Now this was the type of episode I was expecting from this show when it started. The Otogi bank helping out another poor soul with humorous consequences, bookended by a hilariously twisted version of the Three Little Pigs. That gag and the rest of the episode was chock full of self referential humor. The only disappointment was the narrator who, again, did little more than speak the obvious over everyone else’s lines.
The movie within the show of the Three Little Pigs was excellent. It was amusing to see the roles in the story being reversed because our heroine is the wolf, after all. The setting of the dirty and smelly high school was a bit disturbing at times, and that twister challenge had me creeped out instead of laughing. That the had me hoping that the entire episode would consist of that movie within the show, a la the 12 Dark Despair Girls episode from Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Alas, that was not to be.
However, it did produce this wonderful service shot.
The main portion of the episode was just a straight up telling of the Otogi bank helping someone out. Some rich kid named Chuutarou and his butler Hammel approach the bank, asking them to find him a fiance before his 12th birthday. They grow up so fast, don’t they? The episode was then a series of the girls from previous episodes appearing, then each being insulted by Hammel.
My favorite gags by far were the references to other anime. Otsuu’s opinion on perverted things (they’re bad) almost brought a tear in my eye. How could I have missed that the resident maid’s voice actor was Ayako Kawasumi, the voice of the best maid ever, Saber Mahoro? Then there was the quick cut to characters from Toradora and A Certain Scientific Railgun, both also J.C. Staff productions.
One of these is not like the other. One of these is actually from this show.
I loved how the characters were properly shown and named, and it was a shame that A. more shows weren’t referenced, and B. the references were so short. It would have been a lot of fun to have these characters criticized by Hammel and/or the narrator. Especially Kuroko, for obvious reasons.
Speaking of which, the narrator has been getting worse and worse lately. She was pretty much a non-factor in this episode, basically agreeing with Hammel and talking over others as she has been doing so much of recently. Gone are the energy and dry wit that had characterized her in the first few episodes. She just seems tired and bored, which makes me feel the same way. She needs to get snarky again.
The narrator needs to be more like Hammel was in this episode. His comment about sagging boobs was classic. And reminded me of High School of the Dead for some odd reason.
Like with the last few episodes, I couldn’t tell what story adaptation was being shown here. The title called Chuutarou a mouse, and he was visually designed to strongly resemble one, with the circles of his hair and the noticeably huge front teeth. But I just don’t know of a story involving a mouse searching for a mate. I could easily imagine that such a fairy tale might exist, though. Previously, I had used other blogs such as Tenka Seiha or Random Curiosity to fill in such gaps in my knowledge, but no luck this time.
Almost stepping on the toes of the American stereotype of Chinese with those teeth. What story does this mouse come from?
The kid’s story was just an excuse to show the female cast of the show – and to mess with them a bit. Which was just fine by me, even if I would have preferred a more straight up parody like the Cinderella story in the first episode. This proved to be a very entertaining and light hearted episode, and I hope the show continues in that direction. There are still 4 episodes left, more than enough time to cover the rest of Ryouko’s dark back story. Let’s have some fun while we’re at it.
It’s based on a Chinese story called The Mouse Bride where a father searches for a powerful husband for his daughter that could protect the village from the cat. The sun can be blocked out by clouds, clouds blown by wind, wind stopped by mountains, mountains nibbled/crumbled by mice, so he chooses another mouse.
I see, thank you for elucidating the topic. That’s a cute story. They chose Chuutaro just because it’s the sound a mouse makes, huh.
It feels like this series can only do one thing truly right at a time. Either the narrator is spot on, or the characters are nailing their parts, or the story parody is great, or what have you. I’ve still enjoyed the series throughout, but I have the feeling if they had just focused on one aspect (best target the fairy tale) and then built everything else around it, it would go so much smoother. Instead, there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
Exactly what I thought too.
They’re quite brilliant at just nailing one aspect each episode; but not much more than that. If they took ta strengths of each episode and put them together into just one episode, it would be much better, but instead, just somehow, each episode has one major strength and a series of minor flaws following.
This was a really funny episode! XD
Its been a while since an Anime episode has made me laugh so many times out loud (not since School Rumble I believe). That said, The start and end of the episode was a bit creepy (those fat brothers are gonna give me nightmares! XD).
The Cameo was awesome XD, I was half expecting them to go into Shana and Zero on Tsukaima (especially Shana, since she’s a cameo in SO MANY shows these days XD)
The Butler dude, Sebastian, stole the show. I hope we see more of him in the series, although it seems unlikely. Agreed that the whole point of the Request was more of an excuse to tear apart every one of the show’s female cast’s ego XD
Good stuff I’d say