ANOTHER girl’s crushing on Naota?! Sheesh… if the kid has this much natural game at 12 years old, women everywhere better run when he grows up. Don’t even try to say that girl with the USSR shirt ( Eri?) is just annoyed by him. She obviously likes him, so she’s going to act like she doesn’t in an exaggerated way. That’s how it works at that age (and, often, most ages actually). Well, at least she's his age, even though she’s a bold new kind of precocious. Not only is she not flipping out over her father having an affair with his secretary, she’s also giving the tramp tips on how to hide it? Now, that is COLD professionalism.
Once again, I feel like I have to put my interpretative literature hat on and speculate on what all the head protrusions symbolize. This time, I have to say it represents psychological repression (or growing up, take your pick). Naota is adamant about his opposition to playing Puss in Boots, but perhaps, deep down, he actually wants to and, thus, he sprouts cat ears to evidence that hidden and denied desire. It seems like each episode's going to end with Naota fusing with Canti for a bio-mecha brawl after some new creature pops out of somebody’s head. It’s like how the Power Rangers would always form the Megazord at the 20 minute mark to fight whatever monster Lord Zed had cooked up that week.
I haven’t commented too much about Haruko throughout my reviews so far. I do like her psychotic spin on the whole free spirit thing. I’m not quite sure what her agenda is at the moment, nor what the deal is with her interest in a boy 7 years younger than her. Were I to hazard a guess, I’d wager that she’s magic genie like the chick from WEIRD SCIENCE who’s arrived to push Naota into whatever the next stage of development he needs to go. Perhaps he needs to be more confident? Perhaps more open-minded? Maybe more comfortable with girls? Maybe all three? We’ve only got three episodes left to find out.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this April - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com .
