kids before herself and Ringo got an early wish out of Ranpu (being the genie from Aladdin that he is) to make sure Himeno gets a chance to attend university, making this really feel like a fairy tale ending even though it wasn’t closely based on one. In lieu, we were treated to some Snow White and her Prince in the end, thanks to the dream that stemmed from Ryouko’s innermost feelings towards Ryoushi. We all know she wants him despite how much she tries to fight that feeling, but having it come as a dream shows just how hard she’s fallen.

 

Preview

42 Comments

  5. Probably the funniest episode yet, with the narrator not being a total waste of lines!!

    Only thing that’s kinda annoying me is the lack of progress with Ryouko x Ryoushi. We keep having all these developments in their relationship, but they don’t seem to go anywhere. I know Ryouko is tsundere, but there’s a limit! How much does Ryoushi have to do for her before she even starts smiling at him?!

    Next time it looks like Sheep-Head’s blond playmate might be back, so here’s hoping for her trying to seduce Ryoushi and finally making Ryouko take action!

    Aex
    Reply

    1. Yeah, I agree it’s a bit annoying, but I think we just need to be patient. It’s not easy to break a Tsundere. Plus, it wouldn’t wouldn’t be any fun if Ryouko and Ryoushi happened so suddenly, the moment they do get together will be better if it takes a little longer.

      Diyedas
      Reply

      1. Yeah, at this point I don’t expect them to be official by the end of the series. I’ll be amazed if they even kiss. They’ll probably do something that makes it blatant that Ryouko likes Ryoushi (as if it wasn’t already), then she’ll punch him, and it’ll end. Fun times…

        Aex
        Reply

  11. Not sure why but older Ringo is much cuter than younger Ringo (When I normally see the opposite in anime ~as far as I remember anyhow~). Also, this swimsuit episode didn’t “incite” anything at all and if that’s what the studio was aiming for, they pretty much did the job on that side.
    We’re at nine out of thirteen episodes, RyoukoxRyoushi is probably going to go on unofficially unless they rush things out. I can see Ryouko finally accepting Ryoushi in one way or the other and leaving our minds do the rest of the work.

    Shinjiro
    Reply

  15. I liked the episodes this week, it was pretty unexpected seeing the drama behind Ringo’s past and the whole stepsisters issue. I always thought Ringo was raised in a normal polite and evil family but I guess the evil part was only the thing I got right. ^^

    It was nice seeing everything resolved at the end with the tears and sunset in the background and concluding with introducing Ringo as Himeno’s little sister to everyone.

    Ryouko’s princess dream was also fun to watch but I think the part I like best was how the cousins’ were teased by the kids. Alice’s flustered face was priceless.

    Jaden
    Reply

  16. Okay, so who else is waiting for Ryoushi to get a friggin haircut after seeing Ryouko’s dream? Maybe not the the greasey, slicked back look but something that show’s off the upper half of his face.

    synkronized
    Reply

    1. From my understanding, Himeno’s father left her mother for Ringo’s mother, but isn’t Ringo’s biological father. The two of them aren’t blood-related in any way, which would make them stepsisters and not half sisters.

      Divine
      Reply

      1. Nop~ they’re half sisters :), Shirayuki’s father is the same as Ringo’s~ Ringo sayed that she was introduced to her dad, also both of them have the same eye color~ sorry for my crap english LOL luving the recaps :)!!!

        Ishigo
        Reply

  27. For real? This episode was not good in any sense of the word. Ringo goes on her pathetic “omg mah fault diatribe” which was just plainly false to anyone with half a brain. I didn’t feel one ounce of compassion and the drowning… yeah, that was facepalm worthy. It just looked incredibly silly. Sure, the self-sacrifice was good but overall I did not like this episode. Sorry.

    MacGuy
    Reply

  30. I quite liked this episode. It showed some great development on Ringo’s part. It would be even funnier if the kids actually acted like the Seven Dwarfs, but I guess that’s too much to ask for.

    Also, I like the fact that little Shirayuki wore the Disney Snow White costume. That’s a nice touch.

    akani
    Reply

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