I’m trying a different layout of my single episode reviews this week. This time I’m splitting the images out and putting them all together at the end of the episode – or in today’s case since it’s a pair of half-episodes, at the end of each half-episode. The exception are the introductory photos to start the episode off.
As I said, today we have another pair of half-episodes. The first episode deals with an epic Cat vs. Dog battle on the island.
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| Suzu is taking Ikuto to meet her training master | |
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| Ikuto’s image of Suzu’s master | Who Suzu’s master really is |
The episode starts as Suzu and Ikuto walk into the Southern Forest in search of Suzu’s martial arts master. Ikuto imagines this person to be some killer, scarred bear.
Suzu also tells Ikuto that her master is also the Lord of the South, much like how the giant panda bear (see episode 2) is the Lord of the East. Suzu also tells Ikuto that there is a lord of the North and West as well, plus a lord of the ocean and of the island as a whole (ok, anyone wanna bet that dino-thing from last episode is one of those lords?)
Of course, The Lord of the South, and Suzu’s master, ends up being a small, orange, two-tailed cat who doesn’t like this credentials questioned, as Ikuto finds out the hard way. Suzu tells Ikuto that he’s the King of the Cats as well and is good at transformations (remember this point).
Then Suzu’s master gets the point: he called Suzu and Ikuto out to him to aid him in the cat’s tribe annual game against the dog tribe to determine whose leader will be the Lord of the South for that year. As the cat fears the dog’s tribe has gotten much stronger, he asks for Suzu and Ikuto’s help to defeat them this year.
So on a day not too much later, the cat tribe and dog tribe assemble on opposing hills. The goal: to paint the other tribe’s leader with a black paint mustache first. The leader of the winning faction becomes the new lord. If you get a full mustache painted on you, you’re out of the game.
Suzu and Ikuto start charging towards the dog side when Suzu trips over banana peels laid out as a trap by the dogs. The two are able to battle out of the trap and continue on their way to the dog leader. However, Tonkatsu apparently goes missing as he’s no longer riding on Ikuto’s head as usual, but soon he hops out of the bushes and rejoins the pair.
After fighting their way through few more predicaments, the two finally make it the base of the dog hill. As the two charge up, Ayane and Machi shoot out of the hill and manage to paint half of a mustache on both Suzu and Ikuto.
As those four are battling, two dogs on a covert mission are able to get around that cat’s defense and paint a mustache on the cat leader…or do they? Soon it’s revealed that Tonkatsu was dressed up as a fake King of the Cats as a decoy!
Suddenly the Tonkatsu which had been riding on Ikuto reveals itself to be the Cat King in disguise, and the Cat King promptly paints a mustache on the Dog clan’s leader, ending the game.
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| Cats vs. Dogs – The Legendary Battle | It’s a wacked out Simon board! |
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| Cats… | …versus Dogs |
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| Bananas… | It’s a trap! |
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| Did he say “impossible”? | It’s |
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| Covert Dogs | Dogs win! |
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| It’s a trap! | Cats win! |
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| Ikuto checks to see if this is the real Tonkatsu | |
The second half of the episode is about the entire group trekking to the very northern tip of the island to see the one and only sakura tree on the island.
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| Let’s go flower watching | |
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| The whole gang | I have a really bad feeling about this… |
This episode starts with Machi sitting on a sleeping Ikuto for an hour until he waits up so that he can go with everyone to the lone sakura tree on the island to go flower watching.
The group travels to the start of the northern forest. There they decide to split up into three groups in hopes of avoiding the Lord of the North. To decide who is going with whom, Machi decides to have people draw lots to see who is going with whom.
Ikuto is suspicious of Machi’s method of deciding groups, and it takes little time for his suspicions to be confirmed as he is promptly placed into a group with Machi. Unfortunately for Ikuto and his fear of heights, Machi chooses a path that consists of cliff that wraps around to the north tip of the island.
Meanwhile, Ayane, Suzu, and Kuma-Kuma are in a group and are running through the forest. As she showed a propensity to trip in the first half the episode, Suzu once again trips, this time over some roots.
Of course, Ayane takes glee in Suzu’s misfortune…until Kuma-Kuma also trips over the roots, and goes tumbling into Ayane, splatting her against a tree. (for whatever reason, the visual plus the sound effects of Kuma-Kuma going tumbling makes this perhaps the single funniest moment in the series so far to me).
(The third group is Rin, Yukino, and Chikage, but nothing interesting happens in their group).
Back to Ikuto and Machi, they are now standing on top of a very small cliff needing to get down. However, Machi has a great plan: wrap a rope around Ikuto and throw him off the cliff! The other end of the rope, which is conveniently enough also attached to the bottom of the cliff, becomes tight as it gets caught on the top of the cliff, allowing Machi to easily slide down the cliff side.
The groups reassemble at some point in the forest and then run into…the Lord of the North! However, he says that he is no longer Lord as he was defeated recently by someone else, so he isn’t going to bother them.
The group continues traveling and soon reach a river which had a log as a bridge, but the log has broken in half. So to cross, the group cuts down a tree and crosses and they’re back on their way.
The group finally reaches the sakura tree and enjoys a nice lunch there – including some Mame Daifuku for Suzu (see episode 4).
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| I knew I had a bad feeling about this… | Clumsy Suzu |
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| Kuma-Kuma… | …goes… |
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| …splat | Don’t use me as your pully! |
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| Just right. What a coincidence! | Lord of the North (ret.) |
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| Yukino, are you breaking bridges again? | Sakura |
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| Poor dolphin… | |
Even though this series still doesn’t seem to know where it’s going or what it wants to be, this episode was at least different and entertaining by itself.
We’re not a quarter of the way through the series, and while it’s obviously trying to be a comedy, I’m not exactly sure what subgenre of comedy it’s trying to be. I think it’s trying to be a harem comedy, but outside of the first couple of paragraphs, there haven’t been very much hareming going on.
As I said a couple episodes ago, Chikage is due for an episode about her, and we may get one next week as the episode is called “The Invited Observer” and Chikage is known to want to “observe” Ikuto.
