Why are Yuki Onnas always so damn cute?

I confess to a bit of puzzlement over the fact that this series doesn’t get more attention. It’s a tremendous updating of Go Nagai’s manga and anime. It looks great, packs tremendous energy, it’s relentlessly and shockingly ecchi and most of all, it’s the most drop-dead hilarious show of the season. Not just occasionally – consistently, uproariously funny.

You can never have a good sense of where things will go with this show. Since it’s fearless and has absolutely no boundaries to speak of, no subject appears to be taboo. And because it owes no debt to logic, reason or dramatic convention episodes are liable to spin off in unexpected tangents of the drop of a hat (Chappeau-ji?) and once they do, they sometimes never come back.

This week’s ludicrous premise involved a beehive demon who uses his insects to suck out the brains of humans and demons as some sort of enviro-terrorism. Only the boys, mind you – he’s a gentleman. But he’s not above using his bees to steal Harumi’s panties and climb who knows where inside Yukino’s kimono (it’s hard to tell exactly, as her body appears to be one big erogenous zone). This results in Enma-kun and Kappaeiru – along with Harumi’s classmates and teacher – being reduced to infants and tadpoles and gibbering monkeys respectively, and leaves it up to Yukino and Harumi to save the day. Which, frankly, they’re pretty feeble at doing. It takes interference from Enpi-chan and a jog of Chaqppeau-ji’s memory to save the day.

Oops!

There were – as usual – a ton of comedic highlights but a couple stand out for me. First was the degeneration into a stream of increasingly silly eyecatches for whatever the series was turning into, as the already teetering fourth wall collapsed altogether. The other was that although Enma-kun reverted to the intellect of a baby, he retained his sex drive and breast infatuation. Oh, and Harumi’s “I’ll get pregnant!” as the bees flew up her dress (presumably she was still going commando).

There were a few teasers regarding Enpi-chan againm this week – Chappeau-ji, at least, knows what the deal is there. My suspicion is that she’s Enma’s fiancee.