I figure I’ll keep going with this. The last one got a good response from you lunatics and it’s only 12 episodes long, so it’d be a tempo-balancing follow-up to these double-sized opuses I’ve been so preoccupied with as of late. Plus, the plot’s a nice change of pace from the vast majority of the material I watch on this site. High school comedy! On an even more basic level, I’ve liked what I’ve watched so far and I just want to see more of it.
Of course, intentions are well and good, but then you’ve actually gotta follow through on them and maybe this show’s actually tougher to comment on than it is to simply enjoy. I mean, the climax of the episode revolves around the rulings of a beauty contest. This show’s kind of like a hyperactive version of ARCHIE with regular fits of head busting. It’s perfectly diverting entertainment, sure, but it doesn’t exactly lend itself as easily to episode-by-episode analysis. At least, it’s not as easy for me.
That said, I did find it kind-of amusing how this episode more-or-less conflates (or confuses?) the story of the Ugly Duckling with that of the Tortoise and the Hare. Once again, I wonder how prevalent these stories are in Japan, because they’re being treated here almost like they’re some sort of exotic foreign mythology. Turnabout’s fair play, of course, and I'm sure this is a response to all the time American ooh and ahh over familiar shinto folk tales in their entertainment. I will say that I appreciated the rather observant (and somewhat cynical) notion that even people who act like they’re above appearances fall pray to the same allure of cosmetics when the chance to spruce up their look is offered to them.
Huh… maybe there is plenty of pick apart here, after all.
Watch this episode, "Okami-san Gets Caught in the Fight between the Tortoise and the Hare,” below and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
I watched this series after reading your positive opinion on it. I enjoyed it, so thanks for featuring it.
This is more than just the story of the tortuous and the hare. It's also symbolic of the Tale of Urashima Taro. The names Taro Urashima and Otohime Ryūgū are lifted directly from this. In it, Taro finds a bunch of kids teasing and harassing a sea turtle on the beach. He chases the kids off for their cruelty and lets the turtle go, but it turns out that the turtle is princess Otohime of the under sea kingdom.
In the scene where they are posing for cosplay, the girls are dressed up like characters from The Familiar of Zero, another J.C. Staff production.
That pic looks fun. I dropped this series but always meant to pick it up again. I may do so now.
@FoxxFireArt: Interesting read that story recently and it was rather nice. This is the one where after he lives in the sea kingdom for awhile he tries to go back but finds out more time has passed in the upper world and everyone he knew is dead but he can't go back to the undersea kingdom because the princes asked him not to leave right?
so this is a high school comedy? These characters REALLY don't look like high schoolers...