Well nevermind then. I was expecting a Mad Trigger Crew episode, and while they showed up very briefly, we actually got a Matenrou episode instead. I thought the show would go in the expected order but it seems not, but this was a fun surprise.
The episode was fun, but maybe just a little weaker than the Buster Bros episode when it comes to characters. Matenrou is a pretty fun group, but I feel like this was more of a Doppo episode than anything. Maybe because the framed murder was aimed at him (sort of), there was lots of focus on him. But even then, Jakurai had his fair share of spotlight. Hifumi I think suffered the most this episode as Doppo and Jakurai had a lot of great moments and he made funny comments here and there, but there wasn’t enough for me to make a deeper connection. I do like his friendship with Doppo, however, it’s cute.
But wow Jakurai is really pretty, isn’t he? I feel like the show wanted to showcase his beauty as much as they could, especially his amazing hair because it just looked so nice. But I do find it so interesting that he could possibly be hiding something, and I do believe so. I have no idea what, but with how he was able to deal with the gangsters and other dangerous people with ease and calmness makes me think he probably did a lot of questionable crap before but changed his life around later. Because right now Jakurai is seen as the very kind doctor with the warm smile that everyone loves, but the detective thinks there’s definitely more to him than meets the eye. I’d love to see more of his background explored the next time we meet him.
And speaking of background, interesting to see Jakurai still have a good relationship with Samatoki. I don’t really know much about TDD (The Dirty Dawg) but I do know that Ichiro and Samatoki basically hate each other, and I do wonder the relationships with the other members and how good or bad they are. Last episode Jakurai had a lot of confidence in Ichiro so I’m thinking their relationship is still positive, as well as with Samatoki. I mean, this guy is so kind so I shouldn’t be too surprised haha. Still, it’d be great to look into the TDD stuff but I bet we will when the division battle starts.
But man, poor Doppo. No wonder he’s a walking piece of anxiety, with all the crap that happens to him. With having a meek personality, it’s not too surprising that his coworkers would take advantage of him and leave all of their work on him. On top of that, it’s pretty sad that people don’t even know that he’s even part of Matenro. Jakurai and Hifumi stand out too much with their pretty presence…and then there’s Doppo hanging his head right next to them looking like such a sad puppy. His presence is overshadowed so much and honestly this poor dude puts up with enough crap, he doesn’t need to be disrespected all the time. And it’s funny, because at least from what I see online, Doppo is really popular. And I get it, he has a lot of charm and I do like him quite a bit. And that last line of his to Mimimi shows that he’s just trying so hard! I can see why people cling to Doppo. When it comes to Hifumi, he didn’t make the biggest impression on me but I can at least say that I like him. I’m not a fan of the playboy/flirty characters, but he seems to have two different modes? Which totally threw me for a loop when we saw that in the first episode. Jacket on, host mode. Jacket off, scared of women. I’d…really like an explanation on that. At least my opinion of Hifumi is better than before, where all I got out of him was through the songs and he literally only talked about champagne. There was even the champagne tower…hah.
This episode was pretty silly in a different sense, mostly because of the end with Mimimi and the host boyfriend. Their relationship didn’t even make sense since she was thirsty over Hifumi, wanted Doppo out of the way, but the boyfriend liked her even though she didn’t even like him. It was so dumb but Doppo’s comments throughout that whole scene cracked me up. And their new song was really catchy, I think I liked it more than the Buster Bros one. The animation suffered a bit this episode, but at least the battle still looked good. I forgot to mention this, but I love how everyone’s mics are customized to match them, such as Doppo’s mic turning into his cellphone because of his job as a salaryman. We can also see from the opening that Jyuto’s is his walkie talkie, Gentaro’s an old phone, etc. Really nice detail.
A slightly weaker episode but still really entertaining. Matenro seem like a really popular group so I was excited to get to know them, and they’re pretty fun. It also doesn’t help that Shadow told me that visually Jakurai looks a lot like Yuki from Idolish7, and considering Yuki is hiding something too…hmmm…
Also quick note, what the hell kind of doctor is Jakurai? I was thinking he was just a general physician, but the orthopedic and gastroenterology departments were calling for him? What does he even do, what’s his practice?! Who is this guy really?
I got this feeling that Doppo was being the target of punchlines the entire episode, so whoever was responsible for this storyline has a good sense of comedy, but at the expense of not making the others look funny (but Jakurai’s funny stuff wouldn’t have fit with this episode and Hifumi’s funny moments come from interactions with MTC and FP, so it sort of makes sense).
Having Jakurai in 2D means showing off how tall, lean and pretty he is and on that front, this episode did not disappoint.
As a MTR stan, Hifumi is my least favourite member because I don’t really like playboys. Normally, I would get attached to dual personality types, but “playboy” as a character trope is a real dealbreaker for me. (In fact, Doppo’s “timid/angry” duality makes him one of my favourites and I thought the anime did a good job in showing Doppo’s ordeal and the switch.)
It’s just the Ichiro/Samatoki and Ramuda/Jakurai pairs which are on bad terms.
Hifumi’s scared of women, to the point he has to wear his jacket to even deal with them, as you saw in ep. 1. I heard a sound effect when he put on his jacket, which is not something that happened in the other parts of the franchise, but I thought it was a bit…extra. (Apparently there was some incident in his past which led to this jacket business, but we don’t know a whole lot about it just yet.)
Now that you mention it, Jakurai does kind of look like Yuki…
Haha yeah that’s basically why it felt like such a Doppo episode since he was on the receiving end of the jokes, and of course he was being framed in the first place. Still, it made me appreciate his character a lot.
Aww well that’s disappointing. I was hoping to learn about the whole jacket thing since it’s so strangely specific. But yeah, I’ve never been a fan of the flirty types so I’m hoping there’s at least a little bit more to his character. So far I’m just latching on to his silly friendship with Doppo and his unusually nonchalant reactions to things that make me laugh (like not freaking out at the dead body).
Seriously, they did such a great job making Jakurai look as pretty as possible. Especially that…luscious hair. u_u