Having entered their powered-up modes to deal with their Mahou Shoujo Ore enemy, our heroes turn their attention towards Boueibu Happy Kiss! But what awaits them this week is something that nobody really expected to come around…
Astral: We’ve mentioned this a few times before but petty really is the name of the game in this show, isn’t it?
Aria: That, and “don’t care about anything aside from lazing about the clubroom/the Kurotamayu”, which is why it’s always startling to see a motivated Kyoutarou.
Astral: Speaking of Kyoutarou, I noticed something during all the hubbub… Kyoutarou is actually seen sneaking away. Has that always been a visible thing and I’ve just been blind this whole time, or is that something from just this episode?
Aria: It’s just from this episode. After all, in the ice cream episode they didn’t bother with that and that’s where one of the plot holes came from.
Astral: Think there’s a good reason they decided to include that this episode, or nah?
Aria: They had the full transformation sequence…again…so maybe it was padding for time…? Speaking of time though, this week’s monster spoke way too fast. Even after listening to him a good few times over, I couldn’t verify what his puns were. The exception to this was, of course, the one in his name (with different kanji, shuchou kaimu means something along the lines of “unclaimed” or “no assertion”).
Astral: Yeah, the full transformation sequence… again. I guess there’s only so long you can drag out an episode with just umbrella jokes, though. This was probably the least impressive episode so far in my opinion, so much so that it kept losing my attention, and I even fell asleep partway through it. They played it off like this guy was one of the “invisible people” that we sometimes see in anime, where people don’t really notice them and they just are kind of background characters, but… The whole issue wasn’t with other people, it was the fact that he was kind of a wackjob. I’m pretty sure if my school had a deranged umbrella dealer running around, people might avoid him too…
Aria: I did find him kind of relatable in how awkward he was at first, but when he sat down with Taishi and Ichiro, I think that crossed a line somewhere. (Mostly because you can’t see what the heck Kaimu’s eating at that point.)
Astral: Yeah, i’ve always kind of been the awkward guy, so I found it kinda relatable at first, but they just took it way too far. An out-loud monologue in the bathhouse? Eating umbrellas? I’m pretty sure when he shows up in front of Kyoutarou and Ryoma, that’s a gag on those creepy “wanna buy a watch” guys you see in seedy alleyways and such. It kinda irks me that they had a character that could have been relatable, and took the joke way too far.
Aria: Didn’t Kyoutarou and Ryoma accuse him of being a pervert or something? But yeah, this isn’t the first time Boueibu’s really crossed the line – sometimes these “there are no girls in Boueibu!” rules make for some pretty insensitive stuff in some eyes. (I’ll just mention season 1 episodes 3 and 7 as precedent and leave it at that.)
Astral: Yeah, it’s somewhat confusing/annoying at times, for sure. Speaking of umbrellas though, did you catch the ghibli reference with Karl? (I mean, it was pretty hard to miss, but i was amused at least).
Aria: *thinks back* Oh, right! Karurusu looked like he was doing a Totoro thing there, wasn’t he? I didn’t think that was a reference, but now that you bring it to my attention, you might be right. How did Kaimu not see Karurusu leaping after Kyoutarou and Ryoma, though???
Astral: Well, Karl has magic or something right? Maybe he can just make himself invisible to everyone he doesn’t want to see him? Or… they just decided to say eh, screw logic. Nobody’s gonna worry about a talking, dancing yellow otter.
Aria: But isn’t “making sure people forget about Karurusu” the Happy Powder’s job? Trying to figure out the logic behind magic is weird…
Okay, what do you think makes Ata angry most, out of 1) Kyoutarou by himself or 2) Kyoutarou and Ryoma together? It’s just that you think he’d treat the two equally, but Ata always seems more angry when case 1) comes up.
Astral: I really would like to know what went down between them, because it seems like he’s always got it out for Kyoutarou, no matter what he does. Maybe partly he’s jealous that Ryoma is so close to him or something, but he’s always angry at Kyoutarou seemingly no matter what he does.
Aria: We brought that point up in the past and I don’t think I need to repeat what we said there…so then, what did you think about that part where Kaimu’s all sparkly because he spots the student council, plus the triple takes (where they pan up the same image thrice)? Was that also padding for time?
Astral: Cleverly disguised, but yes. It seems they’ve been doing that more and more each episode, which is just kind of silly. And with less content in each episode, there’s less to talk about, too…
Aria: Yeah. Thinking back to the interview I linked a few collab posts ago, padding for time seems to be a technique of the staff’s to ensure there’s the right ratio of lazing about to magical fighting (about half each per episode). In terms of overall story, that structure does have its flaws considering how unfleshed out some of the more episodic storylines are, but I think we’ve had more than our fair share of complaints on that already.
Astral: I remember you making a prediction that Episode 7 was going to be the designated “fanservice episode” (as if we didn’t get plenty of time with the guys naked in the bath already). I guess it’s been a pattern through the previous seasons, think it’ll still hold true?
Aria: I’ve already seen some spoilers for episode 7, and even from the small sliver they gave in the next episode preview, that is already some quality manservice. I kept giving you those warnings because I know I’ll be in for a much better time that you.
Astral: Guess i’ll need to come prepared. Eyebleach (for emergencies), soda pop, and popcorn. Sounds like a plan!
Aria: C’mon, it’s a pool tournament episode. How bad can it be?
Astral: I’m having flashbacks to Sanrio Danshi from last season… their dedicated beach episode was absolutely awful. One of the worst single episodes of anime i’ve ever seen, no joke…
Aria: That’s the thing about shows made primarily for merchandising and/or eye candy though – you gotta keep that audience rewarded, even if it does get a little tropey after a bunch of similar shows.
Astral: Thankfully, Boueibu even at its lowest moments has remained more entertaining than Sanrio Boys ever was. Consistency is key, and Boueibu does a great job staying consistent in the visuals, characters, and mood that the show is presenting, which I really appreciate.
Aria: Hmm, the consistency on this show is definitely very stable. Anything else before we finish up?
Astral: I think we’ve kept our opponent waiting for us long enough! How should we deal with this guy?
Aria: Another group attack?
Astral: Let’s do this! I think with our newly powered-up forms, we can pull off a super flashy attack!
Both: Rainbow Starfall!
Rainbow Starfall is an attack that gathers condensed magical energy into a sphere high above the target, before bringing it crashing down to earth. It’s a very flashy attack with immense destructive power, but it requires a lot of magic to be used, so it’s not to be taken lightly.
Aria: Just watching the aftereffects of that was immensely satisfying! Er, but…are you alright, Astral? You seem to be falling asleep a lot more with these episodes, so are your powers failing on you or something?
Astral: They might be… I may have to find a way to restore my powers somehow.
Tired and confused, our heroes went on their way to find some rest before their next inevitable battle.
<To Be Continued…>
Another fun week of this collab, we took the opportunity to build a little more of our narrative. As you can probably tell, with the lack of content in the most recent episodes of Boueibu, we’ve kind of been running out of things to talk about. Hopefully we start to get some more material in the next few episodes to keep things interesting and fresh!
By the way, make sure to check out Mahou Shoujo Ore Episode 7 on Aria’s blog! We had a much more interesting conversation corresponding with a more interesting episode, so it was a lot of fun!
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