“PAN-TSU!! PAN-TSU!! PAN-TSU!!”
It’s official – Mitsudomoe is bloody brilliant. Pure genius. There was so much that clicked in episode 7 that I hardly know where to start. Serious Squad Gachi Rangers! The old cleaning lady lusting after Shinya. Chiba’s jealousy of Shinya’s fame. It was all spot-on.
No series I can recall does misunderstanding-based comedy as well as this one. I love that style of humor, but it’s awfully hard to pull off well. And the marvelous thing about the writing here is that not only do the individual sketches work well, but the misunderstandings have a theme that runs through every episode. I suppose the most important event this week was the introduction of the “Hopelessly in Love With Satou” squad, apparently the last major characters to be introduced. Poor Satou – he just wants to be normal, but the unwanted devotion of the three girls in the HiLWS irritate Chiba so much that he puts his evil genius to work torturing Shinya. Not only has he been branded a pervert, but now – due to an unintentional pantsing of Chiba – he and Chiba have been branded as future lovers.
The other ingenious misunderstandings of the ep involved the Serious Squad Gachi Rangers. Hitoha stumbles onto their show and discovers she loves it. But she’s so hopelessly inept socially that she can’t bring herself to discuss it with anyone. That is, until she overhears Yabe-chin say he loves it too – but that leads to crossed signals where she thinks he’s talking about her panties and he thinks she’s talking about Gachi Rangers – and vice-versa, all at crossed purposes. This is revisited in another hilarious sketch at the end when Yuki – finally getting a chance to outshine her eyebrows – thinks Hitoha is about to confess to Yabe-chin when in fact she only wants to apologize and bond over Gachi Rangers. But not before yet another hilarious confuzzlement when the head of the HiLWS ends up in a bath with Futaba and her father – who looked exactly like Shinya when he was in sixth grade.
The funny thing is, I actually get the feeling that Hitoha is sort of crushing on Yabe-chin. It’s obvious that her general loathing of people and their stupidity is conflicting with her desire to have more social interaction, and that makes her the most poignant character on the show. The great thing about all these misunderstandings is that everyone gets screwed over in turn – except of course for Futaba, who’s too dense to even get what the misunderstandings are about and skates through scot-free. This is all pure genius, I tell you – genius! If you aren’t watching this show already, stop whatever you’re doing and start right this minute…
