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Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu - 05

「ロマンティックが止まらない」 (Romantiiku ga Tomaranai)
“Don’t Stop the Romance”

Meganekko and bishoujo henshin. I never knew the two of them were related. Normally you’d expect the magical transformation to happen after the glasses come off, but it’s the exact opposite with Kanako.

Despite Horie Yui’s voice becoming higher pitch during her transformation, Kanako still looks like she’s being involuntarily possessed more than anythign else. Instead of having rainbow-coloured ribbons wrapping around her Sailor Moon style, she’s engulfed in darkness at the center of the
pink explosion. Her emphatic “Uzumake, Summer Hurricane!” line and eventual outfit were the only things saving the transformation from looking completely evil. Surprisingly, the entire episode revolved around trying to get her to put on glasses so that she’d transform. While I didn’t mind that so much, the twenty minutes were over before I even knew it. I was expecting a bit more to happen when Kanako grabbed Hideo and timeslipped to “put an end to things”, but all she did was break Hajime’s glasses and erase his memories of it, causing his confusion at the beginning of the episode. Granted, Kanako couldn’t have really done anything to begin with since the timeline can’t be changed; I just didn’t expect the episode to end so abruptly without seeing what happens after they returned to their original time.

This week did have its moments though, mainly due to Sayako and Hajime’s mischief. Things were even more entertaining with Arashi getting in on the mix and being on the same page as Hajime. The whole transformation bit was just silly, but at least it gave everyone a reason to toy with Kanako. The part with everyone placing cups of water on her hands and forehead while Hajime goes in for the kill was particularly well scripted (…and animated). Also, if you like girls with the glasses look (which I do at times), then that was a plus too. Lastly, we also had the salt guy basically have a heart attack when Kanako brought some by, only to end up knocking it on the floor. Poor guy. He’s never going to get salt.

Production-wise, the artwook looked a lot better this time around and they didn’t rely on distant shots nearly as much. Given SHAFT’s track record though, I just assume that the animation will be pretty inconsistent for the rest of the season.



Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE