I’ll state it for the record – that might be one of the strangest 22 minutes of anime I’ve seen. There’s no question that the POV of this show is rather warped, but they may have topped themselves with this one – all the more because it was coming on the heels of two fairly serious episodes.

So let’s see. First of all, we had genius Haruna trying to explain super-string theory to Ayumu so he can pass his high school math exam. Then we had Haruna calling out Ayumu during his math exam so he can help her battle a megalo, which turns out to be a perpetually cheerful horse in a school uniform who seems intent on seeing Haruna’s pantsu and pleasing his mother. Then more megalo show up, this time jellyfish (also in school uniforms) who try to tentacle rape first Ayumu in his Masou Shoujo garb – with predictably disastrous results – then Haruna. And just when all is lost, a strange boy shows up who seems to know Seraphim – and turns out to be a girl. A girl who defeats the megalo by dousing them with tonkotsu ramen and then then ends up married to Ayumu because he accidentally kissed her after being shoved by a jealous Haruna.

Surely things got normal after that, right? Well, no – when Ayumu gets home from school the next day Haruna is putting up a Tanabata for some reason, and proceeds to spin a tale about some demented killer Santa Claus who flies around at night granting the wishes of anyone with a pony tail. When Ayumu  gets to school the next day Yuki – aka the tonkotsu girl – brings him lunch as a wifely duty, a girl hands him a pair of glasses from Dai-sensei and they turn out to be X-ray goggles. There – that wasn’t so hard, was it?

It’s not the first time I’ve said it, but absurdity like this sometimes works best when no effort whatsoever is made to explain it. And that’s pretty much the case here – we get a little background and find out that Yuki is a vampire ninja from a rival clan opposing Sera’s – but there’s really to attempt made to rationalize the really weird stuff, like horny jellyfish and why tonkotsu ramen should kill them. In fact, the lack of explanation is even brought in as part of the joke – and you get the sense that no one on either side of the fourth wall knows why any of this stuff is happening, anyway.

For the record, I love tonkotsu ramen – I still dream of the version Santa Ramen in San Mateo, CA used to make before they moved… And their chashu – oishi! It’s no wonder they always run out… But I digress – I love tonkotsu ramen, and I could easily believe it has supernatural powers. Since it makes my brain hurt to think too much about why any of this stuff is happening on screen, I think it’s better to just enjoy it and not worry about it. Bottom line – Ayumu has a new member of his harem, she’s of the loli variety and this a direct rival for Haruna, and she’s Orito’s neighbor. Oh, and her ninja clan has made a giant pig machine to spray tonkotsu ramen broth all over the city when megalo attack and Sera’s clan is trying to destroy it. There’ll be a quiz on all this (and super-string theory) next week.