Monthly Archives: January 2012

Mayo Chiki! – Episode 9

By | January 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

In this episode of Working! Mayo Chiki, Usami brings Kinjiro in to help with her part time job at a Maid cafe (to wash dishes) in exchange for allowing him to copy her summer break homework. Naturally Kanade decides to swing by. To boot, Kureha and Nakuru show up as part timers as well. Kanade then ends up tormenting Kinjiro by telling everyone that he has a maid fetish, then torments Usami by making her “test” her hypothesis.

Kanade brings out her biggest weapon: the garter belt!

Kanade brings out her biggest weapon: the garter belt!

I suppose this was an OK episode. This was almost entirely an Usami episode, really ramping up her angst over her feelings for Kinjiro, allowing her to be an easy target of Kanade, who is well aware of how she feels.

Otherwise, this was mainly a fanservice show for those who love maids, which isn’t really my cup of tea, but whatever. Usami is your typical tsundre, so she’s cute in some ways, but really grinding in others as well. Really the only part Subaru had was backtracking her confession from the previous episode and downgrading it to wanting to be “best friends” because she’s too nervous.

No. 6 – Episode 9

By | January 18, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

Inukashi, Rikiga, Nezumi, and Shion capture a top health department official in order to get the layout of the correctional facility, but find that it’s pretty much impenetrable. The day before a major celebration in No. 6, know as the Holy Day, No. 6 forces attack the West City, arresting all the residents and taking them to the correctional facility. Meanwhile, Elyurias finally makes contact with Safu…

No. 6 wiping out more inconvenient poor people

No. 6 wiping out more inconvenient poor people

So the shit really starts to hit the fan in this episode. No. 6 comes in and pretty much kills or clears out most of the people in the West City outside of No. 6 and takes them all to the correctional facility. Luckily, this ends up being part of Nezumi’s plan to get inside.

Meanwhile, we learn that Safu’s grandmother was killed by No. 6 merely for being old, and No. 6 has been doing experiments on those who they take to the correctional facilities.  One of those people have been Safu, who finally “awakens” like what the scientists studying her were hoping, though something has obviously gone wrong there. Meanwhile, Yoming wants his supporters within No. 6 to rise up against the city, so we have a lot of things kind of converging together all at once here at the end.

Mayo Chiki! – Episode 8

By | January 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

This is part 2 of the beach/hot springs episode. Naturally, Kinjiro and Suburu run into each other in the male’s bath, only to be joined by Subaru’s father, who has to be ejected by Subaru (and knocking out his memories of the event with it). Later, the group and Subaru’s “cousin” goes to a festival. We also learn the real reason for the trip was to allow Subaru to visit her mother’s grave. At the end of the night, Subaru confesses to Kinjiro…

Subaru sure loves her creepy sheep...

Subaru sure loves her creepy sheep...

I had to LOL at the fact that they “clouded” over Subaru’s butt in the onsen but not Kinjiro’s butt. In any case, no one could have possibly predicted that Subaru and Kinjiro would run into each other in the male’s bath. OK, ok, everyone could see it coming from a mile away.

Having said that, this was a much improved episode with some background info about Subaru and some character development for her. Yeah, there was still some silliness but it wasn’t too bad. And Subaru basically confessing to Kinjiro at the end will hopefully make the series a bit more interesting from this point on.

No. 6 – Episode 8

By | January 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

Just to recap what I remember from this series: you have Shion, who is a genius, who was tossed out of No. 6, a supposedly utopian city, which turns out to be pretty much a despotic authoritarian city-state with no tolerance for dissent, because he helped a criminal named Nezumi escape. Nezumi wants to destroy No. 6, but Shion wants to save it from a potential invasion of odd bees. Meanwhile, Shion’s childhood friend and would-be girlfriend, Safu, is in trouble for questioning how her grandmother died.

Nezume brings Shion to see an old man who was a founder of No. 6, though regrets it. The man then tells Shion about Elyurias, a powerful being who looked over the forest folk. No. 6. burned down the forest and captured Elyurias in order to use her power for themselves. Nezumi is the last remaining member of the forest folk alive. The man tells Nezumi that the song he hears is Elyurias calling for him. He finally gives Shion a data chip with information about the parasite bees, Elyurias, and the forest folk on it. Meanwhile, Inukashi and Rikiga plan to gather information about No. 6′s correctional facility to help Nezumi and Shion infiltrate it to save Safu.

No. 6 - Not in the business of creating utopias for others

No. 6 - Not in the business of creating utopias for others

We finally get some background information about No. 6. We don’t really get a lot of information about the parasite bees, other than they’re not really knew, and this old man apparently knows a lot about them. However, when it comes to No. 6, the creators of it appear to have had noble intentions of creating a utopia. However, once they realized that was impossible, they disappeared or arrested anyone who dare suggest or reveal that the city was not the utopia that they claimed it to be. Of course, the ironic part of this is the idea that a utopia would need a prison in the first place, but…

We also learn about this Elyurias, who is apparently the one singing the song that Nezumi and Safu have heard twice now. Why Nezumi hears it seems clear: he’s one of the forest folk. The question is why Safu also hears it. Also, why does No. 6 want to user her as a “sample,” and what for?

Mayo Chiki! – Episode 7

By | January 15, 2012 at 12:00 pm | No Comments

I’m hopefully back to some level of blogging, and I’ll start by finishing off the series I had started waaaaay back in the summer season. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Mayo Chiki!, but I basically remember that butler guy, Subaru, is actually a chick trying to hide his identity, while the main protagonist, Kinjiro, is some poor schmuck who gets tormented by all the girls, which is made worse by his girl-phobia.

Kanade drugs a drink that Subaru hands to Kinjiro and kidnaps him to a hot spring Kanade’s family uses. Kanade claims she’s running away from home because she doesn’t want to take a vacation overseas. Naturally, she also uses the trip as a chance to try to “cure” Kinjiro as well. Kanade also coerces Kureha, Usami, and Narumi to show up, forcing Kinjiro to try to hide Subaru’s identity from them, but needs Kanade to bail him out this time.

Yes, it's that time: time for the beach episode

Yes, it's that time: time for the beach episode

I can’t remember if I had this opinion before I went on my hiatus, but this show is kind of just plodding along. It seems to be about the same thing just about every week. Kanade has a plan, Kinjiro gets tricked or coerced into getting involved, Subaru has some brush with almost being caught, and then gets jealous, angry, and shy/nervous at various points, and Kanade finds some way to cause Kinjiro to get a nose bleed.

I realize that’s kind of the point of this series, I suppose, but watching episodes is starting to become a little bit of a drag to me at this point. If there was any high point in the episode, it’s perhaps that Usami has pretty much said that she doesn’t trust Kanade, so maybe that will go somewhere eventually.

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