Haha! Get the title? Because it’s about the horse deity, and it’s a race! Get it? Anybody? (Cricket chirp) (Cough into fist) Well um… anyway, we’re back to Etotama. That show where the main character is a pain in the ass but we watch it despite her anyway. She’s kind of like Michelle Trachtenberg in Buffy. You kind of just shove her out of the way and watch the rest of it. Anywho, let’s begin.
So yeah, this episode is about the horse. What problem does she have? Well apparently there’s a race that’s held between the eto-shin every year. Every year though less and less of the other gods watch this race and therefore the ratings drop. As of last year the ratings were only 1.8%, and if the viewership goes below 1%, it gets cancelled and as this is the horse’s only really big event, she’ll feel as if she failed.
However this year the manager of the maid cafe they work at tells them that he will grant a wish to the person who wins. Some people have easy wishes like Piyo-tan just wants to retain her memory after three steps,
The sheep wants to be in a relationship with Takeru,
and….a whole bunch of others I don’t really care about.
Normally this would only be a race for the gods, but since the rat isn’t participating, Nya-tan is allowed to take her place.
So the race begins and a bunch of people get knocked off early, until it’s basically just the horse and Nya-tan. However, Nya-tan discovers that she can’t use her wish to ask to be in the zodiac so she gives up. Not wanting her race to be cancelled she tells Nya-tan that if she wins the race, she can have her Sol/lull seal.
She of course wins the race and gets the seal. um. yay? End of episode.
So let’s look over the facts.
Rabbit: gets seal by playing “look that way”
Ox: tricks her
Monkey: gets for free
Dog: gets for free
Snake: Takeru gets it and therefore gives it to Nya-tan
Tiger: wins through “power of friendship” trope
Sheep: gives it to her after solving problem she created herself by being a jerk and not learning a lesson
Horse: gets by winning a race.
So right now she has 8 seals, and she actually earned… 3. In my eyes, she earned the Horse, the Tiger, and the Rabbit. (No I do not count the Ox because she was a lying jerk)
I’m not exactly sure WHAT the show’s trying to convey here. I don’t feel as if she’s growing at all. She’s still the same selfish idiot she was in episode one. Her wish if she won was to bypass the rest of the tournament and become a member of the zodiac. And here’s the kicker. She has amnesia, remember? She’s going to these lengths and she doesn’t even know WHY she wants to be in the zodiac.
Also, I have to say, for there being 108 different eto-shins trying to be in the zodiac, they sure are playing favoritism to one of them. And on TOP of that, this tournament happens every sixty or so years, so how come THIS is the time they decide to help her out? Did they try every other time and just…it didn’t work out? The problem is, Nya-tan would be a TERRIBLE member of the zodiac, but then again, so are the monkey and the dog. Who let these guys in? I think Shigure and Ritsu are shaking their heads in shame at this.
This episode was cute because we get to see more of the horse, but the ongoing problem of this show is Nya-tan. Look. When you have a show about an underdog, who, despite all obstacles tries to succeed there’s one important factor about this formula. You actually have to like the character who’s struggling. When you want her to fail, there’s an issue. During the entire race there wasn’t a single moment where I didn’t say to myself “I really hope she loses”. I was actually far more sad when Piyo-tan lost because I really wanted to see her get over her memory problem.
Just having Nya-tan go at the end “I had fun! It was a good race!” Does not negate the fact that she’s lazy, selfish, a jerk, and don’t forget, 5 minutes ago, when she realized that she wouldn’t get a prize for the race, she quit and only started up again when she realized she would get something, not because horse needed help.
Nya-tan is truly an awful person and I don’t care if she says something nice 1% of the time. She’s a terrible person and does not deserve to be in the zodiac. If i ended up being in her year i’d never look at a zodiac again.
The whole time the race was going I thought to myself, maybe horse will win and this will be her time to shine but she’ll give Nya-tan the seal anyway because she helped her out, but nope. Nya-tan has to win because she’s a magical fartbag. Fuck you.
I don’t know why so many of the other characters are into her being the zodiac, and I don’t know why Takeru tolerates her. I love fun quirky characters. But she’s not endearing like Tomo from Azumanga Daioh, she’s annoying, mean, and a jerk with no real moments of me caring. She hasn’t tried to help ONE other person because she knows she has the forever Takeru battery. She SAYS that that isn’t the reason, but I haven’t seen her do otherwise. Seriously Nya-tan, go fuck yourself.
Episode 5/10
-Hideki
Haha, very funny Hideki.
Quick Question: I originally was watching this anime but had to drop it due to a time issue. I was wondering if I should pick it up again if I have the time. I really liked the Takeru, the horse, Piyo-tan, the sheep, and the tiger (the snake and dragon were also tolerable) but Nya-tan…is a different story. Should I not waste my time or give it a second shot?
Also, in your eyes, who’s worse? Nya-tan or Tomoya (I think that’s his name?) from Saekano or whatever it was called, the anime where the otaku wanted to make his own game and somehow created a harem.
Haha, I have to admit, I laughed out loud when I read that question. Okay, first off, it depends on how good you are at ignoring main characters. I’ve been doing it for so long I basically have it down to an art form. If you can kind of just shove her out of the way, the other characters are still adorable and fun. Still though…she’s very painful. As for your second question…(exhales) I’d have to say Tomoya’s still worse. But barely. I say that because, a lot of the time when Nya-tan pulls her shit people call her on it and slap her around. Tomoya is kind of like……creepy about everything. That’s the best way to describe it. He’s creepy. Nya-tan’s just lost 3/4 of her brain. Still though…that would be a hilarious couple. Pair those two off. I like it. Nya-tan x Tomoya. They can annoy the fuck out of each other.
Also I love Piyo-tan…..If you couldn’t tell. X3
Ok thanks, that helps. I’m so-so at ignoring horrible characters, but I do tend to yell at the screen a lot:) And I have a hunch I don’t despise her quite as much as you do, although that may be because I only made it to about 4 episodes. I wonder why they made Nya-tan so annoying though if the creators were able to make such cute other characters. Is Nya-tan being a blockhead supposed to be funny or something? And for my second question I only asked that because I remembered reading a couple of your reviews for Saekano and most of them being mainly about how much Tomoya sucked. I pretty much dropped that one by the first episode (not counting episode 0) because I was really bored watching it. Plus, I kind of hated everyone. Or at least did not care to see more of them on screen.
Lol though, Nya-tan x Tomoya…that’s gold. Best cross-ship ever. XD