I’ll give credit where credit is due, this episode actually had me laughing pretty hard. This is probably the first time where I feel like they did really well with the comedy. Whenever I have to pause the episode to laugh, I know they’re doing something right. We have another episode where they splice two separate situations together and while I don’t think they go together, they were still pretty funny in their own ways and I actually enjoyed this episode this time.
The Anya adventures I feel are a bit hit or miss in the anime, but it definitely hit this episode. Not to mention it felt like they put extra budget into the animation for certain things that made me chuckle. Things could be shaken up with Anya’s school dynamic as they might be separating the class depending on their grades and because Anya is probably at the bottom of the class. Not only would she be separated from Becky, but would also throw a wrench into Loid’s mission again when she ends up moving out of class with Damian. Which was the whole point of her being in this class in the first place. So there seems to be a lot at stake if Anya doesn’t get her grades up. Which is difficult considering she’s most likely younger than everyone else and is reasonable that she’d be lagging behind a bit.
We get another example of Anya believes in school rumors and tries to use it to her advantage to get better grades/stellas. This time, the rumor has to do with the pastries made by this specific patissier and whoever eats his pastries will be smarter. And in typical child fashion, all the kids rush to try and get their hands on the rumored goods. But of course this cannot be settled peacefully as the Frankenstein looking kid ended up buying the last ones but do to the stunt he pulled in the first season, all he was essentially guilted into giving up four of the five macarons. Which leads the kids into a showdown because there are four macarons and five of them. The kids decide to settle the issue with a game of Old Maid and while Damian and his friends tried to trick Anya into taking the Joker card, it was at that moment that I legit forgot Anya could read minds because boy was it useful in this freaking game.
Unfortunately, due to Anya overcompensating in trying to cover for her power, she ends up taking the fall and drawing the Joker. While I understand why Anya is so fearful about having her powers being found out, it is a bit frustrating to watch her take a full loss because she’s trying to act like she can read minds. But she’s a kid, so I suppose it makes sense in kid logic. And we can’t forget that Anya is more emotionally intelligent than academically. So try as she might, her “brilliant plans” mostly ends up being duds. Though I do find it funny that despite the two friend groups constantly at each others necks, they do seem to end up spending time together a lot which could potentially push them all to be friends eventually in the future.
We get the return of the rose tinted glasses Anya again and boy, I get like second hand embarrassment seeing it. And just like always, Damian sacrifices himself again because he cannot help but want to protect or make Anya happy much to his chagrin. Though my favorite part had to be when Anya seemingly turned super saiyan after eating the macaron and blitzing through her school work only to have roughly the same scores as before. Anya, you and Becky really have to stop believing school rumors as none of them so far have come to fruition. Though it seems as if she is improving little by little. But as it stands, despite the minor improvements, we don’t know if she’ll be able to stay in the same class as Becky and Damian.
The second part of the episode was… fine. I didn’t really have any issue with it, but it wasn’t fantastic either. As much of a cat person as I am, I’ve never been particularly taken by anime cats. To me, they just never look as cute as they do in real life. Well.. maybe except for the cats in My Roommate is a Cat. Haru and her siblings were cute as heck. BUT GENERALLY, anime cats almost never seem to look as cute to me and unfortunately that sentiment held true to this anime as well.
Anyways, Franky is looking for a missing cat so he can win over the owner. Which is not new. However, what is new is that he teams up with Yor in this scenario. This is the first time we’re seeing Yor and Franky interact one on one and despite Franky’s womanizing tendencies, I can respect that he never once looked at Yor in a way where it shows attraction. Even when she was admiring his inventions where he holds a lot of pride for. So I’m glad that he at least has respect for Loid to not even think about anything. To which I also think it’s ironic that he brings up Garden for the first time and then immediately bumps into Yor who is more than likely part of that specific Assassin group.
My absolute favorite spreadsheet in the mnaga is Yor jumping at the cat and the cat’s expression is just pure horror. And while I still like this part in the manga more, the anime still did a great job at making this part hilarious.
In typical Franky fashion, the girl he was trying to woo ended up having a fiance, making his selfish plans end up for naught. To which, serves him right. He could be helping out a lot of people if he actually used his connections and inventions to do so, but ends up doing good deeds for selfish gain. Glad he is always punished for constantly trying to pull these stunts out of self interest.
It looks like we’re finally moving into the more action oriented part of the season with Yor being called out for a new assassin job. Just like the dog arc, I actually skimmed through this upcoming arc as well so I don’t know all the details of how things go down. So it’ll be interesting to see this part in anime form as I’m sure the anime will shine in this new arc with the amount of action that will have to be animated.
But yeah, not a bad episode that actually made me cackle. I do hope that they are finally starting to pick up on how to time the humor and show it better.
