Yakuindomo 2, Mitsudomoe 2

Seitokai Yokuindomo 2 falls into the same routine that crippled episode 1. I suppose they can’t avoid it. The original manga must have a quick gag format, and that’s what they’re stuck with. Set up a situation, have one of the girls do a dirty take on it, get Takitoshi’s sighing comment, put up a placard with an additional comment, repeat ad nauseum.

Guess the punchline.

But it’s not all bad. Sure, some of the punchlines are visible from miles away, since you know they’re all going to be either about sex or feminine hygene (with a couple exceptions), but Shino is so straightforward and serious that it gives her lines a nice irony. And wondering how far they can take the joke hasn’t gotten old for me—yet.

Extrapolate the events leading to this punchline.

Let’s see … did anything actually happen in this episode? A cute scene at the beginning when a shy girl approaches Takitoshi and we think it’s confession time. We meet Naruko, the student council faculty advisor who, naturally, comes on to Takitoshi. They clean out an empty classroom …

There is no punchline here.

There was one other nice bit. Suzu, the genius girl with self-esteem issues thanks to her diminutive size, talks it out with Takitoshi on the way home. No innuendo whatsoever. Just a serious conversation. Suzu’s schtick is all about her height and her brains, which is not much to go on, really, but at least she’s allowed to talk about something besides sex. Also, she agrees with Takitoshi that the other student council girls are utterly insane. So we get a respite from the routine. The show could do a little more of that.

Mitsudomoe 2 has four charming stories. We learn something about the characters, too. In the first we learn that Futaba’s snot has amazing prehensile strength.

I'm reminded of Spider-Man's webbing.

While part of me was going “Ew, can we please move along?” I also wondered just how far they could take the scene. As it turned out, quite a ways. When they finally move on to a scene in the nurse’s office, I figured the show had reached its grossness quota for the week. Boy, was I wrong about that!

We learn that the nurse (whose name escapes me) is as blind as a bat even when she’s wearing her glasses. This leads to vials of urine emptied into her coffee, and nearly into her eye. The question is: is any of this actually funny? Well, a little. They do a nice job of upping the outrageousness of the situation every time you think they’ve peaked.

In the third story we learn that Hitoha can be a sneaky, manipulative little monster when she wants to be. But there’s nothing much more to say about it. As for the fourth, we learn something about Mitsuba:

Like the third story, there’s not much to it. I’ll watch a little more, but it appears Mitsudomoe is at its best when it’s being outrageous. Otherwise it just hangs there, like Mitsuba in that tree.

School violence: Highschool of the Dead 1, Mitsudomoe 1

I don’t know if I’m going to follow Highschool of the Dead or not. Not because I didn’t like the first episode, because I did. But I have little taste for horror, especially bloody horror, and I’ve never been able to figure out why zombies are so damn popular. But the first episode made a good case to keep watching for now.

The fun begins.

One unsuspecting teacher is bitten, who bites another, and so it goes while everyone is trying to figure out what is going on. The first attack is witnessed by Takashi, who is ditching his class. He seems to instantly figure out what’s going on, and goes to warn his would-be girlfriend, Rei, and her boyfriend Hisashi. Not anyone else, just them. Never mind, soon the entire school is in a panic, and there’s blood and screaming and panty shots galore. I swear, the fanservice in such a show is bewildering; I guess they want to have something for everyone.

No, it's an anime series, but I take your point.

In spite of the fact that the school’s sudden panic was a tad unbelievable, what comes afterward is gripping, as we follow the three to the observatory to wall themselves in. We also get little scenes of others who will become regular characters later, and little vignettes like the girl who turns on her best friend the moment she’s in danger. The whole city’s in chaos, and we suspect that the government is up to something, judging from the helicoptors. That’s Hisashi’s guess, anyway. He himself seems to know a little too much about everything, like bashing the zombies’ heads to kill them. Well, he doesn’t last long.

Indeed, in a well-done scene, Hisashi, who’s been mildly bitten, begins to turn. He begs Takashi to kill him now, but Rei, unable to believe that her boyfriend could do this (“He’s special!”) is against the idea, and even after he fully turns and is going to bite her she can’t bring herself to abandon him. When Takashi does the sensible thing and bludgeons Hisashi, she turns on him with hate. Takashi, who is in love with her, is equally hateful. Excellent moment, and an honest way of showing what can happen when you see someone you love turn into a zombie, like we all have.

It’s directed well, full of quick cuts and swaying cameras to convey the chaos. The artwork is excellent, though I’m not crazy about the character designs. All in all, a strong episode and a good start to a series, if I decide to keep watching.

So then I thought I’d give Mitsudomoe a try. Nothing like some cute grade school hijinks after all the blood and gore, right?

Wrong.

Mistudomoe follows a rookie teacher named Satoshi and three members of his class, the dreaded Marui triplets, who wreak havoc wherever they go. We get a perverted one, a sadistic one, and a spooky one, kind of like a mean-spirited Hanamaru Kindergarten without Koume. We watch as they destroy a game (a variant of Musical Chairs), try repeatedly to hit Satoshi in the crotch (to send him to the nurses office and set up a romance), and nearly kill a hamster with kindness.

It’s hard to figure out what to be appalled by the most: the girls’ behavior or the fact that Satoshi has absolutely no control over them. None. They even chase him into the teachers lounge. The other teachers either don’t care or are relieved that it’s not them the girls are after. I know he’s new at this but if he can’t bring any sort of discipline to the class what good is he?

Little in it is funny. The hamster scenes (they call it “Nipple.” Ha ha.) work the best because we see gloomy Hitoha ease up a little when she gets to be in charge of it. The fact that Aiko, the new school nurse, overhears the kids shouting “I want to touch nipple, too!” leads to the expected and unfunny payoff. If this is going to be the way every episode works, I’m going to stop watching quickly.