For the love of God, it’s only three episodes in and I can’t stand that Survival Strategy Crap anymore. As last week the strategy meeting starts out of blue, heck, this week we didn’t even see the signature scream face of Himari before entering the minute long filler animation. I skipped two minutes, knowing full well that I won’t miss anything. Sheesh…
This segment has become so repetitive that I was starting to cheer in my seat when the script finally diverged a little bit from the usual. Not only do we learn that Himari can now drink milk (*clap, clap*) but also that Himari still is a walking zombie with a hat (*boo*).
You know, the thing that really irritates me is that without all that filler we would have gotten the same expositional information in three minutes in the first episode. Yeah, it probably wouldn’t have been that campy and over the top (three people sitting on a table talking) but it would have been effective. I guess, when this series is over we will probably have come so far that we know the name of the hat.
Other than that the series virtually made no progress. Because, well, we still don’t know what’s going on and why. Nobody knows anything despite the princess I guess. Perhaps she even knows something about the Pengiumdrum. But nobody dares to ask WHAT IT IS. It’s really amazing when you think about it: you have two guys braking into a house…and they don’t even know what they’re looking for.
And boy, another episode that heavily deals with food and eating and I will cause an uproar! What’s up with this season and food? Sure, there is some heavy and over the top symbolism going on but I cannot see food anymore after Ikaku and Blood-C.
Other than that the episode offers us some insights into the character of Ringo and how she became what she is. Well, I have to admit that I knew where this episode was heading to when the early flashback/dream revealed a perfect family setting. If something like that shows up in a series or movie it’s bound to be broken. So to see the actual stuff unfold before my eyes was not that surprising or shocking. This also applies to the revelation of sensei’s girlfriend. When Ringos delusion got too crazy I knew that a big female shock would be awaiting her. And I was spot on.
All in all I don’t fully understand the high praise this episode gets. Sure, it was funny (mostly thanks to the penguins) and it has its fair share of craziness with some added character development, but I sure missed something that has substance, somthing that would answer at least two or three questions out of the hundreds I have. At the moment this pretty much sums up the whole series.
By the way: weren’t you also creeped out by Himari when she said that Ringo is a friend she loves? I for sure was, despite the fact that she tried to cheer her up because at that point she knows her for, what, two hours maybe?
