You know, half the time, I honestly forget I’m still reviewing this show. Everything is so by the numbers, so uneventful, that when the weekend rolls around I go “Crap..I forgot this was a thing.” With the inclusion of these new characters and the changes made to the old ones into the genericness that this is… I really have no reason to be excited. However, I suppose we should do this. So..Let’s do this?
So the episode begins with Komugi in the middle of the woods looking for a monster that she was fighting. However, she can’t find it and gets lost. Meanwhile the other idols are doing a commercial for a hot spring. Unfortunately the guy isn’t very good at it and the director gets pissed off. Luckily that’s when Komugi show’s up exhausted from getting lost in the woods and without even realizing it does a great impromptu commercial and everyone loves it.
So because she just happened to show up and save the day, she is invited to the wrap part at that h0t spring. She and the male character hang out a bunch, but the blonde haired girl is jealous because she wants to hang out with the boy. At first they play a ping pong game where he dotes over Komugi
And then they share ice cream and have a walking challenge with Komugi on his team. Now here’s the funny thing. While the blonde girl has a thing for the dude, he totally thinks that she has a thing for Koyori.
However, that’s when all the girls sense there is a monster nearby. They all excuse themselves to transform, but the guy sees the monster’s silhouette (which looks like a bear) and pushes the blonde girl down to protect her, so in all the confusion, Komugi defeats it and gets the card.
Also, it’s revealed that Koyori knew that blonde girl has a crush on the guy and that she’s secretly girly.
And that’s how this special episode ended.
I don’t know what it is about this character. They really act like this blonde girl is important. Here’s the problem. She’s not. I don’t know why they are so fixated on focusing on this girl’s romance. She’s a random character they invented for this incarnation of the series. Then again…so’s the male character. I just don’t understand what the point is here. Her entire character is that she acts like a tomboy, but is really girly. She has a crush on a guy, but can’t tell him. THAT IS HER ENTIRE CHARACTER. It is like tropey mctrope and the tropersons. Every single episode that features her turns out EXACTLY the same. And I think it’s pretty safe to assume that he doesn’t think of her that way as he was FAR more interested in hooking her up with Koyori. If they try to flip it and put them together that will be …well…expected. Very very stupid, but expected.
Anyway, the next episode…is a little less painful, albeit strange when you realize what the joke of the episode is. Granted there is 100% less awkward.
So after the events of the previous episode, Komugi is picking up popularity due to her hot spring report. In fact, now pretty much every hot spring wants her to do a report on them. That is, until she gets to one really old one and accidentally knocks it over by leaning on it.
So the next day Komugi is very worried about the repercussions of this. And here’s where the whole “Japanese joke” thing comes in. Komugi overhears her boss saying that she will be “Kubi”. Which in Japanese means “fired”. So thinking she’s fired, she runs home and gets upset, thinking she won’t get to be an idol anymore. All of the people from her town/area get very upset by this and talk to her boss trying to stop her from being “kubi”. But they fail.
After she nearly gives up, the townspeople decide to cheer her up by putting together a stage so she can put on an impromptu performance. She does so, and that’s when her manager shows up. She asks what’s going on and Komugi explains. This is when the manager clears up the misunderstanding. She had said that Komugi will be “kubi” as in, she got a voice acting role in an anime about cuts of meat and she will be playing the neck which, in japanese is also “kubi.”
Here’s where the real confusion lies. They actually use the same damn kanji of 首 for fire and for neck. The only way you can tell is by context. I guess the best way to describe this joke would be like if you’re walking along a dark alley with your friend and they scream and go “ahh! oh my god! A murder!” and you frantically look around to see this dead body and your friend is then attacked by a bunch of crows. That’s pretty much the joke they were going for here. It’s a play on words that only works in its native language. If they were to dub this, i’m not exactly sure HOW they would pull this episode off as it’s built ENTIRELY around a miscommunication of a japanese word. The CLOSEST thing I can think of is saying that she’ll be “Cut” and they meant a cut of beef, but that’s really stretching it and sounds stupid. Regardless, with that misunderstanding cleared up, the episode ends.
As I said before, the first episode focused too much on blonde girl. I really REALLY don’t care about this girl. I’m not sure why they felt the need to invent a brand new character when they had PLENTY of characters from the old series to choose from, but I guess they felt Megumi wasn’t interesting enough, so fuck it, let’s create a boring overdone trope.
The second episode, as I said, revolved around a singular joke…which wasn’t very funny. In fact, it was kind of annoying. We knew from the beginning she wasn’t going to get fired over something stupid like that, so the fact that they drug out the miscommunication was just silly. Still though…it was less stupid than blonde girl…so there’s that.
Just every single episode makes me sad and long for the days of old Komugi. (Sigh) I’m almost sad to go back and watch it because i’ll just remember the terrible things they did to a once really funny show.
Well, my community service is done. Peace.
Episode 8 5/10
Episode 9 6/10
HOORAY FOR MEDIOCRITY!
-Hideki